Rhotics and Retrofexes in Indic and Dravidian

Submitted for the degree of

Master of Philosophy
in
Linguistics
Sarah Bakst
Trinity College, University of Cambridge
June 2012
Word Count: 19,339
Acknowledgements
I am incredibly grateful to Professor Francis Nolan for inspiring me with the idea for this
project the frst day of the MPhil and of course for supervising me. Our meetings gave
me confdence in my theories that I would not have had otherwise.
My humble thanks and gratitude to my three volunteer participants, who were ex-
traordinarily helpful, sweet, and patient when things went wrong or needed to be re-
done, and for happily allowing me to paint their mouths with charcoal. Tanks also to
Matthew Horton, who let me use him as a guinea pig for the palatography, and, as usual,
for helping me with L
A
T
E
X and graphs.
Many thanks to Kirsty McDougall and Toby Hudson for help with the Praat script
and various computer-related problems, and thanks to Caroline Williams for writing the
script. Tanks also to Hae-Sung Jeon for very kindly helping me with various Praat and
microphone-related problems when I was in a bind. Many thanks to Geof Potter for
setting up the Marantz recording system and teaching me how to use it.
A big thanks (and congratulations!) to all the other MPhil students, who created this
wonderfully supportive environment.
Finally, special thanks to my parents andbrother, for encouraging me from3300 miles
away, and for letting me point out when they say things funny.
All remaining errors are of course my own.
1
Abstract
Although the Indic languages of North India and the Dravidian languages of South India
both have retrofexes in their phonetic inventories, Ladefoged and Bhaskararao (1983)
demonstrated that the retrofexes in both language families do not share the same artic-
ulation. Te researchers used static palatography and X-ray evidence to show that the
Northern retrofex stops are apical and pronounced at the alveolar ridge, whereas the
Southern ones are sublaminal and pronounced at the palate. Tis thesis seeks to see if
these results can be replicated using static palatography with speakers of Hindi, Punjabi,
and Tamil, and also to determine the acoustic correlates of the diferences in articulation
using acoustic-only elicitation.
Te thesis also extends this question to the long-standing problem of how to classify
rhotics, or types of 'r' sounds. Te boundaries of the rhotic category has never been well-
defned by a single acoustic or articulatory feature. Te lowered third formant has been
proposedinthe past as a possible universal indicator of rhoticity, but Lindau(1983) found
that many rhotics have a high third formant. Retrofexes, however, have been associated
with rhotics because they both share a lowered third formant. Tis thesis seeks to defne
the relationship between diferent retrofexes, rhotics, and their overlap.
I found the same clear diferences in retrofex articulation that Ladefoged and Bhask-
ararao found and was able to extend these diferences to retrofex rhotics, but concrete
acoustic diferences have remained elusive. Tere is a trend of greater lowering of the
third formant in Tamil than in Hindi or Punjabi, but this was not entirely consistent.
Also, there seems to be a continuum in retrofexes that ranges from stop to rhotic, where
the defning feature that separates retrofex stops from the rhotic class is the length of the
closure and the amount of constriction.
2
Contents
Acknowledgements 1
Abstract 2
1 Introduction 3
1.1 Background: Rhotics and Retrofexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Aims and Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3 Languages tested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.1 Hindi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.2 Punjabi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.3 Tamil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2 Method 13
2.1 Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.2 Acoustic Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 Results 20
3.1 Acoustic Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1.1 q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1.2 Discussion of q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.1.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.1.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.1.3 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.1.6 r and r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.1.7 Discussion and Acoustic Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Retrofex-rhotic relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2 Palatographic evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2.1 q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3
3.2.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.4 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.3 r and r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.2.6 Palatography Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4 Discussion and Conclusions 67
4.1 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.2 Conclusions and Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Appendix 71
Bibliography 74
4
Chapter 1
Introduction
Tis thesis lies at the intersection of two problems in phonetics, the classifcation of
rhotics and the articulation of retrofexes. Tere are many diferent kinds of sounds that
are treated as some kind of 'r' by linguists, with articulations that vary from fricatives to
trills to faps to approximants and can be voiced or voiceless, aspirated or not, and with
diferent active articulators. Tese are usually called rhotics. Tere is no clear defnition
of rhotic", thus it is dimcult to maintain such a category, but for the purpose of this thesis
I defne it as the segments which linguists have considered to be r-sounds, which include
[r r a z n].
Rhotics can also be retrofex. Retrofexes, even when not treated as rhotics by a lan-
guage, are ofen noted for their r-like qualities. Not all retrofexes are articulated in the
same place, despite the single category containing them in the International Phonetic
Alphabet. Ladefoged and Bhaskararao (1983) showed that the retrofexes made in Indic
and Dravidian languages have signifcant articulatory diferences. Tere are also slight
diferences in the distribution of retrofexes in the language families. Tis thesis seeks to
quantify the diferences in retrofex articulations in the two language groups both articu-
latorily and acoustically through experiment and to see whether this can give any insight
into the r-question.
Te experiment consisted of two parts, acoustic-only elicitation and palatography.
Te frst part was used was used to generate a large base of words whose acoustic prop-
erties could be examined; this supplemented the smaller amount of data from palatogra-
phy. Te palatography was to determine exactly which part of the tongue strikes which
3
part of the palate.
Tis thesis responds to the overlap between rhotics and retrofexes and specifcally
what makes any retrofex diferent from-or similar to-segments that usually have rhotic
status, such as a trill or an alveolar approximant. It also attempts to determine whether
one retrofex articulation is closer" to being rhotic than another, and if these two artic-
ulations are diferent enough to be contrasted in a hypothetical language.
1.1 Background: Rhotics and Retroexes
Te term rhotic" refers to a group of sounds that are notoriously dimcult to classify.
Lindau (1983) attempted to fnd a single feature or characteristic that is common to all
rhotics. She studied the acoustic evidence from the rhotics in languages from the Indo-
European, Niger-Congo, and Afro-Asiatic families, and she used static palatography to
look at diferences in the articulation of rhotics. Lindau found no such acoustic or articu-
latory feature, but she did create a family resemblance" map (reproduced with Lindau's
caption in Figure 1.1) of rhotics, where each rhotic was related to one or more others
through a common feature, although not every rhotic could be directly related to every
other member of the family.
Figure 1.1: Parameter relations among r-sounds. Lines indicate parameters that relate
types of r-sounds to each other; a, pulse pattern (trill); a = closure duration; a, = pres-
ence of formants (sonorant); a, = presence of noise; a, = distribution of spectral energy
(place of articulation).
Although unable to fnd a single unifying feature, Lindau was still able to make gener-
6
alisations about groups of rhotics. For instance, trills tend to have a high third formant,
contrary to the common view that rhotics have a lowered third formant. Te low F3
value is actually attributed to (post-)alveolar approximants, present in languages such as
English. Despite this clear diference in the third formant, an approximant is ofen used
as an allophone for a trill in many languages (Lindau 1983:162), ofen because a trill has
specifc pressure requirements that make the articulation prone to failure (Ladefoged and
Maddieson 1996:217).
Because it may be dimcult, if not impossible, to fnd a single articulatory or acoustic
unifying characteristic for rhotics, it is useful to look at what sets them apart from other
sounds. Rhotics tend to hold similar places in syllable structure (Ladefoged and Mad-
dieson 1996:216), and they are ofen close to the syllable nucleus in languages that have
consonant clusters (Lindau 1983:137). Tey share similar efects on preceding vowels,
which are ofen coloured" or lengthened (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996:216). It is
not uncommon for postvocalic coda /r/ to drop or become a vowel, and this is not only
the case for one particular type of rhotic; compare German uvular fricative or trill and
SouthernBritishEnglishpostalveolar approximant, whichbothexhibit this phenomenon
(Lindau 1983:137).
Part of the dimculty in classifying rhotics stems fromthe fact that diferent phones are
rhotics in diferent languages, so the same sound that is a rhotic in one language might
not be in another. In other words, not all segments considered to be rhotics in a given
language have a feature that makes them both inherently and universally rhotic. For
example, the voiceless uvular fricative is a rhotic in Southern Swedish but not in Arabic.
Also, a sound that can act as a rhotic in one language may be the allophone for what is not
traditionally considered a rhotic in another language. In some dialects in England, /t/ or
/d/ may be lenited to a tap (Kirchner 2001) or even an alveolar approximant (personal
observation) intervocalically. A rhotic need not even be consistent in its voicing; the
English approximant is devoiced when preceded by a voiceless aspirated consonant, as
in <pray> [paei].
Substitutions need not have the same active and passive articulator. In parts of Eng-
land, labiodental approximants are used in place of underlying /r/ (Foulkes and Docherty
2000), but in America it is not uncommon for young speakers of English to have speech
therapy to correct the substitution of a bilabial approximant.
Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) fnd a wide variety of formant transitions for many
7
rhotics. A tap in two varieties of Spanish can either have a rising second formant transi-
tion or no transition at all. Toda retrofex trills showa lowering of the higher frequencies,
including the third formant, and, like the tap, a raising of the second. In contrast, they
claim that Arrernte shows a high third formant for a retrofex approximant, although in
the spectrogram it is not clear whether the third formant is actually high or rather has
disappeared. In any case, there is reason to doubt whether all rhotics are like those in
American English, which pull down the third formant drastically from a combination
of retrofexion, constriction in the lower pharynx, and lip rounding. Fant (1970) also
points out that the third formant can be lowered as a result of retrofexion on its own,
that is, without the aid of pharynx constriction or lip rounding. If retrofexes are no-
table for decreasing the frequency of the third formant, but not all retrofexes show a
low third-formant cross-linguistically, there must be some other factor that has not been
considered.
Despite the high third formant in the Australian data, the low third formant associ-
ated with some forms of /r/, such as that in American English, is how retrofexes have
come to be associated with rhotics. Diachronic evidence helps support the retrofex-
rhotic connection. In Norwegian, [t d n s] go to [ qq ] afer /r/ (Johnsen 2012:123).
If Norwegian had an alveolar approximant, it would be reasonable to assume that the
third formant might contribute to the sound change, since both the alveolar approxi-
mant and the retrofex stops usually feature a lowered third formant. Norwegian actually
has a tapped r, which usually has a higher third formant (Lindau 1983), so there must be
some other explanation for this change. In a similar vein, languages as diverse as Russian
and Sanskrit feature the so-called ruki rule" (Russian for hands"), whereby [s] becomes
retrofex when it is preceded by /r/, /u/, /k/, or /i/. Te exact cause for this change is as
yet unresolved, but again we see a rhotic instigating retrofexion in a following coronal
consonant.
Stevens and Blumstein (1973) sought to determine what, if any, were the salient cues
for retrofexion, focussing on the transitions from stop to vowel. Using a speech synthe-
siser, they presented stimuli in discrete categories that represented [t k]. Te formants
and burst transitions were manipulated to simulate the three phones: falling second and
third formants and a high-burst frequency at about 4000 Hz were used for the dental and
a falling second formant but rising third with a burst frequency above the third formant
for the retrofex consonant. Te velar had similar formant transitions as the retrofex but
8
the burst frequency fell between the second and third formants.
Tese stimuli were presented to Hindi speakers for identifcation. Te retrofex cate-
gory was actually less consistently labelled than the other two categories per participant,
possibly due to such circumstances as bilingual participants. Also, the sounds that were
identifed as retrofex were variable; there was not a clear-cut category that was always
identifed as retrofex. Overall, they found that a simulated retrofex must have an initial
burst frequency between the values of the third and fourth formants for the following
vowel; when it is lower or closer to the third formant, the participant will identify the
consonant as velar. In addition, at the burst of the retrofex, the second and third for-
mants must move away from each other. However, the cues for retrofexion were not
solved completely, as it was only Hindi retrofexes that were investigated, and the focus
was on the burst, not the transitions leading into the stop.
Retrofexes, though not common crosslinguistically, are present in many languages
throughout India; this mode of articulation is thought to be an areal feature that spread
to the Indo-European languages of North India (Hindi, Sanskrit, Punjabi) from the Dra-
vidian languages of the south and Sri Lanka (Kannada, Telugu, Tamil). It does not ap-
pear, though, that the same retrofex is used in both regions. Contrary to Stevens and
Blumstein (1973), which treated retrofex articulation and acoustic cues as non-varying,
Ladefoged and Bhaskararao (1983) found that the pronunciation of retrofexes can vary
by region. In this study, the experimenters took X-rays of Hindi and Telugu speakers'
pronunciations of dental and retrofex stops. Four of the fve Hindi speakers tended to
use the tip of the tongue to create a closure just behind the alveolar ridge, whereas the Tel-
ugu speakers used the underside of the blade against the post-alveolar region. Ladefoged
and Bhaskararao tried to use the angle at which the tongue curves as a way to quantify
the diference in retrofexion, but this must vary based on the length of the tongue, and
the angle diference failed to hold for all of their speakers, so the angle of tongue curva-
ture is unlikely to be a good indicator of diference in retrofexion. Te exact acoustic
diferences between the two retrofexes have yet to be solved.
1.2 Aims and Hypotheses
Te experiment seeks to fnd the answers to several questions concerning rhotics and
retrofexes in the two groups of Indian languages. I intended to test the claims concern-
9
ing the articulatory diferences described by Ladefoged and Bhaskararao (1983) and to
compare the respective acoustic signals to see how the diferences in articulation are re-
fected.
