35.2496, Diss: Historical Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology; Christopher Geissler: "Temporal articulatory stability, phonological variation, and lexical contrast preservation in diaspora Tibetan"

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-35-2496. Fri Sep 13 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.2496, Diss: Historical Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology; Christopher Geissler: "Temporal articulatory stability, phonological variation, and lexical contrast preservation in diaspora Tibetan"

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Date: 01-Aug-2023
From: Christopher Geissler [cageissler42 at gmail.com]
Subject: Dissertation Abstract


Institution: Yale University
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2021

Author: Christopher Geissler

Dissertation Title: Temporal articulatory stability, phonological
variation, and lexical contrast preservation in diaspora Tibetan

Dissertation URL:
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/52/

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Phonetics
                     Phonology

Subject Language(s): Tibetan (bod)

Dissertation Director(s):

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation examines how lexical tone can be represented with
articulatory gestures, and the ways a gestural perspective can inform
synchronic and diachronic analysis of the phonology and phonetics of a
language. Tibetan is chosen an example of a language with interacting
laryngeal and tonal phonology, a history of tonogenesis and dialect
diversification, and recent contact-induced realignment of the tonal
and consonantal systems. Despite variation in voice onset time (VOT)
and presence/absence of the lexical tone contrast, speakers retain a
consistent relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures.


Recent research has attempted to integrate tone into the framework of
Articulatory Phonology through the addition of tone gestures. Unlike
other theories of phonetics-phonology, Articulatory Phonology uniquely
incorporates relative timing as a key parameter. This allows the
system to represent contrasts instantiated not just in the presence or
absence of gestures, but also in how gestures are timed with each
other. Building on the different predictions of various timing
relations, along with the historical developments in the language,
hypotheses are generated and tested with acoustic and articulatory
experiments.


Following an overview of relevant theory, the second chapter surveys
past literature on the history of sound change and present
phonological diversity of Tibetic dialects. Whereas Old Tibetan lacked
lexical tone, contrasted voiced and voiceless obstruents, and
exhibited complex clusters, a series of overlapping sound changes have
led to some modern varieties that are tone, lack clusters, and vary in
the expression of voicing and aspiration. Furthermore, speakers in the
Tibetan diaspora use a variety that has grown out of the contact
between diverse Tibetic dialects. The state of the language and the
dynamics of diaspora have created a situation ripe for sound change,
including the recombination of elements from different dialects and,
potentially, the loss of tone contrasts.


The nature of the diaspora Tibetan is investigated through an acoustic
corpus study. Recordings made in Kathmandu, Nepal, are being
transcribed and forced-aligned into a useful audio corpus. Speakers in
the corpus come from diverse backgrounds across and outside
traditional Tibetan-speaking regions, but the analysis presented here
focuses on speakers who grew up in diaspora, with a mixed input of
Standard Tibetan (spyi skad) and other Tibetan varieties. Especially
notable among these speakers is the high variability of voice onset
time (VOT) and its interaction with tone. An analysis of this data in
terms of the relative timing of oral, laryngeal, and tone gestures
leads to the generation of hypotheses for testing using articulatory
data.


The articulatory study is conducted using electromagnetic
articulography (EMA), and six Tibetan-speaking participants. The key
finding is that the relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures is
consistent across phonological categories and across speakers who do
and do not contrast tone. This result leads to the conclusion that the
relative timing of speech gestures is conserved and acquired
independently. Speakers acquire and generalize a limited inventory of
timing patterns, and can use timing patterns even when the
conditioning environment for the development of those patterns, namely
tone, has been lost.



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