# Is the voicing-dependant duration of obstruents physiological in French?

Yohann Meynadier, Yulia Gaydina, Antoine Giovanni

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Yohann Meynadier, Yulia Gaydina, Antoine Giovanni. Is the voicing-dependant duration of obstruents physiological in French?. 2nd Phonetics and Phonology in Europe Conference, Jun 2017, Cologne, Germany., 2017. [hal-01591412](https://hal.science/hal-01591412)

HAL Id: hal-01591412

https://hal.science/hal-01591412

Submitted on 1 Oct 2017

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Is the voicing-dependant duration of obstruents physiological in French?

Yohann Meynadier, Yulia Gaydina, Antoine Giovanni

Université Aix-Marseille & CNRS
Laboratoire Parole et Langage
Aix-en-Provence, France

The physiological vs. phonological conditioning of voicing-dependant durations of French obstruents was tested by comparing different normal and laryngectomised phonations: modal vs. whispered vs. Tucker vs. oesophageal vs. pseudo-whispered voice. The acoustical duration of voiced vs. voiceless obstruents /b-p t-d k-g f-v s-z /-3/ were statistically compared. For consonants but not vowels, the resistance to laryngectomies argues for an encoding of the voicing-dependant duration at a phonological level.

## Background

### Duration-Voicing covariations

* Consonant: [-voice] > [+voice]

* Pre-C vowel: [+voice] > [-voice]

### Physiological substratum

> C : aerodynamic constraint on sustained vocal fold vibrations

> V : duration, timing and velocity of articulatory muscular activities

### Linguistic conditionning

> across many various languages

> robust to assimilation and whisper

> effect on perception when duration segmental manipulated

> large differences: above the physiological threshold?

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

## Hypothesis

### Are the durational differences correlative to the [voicing] feature resistant to laryngeal ablations?

As function of an increasing distance from the modal-voice mechanism used by healthy subjects, Δduration

- reduction > physiological

- preservation > linguistic

Phonation conditions differ by the phonatory organ and source

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">SPEAKER</th><th rowspan="2">SPEECH VOICE</th><th rowspan="2">LARYNX</th><th colspan="2">SOURCE</th></tr><tr><th>periodicity</th><th>alternance</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Healthy<br>(control)</td><td>MODal</td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>WHIsper</td><td>yes</td><td>no</td><td>no</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Pathological</td><td>TUCKer</td><td>reconstruction</td><td>pseudo</td><td>yes</td></tr><tr><td>OESophageal</td><td>ablation</td><td>pseudo</td><td>no</td></tr><tr><td>Pseudo-WHIsper</td><td>ablation</td><td>no</td><td>no</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Material and subjects

6 contrasts of voicing : /p t k f s / vs. /b d g v z /

Reading of isolated lexical words

(Except P-WHI : embedded words)

1 repetition, several occurrences by C

Exclusions: aberration, error, imprecise segmentation

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

Speakers

Corpus

☐ healthy control (15)

○ tucker (14)

△ oesophagan (6)

☐ pseudo-whisperer (1 exclusion)

tucker

oosophagan

pseudo-whisperer

Corpus

MOD

WHI

TUC

OES

P-WHI

<table><thead><tr><th>N speakers</th><th>Consonant</th><th>Position</th><th>N data</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>15</td><td>fricatives stops</td><td>initial, median, final median, final</td><td>1444</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>fricatives stops</td><td>initial, median, final median, final</td><td>1218</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>stops</td><td>median</td><td>423</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>fricatives stops</td><td>initial, median, final median, final</td><td>1135</td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>fricatives stops</td><td>initial, final final</td><td>95</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

TUC

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>

OES

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>

P-WHI

## Results

Effect of Voicing on cross-speaker mean durations (in ms) by phonation conditions in the different lexical positions

consonants

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>

stops

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>

fricatives

C[+voice] shorter than C[-voice] in all phonations

> durational contrast of voicing is preserved

> robustness to differences of voice source

pre-C vowels

<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>

longer before C[+voice] than C[-voice] in laryngeal phonations

> OES and P-WHI show less difference or more variability

> lower robustness of non laryngeal voice source

### Duration ratio

$$ = (C[-voice] - C[+voice]) / C[-voice] $$

### Consonants

> **gradual reduction** with the distance from MO phonation

> **any clear break** with phonation changes

Ratio remains fairly large

### Vowels

> **slight reduction** due to non periodic SOURCE

> **large break** due to ORGAN change

Low resistance to laryngectomies

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>

## Conclusion

### Duration of obstruents

* only limited effects of physiological changes in voice production

* the voicing-dependent contrast overcomes the various physical constraints of the different phonatory mechanisms

### Duration of vowels

* affected by physiological changes in voice source and organ

* the voicing-dependent contrast is strongly reduced by a total ablation of the larynx

### Voicing-dependent durations in French: Consonant vs. Vowels

> V would respond to physiological constraints

> C would respond to a phonological conditionning