ABSTRACT

THE STRESS SYSTEM OF CHUKCHANSI YOKUTS

The stress system of Chukchansi, a variety of Yokuts, has never been

studied in any detail. In this thesis, I illustrate how primary stress works followed

by its acoustic correlates. I first illustrate that primary stress is attracted first and

foremost to long-vowel syllables. When no long vowel is present, stress is, by

default, on the penultimate syllable. Stress acoustically manifests itself most

strongly with greater intensity. Intensity is shown to be a strong correlate of stress

as it consistently makes inherently less-intense vowels more intense than

neighboring inherently more-intense vowels. Pitch too is shown to be a consistent

and reliable correlate of stress; every stressed syllable contains higher a pitch than

non-stressed syllables. Vowel lengthening and vowel quality differences are

shown to not be reliable acoustic correlates of stress in Chukchansi.

Daniel Correia Mello May 2012

THE STRESS SYSTEM OF CHUKCHANSI YOKUTS

by

Daniel Correia Mello

A thesis

submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts in Linguistics

in the College of Arts and Humanities

California State University, Fresno

May 2012

APPROVED

For the Department of Linguistics:

We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the university and the student's graduate degree program for the awarding of the master's degree. Daniel Correia Mello

Thesis Author

Sean Fulop (Chair) Linguistics

Brian Agbayani Linguistics

Xinchun Wang Linguistics

For the University Graduate Committee:

Dean, Division of Graduate Studies

AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION

OF MASTER’S THESIS

X I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in

its entirety without further authorization from me, on the

condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction

absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of

authorship.

Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must

be obtained from me.

Signature of thesis author:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many, many people have helped me out in some way since this thesis was

in its embryonic stage. I would especially like to thank my committee members for

their continuous help and support. Sean Fulop, Brian Agbayani and Jean Wang put

up with numerous questions of mine and patiently gave me much feedback. I

would also like to thank Chris Golston who effectively functioned as a fourth

member of my committee. Others who have helped me out at some stage of the

process include Niken Adisasmito-Smith, Chuck Radke, Peter Guekguezian, Matt

Gordon and Isaac Martin.

Many non-linguists have helped me out as well. Most notably, however, is

my family who from the beginning has always been extremely supportive of my

work. I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife Sarah for putting up with my constant

staying up late and half-drunk cups of coffee lying around the house. Your

patience and accommodations have not gone unnoticed.

Last but not least I would like to thank my Chukchansi language

consultants, Holly and Jane Wyatt, for graciously giving me all the time and help I

needed.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... vii

LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................... viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 1

The Yokuts Language Family................................................................................. 1

Phonetics and Phonology......................................................................................... 3

Speakers ..................................................................................................................... 4

Data Collection ......................................................................................................... 5

Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 6

Structure of the Thesis ............................................................................................. 9

CHAPTER 2: LEXICAL STRESS IN CHUKCHANSI ........................................... 11

Stress at the Prosodic Level .................................................................................. 11

Chukchansi Syllable Rhymes................................................................................ 12

Why Not Quantity-Sensitivity? ............................................................................ 13

Native Speaker Intuition ........................................................................................ 13

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 16

CHAPTER 3: PITCH AND VOWEL QUALITY ..................................................... 18

Introduction ............................................................................................................. 18

Pitch ....................................................................................................................... 18

Vowel Quality ......................................................................................................... 23

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 27

CHAPTER 4: THE ABSENCE OF VOWEL LENGTHENING AS AN ACOUSTIC CORRELATE OF STRESS ....................................................... 28

Introduction ............................................................................................................. 28

Method ..................................................................................................................... 28

Results ...................................................................................................................... 31

Page

vi vi

Discussion................................................................................................................ 36

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 39

CHAPTER 5: INTENSITY AS THE MOST RELIABLE ACOUSTIC CORRELATE OF STRESS .............................................................................. 41

Introduction ............................................................................................................. 41

Method ..................................................................................................................... 43

Results ...................................................................................................................... 45

Discussion................................................................................................................ 48

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 49

Possible Avenues for Further Research ............................................................... 50

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 51

Future Research ...................................................................................................... 52

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 53

APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................... 56

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 1 Chukchansi Consonant Inventory ................................................................... 3

Table 2 Chukchansi Vowel Inventory ........................................................................... 4

Table 3 Authentic Chukchansi Test Words ................................................................ 14

Table 4 Fictional Chukchansi Test Words ................................................................. 15

Table 5 Formant Averages ........................................................................................... 25

Table 6 Xata’an ............................................................................................................. 26

Table 7 Tesech ............................................................................................................... 27

Table 8 Syllable structure............................................................................................. 38

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1. Chukchansi varieties ....................................................................................... 1

Figure 2. The distribution of Yokuts tribes in central California. ............................. 2

Figure 3. Pitch differences between stressed and unstressed syllables. .................. 20

Figure 4. Non-final pitch ............................................................................................... 20

Figure 5. Jukukut............................................................................................................ 21

Figure 6. Cheexa. ........................................................................................................... 21

Figure 7. Central Catalan vowel neutralization.......................................................... 23

Figure 8. Xata’an............................................................................................................ 25

Figure 9. Tesech. ............................................................................................................ 26

Figure 10. Hewetit. ........................................................................................................ 29

Figure 11. Cheexa. ......................................................................................................... 30

Figure 12. Short vowel averages. ................................................................................. 32

Figure 13. Long and short vowel averages. ................................................................ 33

Figure 14. Penultimate and final vowel duration measurements. ............................ 34

Figure 15. Penultimate and non-final vowels. ............................................................ 35

Figure 16. Napash. ......................................................................................................... 36

Figure 17. Sumk’unut. ................................................................................................... 38

Figure 18. Ugugu. .......................................................................................................... 38

Figure 19. Napash. ......................................................................................................... 39

Figure 20. Moída. ........................................................................................................... 42

Figure 21. Caço. ............................................................................................................. 42

Figure 22. Shuto. ............................................................................................................ 44

Figure 23. Short and Long vowel intensification....................................................... 46

Page

ix ix

Figure 24. Intra-word vowel intensification. .............................................................. 47

Figure 25. Tootono. ....................................................................................................... 48

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The Yokuts Language Family

Yokuts is a family of mutually intelligible dialects spoken in and around the

Central Valley and Sierra Nevada in inland central California. Though there are

many dialects of Yokuts, the focus of this study is on the Chukchansi variety.

Chukchansi, by all known accounts, groups with the Yokuts sub-familyValley

Yokuts, and more specifically, Northern Valley Yokuts. A few diagrams illustrating

the genetic relationship between the Yokuts varieties exist, however the most

recent and perhaps most accurate is from Blevins (2004)1, which follows in Figure

1.

Yokuts

Poso Creek: Palewyami

General Yokuts:

Buena Vista: Tulamni, Hometwoli

Nim-Yokuts:

Tule-Kaweah: Wikchamni, Yawdanchi

Northern Yokuts:

Gashowu

Kings River: Chukaymina, Michahay, Ayticha,

Choynimni

Valley Yokuts:

Far Northern Valley: Yachikumne (Chulamni),

Lower San Joaquin, Lakisamni?, Tawalimni

Northern Valley: Noptinte, Merced?,

Chawchila, Chukchansi, Kechayi, Dumna

Southern Valley: Wechihit, Nutunutu, Tachi,

Chunut, Wo’lasi, Choynok, Koyeti, Yawelmani

Figure 1. Chukchansi varieties

1 Also see Martin (2011) and Guekguezian (2011) for more detailed analyses of the genetic

relationships of Yokuts varieties.

2 2

Figure 2 shows the geographical distribution of Yokuts in central

California. The main distinction in the map (highlighted in green) is between

Southern Valley Yokuts and Northern Valley Yokuts, with which Chukchansi

belongs.

Figure 2. The distribution of Yokuts tribes in central California.

2

2 http://bss.sfsu.edu/calstudies/nativewebpages/ca%20web%201.html

3 3

Though a systematic understanding of the genetic relationships between the

varieties of Yokuts is not needed for the following study, relevant genetic

relationship information will be discussed in the following sections when

important or needed for the study.

Phonetics and Phonology

Until very recently (2011), little scholarly work has been undertaken

focusing on the Chukchansi variety of Yokuts. The first and most comprehensive

scholarly analysis of Chukchansi is Collord’s Yokuts Grammar: Chukchansi

(1968). This thesis is a systematic overview of Chukchansi ranging from phonetics

to syntax. Though dated, it is still a thorough first-hand resource for Chukchansi.