Te third formant debate in most research on rhotics is highly relevant here. Fant
(1970:234) cites retrofexion, lip rounding, and pharynx constriction as properties re-
sponsible for lowering of the third formant. Te vowel preceding a retrofex can sound
quite rhotacised, possibly for any of these reasons. Te results of the experiment should
be able to explain the source of the rhoticity preceding the retrofex as well as identify the
salient cues for retrofexion. Regardless of what the third formant does, we would expect
that a retrofex stop and the related fap, as well as other related retrofex articulations,
to have some similar cues; of course, it is also possible that there are factors other than
the third formant that are important for cueing retrofexes, especially since there are dif-
ferent similar retrofexes that need to be distinguished from each other (approximant,
lateral, fap, stop).
Further, I aimed to fnd out how closely related retrofex stops are to their rhotic rel-
atives, both articulatorily and acoustically, and whether the third formant is responsible
for the rhotic colouring of a preceding vowel. While the lowthird formant has been cited
multiple times in this discussion as well as the literature, as mentioned previously, a high
third formant is seen in Arrernte retrofexes, so we should not take the low F3 as a fact.
Terefore, the relevant cues for all of the articulations will be examined.
Ladefoged and Bhaskararao did not identify an acoustic feature that could be at-
tributed to all retrofex sounds, and they did not identify specifc acoustic diferences be-
tween the retrofexes of North and South Indian languages. Tey also wondered whether
two varieties of retrofexion may be contrasted in a language. Evidence from a nearly-
extinct dialect of the Dravidian language Badaga suggest that it is possible to contrast de-
grees of retrofexion; Emeneau (1939, cited in Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996)) docu-
mentedthat the language contrastedplainvowels withpartially- andcompletely retrofexed
vowels, which could be seen as analogous to the degrees of retrofexion in Indic versus
Dravidian retrofexes. Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996:313-4) noted that they could
only fnd a couple of speakers who maintain this contrast for a small number of vow-
els, so it is not out of the question that Indic- and Dravidian-style retrofexes could be
contrasted in some language.
It is not only the formant transitions or stop lengths, for instance, that show potential
10
for contrastability. Stevens and Blumstein (1973) note that there is a greater volume of
air created in a retrofex consonant than a plain alveolar or dental. It follows that if the
tongue is curled back further, then we might also expect that the intensity of the burst
as compared to the following vowel would be greater for the Dravidian stops, because
there is presumably the same volume of air behind the tongue in a smaller chamber and
should therefore burst more loudly in the release; in addition, if there is a greater cavity
anterior to the tongue, there are more air molecules to carry the sound and thus potential
for a greater intensity. In fact, the burst itself must be an important cue, as in Stevens
and Blumstein (1973); Hindi speakers were unable to identify retrofexes consistently if
the synthesised sounds did not have an initial burst. Even if signifcant diferences are
found between the two types of stops, it does not mean that they are contrastable, so any
signifcant results will be treated with caution.
1.3 Ianguages tested
As Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) and Lindau (1983) note, what sets rhotics apart
from other sounds, if not a single acoustic or articulatory factor, is how they are treated
by the phonotactics of a language. Terefore, it is useful to look at the phonologies of
Hindi, Punjabi, and Tamil in order to understand the role of rhotics and retrofexes in
these languages.
1.3.1 Hindi
Hindi (and Urdu, an Arabic- and Persian-infuenced dialect), is an Indo-Aryan language
and one of the omcial languages of India. It is spoken most in the Hindi belt" that sweeps
across the widest part of the subcontinent. Hindi is known for its large consonant inven-
tory that features a four-way stop contrast for voicing and aspiration. Tis includes a full
retrofex family of stops, which contrast with a full dental stop series. All consonants may
be geminate except [ ' b' h] (Ohala Handbook of the International Phonetic Alphabet
1999:101). Unlike the retrofex fap, the alveolar tap may be geminated.
Retrofexes are not included in the reconstructed consonant inventory of Proto-Indo-
European (PIE), but they are found in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language spoken
as far back as 1300 BCE, which is closely related to Hindi. It is thought that retrofexes in
11
the Indic family originate from the languages of the Dravidian family, which were (and
still are today) spoken in the southern regions of the subcontinent and in Sri Lanka.
In Modern Hindi, there are two rhotic consonants: one is a non-retrofex alveolar tap
or trill, and the other is a retrofex fap (Ohala 1993:2). Te former is a refex of the San-
skrit retrofex consonantal rhotic, but the latter was a special development in Hindi and
some of its sister languages. Te Indo-Aryan branch of PIE had one underlying rhotic
which surfaced as a vowel between consonants or between a word boundary and a con-
sonant and as a trill in all other environments (Misra 1967:81). Te vowel realisation
has had the outcomes /ri ru ra u i a/ in the Modern Indo-Aryan languages depending on
the surrounding vowels (Misra 1967:119). Te rhotic that is considered a retrofex tap
or fap in Modern Hindi had an entirely diferent origin than the rhotics in the parent
languages. Tis sound was not a phoneme in Old Hindi, but and ' surfaced intervo-
calically as allophones of q and q' respectively. Te stops surfaced at the beginning of a
word (Misra 1967:210, 217). A later apocope increased the number of environments for
and '; with the fnal vowel gone, and ' appeared word-fnally. It was around this
time, likely the 13th century, that and ' must have been phonemicised: newforms like
[niqer] that were introduced at that time contrast with [nier], and we see that the plo-
sive occurs intervocalically. Further, modern borrowings from English, such as [reqio],
show that the contrast seems to have persisted to today (Misra 1967:218).
Te Hindi retrofex fap is written in Devanagari like the voiced retrofex stop but
with a diacritic, which might suggest a speaker awareness that the two sounds are related.
Indeed, Prakash (1993) suggests that relationship is not only orthographic, and he gives
lists of words that for some speakers have a retrofex voiced stop and for others a retrofex
fap. Tere are pairs for both aspirated and unaspirated stops and faps, but there does not
seem to be such an ambiguity with the unvoiced retrofexes. Te consonant in question
always occurs between vowels or between a vowel and a nasal. For most but not all of
the examples given, the vowel preceding the consonant is nasalised. Tese pairs of words
were used in the experiment to see if they had any special properties that hinted at the
cause of change from stop to fap, or to see if the stops were any more fap-like than other
stops.
12
1.3.2 Punjabi
Punjabi is a sister language to Hindi and is also spoken in the northern region of India
and parts of Pakistan. Te stop system is similar to that of Hindi, but Punjabi's historical
voiced aspirate series has been replaced by tones. Further, some Punjabi speakers dis-
tinguish between retrofexed and a non-retrofexed lateral, though this is by no means
widespread. Tere are two rhotics, a trill and a retrofex fap. Te fap only occurs in me-
dial and fnal position (Bhatia 1993:334), which suggests that it, too, formed by a lenition
process. Unlike in Hindi, the distribution of the retrofex fap and stop is not debated in
Punjabi.
1.3.3 Tamil
Tamil is a language in the Dravidian family, which also includes Kannada, Telugu, Malay-
alam, and Toda. Dravidian languages are genetically unrelated to Indo-European and
thus not related to Hindi and Punjabi. Tamil is spoken in parts of southern India and in
Sri Lanka; the dialect spoken in Sri Lanka is signifcantly diferent from that spoken on
the subcontinent, and the latter dialect is split between brahmin and non-brahmin vari-
eties. Te standard dialect is based on the language spoken by educated non-brahmins
around Tanjore, Trichy, and Madurai (Annamalai and Steever 1998:101).
Tamil's consonant inventory is much smaller than those of Hindi or Punjabi. Tamil
does not contrast voicing; voiceless consonants become voiced intervocalically under
Caldwell's Law (Annamalai and Steever 1998:102). Te lenition may be taken one step
further in the brahmin dialect, as a retrofex stop may become a fap in this position (Mc-
Donough and Johnson 1997:11), which would make the segment quite similar phono-
logically to Hindi and Punjabi.
Te brahmin dialect of Tamil is said to contrast fve diferent liquids: two taps or faps,
one retrofex and one plain; two laterals, one retrofex and one plain; and another rhotic.
McDonough and Johnson (1997) sought to uncover the articulation of this ffh sound as
well as the other four known sounds using electropalatography and static palatography.
Tey concluded that this dialect of Tamil does include a plain fap, though it was unclear
whether it is made with the tongue tip or blade; a dental-alveolar lateral [l]; the retrofex
fap (realisation of the retrofex stop intervocalically); and the retrofex lateral, which
seems to have a fap-like motion. Te ffh liquid seems to be a sort of central retrofex
13
approximant.
Tamil also allows geminate consonants except for the dental tap and the retrofex
approximant. Retrofexes may only occur initially when they are native onomatopoeia
or in borrowed words (Annamalai and Steever 1998:102).
14
Chapter 2
Method
2.1 Participants
Tree informants, one speaker each of Hindi, Punjabi, and Tamil, participated in the
study. Te Hindi informant grew up in New Delhi, India and attended university in the
United States. Te Punjabi speaker is fromChandigarh, India and also speaks Hindi. Te
Tamil speaker grew up in Chennai, India, where he spoke Tamil as his native language.
His education was in English, as is common, so he never learned the Tamil script. He has
working knowledge of Sanskrit andHindi, as well as their Devanagari writing system, and
although this system is perhaps better-suited to writing Tamil than Roman characters,
the participant decided that it would be easier to read the experiment in the script of
the latter. Te other participants read the experiment in the scripts used to write their
respective languages, Devanagari for Hindi and Gurmukhi for Punjabi.
All participants were graduate students in felds other than linguistics at the Univer-
sity of Cambridge, and all were fuent but not native speakers of English.
2.2 Experiment
Te experiment took place in two parts, the frst of which was an audio elicitation session.
For this part of the experiment, the participant sat in a sound-treated booth and read a
list of words in the format of say (test word) again" in his own language. Each phrase was
spoken in a normal speaking style fve times and was recorded by a Sennheiser MKH40
13
P48 microphone, which was placed about fve inches fromthe participant's head. Te sig-
nal was recorded by a Marantz PMD670 Professional Solid-State Recorder with a 44khz
sampling rate. Te number of items varied based on the number of testable phones in the
language. Test items were randomised and interspersed with fllers. Te experimenter
sat outside the booth and used headphones connected to the recording system in order
to monitor the participant while minimising observer bias.
Te second half used static palatography, for which both palatograms and lingua-
grams were made for several segments in each language; the participants were recorded
during this part of the experiment as well. A mixture of crushed medicinal charcoal
tablets, cocoa powder, and olive oil was applied to the palate (for the linguagrams) or
the tongue (for the palatograms) with a paintbrush. Pictures of all sides of the tongue
were taken, and pictures of the palate were taken with the aid of a small cosmetic mirror.
Video was also taken of the participants articulating each sound. Because the surround-
ing vowels may change the place of articulation of the retrofex, the participants were
all asked to pronounce the sequence u_u", with the test segment inserted between the
vowels. Most of the time this was a nonsense sequence, but this was not a problem for
the participants. Tis was done partly for consistency but also to prevent false charcoal
transfers from interfering segments that can be present in real words. Te charcoaled
tongue and palate prepared for the palatogram and linguagram, respectively, can be seen
in Figure 2.1.
2.2.1 Materials
Test items varied depending on language. In general, both retrofex and dental stops
were elicited, as well as the language's full inventory of liquids. Geminates were also
considered. While geminate retrofex stops are allowed in all of the languages, geminate
retrofex rhotics are not found in any of them. It must also be noted that retrofexes can
vary based on their surrounding vowels. Tis was taken into account. Where possible,
vowels oneither side of the test soundwere the same, andwherever possible the vowel was
[u] for at least one token. Articulation of retrofexes is variable by language, as mentioned
earlier, but it can also be afected by the surrounding vowels. Te front vowel [i] tends to
pull the tongue closer to the front of the mouth, whereas the vowel [u] tends to have the
opposite efect. A full list of test items can be found in the Appendix.
16
(a) Tongue prepared for palatogram. (b) Palate prepared for linguagram, seen refected
in the mirror.
Figure 2.1: One articulator at a time is coated with a charcoal mixture that transfers to
the opposite articulator during the production of a segment.
Te data from each language was collected in a single session, with the exception of
Tamil. According to Vasanthakumari (1989)'s grammar, Tamil contrasts an apical tap or
fap and an apical trill, as in the minimal pair kuri 'charcoal' and kuri 'curry'. Te infor-
mant in this study, however, did not produce a diference for these two words, and he was
confused that the English transliteration that was presented to him showed a diference'.
Tis fnal segment was tested in a subsequent session with the same participant. He also
noted that he did not use classical" or literary" Tamil dialect, or speech according to
the rules outlined in the thirteenth century by the grammarian Pavanandi (Keane 2004).
Some dialects do maintain such a contrast, especially those with infuence from Malay-
alam (revision of Schifman 1980). Te participant's pronunciation perhaps refects a
view of modern Tamil as it is spoken in India, at least for his dialect, that is untainted by
orthographic infuence due to his lack of familiarity with the writing system.
'Te grammar misleadingly transcribed the tap and trill, which made it seem that one was retrofex
and the other plain; afer the initial acoustic recording and palatography session it became clear that this
was not the case. Several papers written by diferent experimenters agree that the actual distribution of
liquids in Tamil is the two laterals tested here, a tap, a trill, and a retrofex approximant.
