An acoustic study of Dimasa tones Priyankoo Sarmah and Caroline Wiltshire University of Florida [email protected] [email protected]
Dec 24, 2015
An acoustic study of Dimasa tones
Priyankoo Sarmah and Caroline WiltshireUniversity of Florida
[email protected]@ufl.edu
The Dimasa Language
Tibeto-Burman Language of the Bodo-Garo family.
Spoken by 88,543 people in Assam and Nagaland.(1991 Indian census report)
RCILTS, IIT Guwahati (http://www.iitg.ernet.in/rcilts/dimasa.htm )
2 tones: High, Unmarked Level
Singha (2003) 3 tones: High, Low and Unmarked Level
This study…
How many tones are there in Dimasa?
What are the acoustic properties of Dimasa tones?
How do tones operate in monosyllables and disyllables?
Methodology: Wordlist and speakers A list of segmentally homophonic words was constructed using data
from a native speaker of Dimasa.
The words were arranged in random order in the list.
10 native speakers of Dimasa (5 male, 5 female) were asked to produce the words in a sentence frame.
ang X thiba
Each word was repeated four times by the speakers.
Only the first three iterations were included in analysis to avoid listing effect.
Methodology: Recording the data Recorder: Marantz PMD660 solid state
Sampling frequency: 48 Khz
Microphone: Audio-Technica AT4041
Storage: HP compact flash card
Methodology: Analyzing the data Praat v.4.5.04
Measure 1: Track the pitch on the TBU at every 2% of the length of the TBU
Measure 2: The initiation point of the pitch on TBU
Measure 3: 20ms after initiation of the pitch on TBU
Methodology: Analyzing the data Measure 1 is taken to track the pitch of the TBU
in detail. Automatic pitch tracking of Praat is not detailed
enough. It also normalizes the length as % values are derived.
Measure 2 and Measure 3 are taken to see if and to what extent the consonant in the onset affects the pitch of the TBU.
Methodology: Analyzing the data Measure 1: Every 2% of the pitch on TBU = 50 points
TBU0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 0.272542
Methodology: Analyzing the data Measure 2: Point of initiation of the pitch on the TBU (Pi) Measure 3: 20ms after the point of initiation (Pi+20)
20ms TBU 20ms
0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 0.272542
Methodology
For all the measurements specific scripts were written.
The script were run on 103 underived words of Dimasa.
The 103 words included monosyllabic and polysyllabic words.
Measure 2 and 3
Pi and Pi+20 are compared statistically
A standard t-test (p<0.05) is conducted on the data.
Grouped by the onset consonant.
Results: Measure 2 and 3
Vowels b d
0.070238755 5.53732E-14 3.06496E-08
dz g h
0.026574588 0.029406493 3.09369E-08
kh l m
4.03054E-06 2.20243E-05 0.089387967
r s sh
0.000723691 5.13417E-05 1.39625E-12
th w z
1.22493E-10 0.826479848 0.000801464
Results: Measure 2 and 3
[ph], [kh], [b], [d], [g], [dz], [h], [l], [r], [s], [sh], [z]
Showed significant effect on the following pitch.
[m] and [w] did not show significant effect on the following pitch.
Pi – (Pi+20) showed that [ph], [kh], [b], [d], [dz], [h], [l], [s], [sh], [z] raises the following
pitch.
[r] depresses the following pitch.
Results: Measure 1
Pitch points were calculated on 50 points across the pitch of each TBU (every 2%)
These 50 points were replotted on a graph to reconstruct the pitch track.
Results: Measure 1
Initial examination of data set in Singha (2003):
thi ‘speak’ thi ‘to die’ thi ‘blood’
lai ‘page’ lai ‘easy’ lai ‘wish’
maithai‘year’ maithai‘crop’ maithai ‘source’
Results: Measure 1 Demonstrates tonal distinction in segmentally
homogeneous pairs./thi/
150
170
190
210
230
250
270
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
Point no.
Freq
uenc
y (H
z) SPEAK
BLOOD
DIE
Results: Measure 1/lai/
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
250
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
Point no.
Freq
uenc
y (H
z) EASY
WISH
PAGE
Results: Measure 1
/maithai/ ‘crop’
a ng m ai th ai th ib a
0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 0.918167
Results: Measure 1
/maithai/ ‘source’
a ng m ai th ai th i b a
0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 0.951438
Results: Measure 1
/maithai/ ‘year’
a ng m ai th ai th ib a
0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.15398
Results: Measure 1
Compared to Singha (2003):
/thi/ shows evidence for three distinct tones
/lai/ does not show evidence for three tones
/maithai/ does not show evidence for three tones.
Results: Measure 1
Another interesting set:
bai ‘to break’ bai ‘to cross’ bai ‘to dance’ bai ‘to order’ bai ‘to ship’ bai ‘to spin’
Results: Measure 1
/bai/
150
170
190
210
230
250
270
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
Point no.
Freq
uenc
y (H
z)
CROSS
ORDER
DANCE
FILTER
BREAK
SPIN
Results: Measure 1
In most of the cases:/wai/
150
170
190
210
230
250
270
290
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
Point no.
Freq
uenc
y (H
z)
FIRE
CHEW
Results: Measure 1
Tones: Dimasa has three lexical tones:
A high tone (rising) A level mid tone A low tone (falling)
Bisyllables in Dimasa
No mention in Singha (2003)
Bodo-Garo languages primarily show tone assignment on only one syllable.
(Joseph and Burling, 2001; Sarmah 2003)
Bisyllables in Dimasa
goron company goron to confuse
miya bamboo shoot miya male person miya yesterday
Results: Bisyllables
/goron/ ‘company’
a ng h a d i th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.11777
a ng h a d i th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.13108
ang h a z i th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.11525
ang h a z i th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.14958
a ng g o r o n th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.54158
a ng g o r o n th i b a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.25083
Results: Bisyllables
/goron/ ‘confuse’
a ng h a d i th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.11777
a ng h a d i th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.13108
ang h a z i th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.11525
ang h a z i th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.14958
a ng g o r o n th ib a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.54158
a ng g o r o n th i b a0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.25083
miya ‘male person’
a ng m i j a th i b a
0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.11527
miya ‘bamboo shoot’
a ng m i j a th i b a
0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.09115
miya ‘yesterday’
a ng m i j a h th i b a
0
500
100
200
300
400
Time (s)0 1.05615
Results: Bisyllables
Tone assigned only on the second syllable.
Similar phenomenon to Bodo (Sarmah 2003)
The first syllable is assigned a mid level tone.
Similar phenomenon in other 9 sets of bisyllables we examined.
Summary of results
Significant consonantal effects on pitch
3 tones in Dimasa A high tone (rising) A level mid tone A low tone (falling)
A mono/disyllabic word can have one and only one tone assigned to it.
Association of glottal stops with high tones.
Trisyllabic words.
A perception test
More data…
References
Joseph, U. V., and Burling, Robbins. 2001. “Tone correspondences among the Bodo Languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 24.2: 41-55.
Sarmah, Priyankoo. 2003. Some Aspects of the Tonal Phonology of Bodo. M.Phil. dissertation, CIEFL, Hyderabad, India.
Singha, Dhiren. 2003. The Phonology & Morphology of Dimasa. M.A. dissertation, Assam University, Silchar, Assam
Acknowledgment
Mr. Uttam Bathari, Asst. Director, ICHR, Guwahati, Assam.
University of Florida, Graduate Research Program.
and…
Acknowledgment
The Dimasa Students’ Association
Guwahati
This presentation is available: By email: [email protected]
Online: http://plaza.ufl.edu/priyanku/neils.ppt