In regards to phonetics, which is of principle interest for this study, a more

accurate account of Chukchansi (which had the benefit of utilizing modern

technology) is given in Martin (2011). The following phoneme inventories (Tables

1 and 2) are taken from that aforementioned study (albeit with slight

modifications).

Table 1

Chukchansi Consonant Inventory

Phoneme Bilabial Dental Alveo-Palatal Velar Glottal

voiceless unaspirated p t dʒ k ʔ

voiceless aspirated pʰ tʰ tʃʰ kʰ

ejective p’ t’ tʃ’ k’

voiceless fricative s x h

nasal m n

glottalized nasal m’ n’

approximant w l j

glottalized approximant w’ l’ j’

4 4

Table 2

Chukchansi Vowel Inventory

Short ɪ e ɜ o u

Long iː eː ɜː oː uː

The distinction between short and long vowels is important in regards to

stress and will be discussed in further detail in the following sections. The high-

front vowel has been traditionally transcribed as /i/, including in Martin (2011),

however it is more accurately characterized as a near-front unrounded vowel /ɪ/3.

The long version of this vowel, however, is undoubtedly a close-front unrounded

vowel /iː/. The use of /ɜ/ is adopted from Martin (2011) to replace the less accurate

low-vowel symbols /a/ or /ɑ/.

Speakers

Chukchansi is a moribund variety of Yokuts (similar to other Yokuts

varieties). At the time of this study (2010-2012) only two native (i.e., first-

language) speakers could be confirmed. Both speakers, who are sisters, were the

language consultants for this study. Though only two speakers are immediately

known, they both claim “a few more [Chukchansi speakers] exist.” This dearth of

language consultants limits the current study, though this often is the nature of

fieldwork with endangered languages.

Both sisters, named “Holly” [born 1941 in Coarsegold] and “Jane” [born

1943 in Madera] currently live in Fresno, California, about 35 miles south of

Coarsegold at the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians. The sisters

acquired Chukchansi as a first language while living with their grandmother

3 /ɪ/ should be regarded as a phoneme, not a variant of /i/. In some environments, especially

preceding a glottal stop, /ɪ/ appears to allophonize to /i/.

5 5

during childhood. They then acquired English when they entered elementary

school at the age of 5 or 6 (Martin, 2011). Similar to other Native American

communities, English is the dominant and de facto language of not only Holly and

Jane, but virtually all Chukchansi Indians. The sisters primarily speak English

with each other and with all others around them.

Data Collection

The entirety of the data used for this study is primary. I elicited the majority

of the recorded data on numerous occasions at California State University, Fresno

(CSUF) with the language consultants. A sizeable number of recordings used in

this study came from Isaac Martin. The majority of the data is composed of lists o f

words recorded in isolation, three times. Most word classes (nouns, verb

[paradigms], adjectives and adverbs) were recorded. A Chukchansi translation of

Aesop’s fable North Wind and the Sun was also used as data.

The majority of the words used for this study are in citation form, with the

exception of the recording of North Wind and the Sun. An attempt was made to

record a narrative (i.e., more “naturalistic” data), spoken between the sisters, but

this has proved incredibly difficult for various reasons (the personalities of the

consultants, language fluency, comfort levels, etc.).

All the recordings, except the ones from Martin (2011), which were

recorded at the Picayune Rancheria, were recorded at California State University,

Fresno. The elicitations mentioned above, save the North Wind and the Sun

recording, produced a corpus of 141 words. Once the words were recorded, they

were then phonemically transcribed in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

format and analyzed. The recordings took place in a sound-proof booth at CSUF

between the fall of 2010 and fall 2011. As mentioned earlier, the words used for

6 6

elicitation were culled randomly from the Bilingual English-Chukchansi

dictionary (3rd

ed.). Subsequent elicitations, however, included words with certain

phonological forms that were lacking in earlier elicitations. For example, an

elicitation in the fall of 2011 focused primarily on words with the high-back vowel

/u/ in the final syllable.

Aside from North Wind and the Sun, each of the 141 words recorded were

recorded in isolation with three tokens being produced for each word. The reason

for this was the emphasis on lexical stress. The recording of sounds in carrier

sentences, it was felt, would add the extra and unwanted (possible) dimension of

higher-level stress (i.e., phonological phrase and utterance level stress).

Literature Review

Stress

Existing academic research on Chukchansi is slim; not much scholarly

research has been done on Chukchansi Yokuts, much less stress in Chukchansi.

The most systematic linguistic analysis of Chukchansi taken up thus far has been

by Collord (1968) who wrote a general grammar of the language. Within the

grammar, the only reference to stress is:

In a word uttered in isolation three intensities of stress can be detected.

Primary stress is on the penultimate syllable and, as a rule, is accompanied

by a higher pitch than preceding syllables. A secondary stress is found on

the closed syllables (non-penult) with pitch if following primary stress

elsewhere. Non-penultimate open syllables are weakly stressed with pitch

following primary stress and about the same pitch as surrounding syllables

elsewhere. It must be borne in mind that these features characterize the

7 7

isolated word of two or more syllables, and they do not necessarily hold

true in longer utterances. (Collord, 1968)

Stress has also been briefly investigated in other Yokuts languages. In

Yawelmani (Yowlumne) Stanley Newman (1944) similarly concluded that stress

is mainly on the penultimate syllable. The vast majority of scholarly research on

Yokuts has been on the Yawelmani dialect. Since Stanley Newman’s early

research on Yawelmani in the early- and mid-20th

century, virtually all research on

Yokuts has been about the language’s rich morphophonology. If stress is

mentioned in any of these studies, it is only to give background to the language.

However, no original research on stress is presented and it is “assumed” that stress

is on the penultimate syllable, following both Newman and Collord.

The last year has seen a proliferation of original data on the Chukchansi

dialect. Two theses, Guekguezian (2011) and Martin (2011) are rich in original

data, with the former about morphophonology and the latter a phonetic overview

of the Chukchansi vowel space. Both theses follow the literature in assuming

penultimate stress.

Correlates of Stress

Stress is defined as the use of extra respiratory energy during a syllable in

relevance to neighboring syllables (Ladefoged & Johnson, 2010). Acoustically

speaking, many correlates of stress occur, though it is agreed that no single

acoustic correlate exists (Ladefoged, Draper, & Whitteridge, 1958). According to

Fry (1955, 1958, 1964) the most common, however, include duration (length),

intensity (loudness), F0 (pitch) and vowel quality. Fry’s early studies of stress in

English pioneered the studies of acoustic correlates of stress and have not been

overruled since.

8 8

Individual languages make use of their own set of acoustic correlates. For

example, Dutch makes use of F0 movement, duration, intensity and vowel quality

(Sluijter & Van Heuven, 1996). Correlates can also be highly language-specific. In

Dutch, vowel quality appears to only be affected by stress in lexical items while in

German only tense vowels are lengthened when stressed. Dutch, English and other

Germanic languages tend to make far more use of stress than most languages of

the world. The high variability of many Germanic stress systems allows for these

languages to use stress as an important, lexically-significant suprasegmental

(Ladefoged & Johnson, 2010). In English for example, stress is used to distinguish

homographs of different word classes (cp. /ˈɹɛ.kɚd/ (n.) and /ɹə.ˈkɔrd/ (v.))4.

Though this does occur in Italic languages, albeit much less frequently, as in

Portuguese and Spanish, the stress systems are less variable.

Though a language may have different acoustic correlates of stress, not all

the correlates are considered “equal.” Some correlates contrast more than others.

For example, vowel duration and intensity are correlates in German and English,

but the intensity contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables is less than the

vowel duration contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables in those

languages (Fry, 1955; Jessen, Marasek, Schneider, & Classen, 1995). Therefore,

vowel duration is considered a more consistent and reliable correlate of stress than

intensity in both German and English.

It is also believed (controversially) that specific languages do not have

word stress. Most of these languages include tone languages indigenous to Africa

(Hyman, 2009, 2010), though certain North American indigenous languages like

Bella Coola also are said to not have lexical stress (Newman, 1947).