17
2.2.2 Acoustic Measurement
Te segments tested were annotated to Text Grids using Praat. Te boundaries for the
segment were determined by the contour of the uppermost formants. Te lef boundary
was placed where the fourth formant begins its descent, and the right where the fourth
formant begins to plateau. An example of such a token can be seen in 2.2.
Figure 2.2: An example of an annotated token in Praat. Boundaries were placed on the
lef where the fourth formant begins to descend, at 113 ms here, and on the right where
it begins to plateau, at 217 ms. Te Text Grid is delimited by the blue lines.
APraat script measured the frequencies at 10intervals. When the second and third
formants completely intersected, the formant tracker read them as one formant, so this
was corrected by hand. Te frequencies were converted to Equivalent Rectangular Band-
width (ERB) (Moore 1997:347) so that they could be compared across languages, and av-
erages of the tokens were taken and plotted. Tis normalisation was especially necessary
because the Tamil tokens featured signifcantly higher frequencies; the speaker may have
had a smaller vocal tract.
I measured the intensity of the second formant about 30 ms before the stop closure by
taking spectral slices with Praat, which measured intensity in a .023-second window, and
the intensity of the second formant was compared with the intensity of the frst formant. I
also made attempts to measure the burst frequency and intensity, but there was too much
variation in the visibility and length of the release of each token for the measurements
18
to be consistent and accurate, and time did not allow for a solution. I also measured the
vowel length before retrofex stops and plain stops in comparable pairs of words; some
vowels were onset-less and therefore it was dimcult to mark exactly where they began.
Otherwise, I measured from the burst of the onset to where the vowel had clearly died
out in the following stop.
19
Chapter 3
Results
3.1 Acoustic Evidence
3.1.1 q
Te retrofex stop is found in most word positions in Punjabi. For Punjabi there was the
added advantage that the verb meaning 'say' begins with [u], so segments at the end of a
test word could be included as well.
Te onset of the third formant lowering and second formant rising in the preceding
vowel could vary in a way that was audible. Figure 3.1a and Figure 3.1b show two tokens
of the same phrase, quq (root meaning 'leave') uk'o 'say', but withdiferent lengths of time
over which the third formant lowers and remains low. Inthe frst token, the third formant
lowers gradually over the second half the vowel, or 39 ms, and the second formant rises
over the same period so that they meet right at the closure. In the second token, the main
movement in the formants afer almost the same amount of time, 34 ms, but there is a
longer vowel, so the formants come very close to each other afer 43 ms. At this point
they plateau (circled), and here there is a strong rhotic colouring to the vowel, if not a
full rhotic approximant.
Tis stop is said to come in a geminate variety as well (Bhatia 1993:332), but words
such as vuq:u 'big' seemed to have the same length of stop as singletons, anywhere from
80 to 112 ms.
Te retrofex stop is found in most word positions in Hindi, though there is variation
between the stop and fap intervocalically or between a resonant and a vowel (Prakash
20
(a) (b)
Figure 3.1: Two tokens of quq uk'o in Punjabi. Te spectrogram in (a) shows a more
gradual lowering and no plateau, so little rhoticity was heard before the vowel. Te spec-
trogramin (b) shows F3 reaching its lowest point sooner, forming a plateau (circled) with
the second formant before the vowel, and a clear r is heard.
21
1981:31) as mentioned in the background section. Because of this debate concerning
the distribution of the stop and fap, there were more test items for Hindi than the other
languages. Prakash gives a list drawing attention to words that do and do not feature a
sonorant intervocalically where older generations of Hindi had a stop. Words that are
supposed to maintain the stop in modern day were tested in addition to minimal pairs
(for the stop and fap), but for all except uq:u, which has a geminate stop, and uqqu, where
the stop occurs afer another consonant, the participant believed that the stop should be
pronounced as a rhotic. When instructed to place the stop between two [u] vowels for
the palatography, however, he was able to do so, which suggests that the lenition rule is
not currently active, or at least that some contrast between stop and fap is maintained.
We must use caution in analysing the stop/fap contrast in this way because the sequence
used in the palatography was artifcial; comparison with geminate instances of the stop
will show that the singleton stop is consistent. For the acoustic elicitation, though, it was
dimcult to fnd the stop in a good testing position.
When a stop was expected in Hindi, it only surfaced as such when it was geminate
or when it was bounded by a consonant on the lef; the only such word of the latter
type in this study was uqqu. Such a stop preceded by a homorganic nasal may behave
phonologically just like a geminate stop (Kirchner 2001), so phonologically these two
types of words fall into the same category.
Te word uqqu features a preceding homorganic nasal, which arguably allows us to
see how the third formant behaves during a retrofex closure in Figure 3.2a, although of
course it masks the transition that we would have seen from a vowel because of nasalisa-
tion on the vowel; in particular, caution is needed here because the addition of the nasal
tube complicates this system, so we cannot be absolutely certain that the nasal and oral
counterparts are directly comparable. Tere is an abrupt decrease in the third formant
approaching the closure just before the burst where the third and second formants meet.
It is dimcult to see how this is resolved during the burst, because by the time the vowel
commences, the formants have returned to the expected values for the vowel.
Tis is the pattern we see when there is the geminate stop in Figure 3.2b. In uq:u
'camp', the transitions into the stop are clearer, and there is certainly a stop here. It is also
clear that this is truly a geminate stop and not just an orthographic way of showing that
the retrofex should be pronounced as a stop and not a fap. Te closure is around 100
ms, twice the length of the retrofex voiceless stop. Tis is signifcant because voiceless
22
stops do tend to be longer than voiced (Lehiste 1970:28). Further, geminates are known
to block lenition, perhaps because more efort is required to produce a geminate contin-
uant consonant than a geminate stop (the inverse of the situation in singletons), due to
the isometric tension required to maintain a prolonged steady-state partial constriction"
(Kirchner 2001:97-98).
Te stop's salient features in Hindi match those in Punjabi. Te lowering of the third
formant takes place in the vowel well before the stop closure. In Figure 3.2b, we can see
the third formant begin to dip 37 milliseconds before the closure begins, and it begins
to rise again perhaps 44 milliseconds before the release of the stop before the following
vowel, though it is dimcult to say for certain because the formants are not visible for the
entire closure. Te second formant begins its transition even earlier, about 94 millisec-
onds before the closure begins.
(a) Hindi q preceded by a ho-
morganic nasal.
(b) Hindi q:.
Figure 3.2: Te Hindi retrofex stops. In (a) the third formant transition out of the stop
is circled, whereas in (b) the transition cannot be seen, but the third formant seems to
pop" into the right place at the release of the stop.
Like in Punjabi, we see a gradual fall in the third formant, though Hindi does not
provide tokens like those in Punjabi where the second and third formants come close
together and plateau, creating a distinct rhotic sound. Tere is no reason to think that
these are impossible in Hindi, but none were observed in this participant's data.
Both Punjabi and Hindi contrast the voiced and voiceless retrofex stops. Te voice-
23
less variant seems to follow the same pattern as the voiced stop. Te second formant
rises and the third formant falls on the way to the stop, and they intersect at the clo-
sure at values similar to those found in the voiced stop. No remarkable diferences were
observed between the voiced and voiceless stops in Punjabi. In Hindi, though, most of
the voiceless stop (about 78 ) was actually voiced; voiced stops were voiced throughout
the entire closure and had a voiced release. Otherwise, the voiceless retrofex stops were
identical to the voiced ones.
Tamil stops present a slightly diferent story. According to Caldwell's Law, there is
no distinction in Tamil between voiced and voiceless in the language, but voiceless con-
sonants become voiced between vowels. When the retrofex stop occurs intervocalically,
it is voiced and stays fully voiced for the entire closure, about 33 ms. Before the stop,
the third and second formants formed a pinch, and they moved away from each other
again before the next vowel. In the u_u environment, the mean lowest frequency that the
third formant reached was 1829 Hz and at that point the second formant was on average
1363 Hz; the diference at the closest point was 300-400 Hz. Te second-and-third pinch
pattern could be perturbed by the surrounding vowels. In viqe, 'house' (Figure 3.3b), the
second formant resonates at 1616 Hz at its lowest point, which is usually closer to the
value for the third formant in a retrofex. Because of the very high front vowel, the third
formant refects the cavity in front of the mouth, not the second (Ladefoged 2003:163).
Te vowel has likely pulled the articulation closer to the front of the mouth. Because
of the shape of the vocal tract required for the vowel, the examples of this word are not
as helpful for determining the usual frequencies and formant transitions for retrofexes.
Tis does not present a problem because a retrofex may have the efect of lowering the
fourth formant instead of the third if the passive articulator is quite front, such as at the
alveolar ridge (Fant 1970:219), which it might be in this case if the [i] has pulled the
articulation forward. Tis is circled in Figure 3.3b.
Te retrofex stop comes in a geminate variety as well, although this seems to always
be voiceless, probably because gemination can block lenition because sustaining voicing
becomes increasingly dimcult with the length of the stop closure (Kirchner 2001), and if
Caldwell's Lawis one of lenition, and if the stops are underlyingly voiceless, it follows that
a geminate underlying voiceless stop would not voice intervocalically. Tis geminate stop
can be as long as 130 milliseconds with almost complete airfow blockage; as can be seen
in Figure 3.3c, it is dimcult to track the formants during the closure, so it is rather dimcult
24
(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 3.3: Te retrofex stops of Tamil. In (a) we see a typical voiced retrofex stop with
the rapid F3 transition circled; (b) shows how F4 descends instead of F3 afer a front
vowel, and (c) demonstrates that it is dimcult to interpret formant transitions in voiceless
retrofex stops, which are all geminate.
23
to defnitely say what the formant values are that correspondto suchretrofexes. Te third
formant does not appear to fall during the preceding vowel, unlike those seen in such
words as puqum, where the falling third formant refects the preparatory retrofexion of
the tongue. Tere might be some preparation in the later part of the vowel in pe:i, where
the intensity begins to decline rapidly. By the release they have already returned to the
appropriate positions for [i].
Te spectrograms are broadly similar for all the languages (in equivalent, non-front
vowel environments): the second and third formants meet or at least come very close
together at the point of closure. Te point and slope at which the third formant begins
its descent is variable, and this correlates with the amount of rhoticity heard before the
vowel.
On the release side, the second formant returns to its vowel position by the time the
vowel sounds. Te thirdformant, onthe other hand, rises gradually throughout the burst.
Te extra time that the third formant spends both going into and coming out of the stop
in the Tamil elicitation is probably indicative of the amount of extra time required for the
tongue to retrofex further back, likely at a sharper angle, than that required by the Indic
languages.
Hindi and Punjabi contrast the retrofex alveolars with dental stops. In contrast to
the retrofexes, the second, third, and fourth formants remain relatively constant, as seen
in Fig 3.4a udut below; there is no pinching" of the second and third formants towards
the middle of the stop. Te spectrogram for uq:u has been reproduced for comparison.
Punjabi and Tamil showed the same patterns.
3.1.2 Discussion of q
It is not immediately apparent from the spectrograms that the Tamil stops are much dif-
ferent from Hindi and Punjabi. Reproduced in Figure 3.3 are retrofex stops in the uqu
environment from each language.
All the languages show the same general trends for formants. Tere is an asymmetry
inthe third formant. Te anticipatory lowering is likely caused by the preparatory gesture
by the tongue getting in place for the stop. Similarly, the steeper rise of the third formant
towards the end of the closure, circled, is most likely caused by the sudden release and
falling of the tongue as the air pressure built up for the stop is released. In 3.3a and 3.3b
26
(a) (b)
Figure 3.4: udut incomparisonwith uq:u. Te second and third formants do not intersect
during the plain dental stop.
(a) Punjabi (b) Hindi (c) Tamil
Figure 3.3: Te retrofex stops, for comparison. Punjabi q'uq uk'o is shown in (a), Hindi
uq:u in (b), and Tamil puqum in (c).
27
the transition is not even seen; the third formant appears to vanish and then reappear at
the appropriate place for [u] at 2700 Hz for both. Te fourth, and less reliably the ffh,
formants tend to follow a similar dipping pattern as the third formant, although they do
not make contact.
All of the tokens presented are onthe same time scale, so it is clear that the Tamil stops
are much shorter than in Punjabi; at 30 ms, they are between one-fourth and one-half
the length of those in the latter language. Hindi is not considered here because the stop is
geminate. Although this is a clear diference, it does not account for the diferences heard
in the vowel before the stop. According to Ladefoged and Bhaskararao (1983), Dravidian
retrofexes are pronounced with a tongue that is more retrofexed. If this is true, then it
would be possible that this would account for the greater speed in Tamil, because the
tongue would have to reach further back in the same space of time. We will see that this
is likely the explanation in the evidence from the static palatography in the next chapter.
Because each word was repeated multiple times in the acoustic elicitation session,
there were fve tokens for each of the words in Figure 3.3. Te formants were extracted at
10 percent intervals as described in the Method section; the results are shown in Figure
3.6. Because the Tamil participant had much higher frequencies for all of his formants,
all of the frequencies have been converted to ERB so they can all be directly compared.
