Acoustic Features of Burst Release: A Study of Welsh Plosives

Sylwester Jaworski; Michał Baran

doi:10.18290/rh216911-5s

Sylwester Jaworski University of Szczecin, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8851-3908
Michał Baran University of Szczecin, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7077-6424

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh216911-5s

Keywords: plosives, release burst, centre of gravity

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the centre of gravity (COG) of release bursts in Welsh plosives in order to assess their importance in distinguishing between /p, t, k/ (here termed fortis) and /b, d, g/ (here termed lenis). The COG of a release burst appears to be particularly interesting as (i) it has not yet been studied extensively in the phonetic scientific literature on Welsh plosives (see for instance Ball, Ball and Williams, Jones, Morris and Hejná), and (ii) using the COG variable to distinguish between stops is not very common, as it is normally used to differentiate between places of articulation in fricatives. To achieve the aforementioned goals, the authors, inspired by a study of American English plosives conducted by Chodroff and Wilson, measured the COG of bursts in word-initial /p, b, t, d, k, g/.

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