Dabartinių baltų bendrinių kalbų nosinių sonantų spektrinė analizė
The spectral analysis of the nasals of the contemporary Standard Baltic languages

Summary/Abstract: Until recently the acoustic characteristics of the consonants of the contemporary Standard Baltic languages have not been investigated using the similar methodology, equipment and the same software versions, that would allow a reliable comparison of phonetic inventories of both languages. Mostly different features of consonants of Latvian or Lithuanian have been investigated. This article is the first attempt to provide a concise comparison of the Lithuanian and Latvian nasal sonorants [.....] as well as velar allophones by using the similar methodology. The comparable data is described according to the spectral analysis (the main distinctive acoustic features) of the corresponding Lithuanian and Latvian nasals. The obtained data of both languages suggest that the nasals are distinguished from the other sounds and amid themselves on the basis of a set of acoustic parameters, for example: their (nasal‘s) formant structure; F2 transitions between appropriate prevocalic nasal sonorant and the context vowel (this is one of the most significant cues when differentiating palatalized and nonpalatalized consonants or allophones); the presence of anti-formants (nasal sonorants as well as their velar allophones were also characterized by the frequency values of the oral zero). In the present article, appropriate general findings for other languages are also discussed.

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