The Acoustic Correlates of Tongue Root Vowel Harmony in Even (Tungusic)

Abstract

In this production study on the endangered Tungusic language Even, we investigate the acoustic correlates of the tongue root contrast that participates in Even vowel harmony. We investigate F1, F2, F3, A1-A2 and durational differences between “advanced” and “retracted” vowels. We found that F1 was consistently increased for “retracted” vowels, and F2 and A1A2 were consistently decreased. For the Sebian dialect, F3 was lowered. Moreover, we found that some vowels exhibited durational differences that might be considered an enhancing feature of the tongue root contrast. The high vowels /i/ and /u/ of Sebian dialect had smaller F1, F2 and A1-A2 differences than the low vowels, suggesting that the tongue root contrast is less expressed for high vowels.