4 Note the vowel quality changes of the two words as a result of stress or stresslessness.

9 9

Intensity is another correlate of stress in many languages. When intensity is

documented as an acoustic correlate, for example as in Jessen et al. (1995), it is

seen as a general intensification over the entire stressed syllable regardless of

vowel quality (or the inherent vowel loudness). Therefore in most languages that

have stress, a stressed syllable will tend to show a slightly greater intensity than a

non-stressed syllable.

Though intensity is seen in many languages as a correlate of stress, this

correlation is not as consistent or robust in other languages that have stress. The

reason intensity generally follows behind other correlates (especially length and

F0 movement) as a reliable correlate of stress is because of the important variable

of vowel quality. As will be shown, not all vowels (which are the loudest sounds

in a language) are of the same intensity level. Therefore in some languages an

unstressed syllable with a low vowel, which is inherently louder than a high or

mid vowel, will sometimes have greater intensity than the stressed syllable (if it

contains a mid or high vowel). Further studies of stress and its correlates will

sporadically be discussed in the following chapters when appropriate.

Acoustic research on the correlates of stress in the Yokuts family of

languages, however, is nonexistent. The present thesis is an attempt to study an

area of Yokuts that is need of analysis.

Structure of the Thesis

In the following chapter, I give a general overview, of lexical stress in

Chukchansi illustrating how the system works in the language. The chapters

following the overview of stress will focus on the acoustic correlates of stress. In

chapter 3, I discuss the role of pitch as a correlate of stress as well as vowel quality

(i.e., vowel movement under stress). Chapter 4 investigates the ever-present

10 10

acoustic correlate of vowel length. In the final chapter focusing on the acoustic

correlates of stress, intensity is investigated as a possible correlate. The conclusion

in chapter 6 wraps up the thesis and illuminates some possible avenues of future

research.

CHAPTER 2: LEXICAL STRESS IN CHUKCHANSI

Stress at the Prosodic Level

In a typical Chukchansi prosodic word, which can vary from one to five

syllables,1 one primary stress is used while secondary and tertiary stress is

presumable. However, the focus of this chapter, and thesis in general, is on

primary stress. Though Chukchansi has a rich morphology, inflection has no effect

on stress (i.e., stress is not sensitive to the language’s morphology).

As mentioned in chapter 1, Chukchansi distinguishes between long and

short vowels. A large number of Chukchansi words that are at least bisyllabic

usually contain one long vowel.2 Of the words that have a long vowel, stress

automatically falls on the long vowel syllable. Examples (1-3) illustrate this:

1) gosneeno’hiy /gos.ˈne:.noʔ.hij/ “kitchen”

2) teesa'hi' /ˈte:.ʃɜʔ.hɪʔ/ “lizard”

3) boyiida' /bo.ˈji:.dɜʔ/ “chick”

Following the primary ranking of long-vowel stress, penultimate stress

follows. Many words in Chukchansi do not contain long vowels in which case

stress automatically falls on the penultimate syllable. Examples 4-5 below

illustrate this.

1 A look through the Bilingual English-Chukchansi Dictionary, v.3 (Sept. 2011) reveals that no

words known exceed five syllables. However, it may be theoretically possible for “as of yet elicited”

inflected verb forms to exceed five syllables.

2 The vast majority of recordings available show only one long vowel per word, if a long vowel is

present. However Collord (1968) claimed the word luucaalewse, presumably /luː.kɜː.lew.se/ “to wrestle,”

contains two long vowels. It has also been noted by other linguists working on Chukchansi that the

causative suffix, when affixed, sometimes results in two long vowels per word. However no recordings

exist to confirm this, though I do not discount this. The surfacing of two long vowels in a word would

result in stress on the right-most long vowel. Therefore luucaalewse would be transcribed as

/luː.ˈkɜː.lew.se/.

12 12

4) kalwansa /kʰɜl.ˈwɜn.sɜ/ “pumpkin”

5) lopish /ˈlo.pɪʃ/ “fish”

The fact that long vowels tend to already occur in penultimate position

leads to primary stress overwhelmingly occurring on the penultimate syllable. The

reason for antepenultimate stress is discussed below.

Chukchansi Syllable Rhymes

Guekguezian (2011) lists the surface forms of Chukchansi syllables as

CV(X) with “X” either being a long vowel in a CVV syllable or a coda in a CVC

syllable (though not *CVVC which violates *SUPERHEAVY). Onsetless

syllables and complex onsets and codas are not to be found. Though I agree that

codas add weight to the Chukchansi syllable (i.e. CVV and CVC are both heavy),

I argue that a long-vowel rhyme (VV) is instrumental in attracting stress. By

reexamining the Chukchansi syllable to make a long-vowel rhyme (VV) more

attractive for stress than a short vowel rhyme (V), we could explain the stress shift

from the penultimate (V) syllable to the antepenultimate (VV) syllable.

Although it appears as if diphthongs exist in Chukchansi, /aj/ /ɪw/ /aw/ /ew/

/ej/ /ij/, these digraphs should be analyzed as having a short-vowel rhyme as they

are more accurately characterized as a (short) vowel followed by a glide consonant

(making them fit a CVC syllable structure). These Chukchansi digraphs do not

appear to be restricted to any syllable and often tend to monopthongize in many

environments. The fact that they do not attract stress from the penultimate syllable,

unlike a long vowel, and that they fit a typical CVC syllable structure are reasons

to be considered oblivious to stress. Furthermore, many examples exist of words

that contain both CVV syllables and CVC syllables (-VC being a diagraph) as in

13 13

shopeeyanaw /ʃo.ˈpe:.je.nɑw/, sawaadanaw /sɜ.ˈwɜ:.dɜ.nɑw/ and yuk'shuusha'hiy

/juk’.ˈʃu:.ʃɜʔ.hij/. In these words, stress is on the long-vowel syllable.

The reanalysis of the Chukchansi syllable to consider CVV as the only

syllable that attracts stress from the penultimate syllable explains the stress shift

from the default, penultimate position to antepenultimate position. As the data in

the preceding section show, primary stress is confined to mainly the penultimate

syllable. When a long syllable rhyme presents itself outside the penultimate, the

main stress will shift to the antepenultimate, CVV syllable.

Why Not Quantity-Sensitivity?

Why should the above data not lead to the belief that Chukchansi stress is

quantity-sensitive? This would work in two conceivable ways. First, Chukchansi

can be considered quantity-sensitive if it abided by the Latin criterion (Gordon,

1999) of syllable weight in which CVV and CVC are both considered heavy, but

CVC syllables do not attract stress as has been seen. The other main criterion is

the Khalkha criterion in which CVV is considered heavy while other syllables (i.e.

CVC and CV) are considered light. This is the most conceivable option except for

the fact that codas in Chukchansi are moraic as codas shorten underlying long

vowels to avoid an undesirable *CVVC syllable. With this in mind, stress is

attracted to syllables with long vowels (CVV), not necessarily bimoraic syllables,

which are both CVV and CVC in Chukchansi.

Native Speaker Intuition

Native speaker intuition is highly valuable in studies of stress. During two

separate recording sessions, one of the two informants was asked about her

intuition of stress placement. After she was given a fundamental definition of

stress and how native speakers of a language “figure out” stress by way of a

14 14

certain technique (i.e. pencil tapping), she proceeded to confirm the above

findings. Out of a total of 21 common Chukchansi words tested (as opposed to

“test words” discussed below), she correctly identified the stress in all 21 words.

Another native speaker intuition task involved the repetition of authentic

Chukchansi words by a non-Chukchansi speaker (myself). The words were spoken

with stress on different syllables and the native speaker was asked to determine

which token sounded more “native” or “accurate.” The words in this task are listed

in Table 3.

Table 3

Authentic Chukchansi Test Words

Test Word Spoken Tokens

aabula /ˈɜː.bu.lɜ/ ✓ /ɜː.ˈbu.lɜ/ /ɜː.bu.ˈlɜ/

baabas /bɜː.ˈbɜs/

/ˈbɜː.bɜs/ ✓ nopop /ˈno.pop/ ✓

/no.ˈpop/ sawaadanaw /sɜ.wɜː.ˈdɜ.nɑw/

/sɜ.ˈwɜː.dɜ.nɑw/ ✓ /sɜ.wɜː.dɜ.ˈnɑw/

The checkmarks (✓) represent the token selected by the native speaker as

being the most “native” or “accurate” sounding. Each token selected by the native

speaker was the token with correct stress (i.e., stress on the PU syllable or APU

that contains a long vowel).

