Intervokalsko j u hrvatskome govoru

Volenec, Veno. (2013). Intervokalsko j u hrvatskome govoru. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Phonetics. [mentor Liker, Marko].

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Abstract

In order to posit a descriptive model of the intervocalic J in Croatian speech, a tripartite research was conducted: phonological, general phonetic and experimental. The general phonetic description enabled the discrimination of palatal glides [j] and [i̯] on the basis of the distinctive feature of tenseness: the former sound is tense, and the latter is lax. The difference between the intervocalic J and the vowel [i] is based on their dynamic properties and degrees of stricture. The basic distinctive features which permit the discrimination of the sounds [j], [i̯] and [i] are contained within the dichotomy vocalic ~ consonantal, where the sound [i̯] is defined as [-vocalic] and [–consonantal]. Such description defines it as a prosodic sound which function is the reduction of hiatus between two vowels. The relation between the phoneme /j/ and its realizations was also analyzed, which led to the conclusion that the allophone of the phoneme /j/ – the sound [i̯] – coincides with the sound that emerges between two vowels (of which at least one is a front vowel). Their sameness however is questionable. From that arose the fundamental research problem and an acoustic experiment was conducted in order to solve it. The hypotheses of the experiment were that a sound [i̯] is realized from the phoneme /j/ in intervocalic position (adjacent to [e] or [i]) and that the same sound emerges from a non-phoneme in the same intervocalic environment. The results have showed that in the spontaneous Croatian speech there is a strong tendency towards complete reduction – acoustically and articulatory speaking – of that speech sound. The second part of the results showed a complete statistical sameness of these two types of the intervocalic J. The value of the first formant in the final stable point of the preceding vowel, however, showed that there is a cognitive anticipation of the phoneme /j/, which triggers the articulatory gesture of the palatal glide during the articulation of the preceding vowel. Such coarticulatory pressure of the intervocalic J from the phoneme /j/ on the preceding vowel was described by Recasens’ degree of articulatory constraint model and is probably the only characteristic that discriminates those two sounds.

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