Coarticulation between tone and glottal consonants in Itunyoso Trique

This paper investigates the realization of contrastive tone in three non-modal phonation contexts (creaky phonation, glottal closure, and breathy phonation) in Itunyoso Trique, an Oto-Manguean language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. The study examines how coarticulatory glottalization (creaky phonation, glottal closure) coincides with coarticulatory pitch perturbations and spectral tilt changes on neighboring vowels. The onset of laryngeally induced F0 perturbation effects and the timing of changes in spectral tilt were examined using acoustic data from six speakers of the language. The results show that in contexts where substantial non-modal phonation spreads onto the adjacent vowel, greater pitch effects are observed. In contexts where abrupt glottal closure occurs, less coarticulatory changes in spectral tilt and pitch are observed on adjacent vowels. In addition, strong tonal effects are observed for certain spectral measures. These findings are discussed in relation to the literature on tonogenesis and coarticulatory pitch effects.

► Coarticulation between vowels and non-modal phonation type was examined.
► H1–H2, H1–A3, and F0 examined on words varying in tone and phonation.
► Strong effect of breathy phonation on pitch and spectral tilt.
► Interaction between H1–H2 and F0 explains some tone-specific effects.
► Degree of coarticulatory overlap correlates with degree of pitch perturbation.