VOT and F0 in the production and perception of Swahili obstruents: From the island to the coast to the inland region

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dc.contributor.advisorFlynn, Darin
dc.contributor.advisorWinters, Stephen
dc.contributor.authorAlsamaani, Mohammad
dc.contributor.committeememberPounder, Amanda
dc.contributor.committeememberAthanasopoulou, Angeliki
dc.date2021-11
dc.date.accessioned2021-07-08T21:17:30Z
dc.date.available2021-07-08T21:17:30Z
dc.date.issued2021-06
dc.description.abstractThe status of aspiration in Swahili has received conflicting historical and linguistic accounts. To date, it is not fully understood if this laryngeal setting in the language’s four voiceless obstruents (/p/, /t/, /k/, and /tʃ/) is phonemic or allophonic. This dissertation analyzes the phonetic laryngeal variations in four Swahili varieties, which are spoken in East Africa as a first language (Zanzibar in Tanzania and Mombasa in Kenya) or as a second language (Iringa in Tanzania and Nairobi in Kenya). Two experiments, one in production and one in perception, examined the acoustic cues of voice-onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) to investigate how speakers employ these language-specific details. A total of 98 participants (male and female) took part in these experiments. This dissertation first explores statistically the productions of real words by all subjects. Linear mixed-effects models indicate that the phonetic cue that accounts for more variance in the data is VOT, with little significance found for F0. However, the VOT cue was not a significant dependent measure for three of the locations. Speakers from Zanzibar, both men and women, demonstrated that their dialect is most distinct from other dialects in that a) the language, as they speak it, has an aspiration contrast in minimal and non-minimal pairs; b) VOT measurements are different depending on word origin (long for English loanwords, intermediate for native Swahili words, and short for Arabic loanwords); and c) while females had significantly longer VOT durations in the other towns, the productions of both genders in Zanzibar were not statistically different. Next this dissertation analyzes statistically how the same subjects perceived and imitated modified VOTs and F0s (three levels each) of non-words. Imitation was found for VOT only among L1 speakers of the language, and a closer look revealed that the Zanzibar participants’ imitations were the strongest: that is, they mimicked all three levels with statistically significant accuracy. Mombasa participants, on the other hand, distinguished only between Level 1 and the other two. By contrast, L2 speakers of Swahili from Nairobi and Iringa showed no difference across the three levels in either VOT or F0. In short, only Zanzibar preserves produced VOT-based aspiration. The loss of aspiration along the coast and in the inland regions, which may be due to the linguistic influence of neighboring Bantu languages, is reflected by the abandonment of unstable orthographic systems that distinguished aspirated consonants in favour of the simplified orthography of later times.en_US
dc.identifier.citationAlsamaani, M. (2021). VOT and F0 in the production and perception of Swahili obstruents: from the island to the coast to the inland region (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/38994
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/113605
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectPhoneticsen_US
dc.subjectPhonologyen_US
dc.subjectLaryngeal contrasten_US
dc.subjectStopsen_US
dc.subjectPlosivesen_US
dc.subjectAffricatesen_US
dc.subjectLoanwordsen_US
dc.subjectVoicelessen_US
dc.subjectGender differencesen_US
dc.subjectVOTen_US
dc.subjectF0en_US
dc.subject.classificationLinguisticsen_US
dc.titleVOT and F0 in the production and perception of Swahili obstruents: From the island to the coast to the inland regionen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineLinguisticsen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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