It is important to note that even though a non-Chukchansi speaker spoke

each word, the phonology of each word was accurate (i.e. Chukchansi phonemes

that conformed to Chukchansi syllable structures (CV, CVC, or CVV) see above).

15 15

Furthermore each token of each word was produced (and thus heard) twice. When

requested by the native speaker, the tokens were replayed.

However, the most concrete evidence comes from the “test words” utilized

during the second session. Twelve words were created that either conformed to

Chukchansi phonology or did not. The words that did not conform to Chukchansi

phonology, which are marked by an asterisk, included long vowels in syllables

outside the antepenultimate or penultimate syllables. The words are included in

Table 4.

Table 4

Fictional Chukchansi Test Words

Test Word Speaker Approximation

*aabadoxbu /ʔɜ.bɜ.ˈdox.bu/

*beebeshuto /bi.bes.ˈhu.to/

*shatoo /ˈʃɜː.tu/

*xooshutoshu /xoː.tu.so:.ʃu/3

kokoko /ko.ˈko.ko/

shashusha /ʃɜ.ˈʃu.ʃɜ/

sumsutu /sum.ˈsu.tu/

tatata /tɜ.ˈtɜ.tɜ/

shufaadi /su.ˈfɜː.di/

baababa /bɜ.ˈbɜ.bɜ/4

shafuda /sɜ.ˈfuː.dɜ/

shafida /ʃɜ.ˈfi.dɜ/

3 The speaker had great difficulty with this word. It was effectively produced as two separate

words, i.e. a large break was taken between the 2nd

and 3rd

syllables. This explains why the transcription

above illustrates two long vowels in a word. A more accurate way to transcribe what was spoken by the

speaker is: /ˈxoː.tu/ /ˈso:.ʃu/. In this formalism, which more accurately represents what was spoken,

Chukchansi phonology is unsurprisingly not violated.

4 Though Baababa conforms to standard Chukchansi phonology, the word was produced three

times as /bɜ.ˈbɜ.bɜ/. A likely reason for this may simply be a misreading of the test word.

16 16

A quick look at the speaker approximations shows that the phonology in the

test words, when in contrast to the speaker’s native phonology, was violated. The

long vowels in the words *aabadoxbu, *beebeshuto and *shatoo are all in

violation as they exist outside the PU or APU syllables. When approximated, the

long vowels were either shortened, as in /ʔɜ.bɜ.ˈdox.bu/ and /bi.bes.ˈhu.to/, or

metathesized as in /ˈʃɜː.tu/. These three approximations all conform to Chukchansi

phonology discussed in this chapter. These three examples, plus the example of

xooshutoshu (see footnote 3, chapter 2), clearly illustrate the aforementioned

violation of long vowels in any syllable outside of the PU or APU. Unsurprisingly,

but extremely important for the current study, stress was either on the CVV

syllables or the PU syllables for each approximation as the transcriptions show.

The non-asterisked words all conform to Chukchansi phonology. The

reason for their inclusion is simple; to test which syllable would be stressed when

the words were approximated. Again unsurprisingly the non-asterisked test words

provide solid evidence of the two-step hierarchy of stress mentioned in this

chapter. With a couple of minor (and unimportant) phonetic differences in

shufaadi and shafuda (/s/ for /ʃ/), stress is either on the CVV or the PU syllable.

Also of note is the vowel lengthening of the PU /u/ in /sɜ.ˈfuː.dɜ/. However

it is important to show that the final vowel is not lengthened. This example could

be indicative of the overwhelming tendency to stress a PU syllable (i.e. a stress

“overextension”).

Conclusion

In conclusion, stress in Chukchansi can be understood as occurring by

default on the penultimate syllable. When stress does not occur on the penultimate

syllable, it is on the antepenultimate syllable. What attracts stress off the

17 17

penultimate syllable and on to the antepenultimate is a long vowel rhyme (a CVV

syllable). Primary stress has not been found to occur on a non-long vowel syllable

when a long vowel is present. Therefore, we can simply formalize Chukchansi

stress in the following hierarchy:

1). Stress the penultimate syllable.

2). If a long vowel occurs in any syllable outside the penultimate,

stress the long vowel syllable.

The preceding claims are all supported by two native speaker intuition tests.

When the consultant heard Chukchansi words with stress on different syllables,

her identification of a stressed syllable matched my presupposed theory of stress

discussed above. When fictional words were created to test her stress placement,

again the speaker’s intuition judgments matched my presuppositions of stress.

Phonetic analysis, which follows in the next few chapters, illuminates the

correlates of stress, further providing evidence for the theory laid out in this

chapter.

CHAPTER 3: PITCH AND VOWEL QUALITY

Introduction

Acoustic correlates of stress vary across languages and are usually language

specific. Some correlates, like vowel duration, F0 movement and intensity, seem

to be fairly common in most of the world’s languages (see chapter 1). In the

following sections, pitch and vowel quality are investigated to show their

effectiveness in diagnosing stress acoustically (vowel duration and intensity will

be discussed in chapters 4 and 5 respectively).

Data Analysis

The words used for the following two sections as well as the remainder of

this thesis were recorded with a Digital Reference DRV100 microphone and

recorded onto a personal MacBook laptop1 via the speech analysis software Praat

(Boersma & Weenink, 2012). With Praat, six formants were tracked with a

sampling rate of 16000 hertz (HZ). The max formant value was set at 5500 HZ as

both informants where women. All acoustic analysis for this study was done with

Praat. The methods of analysis of the recorded data will be discussed in the

respective chapters.

Pitch

Background

Pitch (and F0, its acoustic correlate) is commonly defined in phonetics as

an “auditory [perceptual] property of a sound corresponding to a musical note that

enables a listener to place it on a scale going from low to high. Since an increase

1 Version 5.1. The recordings took place with a 2007 MacBook (model ID MacBook 2.1) but

where then analyzed on a 2011 iMac (model ID iMac 12.2).

19 19

in the flow of air out of the lungs will also cause an increase in pitch, stressed

sounds will usually have a higher pitch” (Ladefoged & Johnson, 2011). However,

the reliability and consistency of pitch as an acoustic correlate of stress varies

across languages, as do virtually all acoustic correlates of stress. In this section

pitch is investigated as a possible acoustic correlate of stress in Chukchansi.

Method

For this study, the pitch of all syllables of each of the 141 words available,

whether stressed or unstressed, was measured (in Hertz). To accurately measure

the pitch of a syllable, the syllable was first highlighted and then a pitch reading

was acquired at two points of the syllable; at 25% and 75% of the syllable. This

offers a more accurate measurement of pitch in a syllable. These measurements

were then averaged for each syllable.2

Results

Pitch appears to function well as a correlate of stress in a way similar to

intensity as will be seen. A stressed syllable will always contain a higher pitch

than neighboring unstressed syllables. In a very small number of words, the pitch

of a stressed syllable was the same as the pitch of a preceding unstressed syllable.

However this is not common. Figure 3 below shows the difference in pitch with a

stressed syllable and the pitch of unstressed syllables. It should be noted that

Figure 3 below illustrates the pitch of all unstressed syllables in a word, before

and after the stressed syllable. Figure 4 illustrates the pitch of stressed syllables

and non-final unstressed syllables:

2 It should be noted that the pitch of long vowels, which are always stressed, was taken into

account as well as the pitch of short vowels. No research has been found showing an inherent difference in

the pitch of short and long vowels.

20 20

Figure 3. Pitch differences between stressed and unstressed syllables.

Figure 4. Non-final pitch

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Pitch

Stressed

Unstressed

210

215

220

225

230

235

240

245

Non-final Pitch

Stressed

Non-final

21 21

There is a significant 43.5 Hz difference in pitch between a stressed

syllable, with an average of 241.5 Hz, and unstressed syllables with an average of

198 Hz. An example of this difference, in a spectrogram, comes from the word

jukuukut in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Jukukut

The drop in pitch with the final, unstressed syllable of jukuukut

/dʒu.ˈkuː.kut/ is comparatively subtle (a drop of 26 Hz) and an average pitch of

211 Hz while the average pitch in the initial syllable is 232 Hz. The stressed

penultimate syllable has the highest pitch reading at 239 Hz. Another example

follows in Figure 6 with the word cheexa.

Figure 6. Cheexa.

The final, unstressed syllable of cheexa /ˈtʃeː.xɜ/ has an average pitch of

222 Hz. Also noted is a dramatic drop in pitch (a drop of 54 Hz) with the final,

22 22

unstressed syllable. The stressed penultimate syllable has a greater average pitch

of 238 Hz.

