Acoustic cues of palatalisation in plosive + lateral onset clusters

Müller, Daniela and Martín Mota, Sidney (September 2009): Acoustic cues of palatalisation in plosive + lateral onset clusters. Interspeech, Brighton, UK, 6.-10. September 2009.

Abstract

Palatalisation of /l/ in obstruent + lateral onset clusters in the absence of a following palatal sound has received a considerable amount of attention from historical linguistics. The phonetics of its development, however, remains less wellinvestigated. This paper aims at studying the acoustic cues that could have led plosive + lateral onset clusters to develop palatalisation. It is found that onset clusters with velar plosives favour palatalisation more than labial + lateral clusters, and that a high degree of darkness diminishes the likelihood of palatalisation to take place.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
• Keywords: laterals, palatalisation, sound change
• Faculties: Languages and Literatures > Department 2 > Speech Science
• Subjects: 400 Language > 400 Language; 400 Language > 410 Linguistics
• Language: English

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