[kʰ], IPA 109 + 404
Lower-case K + Right Superscript H
Note the double burst, and the conecentration of energy in the release in the F2-F3 range. Good long aspiration. I can convince myself of velar pinch, but it's very front, i.e. the high F2 is contiguous with a flattish F3 rather than classically 'pinch' shaped.
[æ], IPA 325
Ash
Very high F1, between 800 and 900 Hz. F2 is about 1550-1600, or basically neutral, definitely not low (which would indicate backness). So the lowest non-back vowel available is [æ]. Depending on dialectal considerations, one might think this is a lowered and or retracted [ɛ], but that's a topic for another time.
[f], IPA 128
Lower-case F
This is a little odd, in that it's alittle strong for N /f/. It is largely unfiltered, except for the F2 business. Transitions into it aren't remarkably helpful, although post hoc we might noticed the F3 and F4 coming down a little due to labialization. The following transitions aren't particularly helpful either, in that the F2 and F3 are so high they can't help but rise out of this fricative. Okay, so it's a fricative, could be [h], although I'd expected more in the F1 region. Mark it as a fricative and continue.
[i], IPA 301
Lower-case I
I've marked this as nasal, although it's hard to tell with these wide gaps between F1 and F2. F1, if anywhere is way down below 500, say 400 or so. Recall that nasalization tends to 'mid-ify' F1 values. The F2 is way high, in fact about as high as my F2s ever go (2400 Hz? Egad!). So very very front, and vaguely high. Once we decide it's nasalized we can settle on transcribing the actually quality.
[n], IPA 116
Lower-case N
Clearly sonorant, i.e. fully voiced and fully resonant (i.e. has formants). Weaker than the available vowels. Flat and vaguely evenly spaced formants, so unlikely to be an approximant. I'd be happier dclaring this a nasal if the zero were clearer, but oh well. Place cuse are hard to say unless you know my voice fairly well, and know that that pole just below 1500 is pretty typical of of my [n]. The pole for [m] is usually lower.
[ʔ], IPA 113
Glottal Stop
This is mistranscribed above. It's a glottal stop. The irregular pulses without really 'stopping' suggest glottal stop (creaky voice) more than anything else.
[ɨ], IPA 317
Barred I
Shortish weakish vowel, probably unstressed and therefore reduced and therefore not worth spending too much time on. Following Keating et al 1994, I transcribe reduced vowels as barred-i if the F2 is closer to the F3 than the F1.
[z], IPA 133
Lower-case Z
This is definitely voiced (note the striations in the voicing bar at the bottom), and noisy (very little formant-y organization of the noise). It appears to get a little stronger at the top of the spectrogram, indicating 'acute' or high-frequency center of energy, typical of /s/. But voiced.
[ə], IPA 322
Schwa
Short little vowel. Nuff said.
[n], IPA 116
Lower-case N
This looks just about the same as the preceding nasal, but shorter.
[ə], IPA 322
Schwa
Short little vowel. Ditto.
[s], IPA 132
Lower-case S
Again, this is really hard to tell waht's going on here. All I can say is that it's voiceless, and that it seems to get a little stronger as you go up in frequency. I'm starting to wonder if it's me or my microphone. Geesh I need some new equipment.
[ɛ], IPA 303
Epsilon
So you can see this vowel is a lot stronger than the surrounding vowels, suggesting a degree of stress, and therefore we should pay attention to it. Its F1 is either around 500 Hz or much higher, depending on which band you believe. Let's just split the difference and say this is a mid-to-low vowel. The F2 isn't amazingly low, suggesting this is sort of front. So the choices are limited. And even if this is a low vowel, it ain't as low as the previous [æ].
[s], IPA 132
Lower-case S
Another one of these, whatever they were.
[ɨ], IPA 317
Barred I
You get it. Short, runty, little vowel. Moving on.
[ɾ], IPA 124
Fish-Hook R
Short gap, actually kind of longish for a flap, and don't ask me what's going on in the low frequencies. But there's clearly some kind of contact here, it's not really long enough to be a decent stop. Flap is the only obvious choice.
[i], IPA 301
Lower-case I
Well, again it's tough to see what's going on in the F1, but the F2 is definitely in /i/ territory. The transition into it is a little low, suggesting /e/, but 'necessitay' isn't really an option.
| Robert Hagiwara, Ph.D. Dept. of Linguistics University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba CANADA R3T 5V5 |
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