A Phonetically Versatile Contrast: pulmonic and glottalic voicelessness in Scottish English obstruents and voice quality

Abstract

This paper presents impressionistic, electroglottographic and acoustic data exploring the distribution of glottalic and pulmonic parameters in word-final Scottish English obstruents. On one hand, we focus on the relationship between these parameters and aspirated or glottalised phonatory settings of individual speakers. On the other hand, we explore the relationship between glottalic airstream and phonological /voice/.

We show that laryngeally different phonatory settings such as glottalisation and aspiration can readily co-occur in the same speakers, and can be consistently used as secondary correlates of obstruent /-voice/. The results further show that although /-voice/ with glottalisation as its secondary correlate and ejective stops often co-occur near the same phonetic locus, they are not necessarily bound together in epiphenomenal terms in this variety of English.