The acoustic features and perception of the Estonian quantity system
Date
2011-10-14
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Abstract
Eesti keele vältesüsteem on maailma keelte hulgas tähelepanuväärne, kuna haruharva leidub kvantiteedisüsteeme, mis ei oleks pelgalt binaarne lühikese ja pika vokaali opositsioon. Kolmevältesüsteeme on teada umbes kümnekonnas keeles ja enamasti eristavad need ainult vokaalide pikkust. Eesti vältesüsteem on osutunud aga oluliselt keerukamaks. Kolmese vastanduse võivad moodustada nii vokaalid (nt sada – saada – saada), konsonandid (nt kada – kata – katta) kui vokaali-konsonandi kombinatsioonid (nt sade – saate – saate). Foneetiliselt antakse väldet edasi aga häälikukestuste suhtega rõhulise ja rõhutu silbi piires. Lisaks temporaalsele struktuurile eristab teist ja kolmandat väldet ka põhitoonikontuur.
Doktoritöö keskendub eesti vältesüsteemi kahele peamisele aspektile: esiteks, mis roll on toonikontuuril, ja teiseks, kuidas realiseeruvad erinevad vältega seotud akustilised tunnused spontaankõnes. Nii tajutestid kui akustiline analüüs tõestasid põhitooni olulist rolli eesti vältesüsteemis. Kui arvestada sõnatasandi intonatsiooniga, siis eristab põhitoon teist ja kolmandat väldet ka seotud kõnes, mitte ainult laborikõnes. Vokaalikvaliteedi poolest eristuvad lühike ja pikk, aga mitte pikk ja ülipikk välde. Vokaalikvaliteedi varieerumine ei ole nii suur, et eesti keele lühikesi ja pikki vokaale eri foneemidena peaks käsitlema, kuid siiski piisav, et seda võidaks tajus arvestada vokaali pikkuse hindamisel.
Tajutestid näitavad, et põhitoon võib osutuda teise ja kolmanda välte eristamisel määravaks. Ühelt poolt konflikt teise välte põhitooni ja kolmanda välte temporaalse struktuuri vahel takistab kolmanda välte tajumist, teiselt poolt võib kolmanda välte põhitoon esile kutsuda kolmanda välte tajumist ka siis, kui temporaalsed tunnused viitavad teisele vältele. Kuid põhitooni olulisus teise ja kolmanda välte eristamisel on murdeti varieeruv: kui Kesk- ja Lääne-Eestist pärit katseisikud olid põhitooni suhtes tundlikud, siis Ida- ja Lõuna-Eestist pärit katseisikud seda eriti ei olnud.
More than binary length oppositions are extremely rare among the world’s languages. Also in the few languages that do exhibit a three-way opposition, it is usually productive only for vowels. The nature of the Estonian quantity system has turned out to be rather complex. In Estonian there can be three-way oppositions of vowels (e.g. sada – saada – saada), consonants (e.g. kada – kata – katta), or sequences of vowels and consonants (e.g. sade – saate – saate). Phonetically the quantity is manifested by the duration ratio of the sounds within a sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables. Additionally the long and overlong quantity degrees are also marked by different pitch patterns. The thesis focuses on two main aspects: firstly, what is the role of the tonal component in Estonian quantity system, and secondly, how are the acoustic features of quantity realized in spontaneous Estonian? Both the perception tests and the acoustic study show the importance of the pitch in Estonian word prosody. If the phrase-level intonation is considered, pitch is a decisive factor between long and overlong quantities also in connected speech. The vowel quality distinguishes short from long, but not long from overlong quantity. This variation is not as great as to give a reason to treat short and long vowels as different phonemes, but it is great enough to be evaluated as a cue for the perceived duration. The perception tests show that the pitch is decisive cue for choosing between long and overlong quantity. The conflict between the pitch cue of long and temporal structure of overlong quantity fails the perception of overlong quantity on the one hand, and on the other hand the pitch of overlong quantity can evoke overlong perception also in case of temporal structure of long quantity. And yet the power of the pitch cue varies regionally in Estonian: listeners from Central and Western Estonia are more sensitive to the pitch cue than listeners from Eastern and Southern Estonia.
More than binary length oppositions are extremely rare among the world’s languages. Also in the few languages that do exhibit a three-way opposition, it is usually productive only for vowels. The nature of the Estonian quantity system has turned out to be rather complex. In Estonian there can be three-way oppositions of vowels (e.g. sada – saada – saada), consonants (e.g. kada – kata – katta), or sequences of vowels and consonants (e.g. sade – saate – saate). Phonetically the quantity is manifested by the duration ratio of the sounds within a sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables. Additionally the long and overlong quantity degrees are also marked by different pitch patterns. The thesis focuses on two main aspects: firstly, what is the role of the tonal component in Estonian quantity system, and secondly, how are the acoustic features of quantity realized in spontaneous Estonian? Both the perception tests and the acoustic study show the importance of the pitch in Estonian word prosody. If the phrase-level intonation is considered, pitch is a decisive factor between long and overlong quantities also in connected speech. The vowel quality distinguishes short from long, but not long from overlong quantity. This variation is not as great as to give a reason to treat short and long vowels as different phonemes, but it is great enough to be evaluated as a cue for the perceived duration. The perception tests show that the pitch is decisive cue for choosing between long and overlong quantity. The conflict between the pitch cue of long and temporal structure of overlong quantity fails the perception of overlong quantity on the one hand, and on the other hand the pitch of overlong quantity can evoke overlong perception also in case of temporal structure of long quantity. And yet the power of the pitch cue varies regionally in Estonian: listeners from Central and Western Estonia are more sensitive to the pitch cue than listeners from Eastern and Southern Estonia.
Description
Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.
Keywords
eesti keel, välted, akustiline foneetika, kõnetaju, Estonian language, quantities (language), acoustic phonetics, speech perception