I think that various phonological analyses of /r/-sandhi in non-rhotic
English have suggested /r/ (even when not labiodental) is a consonantal
equivalent of the non-high vowels found when /r/ is not actually present as
a consonant (perhaps rather abstractly like schwa in onset position), much
as /w/ corresponds to /u/ and /j/ to /i/. Also, there are debates about
whether /r/ can be a default consonant because it is so phonetically
complex. If it is a consonantal reflex for schwa, then you can see how the
argument goes, but of course, this is all terribly narrowly-focussed on
r-sandhi in English in recent phonology.
With respect to labiodental /r/, our ultrasound pilots support the presence
of lingual gestures, i.e. that this is not a plain labiodental consonant any
more than /w/ is labial. Work in progress, and probably a different topic to
the original question, but since both flavours of /r/ can have very varied
lingual configurations with tip-raising or bunching, and with more or less
prominent pharyngeal constrictions, it is clear to me that "mid central"
must be an acoustic term, and that central shouldn't be given too much of an
articulatory interpretation without actual articulatory data.
Jim Scobbie
Speech Science Research Centre,
QMUC
Edinburgh
http://www.qmuc.ac.uk/ssrc
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Jones [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 01 March 2006 08:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: mid-central glide?
My acoustic research into 'labiodental' /r/ in adult speakers of British
English (various varieties) suggest very strongly that for 5 out of 6
subjects there is some degree of velarisation, though the constriction is
probably not as far back as for /w/. The formant structure for 'labiodental'
/r/ for these subjects is similar to that seen for the Russian barred /i/,
with F1 around 350 Hz, F2 at around 1400 Hz, and F3 around 2000 Hz. Given
the Russian parallel, this kind of /r/could be described as a high/close
central glide. Direct confirmation of the presumed velarised articulation is
still lacking.
The one remaining subject has formant patterns for /r/ which do not differ
significantly from those for /v/ (the average value of F2 is almost
identical in fact), so a truly labiodental /r/, but only in 1 case out of 6.
Sorry I can't furnish a more wide-ranging reference.
Mark
Mark J. Jones
Department of Linguistics
University of Cambridge
http://kiri.ling.cam.ac.uk/mark/
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