Effects of consonantal context and lexical stress on Spanish vowels in the city of Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56683/rs262198Keywords:
consonantal context, lexical stress, vowels, SpanishAbstract
Based on data from speakers in Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina), this study analyzes the influence of consonantal context and lexical stress on the F1 and F2 trajectories of the Spanish vowels /a e o/. Formant trajectories were characterized using the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), specifically coefficients DCT 0 (mean value) and DCT 1 (magnitude and direction of formant change). The dataset comprises productions from twenty native speakers (10 female, 10 male), who produced vowels preceded by /p t k/. Results show that /k/ and /p/ conditioned lower vowel realizations (higher F1) than /t/, with /k/ consistently inducing lower F1 trajectories and greater formant movement, particularly in stressed tokens of /e/ and /a/. With respect to F2, /k/ and /t/ yielded more fronted vowels in mean values but more retracted trajectories, whereas /p/ showed a mixed pattern, producing more backed vowels in mean values, but fronting trajectories. Lexical stress also conditioned coarticulatory effects. Mean values were more sensitive to consonantal context in stressed syllables, while F2 trajectories in unstressed syllables showed greater dynamism and less consistent directional patterns. The vowel /o/ was the most stable in all contexts. Finally, some differences were observed between female and male speakers, suggesting that the effects of consonantal context and stress were not entirely uniform across genders.
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