language and speech 1976 borzone de manrique 121 8

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DOI: 10.1177/002383097601900203

1976 19: 121Language and SpeechAna M. Borzone de Manrique

Acoustic Study of /i,u/ in the Spanish Diphthong

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ACOUSTIC STUDY OF /i,u/ IN THE SPANISH DIPHTHONG*

ANA M. BORZONE DE MANRIQUELaboratorio de Investigaciones Sensoriales, BuenosAires

The positional variants of /i, u/ in the Spanish diphthong were studied byspectographic techniques. Four male speakers recorded a list of 24 words that containedthe dipthongs /ie/, /ei/, /ue/ and the sounds /i/, /u/ in the same consonantenvironment. The measurement of the central frequency of the first three formantsshows that their displacement is different for each positional variant. Furthermore the

intensity relation between the positional variants and the vowel-sound /e/ and the

rate of change of F2 transitionseem

to be significant cues for the identification of thethree variants observed. These acoustic results suggest some articulatory differences inthe way these variants are produced.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the present work is to acoustically characterize the variants of /i, u/in the Spanish diphthong. Traditionally it is considered that there are three positionalvariants for /i, u/ in the diphthong. According to Navarro Thomas (1967) they areconsonants in an absolute initial position (hiena-huesol), semi-consonants when theycome after a consonant (Viena-puedo), and semi-vowels in a final position. Thethree variants are referred to as produced with stricture in the place of articulationand therefore with a higher tongue position than in the case of the pure vowel sounds

/i/, /u/. To determine if this description agrees with the normal realization of thecommon speaker of BuenosAires, the following study of the three positional variantswas carried out with spectrographic techniques.

_

PROCEDURE

A list of 24 words was made in which the diphthongs /ie/, /ei/, /ue/, /eu/ andthe sounds /i/, /u/ appear in the same consonant environment. These diphthongswere chosen in view of the fact that they are the most highly used in River Plate

* The author wishes to express her appreciation to Dr. M. Guirao and Prof. I. Dahlwho read the manuscript and made helpful suggestions, and to Miss Calvo for herassistance in the recording of the sounds.

1 It must be remembered that in Spanish, h in hie and hue does not represent a sound.

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Spanish (Guirao and Manrique, 1972). The complete list consisted of these 24 words

repeated three times, twice in isolation and in different order, and once within sentences.The word series were as follows: hiena - Viena - peina - pino, huelo - duelo -

deudo-

dudo. The material was recorded on anAMPEXAG 440-2 tape recorder

and registered through a Kay Electric 7029A sound analyser.The spectrograms were made in the 80-8000 c.p.s. range with two filter settings

of a band width of 300 and 45 c.p.s., respectively.Four male speakers participated in the experiments. Instructions were given to

the speakers to maintain a normal emission rate. The following measurements weremade on the spectrograms: (a) the central frequency and the intensity of Fl, F2 andF3 of the positional variants of /i/, /u/ in diphthongs, (b) intensity of Fl, F2 andF3 of /e/, (c) the rate of change of formant transition from one vowel sound to the

other, (d) duration of the transition.

z

RESULTS

Positional variants of li l

The results obtained from the total of 36 emissions are graphed in Fig. 1. Theseresults correspond to the measurements of the central frequency of Fl, F2 and F3of the three positional variants of /i/ within the diphthong, and the sound /i/ whenit does not form part of a diphthong.

In Fig. 1 it may be noted that the Fl of the absolute initial positional variant hieis displaced toward the low frequencies. In addition this variant shows an evident

drop of intensity with respect to the vowel sound /e/, the mean difference being-11.2 db. ~for Fl, -15.5 db. for F2 and -8.8 db. for F3. No intensity changeof the other positional variants with respect to the sound /e/ may be noted.

