Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: While it is an interesting phenomenon, semantically-oriented vowel reduction has only been demonstrated in studies with English-speaking participants. The primary objective of the current endeavor is to establish whether or not there is cross-linguistic evidence for semantically-oriented vowel reduction. In order to do so, we will consider some recently-collected data from Karitiâna (K henceforth). K is a Tupí language spoken in southwestern Amazonia. It is a natural subject for the current study since the author regularly conducts phonetic research on the language, and since there are a number of recent phonetic studies available in the literature on the language (Everett in press a, 2008a, inter alia). An ancillary objective for this study is to contribute to the growing acoustic-phonetic literature on the language and on Amazonian languages more generally (see discussion in Everett in press b).
Author: Caleb Everett
Institution: University of Miami
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2295224272