Often times any syllable that follows a stressed syllable has a lower,

declining pitch. With the majority of penultimate syllables being stressed, this

leaves only the final unstressed syllables producing a lower pitch, as noted above

with jukukut and cheexa. However, with long vowels in the antepenultimate

syllable, two unstressed syllables follow (the penultimate and final). In words with

antepenultimate stress, it is common, though not absolute, for each following

unstressed syllable to contain lower pitch. The average pitch for pre-stressed

syllables is 15 Hz. This lower pitch in antepenultimate pitch (in respect to the

following ultimate pitch) is expected. The greater drop in ultimate-syllable pitch

could identify the final syllable as the weakest-stressed syllable. It could also,

however, be the result of the common prosodic feature in which pitch naturally

drops at the end of prosodic words and utterances. To see if the pitch of stressed

syllables differs from unstressed syllables when not taking into account final

syllables, final syllables were factored out. The results below in table 7 again

include pitch for stressed syllables and pre-stressed syllables (i.e. non-final

syllables):

With the final syllables taken out of the measurements, the pitch of a

stressed syllable is still greater than non-final (and non-stressed) syllables.

Unsurprisingly, however, the difference between stressed syllables and non-final

syllables, or any syllable that comes before a stressed syllable, is slightly less at

18.5 Hz.

Pitch can therefore be seen as an acoustic correlate of stress in Chukchansi

in that every stressed syllable has higher pitch than non-stressed syllables. Even

23 23

with the variable of final syllable pitch decrease, stressed syllables still attain

higher pitch.

Vowel Quality

Background

Many languages employ vowel shifting (neutralization) as a correlate of

stress. In many dialects of English, it is common for unstressed vowels to

centralize to schwa while stressed vowels tend to marginalize. In Central Catalan,

for example, /e/ /a/ and /ɛ/ reduce to an unstressed central /ə/, while /o/

marginalizes to unstressed /u/ (Ortega-Llebaria & Prieto, 2010). Figure 7

illustrates this.

Figure 7. Central Catalan vowel neutralization.

Vowel reduction is also common in Portuguese. In European Portuguese

for example, /a/ /e, ɛ/ /o, ɔ/ are all raised to /ɐ/ /ɨ/ /u/ in unstressed syllables

(Barbosa & Albano, 2004). It is also common for these unstressed syllables to be

elided in fast or casual speech.

Though Catalan and Portuguese have similar vowel reducing processes,

Castilian Spanish (both a neighboring and related language to Catalan and

24 24

Portuguese) does not share these processes. Castilian Spanish as well as many

other dialects of Spanish maintain vowel quality across many if not most stress

contexts (Ortega-Llebaria & Prieto, 2010). In the following sections I show that

these vowel reduction processes are not systematic in Chukchansi, therefore

illustrating that vowel reduction is not a correlate of stress in Chukchansi.

Vowel Quality in Chukchansi

As illustrated in the introduction, Chukchansi distinguishes ten vowels, five

short vowels /ɪ/ /e/ /ɜ/ /o/ /u/ and their long counterparts /i:/ /e:/ /ɜ:/ /o:/ /u:/. The

five long vowels, of course, only occur in stressed syllables. Therefore the vowel

quality of long vowels is not discussed in this section, as there are no unstressed

long vowels with which to compare.

For this study, each word available to analyze, a total of 141 words, were

measured by formant value3. Since each recorded word has three tokens, all three

tokens were similarly measured and then averaged. The data from both consultants

were used. The averages, from each consultant for each word, were then plotted on

vowel charts and compared (i.e., stressed vowels to unstressed vowels). Each

vowel formant was measured at 25% and 75% of the formant. This method

assured that outliers, vowels that had radically different measurements compared

to the others for whatever reasons, did not appear in the overall averages for F1

and F2 formant values for each vowel. These values were then averaged out and

appear below in Table 5.

3 Only F1 and F2 were measure as these are the two formants which best and most accurately

describe a vowel’s quality.

25 25

Table 5

Formant Averages

Stress Formant /ɪ/ /e/ /ɜ/ /o/ /u/ Stressed F1 (Hz) 495

2038 647

1905 720

1368 664 1197

467 1049

F2 (Hz)

Unstressed F1 (Hz) 512

1992

630

1927

742

1317

602

1066

461

1144 F2 (Hz)

Results

The measurements in Table 5 include the first and second formant averages

for each short vowel in question. The averages are in hertz.

As the table above shows, there is little significant distinction between

stressed and unstressed vowels. Small correlations, however, are noted with the

two back vowels, /o/ and /u/. When stressed, it appears as if /o/ centralizes while

/u/ is marginalized a bit. Though it may appear as if stress is the result of this

movement, no systematic patterns were found to explain this movement.4

Spectrograms can illustrate the resiliency of Chukchansi vowels in both

stressed and unstressed positions. The following image of xata’an illustrates this

(Figure 8).

Figure 8. Xata’an.

4 Though it may appear as if stress is the systematic pattern, it is not considered because many

unstressed syllables have similar vowel quality leaving the vowel quality change to chance.

26 26

Since stress is not contrastive in Chukchansi, no minimal pairs appear to

exist. Therefore, words that contain complete vowel harmony are ideal to study. In

xata’an /xɜ.ˈtɜʔ.ɜn/ all three low central-vowels have similar vowel quality despite

stress differences. The first and second formant values are listed in Table 6.

Table 6

Xata’an

xata’an xɜ- -ˈtɜʔ- -ɜn

F1 (Hz) 710 692 744 F2 (Hz) 1277 1337 1330

As the formant values above show, there is little movement of the stressed

penultimate low-central vowel /ɜ/. The unstressed initial and final low central-

vowels also show very little movement in comparison to the stressed medial

vowel. Another example illustrates the front-central vowel, /e/ (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Tesech.

Tesech, transcribed as /ˈte.setʃ/ clearly is stressed on the initial penultimate

syllable. The formant values for each vowel are listed in Table 7.

Even though the F2 values listed above are uncharacteristically “back” for a

front-mid vowel, this is the case for both vowels. When both vowels are

compared, little significant movement (generally >100 Hz) is seen with either

27 27

Table 7

Tesech

tesech te- -ˈsetʃ

F1 (Hz) 673 598 F2 (Hz) 1754 1682

vowel. As noted earlier in footnote 4 with the mid-back vowel /o/, this difference

in formant values is most likely a result of chance; no systematic difference has

been found to show a complete vowel shift in specific environments (i.e. when

stressed or unstressed) for this vowel or any Chukchansi vowel. Furthermore, table

6 shows only the differences in the averages of each vowel and are not consistent,

therefore not much of an effect exists.

Conclusion

The preceding sections illustrate a correlate of stress [pitch] and a non-

correlate of stress [vowel quality]. Pitch is seen as a correlate of stressed syllables

in that every stressed syllable has a greater pitch than every non-stressed syllable.

Factoring out final vowels, stressed syllables still have a higher pitch than non-

final syllables.

Vowel quality, or more specifically, formant movement as a result of stress

or stresslessness, does not appear to be a correlate of stress. As mentioned above,

many languages mark stress with vowel reduction (commonly by way of

neutralization), however, vowels in Chukchansi appear to be fairly resilient when

under the pressure of stress. The small differences illustrated above in table 6

appear to be the result of chance as opposed to any systematic vowel shift.

CHAPTER 4: THE ABSENCE OF VOWEL LENGTHENING AS AN ACOUSTIC CORRELATE OF STRESS

Introduction

The fact that greater respiratory energy used in a stressed syllable tends to

lengthen the nucleus of that syllable makes vowel length a consistent correlate of

stress cross-linguistically. However not all languages lengthen stressed vowels.

Languages like Czech (cited in Crosswhite, 2001) and Polish (Dogil & Williams,

1999; Lukaszewicz & Rozborski)1 for example, do not correlate vowel

lengthening with stressed syllables with any consistency.

Hayes (1995) stated “languages with phonemic vowel length contrasts have

been shown to avoid using duration as a correlate for stress; see Bernstein 1979.

This makes sense, since using duration to mark stress in these languages would

obscure the phonemic vowel length contrasts.”2 Hayes went on to illustrate work

on Finnish stress by Carlson (1978). In this case, which Hayes called a “dramatic

example” of the preceding statement, unstressed vowels could sometimes be

lengthened with the syllable in question is uttered in a prosodic word that is

emphasized.