Fant (1970, p. 58) has demonstrated that the lowering of frequency of Fl and the

intensity reduction, especially in the higher formants, are the acoustic manifestation ofan articulatory fact, a greater stricture or articulatory narrowing. The palatalizationof the vowel sound /i/ causes, according to what has been observed in other languages(Fant 1970, p. 110), an increase in frequency of F2 and of F3. These modificationsare apparent in the absolute initial position variant, whose F2 and F3 are displacedtoward higher frequencies, especially F3 which notably approaches F4. The noise

components of this variant, which are usually perceptible, are not apparent in the

spectograms. But sometimes explosive elements can be found which have been alsoseen in the Czech consonant /j/ (Borovickova and Malac, 1967, p. 56). On theother hand, noise elements are not necessary for the identification of this sound

(Fant, 1970, pp. 58 and 170). The spectral features that so far identify the absoluteinitial position variant are a shift down of Fl, an increase in frequency of F2 and

mainly of F3, a drop of intensity and initial explosive elements. It is apparent thatthe characteristics that result in the modified formant pattern of this variant, are due



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Fig. 1. Histogram showing the distribution of three formants of the positional variantsof /i/ by the height of the bar along the mel scale.

to a different manner of production. Indeed the stricture between the speech-organs

is greater than that of the other positional variants and the vowel sound /i/.With respect to the other two positional variants, as shown in Fig. 1, the formant

for the variant in C + ie coincide with those for /i/ in C + i. The Fl of thevariant C + ei has higher frequency positions, while F2 and F3 shift downwards.Therefore the variant in C + ie and vowel /i/ have the same articulatory opening.The variant in C + ei is opener and its formants are displaced toward the acousticarea of the vowel sound /e/. This displacement is shown in Fig. 2 in which the areasof isolated vowels sounds (Guirao and Manrique, 1973) are compared with those ofthe positional variants.

There is besides another cue that differentiates these three variants. It is the rate



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Fig. 2. Comparison between isolated vowels and the positional variants of /i/, /u/in diphthongs.

- - - - - - - - isolated vowels

hie-hue

&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar; C -I- ie - C -I- ue&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar; C -~ ei - C -I- eu

of change of the formant transition. Lehiste (1961, p. 273) explains the rate of changeas &dquo; the frequency range in cycles per second through which the formant moves in agiven time interval &dquo;. Gay (1968) puts it in articulatory terms as the speed of move-ment from one position to another. The rate of change was measured in the F2transition in c.p.s./msec. Apparently the movement of the tongue is faster in thearticulation of the absolute initial position variant because the reading of the rateof change of this variant is greater than that of the other variants: 5.9 c.p.s./msec. versus4.7 and 4. These average values are shown in Table 1 in which the standard

deviation and the number of measurements are included.

The variability that results from the values of the standard deviation clearly showshow difficult it is to make this kind of measurement on spectrograms. Nevertheless the



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TABLE 1

Rate of change of F2 transition of the positional variants of /i/ in diphthongs.

results obtained seem to be significant cues for the identification of the positionalvariants. It appears that a higher rate of change differentiates a more close variantwhich is described, by most authors, as a semi-vowel. Some experiments using

synthetic speech have been done in order to evaluate the duration of the transition.In spite of the fact that this factor is considered to be closely related to the rateof change, duration is emphasized as the distinctive feature. However, this parameterseems not to be always conclusive, as shown in the present experiments and in thework of other researchers (Lehiste and Peterson, 1961) all of which have been carriedout with spectographic techniques, not with speech synthetizers. This statement isbased on the impossibility of arriving at any conclusion from the data obtained throughthe duration measurements because they do not follow any relevant pattern. Takingonly the duration of the transition into account, that of the absolute initial positionvariant is found to be shorter than the variant in C + ie in 18 cases, longer in 12,and the same in 4.

With regard to the variant in C + ei, it is shorter in 16 instances, longer in 17,and the same in one. There is no decisive value for any of the three possibilities to

distinguish the positional variants.The probability of the duration of the transition in the absolute initial position

variant being longer or shorter than that of the other two variants seems to be almostthe same. In fact, for a given diphthong, the moving of the speech organs from thevowel sound beginning to the vowel sound ending the diphthong may have the sameduration as for any other diphthong. But both displacements are differentiated by the

starting and finishing points, that is, the frequency change. Therefore, the rate of

change appears to be a decisive factor as a compensating value between the changein frequencies and the duration of that change.

Positional variants of /u/

The features of the variants of /u/ according to their position in the diphthongare very similar to those of /i/.The absolute initial position variant hue as shown in Fig. 3, has a remarkable shift

down of F2. Fl also moves toward the lower frequencies. Fant (1970, p. 171) provedthat the shift of F2 is due to the velarization of the sound, and the lowering of Fl and



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Fig. 3. Histogram showing the distribution of two formants of the positional variantsof /u/ in diphthongs by the height of the bar along the mel scale.

