Studies on Sound, Articulability Heirachy and Optimality Theory

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We continued to compile the data for the first two years in order to verify the existence of sound/articulability hierarchy and analysed it in the third year.We investigated the rate induced resyllabification process for various consonants arid vowels in Japanese. The purpose is to find whether there are articulatory correlates of sonority. The switching point from a VC to a syllahle was the main dependent variable. Sixteen speakers were recorded when they entrained their speech to metronome beeps. The partial sonority scale relevant to the present article is : (a) Voiceless stop <voiced stop, (b)stop <fricative, and (c) obstruent <sonorant. Mean of the switching point for each natural class was calculated and compared. Results show that the switching point analysis closely replicates the sonority scale. This suggests that the earlier the switching point is, the more effort is necessary, which is suitable for a dynamical view of prosodic and phonetic organization. This study also supports the idea that ONSET constraint is a fundamental building block of the phonological component of the grammer.The results obtained in this project were presented at the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Spain. The revised version is to be presented at Laboratory Phonology Meeting at Univ of Illinois soon. Thus this project deepened the studies related with the so-called sonority hierarchies.