Beschreibung:
<jats:p>Previous work on breathiness in Indic languages has focused on the acoustic properties of breathy oral stops in languages like Hindi ([bal] hair versus [bhal] forehead) or Bengali ([baSa] house versus [bhaSa] language). However, breathiness in Indic languages often extends to nasals (e.g., Marathi ([maar] beat versus [mhaar] a caste). It is unclear if languages such as Hindi and Bengali have breathy nasals in addition to breathy oral stops. This study addresses the following questions: (1) Are breathy nasals (Nh) acoustically different from N+h sequences, both in languages where they are phonemic and ones where they are not? (2) In sequences of a breathy stop and a modal nasal (e.g., Hindi [udhmi] naughty) where is the breathiness realized, if at all? To answer these questions, audio, aerodynamic, and electroglottographic recordings will be made of Hindi, Bengali, and Marathi speakers. It is hypothesized that acoustically breathy nasals in Hindi and Bengali will not be distinct from sequences of N+ h. We believe that this will also be true for the oral stops. In addition, it is believed that in sequences of breathy oral stop followed by a modal nasal (e.g., ChN), the breathiness will be produced on the nasal.</jats:p>