Please join us in Rosenwald 301 on Thursday, May 23 at 2:00 PM for the final LVC meeting of the Spring Quarter! Our very own Xiaobei Chen will be presenting on her upcoming fieldwork in southwest China this summer.

Variability of phonation cue weighting across prosodic positions in Hani

The weighting of co-varying cues for a phonological contrast can differ across various prosodic positions. For instance, primary cues of consonants tend to be strengthened at domain-initial positions, such as the beginning of intonational phrases, to enhance phonemic contrasts (Keating et al. 2004, Cho et al. 2011, 2017), while domain-final syllables are typically lengthened and hyper-articulated (Cambier-Langeveld et al. 1997, Cho and Keating 2001, Cho et al. 2011). However, previous research has rarely investigated the intonational impacts on phonation contrasts.

In Hani, a Tibeto-Burman language primarily spoken in Southwest China, the contrast between tense vs. lax registers is realized with multiple co-varying cues, such as phonation cues (H1*, H1*-H2*), vowel formants, and f0 (Kuang and Keating 2014, Keating et al. 2023). Diachronically, the phonation distinction is merging (Kuang and Cui 2018). Based on the case study of the ongoing sound change in Hani, this research aims to examine (i) the variability of cue weighting across different positions within a prosodic domain, and (ii) the interaction between sound change and prosody, specifically whether the merger of phonation contrast is more advanced domain-medially.

The data for this project will be collected through fieldwork this summer. The goal of my presentation at LVC is to outline the background, methods, and hypotheses, and to discuss challenges in the design of production and perception experiments. Any suggestions and feedback would be greatly appreciated!