50 phonetic juncture formants of two consonants is maintained, suggesting that [
d
j
] and [k
j
] are articulated in different areas.
Table 4.3 Comparison of the Phonetic Juncture Formant Values
of the Plain Consonants t and k F1
F2 F3
F4 [da
π»] juncture 435.5
1489.9 2670.3
3724.7 [a
π»k] juncture 412.6
1604.5 2555.7
3655.9
Figure 4.7. Transitions adjacent to [d] and [g].
4.4.2 Secondary palatalization of the palato-alveolar sibilant
Given that the palato-alveolar sibilant is already close to the palatal region, a study was made to determine if any distinction between plain and palatalized
¾ could be discovered from the acoustic data. In looking at the tokens of plain and palatalized
¾ adjacent to vowels in Text A and other data, it was found that in general, palatalization of the palato-alveolar sibilant [
¾
j
] in Isthmus Mixe results in higher F2 and F3 transitions than the steady-state of vowels both preceding and following [
¾
j
]. When the vowels are ‚, which is the most common vowel quality in these positions, F2 and F3 are about 150 Hz higher at the
phonetic junctures with the consonants, while F1 may be a little lower. In contrast, when the plain [ ¾] is
preceded or followed by ‚, the F2 phonetic juncture is generally 150–200 Hz lower than the steady-state
of the vowels; F3 has not shown a consistent pattern, but in some instances remains level; F1 tends to be a little lower figure 4.8. The greatest difference, then, is seen in F2 values, which are definitely higher for
transitions preceding and following [ ¾
j
] than transitions preceding and following [ ¾]. There are not enough
tokens of all occurrences to perform statistical analyses.
73
73
Although the frequency count of ¾ shows that it is not rare in occurrence, it is often found as the second member of
a consonant cluster word final, or as part of a word prefix, in which it precedes a consonant.
51
Figure 4.8. Comparison of [ ¾] in [‚¾‚] and [¾
j
] in [ Úÿ¾
j
Úÿ].
52 Another distinction is seen in the spectrums of plain and palatalized
¾ figure 4.8. The spectrum of [
¾
j
] shows the major peak of energy at 3300.6 Hz with a smaller peak at 3885.1 Hz. The spectrum of [ ¾]
shows one peak of energy at 3151.6 Hz. A possible third distinction is indicated by the durations of the segments: [
¾
j
] is 138.7 ms and [ ¾] is 87.0 ms. In all the tokens of these two segments between vowels in
Text A , [
¾
j
] is always greater than 100 ms and [ ¾] is less than 100 ms. It seems likely that a little more
duration could add a slight emphasis to the palatalized segment because of the added morpheme.
74
On the basis of differences in transition formants, energy peaks as shown by the spectrums, and segment lengths
of [ ¾] and [¾
j
] between vowels, the acoustic data suggest an empirical distinction between plain and palatalized
¾. One word-initial prefix,
j
-¾- ‘first and second person object,’ attaches to the verb word, with subsequent palatalization of the verb-initial consonant, resulting in the only word-initial palatalized
consonant cluster in the language. In figure 4.9,
j
-¾- prefixes to the verb n‚w Úπ»j ‘to know’ in
j
-¾-n‚w Úπ»j-
j
[¾
j
n
j
ÚÿwÚÿπ»j] ‘… [he] knows me’
j
-¾- ‘first person object’; n‚w Úπ»j ‘to know’; -
j
‘clause-type marker’. The raised F2 formant transition from [n
j
] to [ Úÿ] shows that the palatalization from the
j
-¾- morpheme also palatalizes the following consonant.
Figure 4.9. [¾
j
n
j
Úÿ] from verb-initial prefix
j
-¾ and verb-initial n.
4.4.3 Secondary palatalization of
