Open AccessVowel dispersion in Truku
Author(s) -
Wen-yu Chiang,
Fang-Mei Chiang
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.34.2004.202
Subject(s) - vowel , acoustic space , contrast (vision) , dispersion (optics) , space (punctuation) , acoustics , acoustic dispersion , computer science , speech recognition , perception , point (geometry) , mathematics , psychology , physics , acoustic wave , artificial intelligence , geometry , optics , operating system , neuroscience
This study investigates the dispersion of vowel space in Truku, an endangered Austronesian language in Taiwan. Adaptive Dispersion (Liljencrants and Lindblom, 1972; Lindblom, 1986, 1990) proposes that the distinctive sounds of a language tend to be positioned in phonetic space in a way that maximizes perceptual contrast. For example, languages with large vowel inventories tend to expand the overall acoustic vowel space. Adaptive Dispersion predicts that the distance between the point vowels will increase with the size of a language's vowel inventory. Thus, the available acoustic vowel space is utilized in a way that maintains maximal auditory contrast.