Perceptual transcription and acoustic data: the example of /i/ in Yongning Na (Tibeto-Burman)

Alexis Michaud (1) , Jacqueline Vaissière (2)

1 LACITO - Langues et civilisations à tradition orale
2 LPP - LPP - Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie - UMR 7018

On the basis of fieldwork on a Tibeto-Burman language, Yongning Na, some reflections are offered on three interrelated issues: (i) To what extent does perceived allophonic variation correspond to articulatory/acoustic reality, to what extent does it merely reflect the investigator's perceptual expectations? (ii) How can acoustic data help select International Phonetic Alphabet symbols for the phonemic units brought out by distributional analysis? (iii) How can acoustic data help characterise the vowels and consonants encountered in fieldwork, both in a structural (language-internal) perspective, and in a cross-language perspective?

Mots clés: phonemics; acoustics; allophony; perception; Na/Naxi/Mosuo

Domaines: Linguistique

Alexis Michaud, Jacqueline Vaissière. Perceptual transcription and acoustic data: the example of /i/ in Yongning Na (Tibeto-Burman). Chinese Journal of Phonetics, 2009, 2, pp.10-17. ⟨halshs-00325269v2⟩