In the following subsections, I investigate whether or not vowel

lengthening as an acoustic correlate of stress in Chukchansi.

Method

As was mentioned in chapter 1, a total of 141 Chukchansi words was

recorded and analyzed via Praat. Each word was spoken three times by the

informants.

1 This has recently be challenged, however. See Newlin-Lukowicz (2012).

2 This would explain the Czech case mentioned above.

29 29

All three tokens were used in the counting though certain outliers were not

counted. The measurement of vowels is often times difficult and thus

measurement methods must be consistent. While looking at vowels acoustically,

both pitch and intensity were used to accurately determine vowel boundaries (i.e.

where the vowel begins and ends).

To accurately measure them, vowels in the immediate environment of a

semi-vowel or liquid (/l/ /w/ /j/) were not measured. Vowels in all other

environments, however, were measured. Pitch was used to help determine vowel

boundaries in a way that often worked with intensity, which is discussed in more

detail below. A rise in pitch often, though not always signals the beginning of a

vowel and a dip in pitch often signals, though again not always, the end of a

vowel.

In many spectrograms of words, no rise in pitch is seen, though a fall in

pitch is fairly common. A process of [unstressed syllable] elimination followed

from this observation. Figure 10 shows an example of pitch in the word hewetit.

Figure 10. Hewetit.

30 30

In Figure 10 above, hewetit, which is transcribed as /he.ˈwe.tɪt/, has stress

on the penultimate syllable. The falling pitch on the final syllable, along with

lower intensity, indicates an unstressed syllable.

Often times, more diagnostics were needed to further define the boundaries

of a vowel. As mentioned above, the measuring of intensity also proves a valuable

method. With this method, the intensity (measured in decibels (dBs)) of a vowel

was measured and then compared to the presumed boundaries of the vowel to

more accurately judge where a vowel begins and ends.

For example, if the middle of a vowel measured 80 dBs, the presumed

boundaries of the vowel would be measured to see how much lower the intensity

would be. Generally, high intensity (between 70-85 dBs) signifies a vowel; while

anything less than 70 dBs does not signify a vowel. It should be noted that this

method varied by a case-by-case basis; some vowels had higher or lower

intensities than other vowels.

As was mentioned earlier, a rise in intensity often occurs with a rise in pitch

and a dip in intensity often occurs with a dip in pitch. Figure 11 below, which is of

the word cheexa, illustrates this.

Figure 11. Cheexa.

31 31

The image above of the word cheexa /ˈʧe:.xɜ/, with stress on the first or

penultimate syllable, shows pitch correlating with lower intensity on the second,

unstressed syllable.

These peaks of intensity, along with the often times accompanying pitch,

naturally follow the vowels of the syllables. The intensity levels of the areas

outside the vowels, signified by the black arrows, measure from left to right, 54

dBs and 55 dBs while the areas that consist of greater intensity are the vowels

themselves signified by blue arrows, and measure 74 dBs and 71 dBs. As the

numbers show, the intensity of the first syllable (74 dBs) is greater than the

intensity of the second, unstressed syllable (71 dBs). It should be noted that the

intensity measurements above are the loudest (i.e. highest) measurements

obtained.

Results

The following information describes the average vowel lengths of all five

short vowels in Chukchansi. Vowels in both stressed and unstressed positions are

given. Long vowels, which are always stressed, were obviously not measured. The

number measurements are listed in seconds. A more detailed analysis of vowels in

particular environments follows.

Short Vowel Averages

Figure 12 shows the listings of short vowel lengths in chart form followed

by exact averages. These averages are considered general because they encompass

short vowels in all environments (i.e. in stressed/unstressed syllables, penultimate

and final syllables, and in enclosed and open syllables).

32 32

Figure 12. Short vowel averages.

Though it is common for stress to lengthen vowels in many languages (Fry,

1958), the results above show that stress does not appear to affect the length of a

short vowel, regardless of quality. Martin (2011) found, however, that stress does

have a significant effect on the vowel length of both short and long vowels: “Table

5 shows at least a 20% difference in length between stressed and unstressed

versions of each vowel. The difference is sufficient that a stressed short vowel can

on occasion match the length of an unstressed long vowel.”

It should be noted, however, that the section of the thesis from which this

information was drawn (Martin 2011) states, “Our data are not comprehensive

enough to perform rigorous investigation of stress effects upon vowel length

[sic].” Likewise, the methods of evaluation in (Martin 2011) differed from the

methods described in the methods section above. In (Martin 2011), a stressed

syllable was assumed 100% of the time to be penultimate; moreover vowels,

including stressed ones, were measured in all phonemic environments including

semi-vowels, and only the second token (from a batch of three) was counted.

0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

ɜ e ɪ o u

Short Vowel Averages

Stressed

Unstressed

33 33

These differences in method may likely have led to different conclusions in

regards to the effect of stress on Chukchansi vowels.

Though these findings show that stress has no significant effect on vowel

length, as Figure 12 illustrates, it appears as if quantity (inherent vowel length)

does matter, as the next section will show.

Long Vowel Averages

Since all long vowels in Chukchansi are stressed, the averages below do not

contain unstressed long vowels. When compared to the data in Table 12 the data

below in Table 13 show that on average, long vowels are about twice as long as

short vowels.

Figure 13. Long and short vowel averages.

Table 13 shows that there is a clear dichotomy between short vowels and

long vowels with long vowels being at least .10 seconds longer than their

counterpart short vowels.

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

ɜ e ɪ o u

Long & Short Vowels

Long Vowel

Short Vowel

34 34

Vowels in Penultimate and Final Position

The following section shows the averages of vowel durations in

penultimate and final syllable positions. All averages include both vowels in

penultimate and final syllables that are “open” (i.e., CV) and vowels that are

followed by a coda (i.e., CVC).

As mentioned in chapter 3, long vowels do not occur in word-final position,

which is why they do not appear in the chart (as well as long vowels in

penultimate position for which to compare them) (Figure 14).

Figure 14. Penultimate and final vowel duration measurements.

The mean vowel durations above of penultimate and ultimate vowels show

no significant difference. This finding is consistent with the above findings that

show stress has no significant effect on vowel length (as the majority of stressed

vowels are located in the penultimate syllable). It should be noted that all vowels

in the penultimate position measured and included in Figure 14 are stressed and

short; though many long vowels occur in the penultimate, they, again, are not

included in the figure as there are no unstressed long vowels to measure. A

0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

ɜ e ɪ o u

Penultimate & Final Vowels

PenultimateFinal

35 35

possible reason for the lack of lengthening in the stressed, penultimate vowels in

Figure 14 may have to do with common lengthening of vowels in final syllables in

strong prosodic boundaries (the prosodic word in this case) (Byrd, 2000).

Vowels in Penultimate and Non-penultimate Position

It is well known that vowels in final syllables tend to be longer than other

preceding vowels even when unstressed. However obtaining vowel length data

comparing a stressed penultimate vowel to a non-final vowel is difficult (i.e., not

many of the elicited words allow for this comparison) for a few reasons. One

reason is the prevalence in many words of long vowels. A second is the prevalence

of bisyllabic words. These two facts together with the prevalence of semi-vowels

and liquids, prevent straightforward vowel measurement, leaves just six words

available for measurement. Nonetheless, Figure 15 illustrates the stressed

penultimate vowels in respect to non-final vowels, or antepenultimate vowels.

Figure 15. Penultimate and non-final vowels.

36 36

Even with the variable of the final syllable isolated, length still does not

appear to be a correlate of stress in Chukchansi. Figure 15 above appears to show

longer stressed penultimate vowels, but the mean difference between these two

sets of vowels is .004 seconds, which is far too close to be statistically significant.

An available selection of six words is too small to make a definitive

statement about vowel lengthening in Chukchansi but a larger selection of words

could, in the future, shed more concrete results.

Discussion

The Consistency of Vowel Length

Again, as was mentioned earlier, length does not appear to be a robust or

even consistent acoustic correlate of stress in Chukchansi. It is important to

emphasize the fact that length is not a consistent correlate; words were recorded

that clearly showed a length difference between the stressed syllable and the

surrounding unstressed syllables. This is not common, however. The vast majority

of stressed (short) vowels show no significant lengthening. As the data earlier

show, some stressed vowels are actually, on average, slightly shorter than

neighboring unstressed vowels. The spectrogram below (Figure 16) illustrates this.

