An Acoustic Study on Glottalized Vowels in the Yi (Lolo) Language : A Preliminary Report

Abstract

From the spectrographic analysis on glottalized vowels in Xi-de Yi, some acoustic properties can be clarified as following. From the examination of formant structure, it appears that glottalized vowels have a higher frequency of the first formant. As mentioned esrlier, Nishida (1979) pointed out that the tongue height of glottalized vowels in Lolo is rather lower than that of non-glottalized ones. This articulatory property is, therefore substantiated in terms of primary acoustic correlates, since tongue height is inversely related to the first formant. Fundamental frequency analysis shows that they are slightly lower in pitch. This implies that they are articulated with a glottal constriction, not with glottal tension. From the amplitude analysis, it was shown that glottalized vowels have a slightly stronger amplitude and the onset of them rather sharp. It was also indicated that glottalized vowels have a slightly longer duration by means of the durational analysis. From the section analysis it can be concluded that glottalized vowels have considerably stronger relative intensity of higher harmonic components. These demonstrate that glottalized vowels have a stronger prominence than non-glottalized vowels. Further elaboration is necessary to clarify the nature of prominence of the vowels.