Acoustic phonetics

Amber Lipsett-Blackfoot Acoustic Phonetics

Vowels

In Blackfoot the vowels [A i o] are contrasted with their counterparts

[A: i: o:]of length. Figures 1 and 2 demonstrate the difference in length between [A:] and [A]. The Blackfoot word ssapi, meaning ‘look’ in Figure 1 has [A] word- medially and the formants F1 and F2 can be seen as quite close together in the low frequency range. Figure 2 shows the spectrogram of saaam, the Blackfoot word meaning ‘medicine’. The vowel in saam is significantly longer than that of the regular [A], there is a 0.072499 second difference in length. Figures 3 and 4 contrast the length of [i] and [i:]. The formants are at the same frequency patterns, however, the length of each sound is somewhat different. For example, in Figure 3 sstsimiiyi, the word for ‘wash (hands)’ has a 0.009325 second shorter[i] than the one in ssiistsi meaning ‘bathing’ (see Figure 4). The difference in length between [o] and [o:] is shown in Figures 5 and 6. The phrase for ‘my son’, nohko contains an [o] of regular length, contrasted with the spectrogram in Figure 6 for ‘eat’, ooyi, with a long vowel. The difference in length is 0.017198 seconds.

Consonants

Voiceless stops in Blackfoot are also characterized by contrastive length, as well the two nasal phonemes [m n]. An example of a regular [t] is given in the word for ‘listen’ in Blackfoot, yisstsiiyi (see Figure 7). This sound is 0.084629 seconds shorter than the long vowel in Figure 8. The spectrogram for the phrase ‘John wants that hat’, na tsani wanistoomo ann isttsomo’kaan demonstrates that difference. The voiceless velar stop [k] is shown in the example in Figure 9 in the word for ‘born’, ipokaawa’si. This is contrasted with [k:] in Figure 10 in the word ikkstsinio’to, which means ‘pinch’. There is a 0.009 second difference in length between these phonemes. The length of [p:]is shown to be 0.064474 seconds longer in Figure 12 in contrast to [p] in Figure 11. The Blackfoot word for ‘ninety’, pixks@ippo contains a long voiceless bilabial stop intervocalically and is significantly longer than the regular duration of [p] in the Blackfoot word moapssp meaning ‘my eye’. A The spectrogram for the word oponiaaki, meaning ‘starve’ in Blackfoot shows a word-medial [n]to be 0.101 seconds shorter in length compared to the[n] in the phrase ‘he was fleeing all night’ written in Blackfoot as paia@nnauapiksiu. Lastly, the bilabial nasal [m] shows a contrast in length. Figures 15 and 16 show the difference in the lengths to be 0.07133 seconds. The spectrogram for ikimmata’pssi, meaning ‘poor’ in Blackfoot has a longer [m]than in the word for ‘fish’, mamii.

Intervocalic Voicing

In between two vowels, often times a voiceless stop can become slightly voiced in Blackfoot. Examples of intervocalic voicing can be seen in Figures 8, 9, and 13. The [k] in the onset of the final syllable of the spectrogram shows a slight amount of voicing between the vowels [o] and [a] in Figure 8. In Figure 9 there is intervocalic voicing of the [k] in between the vowels [E] and [A]. The Blackfoot word oponiaaki, contains intervocalic voicing in two separate incidents. The [p]in the first syllable becomes slightly voiced between the [o] and [u]. The [k] in the last syllable undergoes the same change between [A] and [i].

Aspiration

The aspiration of voiceless stops word-initially occurs in Blackfoot. An example of the aspiration of [k] is shown in the word ikimmata’pssi, meaning ‘poor’ in Figure 16. The burst of air that characterizes aspiration is represented by thin striations at the very beginning of the spectrogram.