Tese graphs should not be compared on a detailed level; the graphs demonstrate that
the second, third, and fourth formants follow the same general pattern in all three lan-
guages throughout the segment. Te stop closure generally occurred around the 20-30
percent mark in the Indic languages and the 40 percent mark in Tamil. Te segment
was much shorter in Tamil, and the stop was geminate in Hindi; the graphs have been
scaled accordingly. Note that the large dip in F2 is not due to an actual decrease in the
formant; this value was taken near the end of the closure, where the intensity had fallen
dramatically, resulting in what the formant tracker read as a lower F2.
Te amount of rhoticity audible before the closure varied by language and vowel. It
was most audible for the longest period of time in the u_u environment, particularly in
Tamil. In puqum, the third formant begins to fall at the onset of the vowel, indicating that
the retrofexion begins quite early on. Halfway through the vowel the formant stops its
decline, not intersecting with the second formant. During the plateau phase, an approx-
imant rhotic distinct from the vowel can be heard. In the Punjabi token shown here, the
third formant descends over the course of the vowel, meeting the second formant at the
28
(a) Punjabi (b) Hindi
(c) Tamil
Figure 3.6: Plots of the second, third, and fourth formants taken at 10 intervals of the
retrofex stop segment in (a) Punjabi, (b) Hindi, and (c) Tamil.
29
closure, although we did see another token in Figure 3.1b that had rhoticity before the
stop that was similar to that in Tamil. In Hindi there were no such tokens. Te amount of
rhoticity is also not a distinguishing factor, then, if similar tokens can be found in Punjabi
and Tamil, but the consistency and strength with which they appear in this environment
in Tamil suggests a trend.
For all of the languages, there is variation in the value of the third formant, which
patterns with the preceding vowel. With an open back vowel on either side of the stop
the third formant fell as low as 1630 Hz but had a mean of 1832 Hz. Te case was very
diferent for a high front vowel preceding the closure. In all the languages, the fourth
formant descended at a similar angle and place in the vowel as the third formant did
in other positions. Te fourth formant can be the indicator of retrofexion in certain
instances, such as when the preceding vowel or if the retrofex itself is very front (Fant
1970). In these cases, little if any movement is seen in the third formant, but the fourth
may drop as low as 2640 in Hindi, and 2760 in Tamil.
Several factors that might have revealed the diferences between the two language
groups were considered but proved to be insignifcant. Te absolute value of the third
formant, for instance, was thought to be lower in Tamil, because we might expect that a
stronger retrofexion would result in a lower third formant value, but it turned out that
this is not the case. In comparable tokens, the mean lowest F3 was 1634 Hz in Punjabi,
2199 Hz in Hindi, and 1920 Hz in Tamil. Te distance between the second and third
formants also proved to be nearly the same across all languages.
Te intensity of the second formant before the stop appeared to be stronger in Tamil,
so this was also tested, but on average it showed no signifcant diferences. Tese intensi-
ties were compared with the second formant intensity in the middle of the same vowel at
the end of a word; in both cases the second formant intensity was compared to that in the
frst formant. In comparable tokens across the languages, the Tamil F2 was about 3.3 dB
lower than F1 before a retrofex but 20 dB lower in the middle of a vowel. Hindi and Pun-
jabi did not pattern together; F2 was much stronger on average in Punjabi (9.6 dB lower
for Punjabi and 12.4 for Hindi; diferences in the mid-vowel environment were similar
to Tamil). While there seems to be a pattern that Tamil may have a slightly stronger F2 in
comparison to F1 on average, there were some comparably strong tokens in Punjabi and
Hindi. Since it was dimcult to fnd comparable testing environments, only fve tokens
each were used for each language, so it is possible that signifcant results could be found
30
with more testing, but the disparity between Punjabi and Hindi suggests that this may
simply be a case of speaker variation.
Besides retrofexion, a constriction in the pharynx and lip rounding can also be re-
sponsible for lowering the third formant (Fant 1970); diferences in the latter were con-
sidered for the retrofex stop in the three languages. Video was taken during the static
palatography session that showed no evidence of any change in lip rounding either before
or during the retrofex for any of the languages; this will be reported more systematically
in the articulatory study. However, in rounded vowels such as [u] or [o], the lips are
already round, which can lead to an even lower third formant. Te way that the preced-
ing vowel afected the following stop was considered in Tamil and Punjabi, the languages
where stops were observed afer both rounded and unrounded vowels. InTamil, the third
formant went as low as 1300 Hz during the closure when [u] was the preceding vowel;
in contrast the lowest value for a preceding [u] was 1840 Hz. Interestingly, for some of
these tokens the fall in the third formant occurred mostly during the closure. In Punjabi,
the retrofex fap afer [u] or [o] went as low as 1317 Hz, and the stop afer [o] 1330 Hz;
in contrast the lowest value for a stop afer [u] was 1360 Hz, but it was usually about 1630
Hz.
Although the absolute value of the third formant did not distinguish Hindi and Pun-
jabi from Tamil, the number of ERBs by which it decreased was nearly signifcant. Al-
though there was not statistical signifcance, this was the most signifcant diference
found between the two language groups. To fnd these results fve tokens of one word
featuring q in the u_u environment were considered; it was dimcult to fnd test words
that had the sound in the same environment and also made a non-retrofex near-minimal
pair with which a baseline could be created. Te F3 starting point was taken fromits peak
in the vowel preceding the retrofex, and the lowest point was taken fromthe formant ex-
traction. A t-test gave p=.07 for the diference between Tamil and Punjabi, but p=.18 for
the diference between Tamil and Hindi. If we treat the Indic languages as one group,
the test gave a value of .08. In both cases, Tamil had the greater diference in F3.
Te slope of the change in F3 over the course of the preceding vowel was also mea-
sured, but no signifcant diference was found between Tamil and Hindi; they were nearly
the same. However, a t-test gave a p-value of .133 for the diference between Tamil and
Punjabi, with a faster decline in F3 found for Tamil.
Tus while there were no signifcant results found, the p-values were low enough, at
31
least in the F3 diferences, to suggest that more tokens and speakers may yield stronger
results.
Te results can be seen in both Hz and ERBs in Table 3.1. As mentioned in the
Method section, it was necessary to normalise the frequencies because the Tamil in-
formant had higher frequencies overall. Te bar graphs in Figure 3.7 show the average
diference in F3 during the vowel in Hz (Figure 3.7a) and ERBs (Figure 3.7b) for each
language, as well as this diference expressed as a percentage of the baseline, again in
both Hz and ERBs (Figure 3.7c).
(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 3.7: Te graphs in (a) and (b) show the average diference in F3 over the course of
a vowel preceding a retrofex in the u_u environment, and (c) shows this same diference
expressed as a percentage of the baseline F3 (for the same vowel in an open position), in
both Hz and ERBs.
Tamil features a much greater decrease in the third formant, but while the rate of
32
Table 3.1: Values for the diference in the third formant in the vowel before a retrofex stop; units are in Hz and Equivalent
Rectangular Bandwidth (ERB) for comparison purposes. Range" refers to the diference in F3 within the vowel. At-test gave
p=.07 for the diference between Tamil and Punjabi, but p=.18 for the diference between Tamil and Hindi. In both cases,
Tamil had the greater diference in F3.
Language F3 base- F3 peak in F3 low F3 range time slope F3 base- F3 peak in F3 low F3 range time slope
line (Hz) vowel (Hz) (Hz) (Hz) (ms) (Hz/ms) line (ERB) vowel (ERB) (ERB) (ERB) (ms) (ERB/ms)
Punjabi 2343 2002 1647 333 27.86 12.74 23.19 21.16 19.33 1.611 27.86 0.06
Punjabi 2268 1693 372 33.01 10.80 22.21 19.79 2.420 33.01 0.03
Punjabi 2073 1619 434 37.08 7.96 21.46 19.41 2.044 37.08 0.04
Punjabi 1900 1673 226 36.02 6.28 20.73 19.68 1.044 36.02 0.03
Punjabi 1726 1387 139 16.31 8.30 19.94 19.23 0.684 16.31 0.04
Hindi 2389 2696 1941 736 93.32 8.10 23.34 23.68 20.90 2.777 93.32 0.03
Hindi 3204 2642 362 38.48 14.61 23.17 23.31 1.663 38.48 0.04
Hindi 2483 2070 414 33.47 7.73 22.98 21.44 2.337 33.47 0.03
Hindi 2381 2012 369 29.63 12.46 22.62 21.21 1.418 29.63 0.03
Hindi 3237 2363 692 23.84 29.03 23.31 23.23 2.037 23.84 0.09
Tamil 2836 2373 2036 319 46.78 11.09 24.18 23.29 21.39 1.902 46.78 0.04
Tamil 2439 1913 344 47.74 11.40 22.90 20.79 2.102 47.74 0.04
Tamil 2679 1934 746 31.77 14.40 23.63 20.87 2.733 31.77 0.03
Tamil 2337 1986 371 24.60 13.08 22.33 21.10 1.439 24.60 0.06
Tamil 2777 1906 871 63.39 13.28 23.94 20.76 3.179 63.39 0.03
3
3
change is on the whole much greater than for Punjabi it is not much greater than that for
Hindi. For this comparison, only stops were considered because the stop was the only
retrofex segment found in all three languages. Tis diference indicates that the variation
in retrofexion that we will see in the palatography can also be quantifed by evidence
from the acoustic signal, but perhaps more importantly it indicates that the exact value
of the third formant is not what constitutes a rhotic or retrofex sound.
It seems that rather than the absolute low value of the third formant, what is required
for the rhoticity before the stop is a plateau of this formant near the second formant; we
can see that although Hindi has a lower third formant than Tamil, the latter language
shows far more perceived rhoticity than the former. However, there is a greater amount
of lowering and rate at which the formant lowers. Since both retrofexion and pharynx
constriction can be responsible for the lowering of the third formant, and a low third
formant can be characteristic of a rhotic, we might wonder whether the pharynx plays
a role in retrofexes, especially when rhoticity can be heard in the preceding vowel. Te
diference inrhoticity heardmay be indicative of either a tongue that is retrofexing earlier
or a pharynx that is constricting. It is not possible from this data to determine what is
the cause, but there is enough to say that there is a clear disparity in the two languages.
Tis also suggests that the importance of the rhoticity or lowered third formant to cue
a retrofex stop has increased in Tamil more than in the Indic languages. Alternatively,
perhaps the pharynx is constricting in Tamil early as a secondary articulation to help
guarantee a low third formant.
3.1.3
Te Punjabi retrofex rhotic seems to be a fap with a length of about 23 ms in most
environments, as seen in the word kui in Figure 3.8a. It is characterised by the same
cues as the retrofex stop: the second and third formants pinch together at the onset of
the closure. Tere is not as much of a closure is there is in the stop, and formants are
clearly visible throughout the articulation despite the drop in intensity of about 3 dB.
Te boundaries of the fap are well-defned, indicating a non-continuant articulation.
Te fap can take a slightly diferent formbetween two [u] vowels, as in paa in Figure
3.8b. Te segment is even more brief, about 13 ms. Te formant transitions are also fast,
corresponding to the rapid tongue movement, but we can still see in the spectrogram
34
that the articulation is in fact retrofex. As in the retrofex stop and the other fap token,
the second and third formants do come quite close together, though without the clear
intersection that is seen in the stop. Tis gesture toward a pinch occurs before the middle
of the fap, probably because the point of articulation is only momentary. Te fourth
formant dips and forms a cusp, but this takes place at the moment of the fap.
(a) Tis fap has clear boundaries. (b) Tis fap borders on continuant.
Figure 3.8: Two kinds of faps in Punjabi. Te fap in (a) is about twice the length of the
one in (b).
One possible explanation for the diference in pronunciation is the openness of the
vowel on both sides of the faster fap. In the same way that vowels can afect the backness
of a preceding or following articulation, perhaps a very open vowel can prevent the jaw
fromclosing completely, or perhaps time allowed for the fap is spent closing and opening
the jaw. Either way, it may be the case that less of the tongue or palate is allowed to
participate in the consonant when the surrounding vowels are so open, resulting in less
time spent with the articulators in contact. Further, it is possible that close vowels (and
therefore a close jaw) leave less room for the truly ballistic nature of the fap, as there is
less room for the tongue to curl back and spring forward.
Te retrofex fap in Hindi, when found between a vowel and a consonant as in luki
33
in Figure 3.9a, is broadly similar to the Punjabi fap that is found between two u vowels.
Note that there is an epenthetic schwa between the fap and the closure for the k; this
is physically (rather than phonologically) required by the fap articulation. Te third
formant lowers at the locus of the closure, but it never fully meets the second formant as
it does in the plosive; about 600 Hz separate the third formant from the second formant
at their closest point. Further, the length of the rhotic is much shorter than that of the
plosive, about 20-23 ms. Like in the stop, the third and fourth formants decline slowly
over the course of the preceding vowel.
In a similar way to how Punjabi has a fap that is closer to a continuant between two
u vowels, the fap in Hindi takes on a more approximant articulation between any two
vowels, as seen in g'ou in Figure 3.9b. Te formants can be seen very clearly throughout
the articulation. Te same transitions as for previous retrofexes apply here, but the fourth
formant is ofset; its lowest point occurs at the end of the approximant.