TABLE 2

Rate of change of F2 transition of the positional variants of /u/ in diphthongs.

drop of intensity with regard to the vowel sound /e/, which can be seen in this

variant, is a result of articulatory narrowing. The mean difference of intensitybetween this variant and /e/ is -18.7 db. for Fl and -10 db. for F2. There is nodifference of intensity between the vowel sound /e/ and the other positional variants.Fl and F2 of the variant in C + ue and the variant in C + eu have a higher

frequency mainlyin the variant in C + eu. This

displacementindicates a

greateropening in these variants than in the pure vowel sound. Comparing the areas of thethree positional variants with those of the isolated vowel sounds in Fig. 2, it canbe observed that the variants in C + ue and in C + eu, specially the last one, tendto move toward the area of the more open vowel sound /o/. These positional variantsalso differ from each other in the rate of change of formant transition. This value is

greater for the absolute initial position variant, 17.9 c.p.s./msec. versus 14.2 and 11.7for the other two, a3 is shown in Table 2.

The meaning of these data is the same as that for the positional variants of /i/.In this case the rate of change also adds new evidence to that already obtained on



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the different degree of articulatory opening of these variants. Considering the durationof the transition, the results are not the same as those obtained for the variants of

/i/. The duration of the transition of the absolute initial position variant is shorter

than that of the variant in C + ue in 21 instances, longer in 6, and the same in5, and than that of the variant in C + eu, shorter in 18, longer in 10, and the samein 3. The conclusion to be drawn from these values would seem to be the predominanceof shorter duration of the transition in the absolute initial position variant comparedwith the variant in C + ue.

~

z

CONCLUSIONS

The three positional variants of either /i/ or /u/ are clearly distinguished fromeach other. The absolute initial position variant has particular features which set itoff from the other two which resemble one another more closely. In fact, thisvariant is closer than the pure vowel while the other two variants are generally more

open.

Acoustically, the absolute initial position variant differs from the others becauseof the changes in the formant pattern-its displacement in frequency-and also the

drop of intensity with regard to the following vowel-sound. Furthermore the elementsof noise are clearly perceptible in the absolute initial position variant but not in theother variants. All these features of the former variant agree with the description ofthe semi-vowels as

theyoccur in

many languages.So this variant

maybe described

as a semi-vowel and aptly represented by /j/ and /w/ respectively.Jones (1957) interpretation and representation of the other positional variants seem

to be quite satisfactory. He says that the second element of the diphthong thespeaker aims at is not generally reached, but suggests the representation of the

diphthong in full, with a diacritic mark rover the close vowel.This work is, however, in the initial stages and there is much to be studied in the

Spanish diphthong from an acoustic and articulatory point of view.

REFERENCES

ALARCOS LLORACH, A. (1961). Fonologia Espaola (Madrid).BOROVICKOVA, B. and MALAC, U. (1967). The SpectralAnalysis of Czech Sound Combination

(Prague).FANT, G. (1970). Acoustic Theory of Speech Production (The Hague).GAY, T. (1968). Effects of speaking rate on diphthong formant movements, J. acoust. Soc.

Amer., 44, 1570.GUIRAO, M. and MANRIQUE,A. M. B. de (1972). Fonemas, silabas y palabras del Espaol de

Buenos Aires, estudio estadistico, Filologia, 16, 135.



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GUIRAO, M. and MANRIQUE,A. M. B. de (1973). Identification ofArgentine Spanish vowels.J. psycholing. Res. 4, 17.

JONES, D. (1957). Outline of English Phonetics (Cambridge).LEHISTE, I, and PETERSON, G. E. (1961). Transitions, glides and diphthongs. J. acoust. Soc.

Amer., 38, 268.LIBERMAN, A., DELATTRE, P. C., GERSTMAN, L. J. and COOPER, F. (1956). Tempo of

frequency change as a cue for distinguishing classes of speech sounds. J. exp.Psychol., 52, 127.

NAVARRO TOMAS, T. (1967). Manual de Pronunciacin Espaola (Madrid).OCONNOR, J. D., GERSTMAN, L. J., LIBERMAN,A. M., DELATTRE, P. C. and COOPER, F.

(1957). Acoustic cues for the perception of initial /w, j, r, I/ in English. Word,

13, 24.

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