Stop devoicing and palace of articulation: a cross-linguistic study using large-scale corpora
Résumé
Voicing in stops is relatively hard to maintain from an articulatory and aerodynamic standpoint. Consonants with posterior constrictions (velars) are more prone to devoicing than consonants with more anterior constrictions (labials, coronals). Aerodynamic accounts have linked this pattern to the compliant tissue surface available for passive vocal tract expansion. This study investigates whether place of articulation plays a role in stop devoicing in five Romance languages using large corpora and automatic alignment with pronunciation variants. Results show that voicing maintenance patterns do not support an aerodynamic hypothesis: In Romance languages velars do not devoice at higher rates than labials and coronals. This suggests other elements than articulation naturalness are at play.