For all of the words presented with the stop intervocalically, the participant insisted
that the word should actually have , even for both members of what were presented as
a minimal pair in Prakash, for example what is written biq(e)qu 'undone' and biq(e)u
'impaired'. Te schwa should be deleted through Hindi's medial unstressed schwa dele-
tion rule (Ohala 1993), but it is reinserted for tongue preparation for the fap.
Tis approximant could take on a lateral quality, as seen in Figure 3.9c. Here there
is only a slight decline in the third formant, and a very small rise in the second for-
mant. Tere is a very strong antiresonance, which is characteristic of a lateral, between
the fourth and ffh formants, seen where the fourth formant seems to become the third
formant in the following vowel. Te fourth formant is actually blotted out by the antires-
onance and reappears in the vowel.
A complicated picture of retrofexes surfaces in Hindi. Te corrections to the list of
test words of intervocalic stops to faps from this informant suggests a second round of
lenition of the same type as in Old Hindi that was mentioned in the background section,
that is, from retrofex stop to fap between vowels, and the acoustic elicitation takes this
evidence a step further. We would expect a defned occlusion in the speech signal from
a fap, as in Punjabi kui, but there is not always a clear one here; there is clearly a strong
signal throughout the rhotic in g'ou. Tere was only a minor drop in intensity if any at
all, further suggesting a continuant articulation.
In the word luki 'girl', the segment always surfaced as a fap. Tere is sometimes a
36
(a) A clearer fap between vowel and
consonant.
(b) An approximant ar-
ticulation between two
vowels.
(c) A lateral articulation between
two vowels, with possible antires-
onance circled.
Figure 3.9: Te retrofex fap outcomes in Hindi. (a) shows the fap that occurs between
a vowel and consonant; (b) and (c) show the intervocalic refex of the fap, as a retrofex
approximant and retrofex lateral respectively.
37
loss of amplitude during the articulation, during which point the second formant reaches
its highest and the third and fourth formants their lowest values. Te third and fourth
formants decreased throughout the entirety of the preceding vowel, whereas the second
formant only increased for about the second half of the articulation. Following the fap
all formants experienced a high rate of change as they returned to their values for the
following vowel.
Whenever laterals did occur where a retrofex fap or stop was expected, it was be-
tween vowels. Te example with biq(e)u suggests that the retrofex fap or continuant
is in free variation with the retrofex lateral when it occurs between vowels.
Several changes have led to this distribution. Te fap was introduced on the way
from Old to Modern Hindi, when it appeared as the intervocalic allophone of q. In
subsequent generations new words presenting q intervocalically were introduced, ofen
as borrowings, as discussed previously in the background section. Shortly thereafer
became a contrasting phoneme rather than an allophone.
First, the retrofex stop became a fap intervocalically. Next there was an apocope that
afected schwa.
1. q / V_ V
2. e 7/ _ #
Tis lef the stop possible in word-initial position, as a geminate, and afer another
consonant; and the fap in other word-medial and word-fnal positions. Te new en-
vironments for the fap facilitated its phonemicisation (Misra 1967:81). Later, the stop
was re-introduced to intervocalic positions via borrowings from languages like English
(Misra 1967:81). A second lenition like the type in 1 occurred again, producing more
words with intervocalic faps. From here there is a two-way split of the fap.
It appears that a lenition has occurred once again in some dialects, as suggested by
the speaker variation presented in Prakash (1981).
At some point afer the lenition of q and the subsequent phonemicisation of the fap,
there must have been a second lenition, possibly very recently. Te participant was able
to produce the stop intervocalically for the palatography, though he did not pronounce
it as a stop for any of the test items. In this environment, it always surfaces as either a
38
retrofex rhotic continuant or a retrofex lateral. Te two are in free variation, given the
two diferent realisations in the same test word, biqe_u. Whenbounded by a vowel onthe
lef and a consonant on the right, as in luki, the segment is a fap. When the consonant
is lef and the vowel is right of the segment, or when the stop is geminate, it is able to
surface as a stop with a defnite closure.
3. q / V_ V
4. {, | / V_ V
Tus there is a combination of historical and modern articulatory developments that
have led to the three-way refex of this sound.
When the fap occurs intervocalically, the interlocutor can easily hear the transitions
both into and out of the retrofex. Te second formant usually rises and third formant
descends, signalling to the speaker that a retrofex is about to take place. At the point
where the second and third formants are closest together, circled on the fgure, the third
formant has an abrupt discontinuity but reappears in the vowel at the appropriate height
(2700 Hz), which is indicative of a lateral. Tis could provide the explanation as to how
the segment could be interpreted as a lateral in this environment. Because Hindi does
not already contrast [|] with [q], [], and [l], the new pronunciation does not threaten
the contrasts already in place.
Te transitions out of the stop that help to signal a lateral are blocked by a following
consonant. If a vowel occurs before the fap, the transitions going in will be heard, and the
pinch of the second and third formants will cue a retrofex articulation. However, there
will be no following rise of the third formant, nor lenitory pressure from a following
vowel, to signal or allow any kind of continuant articulation. Terefore, the fap remains
as such and does not surface as a lateral.
Tere is an alternative viewpoint. If this articulation is the product of a further leni-
tion, it is possible that the lateral emerges in part by chance. Afer the tongue retracts and
retrofexes in preparation for the segment, it releases with a strong ballistic movement"
(McDonough and Johnson 1997). If the target sound is simply a retrofex continuant of
sorts, then whether it surfaces as a lateral is inconsequential, and it is perhaps chance
whether the tongue makes contact with the palate or not. If there is no contact made, a
recognisable rhotic surfaces. If, however, the tongue does make contact, the air will fow
across the tongue sideways, and a lateral will emerge.
39
Te only environments with a full stop had either a geminate as in uq:u or a homor-
ganic nasal preceding the stop as in uqqu. According to Kirchner (2001:97-111), stops
with a preceding homorganic nasal can behave phonologically like geminate stops in that
both can block lenition. It seems that in Hindi, the intervocalic environment and a sin-
gleton stop are required for lenition.
Tere is a large amount of rhoticity heard before the fap in both Hindi and Punjabi.
In Hindi and in the u_ u environment in Punjabi, the third formant lowers early on in
the preceding vowel, though without much movement in the second formant (to 1200
Hz), and it plateaus, similarly to the vowel before the retrofex stop in Tamil puqum.
Overall, Punjabi shows a few of the Hindi's tendencies towards continuancy. In some
environments, the Punjabi fap's boundaries are less clear and are more like a continuant,
and these tokens are similar to the strongest fap tokens from Hindi. In other environ-
ments, the Punjabi faps show all the same patterns as a stop but with a much shorter,
less complete closure. In Hindi, the faps never have such clear boundaries as in Punjabi,
regardless of the surrounding vowels; there is a much greater tendency towards continu-
ancy. In such tokens in both Punjabi and Hindi, the boundaries of the fap are less clear,
the formants more visible throughout the segment, and the duration is shorter.
Te fap realisation in Punjabi and Hindi, then, overlap in two places: Punjabi's fap
between close vowels is similar to a Hindi fap between a vowel and a consonant, and the
Punjabi near-continuant fap that occurs between open vowels is similar to the segment
in Hindi that sometimes occurs between any two vowels.
3.1.4
Te retrofex fap does not make an appearance in this dialect of Tamil, but it is a useful
tool for comparison because it links the retrofex and the rhotic classes. Tamil does have
a central retrofex approximant (McDonough and Johnson 1997) which links the classes
similarly.
As with all of the other retrofexes, the segment is marked by a lowering of the third
formant throughout the preceding vowel and an increase into the following vowel. In
some, but not all, cases, the second formant intersects the third. Te mean low was 1733
Hz for the third formant, and for the second the mean high was about 1330 Hz. Ac-
cording to the formant tracker, the closest the two formants ever came to each other was
40
269 Hz, but they may even reach past each other and overlap. In these cases, impres-
sionistically, the segment sounds more typically retrofex, whereas in the cases where
the formants come near but do not intersect, the segment sounds more similar to the
approximant found in English.
In the case of puum, the formants did not always meet; for some tokens as much as
400 Hz separated the two. With a second formant value of 1273 Hz, it is clear that the
articulation is quite far back. Other tokens show a clear intersection and plateau at the
intersection of both of the formants, or even an overlap as seen in 3.10c. It is not clear
what is responsible for the variance in the intersection, and it is interesting considering
that the formants did not intersect for most tokens of the stop, and that they did not
intersect for Hindi approximants. When the formants do meet, it is not that the third
formant is lower, so a constriction at the pharynx or a more retrofexed articulation are
not responsible, but it is the case that the second formant is higher-about 1330-1600 Hz.
No closure is made during the segment, but the intensity drops very slightly (maximum
diference 2 dB).
Te retrofex approximant can be compared to the rhotic continuant in Hindi; both
feature a continuant manner of articulation that are traditionally rhotic, and both move
the tongue quite close but not completely up to the palate. It is worth noting that the
Tamil approximant is essentially the Dravidian analogue to the Hindi continuant. Te
two are reproduced in Figure 3.10 for comparison.
Bothare very similar informant transitions, but this is expectedbecause all retrofexes
thus far have shown the same general pattern. It is clear that the second and third for-
mants are much closer together in Tamil than in Hindi. It is likely that the tongue is more
retracted and retrofexed in Tamil, which would work to both decrease the third formant
as the tongue retracts as well as to raise the second formant as expected in a retrofex.
Te fourth formant has a less remarkable role in the Tamil token, perhaps because it is
usually indicative of a more anterior articulation, as in Hindi.
Although the transitions share the same contour, the rate of change in the formants is
faster for Tamil than for Hindi. Whereas in Hindi the formants are separated still by 300
Hz at their closest, in many of the Tamil tokens the formants come together completely
at a frequency of about 1380 Hz; if they do not meet they are only separated by 130 Hz or
so. Further, the Tamil approximants have a very large efect on the preceding vowel; the
rhoticity can be heard quite strongly. In Hindi, rhoticity before the continuant is audible,
41
(a) Hindi retrofex ap-
proximant.
(b) Tamil retrofex approximant, no
intersection
(c) Tamil retrofex approx-
imant, intersection
Figure 3.10: Te retrofex approximant (a) in Hindi, (b) in Tamil, and (c) the same token
in Tamil, but where the second and third formants seem to intersect and even overlap.
but not to the degree as in Tamil.
3.1.3 |
Tamil features a retrofex lateral that contrasts with the approximant, shown in u|e in
Figure 3.11a. As in other retrofexes, the second and third formant move towards each
other in the preceding vowel, intersecting during the segment, as in many cases of the
retrofex approximant. Unlike the approximant, there is no plateau of the two formants;
the contact is brief. Tis indicates the articulation is like that for the stop, where the
tongue has a longer preparation and a nearly immediate release.
Te clearest indication that this is a lateral is the possible antiresonance between the
third and fourth formants (circled). Te third formant has an abrupt near-disappearance
in the second half of the segment, as does the fourth. Tey both reappear at the vowel.
Tis is comparable to the lateral outcome of the Hindi retrofex fap. In Hindi, a slight
antiresonance can be seen between the fourth and ffh formants in tu|up , circled, (spec-
trogram reproduced in Figure 3.11b), and a disconnect in the fourth formant supports
42
(a) A Tamil retrofex lateral. (b) A Hindi retrofex lateral.
Figure 3.11: Te (a) Tamil and (b) Hindi retrofex laterals, for comparison. Possible an-
tiresonances are circled.
this interpretation. In Tamil, the laterality is less of a hint and far more obvious. Tere is
a clear antiresonance between the third and fourth formants, and both formants nearly
disappear. Te second and third formants actually meet each other in Tamil, whereas in
the Hindi token they do not; the fourth formant clearly lowers in Hindi since the stricture
locus is so far forward. For this token, the Hindi second and third formant remain about
42 Hz apart, with the highest F2 at 1380 and the lowest F3 at 1422, whereas in Tamil the
formants nearly intersect around 1800 Hz.
Bothlanguages include a dental clear lateral that contrasts withthis retrofex segment.
In the Brahmin dialect of Tamil, this can also contrast with a retrofex fap, which is the
intervocalic realisation of the retrofex stop. Hindi, however, makes no such distinction;
the retrofex sonorant/continuant is an allophone of the fap. Rather than being a full-
fedged phoneme, this retrofex segment has no requirement by the phonology to have a
defnite place on the continuant spectrum, whereas in Tamil a concrete place is required
to maintain the contrast between the two laterals and the retrofex approximant. In fact,
it appears that for Hindi the only specifcation for the fap, whether it is realised as such
43
or as an approximant or lateral, is some segment that is both retrofex and not a stop.
Te clear lateral that Hindi and Tamil both contrast their retrofex lateral with is sim-
ilar in both languages. Te laterals are easily identifable by the antiresonance that ofen
makes a disturbance seen in the fourth formant in Hindi (Figure 3.12a) and the third
in Tamil (Figure 3.12b). Te third formant is also usually elevated to around 2800 Hz
at the onset of the lateral. Tis is shared with no other liquid in Hindi except when the
retrofex fap is pronounced as a lateral. In Tamil the antiresonance cuts of the third for-
mant, which seems to jump" to a higher frequency; this is actually a blotted-out third
formant, and what looks like the third formant is actually the fourth. Te retrofex ver-
sions have also been reproduced here for comparison in Figures 3.12c and 3.12d. Te
possible antiresonances are circled in the spectrograms.
