[lingtalks] TODAY: Kemmonye Monaka 10/15 (Linguistics Colloquium)

[Klinton Bicknell]

TODAY at 3pm, Kemmonye Monaka (University of Botswana and UC-Berkeley) 
will give a colloquium in the UCSD Linguistics Department, in AP&M 4301.

:: Abstract ::

Voiceless Unaspirated Plosives in Sotho-Tswana: The Case of Shekgalagari

There have been many inconsistent and inconclusive reports as to whether 
the voiceless unaspirated plosives in the Sotho-Tswana group of 
languages are produced on the laryngeal air stream mechanism or on the 
pulmonic air stream mechanism. Using one of the languages of this group, 
Shekgalagari, a Western Sotho-Tswana language, the present study 
provides an analysis of the voiceless unaspirated plosives. Using 
combined electro- laryngography (both the Gx and the Lx signals) and the 
spectrograms as well as the speech pressure waveform (Sp), the paper 
examines the nature of the voiceless unaspirated plosives in 
Shekgalagari, to find out whether these plosives are produced on a 
pulmonic egressive air stream as plain plosives or on the laryngeal air 
stream mechanism as ejectives. The qualitative description is based on 
visual inspection of the properties of Gx, Lx, Sp signals and the 
spectrograms, and the quantitative analysis on the measurement of voice 
onset time (VOT). The findings of the investigation are discussed in the 
light of the phonetic realisations of the plosive consonants in the 
other languages reported in the literature as well as within the 
framework of speech production, and it is thought that they could 
possibly have a bearing on the study and description of voiceless 
unaspirated plosives in Sotho-Tswana languages - which are genetically 
associated with Shekgalagari. These plosives in these languages may 
possibly be plain rather than ejective plosives.

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For further information about the Linguistics department colloquia 
series, including the schedule of future events, please visit 
http://ling.ucsd.edu/events/colloquia.html .