NEUTRALISATION OF THE PHONETIC CONTRAST
BETWEEN POLISH /ɛ/ AND /ɨ/ Cover Image

NEUTRALISATION OF THE PHONETIC CONTRAST BETWEEN POLISH /ɛ/ AND /ɨ/
NEUTRALISATION OF THE PHONETIC CONTRAST BETWEEN POLISH /ɛ/ AND /ɨ/

Author(s): Sylwester Jaworski
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature
Published by: Uniwersytet Opolski
Keywords: vowel reduction; phonetic neutralization; Polish phonetics; acoustic analysis

Summary/Abstract: The paper reports the results of an experiment aimed at determining whether phonetic vowel reduction may lead to neutralization of the phonetic contrast between // and // in similar environments. A secondary objective of the study is to establish whether this phenomenon may result in homophony. The study is limited to // and // as their distribution within the vowel space suggest that, in connected speech, they may become indistinguishable. The preliminary results indicate that, in read speech, the phonetic contrast between // and // is indeed neutralized as three of the five informants produced vowels, whose acoustic parameters did not differ significantly (p > 0.5).

  • Issue Year: 4/2017
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 77-98
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: English
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