Bhatia (1993) reports that Punjabi contrasts a plainanda retrofex lateral, but boththe
elicitation and palatography confrm that this is not the case in this participant's dialect.
Te speaker was evidently aware of this distinction, though, and noted that his dialect
does not have the retrofex variant. Te lateral is fairly typical. Te second formant does
not change signifcantly, but it does seem to decrease slightly (100 Hz) throughout the
consonant, increasing at the onset of the following vowel. Te third formant increases
only slightly though abruptly, with the main movement in the fourth formant, which de-
creases with the frontness of the articulation. Tere is also a fairly obvious antiresonance
(circled) in the phrase tul uk'o in Figure 3.13a. In other tokens, there is an abrupt rise in
the third formant, as in kul uk'o in Figure 3.13b, up to about 2300 Hz, but the antireso-
nance and formant disturbance either is not there or is unclear. In another token of the
same phrase in Figure 3.13c, the third formant hardly moves at all, but there is a lot of
movement in the ffh formant. However, in all cases, the third formant is quite strong,
and all of the formants, unless they are completely blotted out by an antiresonance, are
strong.
3.1.6 r and r
Te retrofex liquids contrast with a plain tap or fap in all three languages. In Punjabi, a
rise is seeninthe secondandthirdformants, andsometimes a drop inthe fourthformant,
as in Figure 3.14a, which indicates the anterior nature of the articulation. Te second and
third formants feature very small decreases during the closure, but this is probably due
44
(a) Hindi plain lateral (b) Tamil plain lateral
(c) Hindi retrofex lateral (d) Tamil retrofex lateral
Figure 3.12: Plain and retrofex laterals in Hindi ((a) and (c), respectively) and Tamil ((b)
and (d), respectively).
43
(a) tul uk'o (b) kul uk'o (c) kul uk'o
Figure 3.13: Laterals in Punjabi. Figure (a) shows a probable antiresonance that is typical
for a lateral, but the other two do not. Figure (b) shows an abrupt high F3, but a diferent
token of the same phrase, (c), does not.
46
to a drop in intensity rather than tongue movements during the closure. Tere is ofen
a brief period during which the third formant is decreased, but it returns to its previous
value before the segment. Tis could be due to the tongue curling upwards to reach its
point of articulation.
Because the frst word of the carrier phrase ended in [r] (fr 'again'), there was an
example of two adjacent taps over a word boundary, which sometimes results in a short
trilled segment followed by what seems to be a fricative, as seen in Figure 3.14b. Tis is
characterised by a drop inenergy, about 13 dB, and noisy energy inthe upper frequencies,
a rise of the fourth and ffh formants, and no change in the second or third formants.
Te Hindi tapwhichis seeninkuwara 'bachelor' inFigure 3.14c and3.14d. Unlike the
retrofexes but rather like the dental stops, the tap shows fairly steady formants. Tere is
sometimes a small decrease in intensity in all formants at the tap, and the fourth formant
briefy drops as is consistent with a fronted articulation (Fant 1970), nearly intersecting
the third formant. Te other formants generally remain steady, all seen in Figure 3.14c.
Tere are times when the tongue fails to make a trill in Hindi as well, and in these
instances the third formant lowers, as in another token of kuwara in Figure 3.14d. Te
third formant is in fact low enough as for a retrofex fap, but the second formant does
not rise as in the fap. Te segment sounds similar to an English alveolar approximant.
Te amount of rhoticity in the Punjabi fricative is debatable. We would expect a
lowered third formant for such a fricative when we take into account the lowered third
formant for the approximant realisation of the failed trill in Hindi. Te tongue would
keep in close proximity to the alveolar ridge, narrowing the airfow as if for a trill but
maintaining a fricative articulation, a process that takes place in Malayalam (Ladefoged,
Cochran, and Disner 1977:4-3; Ladefoged 1971). Tis is not what happens here, how-
ever. Tere is no such lowered third formant, but the tongue makes at least one trill
cycle on either side of the fricative, which helps give the impression that there is a rhotic
throughout. Te fricative on its own sounds similar to [z] or [] and would probably not
be considered rhotic in Punjabi, but the trills surrounding it help give the impression
that it is in fact rhotic.
We have seen two possible ways that a trill can fail: either the tongue tip is too close
to the palate, resulting in a fricative like in Punjabi, or it can be too far, resulting in the
Hindi approximant. Te reason for the lowered third formant is unclear in Hindi. It is
unlikely that the tongue is retrofexed for such an anterior articulation, and lip rounding
47
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 3.14: Taps and their realisations in Punjabi (top) and Hindi (bottom). (a) shows
a tap, and (b) shows the fricative from a tap that is geminated over a word boundary. (c)
shows a usual Hindi tap, and (d) shows the approximant realisation from a failed tap in
the same word.
48
and pharynx constriction are also unlikely candidates.
In Tamil, the tap was always realised as such; the participant never produced a failed
tap. In Figure 3.13 puru, 'to fy', the second formant rises but the third and fourth for-
mants decline. Despite the similarity to a retrofex, the second formant appears not to
rise enough for this to have a retrofex kind of sound, and the third formant drops only
230 Hz. Tis is signifcant, though, when compared to the static or even rising third for-
mant in the Indic languages. Te reason for the lowered third formant is elusive here.
It is unlikely that the tongue is retracted for such an anterior articulation, which is indi-
cated by the low fourth formant. Tere is no lip rounding. As in the Hindi failed tap, it
is unlikely that the tongue tip is retrofexed. Given the mysterious lowered third formant
in both languages, more research is required to understand the role of the articulators in
bringing down the third formant and the connection to trills.
Figure 3.13: A tap in Tamil.
3.1.7 Discussion and Acoustic Conclusions
Retroex-rhotic relationship
Tese results suggest a relationship between retrofexes and rhotics that go beyond the
low third formant controversy. Tere are several other generalisations that we may make
49
that provide insight into the rather close relationship between retrofexes and rhotics.
Te retrofex stop is not a very stable articulation, and it seems prone to lenition, as seen
in the lenition in Punjabi from stop to fap, and the same lenition that has possibly taken
place twice in Hindi. Te same process has taken place in the Brahmin dialect of Tamil,
which was not tested here but was in McDonough and Johnson (1997), though it is also
attested in some colloquial dialects (Banner-Inouye 1993). Tus the retrofex stop lenites
to a rhotic intervocalically in two unrelated language families, showing a link between
retrofex stops and rhotics through a phonological process.
In fact, timing seems to be intertwined with this lenition relationship. Te main
diference between retrofex stops and faps, of which only the latter is traditionally con-
sidered rhotic, seems to be that faps are much shorter. Te length distinction justifes
the nonexistence of geminate faps; the outcome would technically be a stop. Te two
fap lengths in Punjabi build on this idea, suggesting a continuum from stop to rhotic;
the shorter the articulation, the closer it is to being a continuant and therefore is more
likely to achieve rhotic status.
Te most intuitive link between the classes, though, is the impression of rhoticity in
the preceding vowel. If there can be a rhotic impression in a vowel before a retrofex
stop, then we would also wonder to what extent the retrofex stop behaves like a rhotic.
As mentioned in the background section, a rhotic can lengthen the preceding vowel in
addition to colouring it. Tere were not enough minimal pair tokens to carry this out, but
inTamil the lengthof the u was compared before a [d] and a [q] inudu andpuqum, andin
Hindi udut was compared with uqu. Te frst word in each pair showed a non-signifcant
trend towards shorter length. Tese numbers are not entirely trustworthy; the lack of
onset inall of the words except for puqummade it dimcult to take accurate measurements
as the start of the vowel was not well-defned. We might fnd more signifcant results if
the test is carried out on far more test items, especially with perfect minimal pairs.
Conclusions
A general trend in the formant transitions for retrofexes emerges. Te second formant
rises before and falls afer the closure. Te third and fourth formants drop signifcantly
before and rise afer the stop. In many tokens the third and second formants plateau at
the same frequency for the entire closure. Te degree to which the formants rise and fall
30
varies for language, but in Tamil the third formant decreases signifcantly more and at a
faster rate than in the other two languages.
Te decrease in the third formant is generally due to retrofexion, but pharynx con-
striction from the tongue retraction (Hamann 2002) required to articulate the retrofex
should also be considered. Te pharynx was not monitored here, but it might provide
some answers. For instance, the degree to which the second and third formants meet is
variable; most notably, in Tamil, the formants seem to overlap in the approximant but
rarely intersected for the stop. It is possible that the pharynx is being used as a secondary
articulator here, but further research is required to fully understand its role in rhotics
and retrofexes. Te next chapter will focus on the other articulatory mechanisms in
these classes.
Although the cues that cue a more retracted retrofex are dimcult to discern, there
are clear cues that are applicable to all retrofexes tested here, namely the raised second
formant in conjunction with the lowered third formant. In cases where there is a lowered
third formant but not necessarily fromretrofexion, for instance, in an American English
'bunched' realisation of a rhotic, there is a lowered third formant but not a raised second
formant; rather, the latter formant is low. Terefore it is both the raised second formant
and the lowered third that cues a retrofex.
3.2 Palatographic evidence
3.2.1 q
Given the similarities observed in the acoustic signals of the Punjabi and Hindi retrofex
stops, we would expect the palatography to show similar results for the two languages,
and in fact it does. Te palatography is consistent with the interpretation that this stop
is retrofex. In the Punjabi linguagram for this stop, the charcoal transferred to the edges
of the tongue and slightly onto the top and underside of the tongue, seen in Figure 3.16a,
a truly apical pronunciation requiring minimal tongue retrofexion. In the palatogram,
the charcoal transferred into a thin band just behind the alveolar ridge and as far back as
the molars, which can be seen in Figure 3.16b.
Te Hindi palatography looks exactly like that for Punjabi. Te linguagram reveals
that the Hindi retrofex is also pronounced with the very tip and edges of the tongue as
31
(a) (b)
Figure 3.16: Punjabi linguagram (lef) and palatogram (right) for q.
in Figure 3.17a. Te palatogram corroborates this evidence. A narrow band of charcoal
outlines the alveolar ridge in Figure 3.17b, as far back as the second molar. Te narrow
band suggests that the attack and release of the tongue is not dynamic, as in a fap, but
rather that it is a static articulation.
(a) (b)
Figure 3.17: Hindi linguagram (lef) and palatogram (right) for q.
While Hindi and Punjabi show the same articulation for the retrofex stop, the artic-
ulation for Tamil contrasts starkly. In Tamil, no charcoal wiped from the palate to the
tongue blade, as we would expect for a retrofex articulation. Tere was some on the
32
sides of the tongue, as in Hindi and Punjabi, but the majority of the transfer appeared on
the underside of the tongue. Unlike in Hindi and Punjabi, the charcoal extended from
the tip of the tongue to the sub-laminal region. Correspondingly, a larger section of the
palate showed charcoal transfer in the palatogram. Tis evidence supports Ladefoged
and Bhaskararao (1983)'s report that Dravidian retrofexes are pronounced further back
on the palate than those in Indic languages, but with a slight diference. Te palatogram
in the current experiment shows charcoal extending from the alveolar ridge to the post-
alveolar region. It confrms that contact is made in the post-alveolar region, but it is clear
that the alveolar region is not excluded in the articulation. It is shown here in Figures
3.18a and 3.18b; compare above with Figures 3.16 and 3.17. A slight wiping pattern can
also be seen, suggesting a dynamic articulation that contrasts with the static articulation
in Hindi and Punjabi.
(a) (b)
Figure 3.18: Tamil linguagram (lef) and palatogram (right) for q. Te articulation for
Tamil q extends from the alveo-palatal region to the alveolar ridge, in contrast to the
articulation in the Indic languages.
3.2.2
In the u_u environment, Hindi showed either a sonorant or a lateral, so these tokens will
be discussed in the and | sections. Punjabi did showa true fap here, though recall from
the previous chapter that there were two faps in Punjabi, the one that occurred between
close vowels, which was slightly longer, and the one that occurred between open vowels
inwords like puu, which was faster; only the latter type was captured inthe palatography
33
because of the testing environment. No charcoal transferred to the blade nor sub-apical
area of the tongue, similar to the retrofex stop. It did transfer, however, to the edges
of the tongue, though more on the participant's lef side, seen in Figure 3.19a, than the
right. No charcoal appeared on the apex of the tongue. Consistent results were obtained
for the palatogram. No charcoal appeared behind the front teeth, but behind the next few
on either side there was a signifcant transfer, seen in Figure 3.19b. Te charcoal extends
from the alveolar ridge area to the gumline, and there are clear lines on either side that
suggest a skidding or wiping motion of the tongue, which would be consistent with a fap.
Te vertical lines in the fap here can be compared with the solid black line completely
devoid of any wiping in the stop section, in particular the Punjabi stops in Figure 3.16
as well as the Hindi stops in Figure 3.17. Te lack of charcoal on the tongue tip does not
necessarily indicate that the tip was not involved in the articulation. Te brevity of the
articulation is even too brief for electropalatography to pick up, and McDonough and
Johnson (1997:9) note that such a quick ballistic movement such as a fap" can prevent
the transfer of charcoal to the tongue.
(a) (b)
Figure 3.19: Linguagram (lef) and palatogram (right) for Punjabi .
