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Articulatory Mapping of Yoruba Vowels:
(2013) Allen, B.; Pulleyblank, D.; Ajíbóyè, O
This paper examines the articulation of harmonically distinct classes of vowels in Standard Yoruba. There has been considerable disagreement as to whether the distinction between (e.o] and [[E :)) is one of vowel height or tongue- root advancement/ retraction feature. This paper reports on an ultrasound investigation of Yoruba vowels. Results are consistent with harmonic classes distinguished by a tongue-rood advancement /retraction feature, not by vowel height. -We also investigate the relation between articulations of the tongue root and its neutral position between utterances, the Inter speech posture (lSP). We find more variability in ISP-to-articulation mapping than previous studies, but our results arc still partially compatible with a postulated correlation between phonologically "active'' feature values and articulatory d displacement from ISP. Overall, our results support an analysis of Yoruba vowels in terms of a tongue-root feature, and provide insight into the mapping between phonetics and phonology.