On the Back of the Tongue: Dorsal Sounds in Australian Languages

Vol. 61, No. 1, 2004

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Original Paper

On the Back of the Tongue: Dorsal Sounds in Australian Languages
Andrew Butcher^a, Marija Tabain^a

^aHuman Communication Research Group, Flinders Institute for Health and Medical Research, Flinders University, Adelaide, and Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, Institute for Advanced Study, La Trobe University, Melbourne
^bSpeech, Hearing and Language Research Centre and Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Address of Corresponding Author

Phonetica 2004;61:22-52 (DOI: 10.1159/000078661)

Abstract

In this paper we provide an overview of dorsovelar articulations and acoustics in several Australian Aboriginal languages, and we compare these results with data from English. We examine languages that have a single dorsal, as well as languages that have two dorsal places of articulation. Using direct palatography and F₂ transition measures, we show that Australian languages appear to have a distinct velar target for each of the three major vowel contexts, with a high degree of coarticulation between each velar allophone and its following vowel target, whilst English has only two velar targets - back and non-back, with a lower degree of coarticulation between velar allophones and their corresponding vowel targets. Thus, whilst the range of allophonic variation for velars extends further back in the Australian Aboriginal languages than in English, there appears to be no difference in the articulation of velars in the front vowel context. Drawing on results from the biomechanics, language acquisition, speech perception and acoustics literatures, we suggest that this result may be due to conflict between systemic constraints imposed by the place-rich consonant systems of Aboriginal languages and universal acoustic constraints on the identity of front-velar sounds, which may contribute to the instability of such articulations and the relative infrequency of velar + high vowel combinations in the world's languages.

Author Contacts

Prof. Andrew Butcher
School of Medicine
Flinders University
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide, SA 5001 (Australia)
Tel. +61 (8) 82045938, Fax +61 (8) 82045935
E-Mail andy.butcher@flinders.edu.au

Article Information

Received: October 18, 2003
Accepted: April 16, 2004
Number of Print Pages : 31
Number of Figures : 10, Number of Tables : 6, Number of References : 69

Medline Abstract (ID 15258456)

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