Using acoustics to resolve place controversies in deg xinag fricatives

A study was conducted using acoustics to resolve place controversies in Deg Xinag fricatives, particularly to investigate the identity of the prefixal fricative ('x'). A series of two-factor repeated measure analyses of variance and Bonferroni-Dunn post-hoc tests were conducted to examine the effects of fricative Place and vowel Rounding on each measure. Place had a significant effect for center of gravity, while Rounding of the vowel did not. Place and Rounding had significant effects on standard deviation, while they also had significant effects on kurtosis. The significant differences between prefixal and the glottal and uvular fricatives in stems for the measures were analyzed in terms of center of gravity, standard deviation, kurtosis, skew, lowest peak, and intensity. The study has also shown that since there is no contrast between prefixal, there may be a decreased functional load on 'x'-, thereby increasing its variability and reduction.