Abstract
Arabana has a three-way rhotic phoneme contrast: /r/ (alveolar trill) vs /ɾ/ (alveolar tap) vs /ɻ/ (retroflex continuant). The rhotic contrasts are prosodically restricted in Arabana. The triple contrast only appears following the tonic vowel, which is the first vowel. In other onset positions /ɻ/ is contrastive, but there is no /r/ vs /ɾ/ contrast. There is no contrast in coda positions. We undertook the first-ever production study of Arabana rhotics. Recorded audio materials were independently coded in PRAAT by two trained transcribers. We found the following allophony: /r/ [r, ɾ, ɹ]; /ɾ/ [ɾ, ɹ], /ɻ/ [ɻ]. The /r/ vs /ɾ/ contrast is thus negatively determined, /r/ permits [r] realizations, but /ɾ/ does not. The commonest realization of both /r/ and /ɾ/ is [ɹ]. The phoneme in neutralized coda position is /r/. The high degree of overlap in realizations between /r/ and /ɾ/ accords with reported perception difficulties.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences |
| Editors | S. Calhoun, P. Escudero, M. Tabain, & P. Warren |
| Place of Publication | Melbourne |
| Publisher | Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc. |
| Pages | 1278-1282 |
| Edition | Peer Reviewed |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-0-646-80069-1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
| Event | 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, ICPhS 2019 - Melbourne, Australia, Australia Duration: 1 Jan 2019 → … https://www.icphs2019.org/ |
Conference
| Conference | 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, ICPhS 2019 |
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| Country/Territory | Australia |
| Period | 1/01/19 → … |
| Other | Aug 5-9 2019 |
| Internet address |