Acoustic Analysis of EkeGusii Vowel System

作者：

Peter Nyansera Otieno, Evans Gesura Mecha

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工作单位：

Kisii University, Kenya; Kisii University, Kenya

期数：

2019年第7卷第2期（总第11期）

页码：

92-109

出版日期：

2019-12-31

摘要：

This study describes the vowel system of EkeGusii (“Bantu E.42”)(Guthrie, 1948) in an acoustic phonetics perspective using oral data got from purposively sampled subjects: four adult males, four adult females and four children (two boys and two girls all 8 years old) equally from the two dialects of EkeGusii (EkeMaate and EkeRogoro Dialects). In order to capture the distribution characteristics of the vowel acoustic concentration, the group frequency means are normalized using Lobanov’s (1971) algorithm. Two viewpoints are the subjects of analysis in EkeGusii vowels: (a) acoustic vowel space as projected by the intersection of F2 vs. F1 or quadrilateral, and (b) spatial features of high, low, front and back. These qualities are mainly influenced by the physiology of speakers and social variability as occasioned by gender, age and dialect. The results indicate that children have no gender difference in formants, and have the highest frequencies for all formants, followed by adult females and then adult males. Furthermore, acoustic vowel space and spatial features are affected by gender, age, and dialect. A vowel pattern, replicated by all informants, is realized in the dispersion of the vowels within the chart influenced by gender and age. This study found out that EkeGusii seems to adopt a seven-vowel system of /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/ with a length contrast.

关键词：

acoustic analysis, EkeGusii, formant peak, vowel chart, vowel system

文章编号：

doi: 10.26478/ja2019.7.11.5

参考文献：