This paper examines a neutralization asymmetry in Chaha ejectives, concluding that reduction is conditioned not by prosodic position alone, but also by place and manner of articulation. An acoustic examination of Chaha, a Gurage dialect of the Ethiopian Semitic language family, shows that its velar ejectives display a much stronger tendency to lose burst cues before another ejective than do alveolar ejectives in the same environment. This pattern of laryngeal neutralization provides important support for phonetically informed phonological theories. Purely prosody-based theories cannot account for this behavior but a viable alternative is found in a cue-based approach.
Cite as: Coulston, R. (2001) Ejective reduction in chaha is conditioned by more than prosodic position. Proc. 7th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (Eurospeech 2001), 365-368, doi: 10.21437/Eurospeech.2001-112
@inproceedings{coulston01_eurospeech,
author={Rachel Coulston},
title={{Ejective reduction in chaha is conditioned by more than prosodic position}},
year=2001,
booktitle={Proc. 7th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (Eurospeech 2001)},
pages={365--368},
doi={10.21437/Eurospeech.2001-112}
}