Tamil did not have a fap for comparison, but the retrofex stop shows some sim-
ilarities to the Punjabi fap. Te fap-like motion revealed in the stop palatogram for
34
Tamil is similar to the wiping pattern seen in the Punjabi palatogram. Tis is not sur-
prising because releasing the tongue without fapping would require either retracting or
retrofexing the tongue quite far back. In addition, the brahmin dialect of Tamil substi-
tutes a fap for the stop intervocalically (McDonough and Johnson 1997), which supports
the idea that the stop and fap probably have exactly the same articulation apart from the
length of time the stop is held. Te Tamil stop has a dynamic release, unlike the release
in Punjabi and Hindi (Figures 3.16 and 3.17), but the Tamil stop is unlike a fap in that
the motion of the tongue is not ballistic. Tis suggests that the stop is more similar in
articulatory dynamics to a fap than in the case of Punjabi.
3.2.3
Te palatography parallels the variation in the outcome of the fap that was seen in the
acoustic elicitationsection. Te linguagramwas performedfrst, anda very small amount
of charcoal transferred to the apex and right side of the participant's tongue, and a slightly
larger amount did transfer to the edges of the tongue, seen in Figure 3.20c. During the
palatogram, a very small trace appeared on the palate (Figure 3.20a). Te test was re-
peated in case of charcoal transfer error. Tis time, charcoal did appear on the right side
(but not the lef) of the participant's palate (Figure 3.20e), just behind the alveolar ridge,
as well as at the area just behind the middle of the alveolar ridge, in a band about twice
the thickness as for the retrofex stop.
Te diference in the palatograms could not be attributed to an erratic charcoal trans-
fer; the pronunciation that produced the two palatograms were not identical, and this is
refected in the speech signal. Te recording for the palatogram in Figure 3.20a had a
rhotic quality similar to that of the alveolar approximant in English. Te correspond-
ing spectrogram in Figure 3.20b shows more or less continuous formants. Tis contrasts
with the second palatogramand the linguagram(Figures 3.20c and 3.20e), which showed
charcoal transfer and sounded signifcantly diferent. Tis is refected in the correspond-
ing spectrograms (Figures 3.20d and 3.20f). Tere was a distinct lateral quality to these
recordings, which is shown by the hint of an antiresonance between the fourth and ffh
formants and in the sudden discontinuity in the fourth formant (circled).
Tis variation in pronunciation of the segment was apparent in the elicitation as well,
so it is reasonably certain that this was not an artefact of having charcoal in the mouth.
33
(a) palatogram (b) spectrogram
(c) | palatogram (d) | spectrogram, palatogram
(e) | linguagram (f) | spectrogram, linguagram
Figure 3.20: Te various outcomes of the Hindi retrofex fap when it occurs intervocal-
ically. (a) and (b) show the retrofex approximant outcome of the fap, whereas (c), (d),
(e), and (f) showthe lateral outcome. Possible antiresonances in the lateral spectrograms
are circled.
36
Te fact that more charcoal transferred during this segment suggests a fap motion that
is consistent with the acoustics of the actual fap outcome that we saw in the previous
chapter, and it lends credibility to the theory that the tongue retrofexes and then springs
forward with an unspecifed target.
Tis segment appears only in Tamil and Hindi, though it is as an allophone of and |
in Hindi as the result of a lenition process, whereas in Tamil the segment contrasts with
q and |. In Tamil, the palatography in Figures 3.21a and 3.21b confrms the continuant
approximant nature of this segment. No charcoal transferred to the tongue tip at all, but
bands did appear on the edges of the tongue up to the coronal area, revealing where it
was anchored during the articulation. Te palate evidence supports this, as no charcoal
transferred to it except next to the molars, likely corresponding with the bands on the
edges of the tongue. For the edges of the tongue to have contact that far back in the
mouth, it would have to retract in addition to the retrofexion. Te Hindi palate has been
reproduced here for comparison in Figure 3.21c.
Te articulation helps to explain why there is such a long plateau for this segment as
we saw in the last chapter; this is not a ballistic movement like the Hindi approximant
realisation of the fap. Rather, the tongue muscle does all of the work of positioning itself.
3.2.4 |
Te retrofex lateral in Tamil showed virtually the same charcoal pattern as the retrofex
voiced stop. Tere was a dramatic transfer of charcoal on the underside of the tongue,
coating it from the subapical to nearly the sublaminal regions, as seen in Figure 3.22a.
Charcoal appeared on the blade of the tongue, but it was likely from the preparation
required to take pictures. Te palate showed that a very large region of the palate is
involved in the retrofex lateral, seen in Figure 3.22b. In fact, this region is twice as broad
as the part covered in the retrofex stop. Further, there is a fairly clean transfer in the
retrofex stop, with only a small amount of wiping marks, but there are clear vertical
lines on the palate for the retrofex lateral which suggest movement along the palate. It
is likely that there is a fapping motion along the palate for the retrofex lateral. Tere are
some of these lines in the palatogramfor the retrofex stop, but again, these are not nearly
to the degree that are visible in the retrofex lateral. Any wiping or fapping motion stops
at the alveolar ridge in both cases.
37
(a) Tamil (b) Tamil
(c) Hindi
Figure 3.21: Te retrofex approximant. (a) and (b) showthe linguagramand palatogram
for the Tamil retrofex approximant, and (c) is a reproduction of the Hindi palatogram
for the same segment for comparison.
38
In the Hindi version described earlier, shown again for comparison in Figure 3.22,
only the edges of the tongue and alveolar ridge were articulators, as opposed to the entire
sublaminal area of the tongue and the hard palate in Tamil. Tis diference is refected
in the palatography than in the spectrograms produced by the palatography; see Figure
3.23 for comparison. Both contain antiresonances (circled), though they usually occur
in the third formant for Tamil and the fourth for Hindi, and there is greater lowering of
F3 in Tamil.
(a) Tamil (b) Tamil
(c) Hindi (d) Hindi
Figure 3.22: Retrofex laterals in Tamil and Hindi. (a) and (b) show Tamil; compare with
(c) and (d), reproductions of the Hindi palatography from the previous section.
In Tamil the plain lateral showed a transfer of charcoal only to the edges of the tongue
from the laminal region to the tip. No charcoal appeared on the underside of the tongue.
Te palate showed evidence that the tongue was even further forward for the lateral than
for the tap; some charcoal even transferred to the teeth. Bands of comparable thickness
appeared, which helps confrm the linguagraphic evidence that suggested that only the
39
(a) Tamil retrofex lateral (b) Hindi retrofex lateral
Figure 3.23: Tamil (lef) and Hindi (right) spectrograms for [u|u] during static palatog-
raphy. Possible antiresonances are circled.
very edge of the tongue is involved in the articulation of both the tap and the lateral. Te
formant transitions for the lateral varied, but in general the third formant showed either
no change or had a signifcant increase early in the articulation. An antiresonance was
not always visible but sometimes appeared clearly between the third and fourth formants.
More ofen than not, the fourth formant decreased, likely due to the frontness of the
articulation. Tis can be seen in Figure 3.24.
Palatography was not done in Hindi due to time constraints, but the data from Pun-
jabi can be extended to Hindi given the acoustic similarities presented in the last chapter.
Te palatography for the Punjabi lateral was identical to that in Tamil and strongly con-
frms the lack of a retrofex component in this dialect. Te charcoal transferred to the
upper surface of the tongue near the edges (Figure 3.23a) but not close enough to the
sides of the tongue to suggest a retrofex pronunciation. Further, the palatogram (Figure
3.23b) shows markings from the alveolar ridge right up to the gumline behind the front
eight teeth, which is more anterior than any of the previous three segments and is con-
sistent with the lowered fourth formant. Tere is therefore no evidence to suggest that
there is any retrofexion of the tongue for the lateral in this dialect of Punjabi.
60
(a) (b)
Figure 3.24: Linguagram (lef) and palatogram (right) for Tamil clear lateral.
(a) (b)
Figure 3.23: Linguagram (lef) and palatogram (right) for Punjabi clear lateral.
61
3.2.3 r and r
All three languages featured a tap or trill, but only Punjabi and Tamil have supporting
palatographic evidence due to time constraints.
Te Punjabi palatography had slightly inconsistent results, and two pronunciations
were used. Afer the frst linguagram for which a tap was produced, the participant ex-
pressed concern that he might have made an error, so he asked to repeat it afer a few
other tokens. Afer the frst linguagram, there were two thick bands on the blade of the
tongue, possibly from when the participant extracted his tongue for the picture-taking.
Tere was also transfer to the apex, which was signifcant (Figure 3.26a). Tere were also
vertical streaks under the tongue, though they appeared to have dripped from the top of
the tongue. All of this evidence suggests that the apex on the top surface of the tongue
is the main articulator for the segment. Te participant produced a trill for the second
linguagram (Figure 3.26b), and for this articulation much less charcoal transferred. It
appeared on the lef and right sides of the tongue, close to the edge, and no charcoal
appeared on the underside of the tongue. For this articulation it is likely that the small
amount of transfer came fromwhere the tongue was anchored, and that a very small por-
tion of the tongue was vibrating. Any transferred charcoal to the tongue tip may have
wiped of afer repeated vibration. Te palatogram (Figure 3.26c), for which the partic-
ipant again produced a trill, supports this interpretation. In the palatogram, there was
a band of charcoal the same thickness as for the retrofex stop just at the alveolar ridge,
though no charcoal transferred to the middle of the ridge. Te tongue was probably an-
chored behind the alveolar ridge, and, as in the case for the linguagram, any charcoal
that transferred to the middle of the ridge during the articulation may have been wiped
of during the trill's repeated strikes against the ridge.
InTamil the segment was realised only as a tap. Very little charcoal transferred; marks
appeared on the edges of the tongue from around the laminal line to near the tip of the
tongue. It is possible that some transferred to the tip but wiped of at the end of the
tap (Figure 3.27a). No charcoal appeared on the underside of the tongue. Te evidence
from the palate is consistent with this analysis. A thin band of charcoal transferred just
belowthe teeth, signifcantly closer to the teeth than the retrofex stop. Te most anterior
boundary of the charcoal line from the retrofex stop is posterior to the most posterior
boundary of the band that was lef behind by the tap; the part of the palate used for
62
(a) First trill (tap) (b) Second trill
(c) Trill palate
Figure 3.26: Linguagrams for (a) tap, (b) trill, and (c) palate for trill .
63
articulating the stop is shown in blue, showing the stark contrast in place of articulation.
(a) (b)
Figure 3.27: Linguagram (lef) and palatogram (right) for Tamil tap. Te blue segment
in Figure (b) indicates where a retrofex stop would be pronounced, in comparison with
the alveolar tap.
3.2.6 Palatography Summary and Conclusions
All of the languages tested had a voiced retrofex stop whose articulation matched that
predicted by Ladefoged and Bhaskararao (1983). Hindi and Punjabi both use the edges
of the tongue, including the edge of the apex, against the shelf of the alveolar ridge. Both
languages showed no wiping pattern, indicating that the movement of the tongue is sim-
ilar to any other clean stop closure. Te marks they lef on the palate were of a similar
thickness and extended to the same relative point posterior to the alveolar ridge. Over-
all, the articulation was virtually identical for these two languages. In contrast, Tamil
uses a greater portion of the underside of the tongue, extending to the sublaminal re-
gion, against a much larger part of the palate, requiring more retrofexion than the Indic
retrofex. Te articulation likely has a fap-like release, as revealed by the vertical wip-
ing pattern on the palate that stops at the alveolar ridge. Te diference in articulation
evidenced by the palatography is striking, whereas it was much more dimcult to see the
diferences in the spectrograms in the previous chapter.
64
Te Punjabi retrofex stop has a distinctly diferent articulation from the fap, which
showed a wiping pattern indicative of movement of the tongue along the palate. Tese
lines were not present for the retrofex stop, so we can be sure that the diference in these
two sounds is not only in the length of the stop, which was signifcant, but also the man-
ner of the tongue's movement. In Tamil, however, there was fap-like movement in the
stop, which may have facilitated the change of stop to fap intervocalically in the brahmin
dialect that was not tested here.
Te Hindi fap only appeared in the palatography as a retrofex approximant or lat-
eral. Te approximant was similar to that in Hindi; both feature a continuant manner
of articulation that are thought of as traditionally rhotic, and in both the tongue moves
quite close but not completely up to the palate. Te retrofex laterals were also compara-
ble in the manner of articulation. Te size of the articulators difered greatly, however;
far more of the tongue and palate were used for the Tamil lateral, and Hindi did not show
evidence of anchoring the tongue for the rhotic the way Tamil did. Te articulators in-
volved are also quite diferent. In Hindi the edges of the tongue in the coronal area brush
just behind the alveolar ridge against a region that is slightly larger than that for the stop.
In contrast to this, evidence for Tamil shows that the area from the sublaminal region
of the tongue to the apex wipes against the alveo-palatal region of the palate. Further,
in Tamil the diference in articulation between the retrofex approximant and lateral is
quite clear, but in Hindi the only articulatory diference is centred upon whether any
small segment of the tongue side or tip makes enough contact with the palate to create a
lateral air passage.
