This paper explores the perception of two diachronically related and mutually intelligible phonological oppositions, the onset voicing contrast of Northern Raglai and the register contrast of Southern Raglai. It is the continuation of a previous acoustic study that revealed that Northern Raglai onset stops maintain a voicing distinction accompanied by weak formant and voice quality modulations on following vowels, while Southern Raglai has transphonologized this voicing contrast into a register contrast marked by vowel and voice quality distinctions. Our findings indicate that the two dialects partially differ in their use of identification cues, Northern Raglai listeners using both voicing and F1 as major cues while Southern Raglai listeners largely focus on F1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMnong Râlâm is a South Bahnaric language (Austroasiatic) that is traditionally described as preserving a voicing contrast in onset obstruents, contrary to other languages of the Mnong/Phnong continuum. Acoustic results yield evidence that this voicing distinction is less robust than previously suggested and is redundant with a register contrast realized on following vowels through modulations of F1 at vowel onset (and more limited variations of F2 and voice quality). A perception experiment also shows that F1 weighs heavier than closure voicing in identification.
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