Figure 16. Napash.

37 37

Above is one of many words elicited with a stressed vowel that is (slightly)

shorter than a neighboring unstressed vowel. The stress in napash /ˈnɜ.pɜʃ/ is

clearly on the initial, penultimate syllable with shows greater intensity and higher

pitch as well. The final syllable, which is never stressed, shows less intensity and

lower pitch, both indicative of an unstressed syllable. Nonetheless, the final

syllable, at .118 seconds, is slightly longer than the stressed initial syllable, which

is .090 seconds. This difference was seen in each token of this word. Though this

difference of .028 seconds is virtually imperceptible, it is nonetheless significant

because it illustrates that stressed vowels are not (consistently) lengthened.

The example of napash above, as mentioned earlier, could easily be an

example of some form of prosodic boundary lengthening. To illustrate what would

happen if final vowels were taken out of the statistics for vowel lengthening, the

results, albeit with a selection of only 6 words, shows no significant difference.

No Minimal Pairs

No minimal pairs, differentiated by stress, appear to exist in Chukchansi.

This is no surprise as stress is somewhat fixed and the language has a rich

morphology. Therefore, the next best set of words that can illustrate if vowel

length is a correlate of stress is a set of words with complete vowel harmony and

CVC3 syllable structures. However, no words were elicited that had complete

vowel harmony and CVC syllables. Therefore it was decided to use bi- or tri-

syllabic words that consist of the following syllable structures (Table 8).

3 CVC syllables are more desirable than CV syllables as open-syllable vowels, especially when

word-final, tend to be longer as no coda exists to constrain the vowel length.

38 38

Table 8

Syllable structure Syllable Structure Example Word

CVC.CV.CVC Sumk’unut /sum. ˈk’u.nut/ CV.CV.CV Ugugu /ʔu. ˈgu.gu/ CV.CVC Napash /ˈnɜ.pɜʃ/

When these words and others with similar morphophonology are analyzed,

the same results as above are noted. The following spectrograms (Figures 17 and

18) illustrate this:

Figure 17. Sumk’unut.

The stressed penultimate syllable, at .078 seconds is slightly shorter than

the antepenultimate vowel which is .088 seconds and slightly longer than the final

vowel which measures .065 seconds.

Figure 18. Ugugu.

39 39

Again noted is Ugugu. In this example, the stressed vowel, measuring .094

seconds, is clearly longer than the initial unstressed syllable and only slightly

longer than the final syllable, which measures .090 seconds. In this example, as in

other examples, an unstressed vowel tends to be significantly shorter than other

syllables in a word. In the words that illustrate this shortening on a spectrogram,

the syllable that contains the shortened vowel can be ruled as being out as being

stressed (Figure 19).

Figure 19. Napash.

The preceding spectrogram of Napash /ˈnɜ.pɜʃ/ again clearly has stress on

the initial, penultimate syllable. However, the stressed /ɜ/ is about .090 seconds

while the unstressed /ɜ/ is slightly longer at about .110 seconds. As with the

preceding two examples, all three tokens of this word are similar in terms of vowel

length.

Conclusion

The preceding section is intended to illuminate the nature of vowel length

in stressed Chukchansi words as well as to illustrate the dichotomy between short

and long vowels. The above data illustrate that on average long vowels are about

twice as long as short vowels and that there appears to be no significant effect on

40 40

length between stressed and non-stressed vowels. This result appears to hold true

even if stressed penultimate vowels are measured against non-final vowels.

CHAPTER 5: INTENSITY AS THE MOST RELIABLE ACOUSTIC CORRELATE OF STRESS

Introduction

In this chapter, intensity is shown to be a reliable acoustic correlate of stress

in Chukchansi. Every stressed syllable in Chukchansi has greater intensity than

neighboring unstressed syllables. More surprisingly, however, is that all words

that were studied that contained inherently less intense (or less loud) vowels, when

stressed, become at least1 as intense as neighboring inherently louder vowels, a

phenomenon herein labeled as intensification.

The specific phenomenon of intensification appears to not be documented

much in the literature. In general, when intensity is documented as an acoustic

correlate, for example as in Jessen et al (1995), it is seen as a general

intensification over the entire stressed syllable regardless of vowel quality (or the

inherent vowel loudness). Therefore in most languages that have stress, a stressed

syllable will tend to show a slightly greater intensity than a non-stressed syllable.

For example, in European Portuguese, stressed syllables do not always show

greater intensity. Often times, intensity is more indicative of inherent vowel

loudness. The following spectrogram (Figure 20) shows this (in the following

spectrograms in this chapter, the yellow line signifies intensity).

Figure 20 is a spectrogram of the word moída /mu.ˈwi.da/ “ground” with

primary stress on the penultimate syllable that contains a high-front vowel /i/ (as

the accent mark implies). Nonetheless, the syllable that shows the greatest

intensity is the ultimate syllable with the inherently louder low-vowel /a/.

1 It should be noted that only three examples (6%) illustrate intensification of a higher vowel that

is of equal intensity of at least one neighboring low central vowel. The remaining examples (94%) show

intensification that is greater than (a) neighboring lower vowel(s).

42

Likewise, in other Portuguese words like caço /ˈka.su/ “I hunt,” intensity is

greatest over the initial syllable which has both primary stress and an inherently

louder low-vowel /a/ (Figure 21).

Figure 20. Moída.

Figure 21. Caço.

The two spectrograms above are typical of many languages with stress

whenever stress is used as an acoustic correlate of stress.

The reason intensity generally follows behind other correlates (especially

length and F0 movement) as a reliable correlate of stress is because of the

important variable of vowel quality. As was discussed above, and will be shown

below in more detail, not all vowels (which are the loudest sounds in a language)

are of the same intensity level. Therefore in some languages an unstressed syllable

with a low vowel, which is inherently louder than a high or mid vowel, will

43

sometimes have greater intensity than the stressed syllable (if it contains a mid or

high vowel).

Method

Intensity was measured via Praat software. A total of 141 words were

analyzed. However, it soon became apparent that the strongest evidence of

intensity as a correlate came from the fact that vowels with relatively less intensity

(RLI vowels) were more intense than neighboring relatively more intense vowels

(RMI vowels). From this point on, transcribed words were searched to see if high-

vowels where in stressed positions in relation to low(er)-vowels for the sake of

comparison.2 Because of the robustness of vowel harmony in the language, a total

of 18 words exemplified intensification (i.e. 18 words of the total 141 words have

RLI vowels in the immediate environment of RMI vowels). These 18 words were

measured and comparisons were then made within words and across words to

show more thoroughly the role of stress in intensifying vowels.

When looking at intensity in a word, it can be measured across the syllable

(i.e., over the course of milliseconds) or at its highest intensity peak (i.e.,

measured in decibels (dBs)). For this study, intensity was measured at its peak.

Therefore, the syllables with “higher peaks” in the spectrogram were deemed

louder. Figure 22 illustrates this:

Notice that the first syllable is stressed and has greater intensity, which is

measured as having more dBs (72.3), though the second, unstressed syllable has

greater intensity across the peak. Also notice that the above example of the word

2 This could result in two possible scenarios. One scenario is a stressed /ɪ/ or /u/ in the immediate

environment of an unstressed /e/, /o/ or /ɜ/. The second is a stressed /e/ or /o/ in th e environment of /ɜ/.

44

Shuto /ˈʃu.to/ is an example of a high, stressed vowel having greater intensity than

a non-stressed mid-vowel.

Figure 22. Shuto.

After the words were isolated and analyzed, intensity measurements were

then taken of the contrasting syllables in question. This was done for each word

that exhibited intensification. For more accurate intensity measurements, similar to

the method used for acquiring pitch, two measurements were taken: at 25% and

75% of the syllable. These two measurements were then averaged, producing a

more accurate measurement of intensity that better represents the overall intensity

across the syllable.3 The averaged difference (in dBs) between the syllables was

then noted and listed. After this was done for each word, the totals (for both the

stressed vowel and the neighboring unstressed vowels) were added up and

averaged.

Each of the 18 words available to be analyzed was spoken three times by

the informants. Therefore the above process was done for each token of the word.

This too allowed for a more accurate analysis.

3 This method is opposed to measuring just one point of a syllable. Measuring one point leaves the

door open to “outliers,” or measurements that do not truly represent the intensity across the syllable.