Although the manners of articulation were very similar for the two segments in both
languages, the mechanism of the articulation were completely diferent. Te alternation
in segments appears to happen by chance in Hindi. Te target is a retrofex fap, but
it is unspecifed for laterality, and contact with the palate is not required. Te tongue
retrofexes in preparation then springs forward quickly, possibly brushing the palate in
passing; the resulting segment is irrelevant. Because the segments contrast in Tamil, the
articulation is not so haphazard. Te lateral is articulated in a similar way as for Hindi,
but since a lateral is the target, the tongue makes contact with the palate every time. Te
preparation is also quite far back, as we can see that the amount of palate covered by the
lateral is about twice as much as that for the stop. Te two retrofex approximants show a
much greater diference than the laterals. While in Hindi the approximant forms as the
63
result of an almost-fap, in Tamil there is no springing motion involved. It is clear from
the spectrogram that the tongue spends much longer in the segment than in Hindi; the
Tamil approximant is a target sound here rather than a result of the tongue passing by.
In previous chapters, lip rounding was mentioned as a possibility for a secondary ar-
ticulation that aids in lowering the third formant. Video was taken for every segment for
which there was also static palatography. None of the participants showed any evidence
of lip rounding for any of the segments, so lip rounding can be ruled out as a secondary
articulation.
66
Chapter 4
Discussion and Conclusions
4.1 Discussion
Te goal of this study was mainly to compare and articulate the diferences between
the retrofexes and rhotics in Indic and Dravidian languages in the style of Ladefoged
and Bhaskararao (1983), which found that the Dravidian languages have a more poste-
rior pronunciation of retrofexes than the Indic languages. Te palatographic evidence
showed very clearly that the articulations for the two language groups are quite diferent,
matching the 1983 results. Hindi and Punjabi pronunciations of retrofexes all involve
the edges of the tongue and the apex against the alveolar ridge, whereas in Tamil the
sublaminal area strikes the hard palate. Tis was consistent for all retrofex tokens.
Te diferences were less obvious in the acoustic data. Diferent factors were con-
sidered for the apparent diference in the retrofexes: a diference in the intensity of the
burst, intensity of the second formant, a lower third formant or rate of decrease in this
formant in Tamil, but only this fnal factor proved to be signifcant. Tis is most likely
due to the fact that the Tamil retrofex requires that the tongue must retrofex further
back in the same (or less) amount of time than in the Indic languages. When there was
a faster rate of decline in the third formant, that is, when the tongue reached its target
before the closure for the stop, there was an approximant that perceptually was quite like
an English r. While this did occur in Punjabi, it was most common in Tamil. Te cause of
this could be that the tongue must retrofex further back than for Hindi and Punjabi, and
the more the tongue retrofexes, the more it must retract, because the tongue stretches
67
the muscles backwards to move the tip up and back (Hamann 2003). Te resulting phar-
ynx constriction, in conjunction with retrofexion, could be responsible for more of the
rhotic sound that is perceived (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996).
Te rhotic colouring on the preceding vowel highlights one reason to consider the
possibility of a relationship between rhoticity and retrofexes, but it must be emphasised
that in this instance I am referring to the low-third-formant type of rhotic, similar per-
ceptually to the alveolar approximant in English, not to all rhotics. Tis relationship
should not be overstated, because all that really happening is that the tongue is making
some of the same gestures for the retrofex as it does for a certain type of rhotic.
Te background section identifed certain characteristics that rhotics tend to have,
and some were tested to see if retrofex stops behaved similarly. For instance, rhotics
ofen colour the preceding vowel, as discussed above, but they may also lengthen the
preceding vowel. Tis particular quality was examined by comparing the lengths of the
preceding vowel in such (near) minimal pairs as Tamil udu and puqum. Although the
mean length of the vowel was greater before a retrofex, it was not signifcantly greater,
but there were few testable pairs in the test set. Tis avenue is worth exploring. It is
unclear, though, whether a greater vowel length would be due to retrofex stops having
a connection to the rhotic class or simply the mechanics of the tongue having to make a
complex gesture.
Lindau (1983) notes that many diferent types of sounds with diferent acoustic fea-
tures can be considered rhotics, but Hindi and Tamil also show that the perceptually
same or very similar rhotic can be made with vastly diferent articulations. Te retrofex
approximant was created in Hindi by a failure for the tongue to glide along the palate
for the fap that is found in Punjabi and between a vowel and a consonant. In Tamil the
approximant was the goal, and the tongue movement was more controlled and accurate
than the springing motion in Hindi.
Punjabi and Tamil, however, show how almost identical gestures can result in the
diference between a rhotic and a non-rhotic. In the Punjabi fap, which is traditionally
considered rhotic, the tongue retrofexes and then wipes the palate with the edges of the
tongue, creating a brief and incomplete closure. In the Tamil retrofex lateral, the tongue
retrofexes farther back, but otherwise it participates in a similar type of wiping along the
palate. Here, though, a complete occlusion is made, which allows the air to fow laterally.
It is this fnal diference that separates the lateral from the fap.
68
In summary, this data shows how retrofexes are related to homorganic rhotics in a
similar way to the Lindau (1983) family model for rhotics, where each rhotic was con-
nected to one or more others via a specifc quality. A separate branch may be made for
retrofexes representing the connections from retrofex stop to approximant.
q
Besides all being connected through place of articulationand curvature of the tongue,
each segment is connected to the previous one through lenition. Tis branch does not
represent three distinct places, but rather a continuum. Te stop is barred fromthe tradi-
tional rhotic class by having a long, complete air block, but once the block is incomplete
and briefer, it is considered rhotic, like the Punjabi fap found in most environments.
Tis boundary between retrofex stop and rhotic, of course, is hard to sustain. Te fap in
the same language found between two u vowels was even shorter and showed less con-
striction; this was similar to the longest fap in Hindi. Finally, the approximant in Hindi
involved the least contact of articulators and had boundaries that were quite dimcult to
determine. Each of these segments is a lenited version of the previous one. Te Tamil
approximant fts into this spectrum because of the lack of contact between articulators
and perceptual qualities, but its non-springing manner results in a longer segment.
Tis continuum seems to suggest that moving away from a stop articulation can rep-
resent moving towards a rhotic, which implies that one segment can be more rhotic"
than another, and that an approximant, which has no airfow block at all, is the most
rhotic of them all. Without a solid defnition of rhotic" or way of consistently mea-
suring rhoticity, however, it is questionable whether the of rhoticity can be compared.
Tis is especially true in the case of retrofexes, where it is dimcult, if at all possible, to
maintain separate retrofex and rhotic categories.
When retrofex stops lenite, they do not always become rhotics. Tere are many ex-
amples of fricated releases in retrofexes and thus stops that lenite to fricatives (Kirchner
2001), similar to how the failed trill in Punjabi became a fricative whereas it became
an alveolar approximant in Hindi. Given the disparity in the amount of rhoticity heard
before a retrofex among the diferent languages, there is no perceptual reason why a
retrofex should lenite to a rhotic rather than a fricative or vice versa. Perhaps there is a
link here between trill failure and stop lenition, a link which warrants further research
69
and which may help explain the rhotic class.
4.2 Conclusions and Future Research
It has been shown that Hindi and Punjabi have pronunciations of retrofex stops that
contrast sharply with those used in Tamil, results that mirror those in Ladefoged and
Bhaskararao (1983), and these results were extended to rhotics and laterals as well. It has
also been shown that the retrofex stops and rhotics in these languages all have a lowered
third formant in common with each other; further, it is the rate of decrease in the third
formant that acoustically separates the North from the South Indian languages.
Tere are several problems lef to be solved. Tere is a trend that the third formant
lowers more in the South than the North Indian languages, but this is a cue preceding the
retrofex. Cues for diferences in the burst side of the retrofex still require investigation.
Te main physical diference in a retrofex that is more retracted than another is the ratio
of the volumes of the vocal tract anterior to and posterior to the closure, which may have
an efect on burst frequency. In addition, because not all of the acoustic diferences have
been defned, it is dimcult to comment on the contrastability of the two pronunciations.
Tere is also still an open question of how rhotic" retrofex stops are, and further
whether it is even possible for one segment to be considered more rhotic than another.
Te pharynx might be used as a secondary articulator to lower the third formant and to
increase rhoticity, but it was not measured in this experiment. Tere also seems to be a
link between failed trills and lenited stops; the evidence in this experiment suggests that
they can result in either fricatives or rhotics, and this link should also be investigated.
Tis disparity in the articulation of retrofexes in the two language families highlights
a theoretical problem concerning universal phonetic categories. Te International Pho-
netic Alphabet broadly categorises phones by the manner of the air constriction and also
by the passive articulator, with the exception of retrofexes; this category is separated
from the others by the shape of the active articulator (the tongue). More importantly,
some phonemes described by manner and articulator make more distinctions than oth-
ers; for example, bilabial plosive" ofers little room for variance, but retrofex plosive",
as we have seen, can refer to a continuum of pronunciations.
In the case of retrofexes, the pronunciation can range from the alveolar ridge in the
case of Hindi and Punjabi stops to the pre-palatal region in the case of Tamil stops, or
70
possibly further back inthe case of Tamil laterals, using the apex or the sublaminal region,
or somewhere in between. Tus within the retrofex category there are two parameters
along whichanarticulationmay vary, whichis not the case for other categories among the
passive articulator axis. As we sawin Hindi, there is a variation in frontness; some tokens
were clearly more front than others. In this language, instead of a signifcantly lowered
third formant, some tokens showed a signifcantly lowered fourth, which is indicative
of a fronted, alveolar articulation. Tis is not an argument for over-individualisation
of categories in reaction to a possible over-generalisation by phoneticians, because this
would be impractical. Phones are separated into natural classes in order to make useful
generalisations and fnd patterns amongst the sounds encountered in diferent languages
in order to defne, for example, which types of sounds may or may not be contrasted.
An alternative to categorising by articulation would be to use diferences in acoustic
properties, such as formant values and transitions, but with the retrofexes we saw that
despite a signifcant diference inthe articulators used, a solid and consistent diference in
acoustic properties was not discernable. It is possible that the retrofexes were not tested
in environments that could elucidate a clear acoustic diference. Tis is troubling because
without the strong palatographic data, there would have been little impetus to determine
acoustic diferences betweenthe twoarticulations. Tis indicates that there is still more to
understand the relationship between acoustics and variation in articulation, but perhaps
further investigation into this relationship in retrofexes may clarify this problem. Tus
the present study, while providing new descriptive data on a subset of the sound types
shared by Indic and Dravidian languages, has also touched up fundamental questions in
phonetic theory.
71
Appendix A
72
Table A.1: Test words for (a) Hindi, (b) Punjabi, and (c) Tamil. Te Hindi test words
are transcribed as they were expected to be pronounced. Note that all Hindi words with
an expected q intervocalically were actually pronounced as in the experiment. For all
languages, words with alternate pronunciations or two testable segments appear twice.
Segment Token Gloss Segment Token Gloss
q qur 'fear' r eret 'woman'
q uqqu 'egg' r qur 'fear'
r gurem 'hot'
q biqequ 'done to' r kuwuru 'bachelor'
q puqoqu 'pagoda' r mere 'my'
q piqu 'pain'
q tuqup 'sufering' l gwulu 'cowherd'
q uqo 'fy' l lul 'red'
q: uq:u 'base' l pilu 'yellow'
q: huq:u 'wasp'
quuk 'brightness'
biqeu 'impaired' luuk 'suspension'
q'ou 'horse' : ku:u 'healthy'
luki 'girl' : mi: 'clay'
laRkiyan 'girl' (pl.) : pu:u 'belt'
luei 'stick'
pekeu 'caught' d badal 'change'
pekenu 'to catch' d adat 'habit'
pakoRa 'crispy fried
snack' t d'oti 'dhoti, certain
puhui 'small mountain' garment'
piu 'pain' t |itul 'woman's
qopeu 'covered' name'
q'ou 'wide'
tuup 'yearning'
u 'fy'
(a) Hindi Test words
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Segment Token Gloss
q quq 'leave'
q goqu 'knee'
q: q'uq:e 'leave' (past)
q: quq:u 'frog'
q: vuq:u 'big'
to 'break'
kui 'girl'
puu 'teach'
qu 'board'
r meri 'my'
r kar 'house'
r mur 'kill'
r qur 'fear'
r rukt 'blood'
voi 'wife'
huu 'remove'
bue 'plant' (pl.)
huu 'remove'
u 'be broken'
: ko:uq 'to beat'
: so:uq 'to throw'
d pedul 'on foot'
d dul 'lentil'
d qud 'when'
d t'odi 'chin'
l kul 'tomorrow'
l tul 'pond'
(b) Punjabi Test words
Segment Test word Gloss
q kuqi 'having joined'
q iqu 'being subject to'
q koqi 'you drink'
q viqe 'house'
q puqum 'fgure'
q kuqu 'also'
ui 'ocean'
jee 'seven'
jeete 'letter'
puum 'fruit'
| u|e 'to rule'
| ku|e 'bull'
r kuri 'curry, charcoal'
r puru 'to fy'
r vairem 'diamond'
r piri 'separate'
r uru 'percolate'
r urutem 'let it soak'
: pe:i 'interview'
: pc:i 'box'
: i:e 'to put'
d udu 'it'
d ide 'this'
d vide 'seed'
l pul 'milk'
l kul 'stone'
(c) Tamil Test words
74
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