45

Results

Intensity can be seen as a reliable correlate of stress in Chukchansi. Before

the phenomenon of intensification is discussed, it is important to note that every

stressed syllable, irrespective of vowel quality, contains the highest intensity for

the word in which that syllable occurs. But most concretely, the data below will

show that stress makes both high and mid vowels louder than neighboring lower

vowels. This occurs with both short and long vowels. Again, because of the

robustness of vowel harmony in Chukchansi, out of the 141 words recorded, 18

words, that do not have vowel harmony, exhibit intensification. However, it is

important to note that every Chukchansi word that has a high or mid vowel in a

stressed position shows at least as must intensity as the neighboring low(er) vowel.

Stress therefore has a 100% “success” rate in intensification.4

Short & Long Vowels

The high- and mid- short vowels of Chukchansi, /ɪ/ /u/ /e/ /o/ and their long

counterparts /iː/ /uː/ /eː/ /oː/, all seem to be affected by stress. As noted above,

stressed high- and mid- short and long vowels become at least as loud as

neighboring mid- or low- short and long vowels. Figure 23 below shows the

increase of stressed short and long vowels:

Figure 23 clearly shows stressed short and long vowels as being louder than

unstressed vowels. Differences in intensity measurements range from 2.5 dBs with

/ɜ/ to 6 dBs with /e/. Also seen is the inherent loudness of the low vowels and

inherent quietness of the high vowels (with /ɜ/ unsurprisingly being the loudest

sound and /ɪ/ and /u/ being the quietest).

4 As was mentioned earlier, three tokens of each word were recorded and analyzed. Therefore it is

important to note that each token of the 18 words showed intensification (as opposed to just 1 or 2 tokens).

This is significant because it rules out the possible variable of (an) “outlying token(s).”

46

Figure 23. Short and Long vowel intensification.

Since long vowels differ from short vowels for purposes of stress, no

research has been found claiming or showing that long vowels are inherently more

or less intense than short vowels. This is the reason for their inclusion in Figure

23. Therefore we can rewrite the Chukchansi vowel chart to take into account this

difference:

Quiet /ɪ/ /i:/ /u/ /u:/

Less Loud5 /o/ /o:/ /e/ /e:/

Loud /ɜ/ /ɜ:/

5 The terms “loud,” “less loud,” and “quiet” are used here comparatively. It should be noted that a

“quiet” /u/ or /ɪ/ is still a fairly loud sound as vowels in general are louder than consonants. The three terms

are also used for lack of better terms.

64

66

68

70

72

74

76

78

80

ɜ e o ɪ u

Stressed

Unstressed

General Stressed and Unstressed Vowels (dBs)

47

Noting the similarity in intensity between short and long vowels is

important. As many Chukchansi words have a long vowel, the elimination of

vowel length as a possible variable is key to the study.

Intra-word Comparisons

Vowel intensity differs from word to word so it is important to make intra-

word comparisons. For example, a stressed /ɪ/ may have an intensity measurement

of 72 dBs, which is relatively low according to Figure 23 above, but may still be

more intense than neighboring unstressed RMI vowels. Figure 24 below shows

general intra-word comparisons between short and long RLI vowels and short and

long RMI vowels.

Figure 24. Intra-word vowel intensification.

Figure 24 shows, in general, short and long RLI vowels in all words used

for this study as being more intense than neighboring RMI vowels. A 3 dBs for

stressed RLI vowels over unstressed RMI vowels is a significant increase.

71

71.5

72

72.5

73

73.5

74

74.5

75

75.5

76

RLI Vowel Intensification (dBs)

Stressed RLI Vowels

Unstressed RMI Vowels

48

Discussion

The data above illustrate quite clearly the effect stress has on vowels

generally and specifically on relatively quiet vowels in Chukchansi. The effect of

stress on RLI vowels is reliable enough (at a success rate of 100% of the words

with stressed RLI vowels in the environment of unstressed RMI vowels) to be

considered an acoustic correlate of stress. Therefore, stressed vowels have greater

intensity, even to the point of “intensifying” beyond the inherent intensity of

normally more intense vowels.

An interesting, but unsurprising finding is that words with the same vowel

quality (i.e., Chukchansi words with vowel harmony) still show a difference in

intensity. The stressed syllable is unsurprisingly more intense. Therefore of the

141 words available for analysis, every stressed syllable shows at least equal

intensity to a non-stressed vowel (with the vast majority, however, showing

greater intensity). Figure 25shows this.

Figure 25. Tootono.

The example above of Tootono /ˈto:.to.no/ shows the initial, stressed vowel

having greater intensity than the neighboring vowels of the same quality6.

6 Though the stressed vowel with greater intensity is a long vowel, as opposed to the other short

vowels, I again have found no evidence that long vowels are inherently more (or less) intense than short

vowels of the same quality.

49

Another interesting finding is that in every word without one of three or

more syllables that exhibited intensification, the final syllable always showed a

significantly lower intensity level. The following example of xatwishta’ illustrates

this7:

xatwishta’ /xɜt.ˈwıʃ.tɜʔ/ xɜ- (78, 78) (77, 78) (75, 77) (77.1) -.2

-ˈwɪʃ- (76, 76) (77,78) (78, 79) (77.3) +2.35

-tɜ (75, 72) (71, 70) (77, 72) (72.8) -4.5

The final syllable is, on average, 4.5 dBs less than the stressed syllable in

the word xatwishta’. The initial syllable is only .2 dBs less than the following

stressed syllable. The only example that does not follow this pattern is the word

hihiina, which is illustrated below:

hihiina /hɪ.ˈhi:.nɜ/ hi- (74, 73) (66, 68) (68, 69) (69.6) -4.9

-ˈhi:- (74, 75) (75, 77) (72, 74) (74.5) +4.7

-nɜ (69, 70) (69, 70) (71, 71) (70) -4.5

The difference between the two unstressed syllables (in relation to the stressed

penultimate syllable) is .4 dBs, which is of very little significance.

A cursory look at this finding could explain this phenomenon as being a

result of a weakly stressed syllable. However, more investigation into this matter

will need to take place in order to confidently diagnosis this issue.

Conclusion

The above evidence convincingly shows that intensity is a reliable correlate

of stress in Chukchansi. It is important to note that the correlation is with stress as

7 The numbers in the brackets represent the dB levels for each vowel at 25% and 75% of the

vowel, hence two measurements for each vowel. The last bracketed number for each syllable represents the

average of the three tokens. The red listings at the end of the initial and final syllables illustrate the

difference in intensity compared to the stressed penultimate syllable listing (in blue).

50

opposed to vowel quality. The main evidence for this stems from the

intensification of relatively less intense (RLI) vowels when stressed. With all

possible variables isolated, stress appears to be the only culprit for this

intensification.

Possible Avenues for Further Research

The preceding study is by no means a definitive understanding of acoustic

intensity in Chukchansi, much less intensity as a correlate of stress. Further

research with a larger word sampling would be beneficial in future intensification

studies of Chukchansi. Out of a complete list of 141 words, only 18 words were

available to analyze (i.e., only 18 words contained an RLI vowel in a stressed

position and were in the immediate environment of RMI vowels). Future research

could utilize a larger pool of words for an even more accurate picture. “Tes t

words” in Chukchansi (fabricated words that conform to Chukchansi phonology

and morphology) can also be utilized to further test and support the phenomena of

intensification. Furthermore, this study was only concerned with primary stress.

The finding discussed earlier in regards to final syllable intensification, or lack of,

could be evidence for secondary or tertiary stress.

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION

The present thesis has attempted to shed light on an area of deficiency in

Chukchansi: lexical stress and its acoustic correlates. In chapter 2, I showed that

stress in Chukchansi could be described in a simple two-step hierarchy:

1) stress a long vowel if present.

2) if no long vowel is present, by default stress the penultimate syllable.

The attraction to long vowels, though not necessarily heavy syllables (i.e.

CVV and CVC), explains why stress shifts from the penultimate syllable to the

antepenultimate syllable.

Following the description of stress, in chapters 3 through 5 I illustrated the

acoustic correlates of stress in Chukchansi. In chapter 3, pitch is shown to be a

reliable correlate of stress while vowel quality is not a correlate. Pitch functions as

a correlate of stressed syllables with stressed syllables having, on average, an 18.5

Hz increase over unstressed, non-final syllables. Vowel quality, however, does not

appear to be affected by stress, or lack thereof. Ther