Approximants and Nasals

Approximants
  • Approximants include the glides (semivowels) /j, w/ and liquids /r, l/.
  • Glides:
    • Alveolar /j/
    • Labio-velar /w/
  • Liquids:
    • Palatal /r/
    • Alveolar /l/
  • Characteristics:
    • Constriction is insufficient compared to stop burst and frication noise.
    • They are consonants, despite being relatively unconstricted.
    • Show presence of formants but not syllabic nuclei.
    • Formant transitions are faster (75-250 ms) compared to diphthongs (350 ms).
Glides Analysis

  • /w/:

    • F1 and F2 decrease leading into /w/.
    • Similar to /u/ with relatively constant formant transition for /uwu/.

  • /j/:

    • F1 decreases and F2 increases leading into /j/.
    • Similar to /i/ with relatively constant formant transition for /iji/.
Spectral Features

  • Waveform Characteristics:

    • Wideband spectrograms show relationships among different formants (F1, F2, F3) and their frequencies relative to various vowels in the context of glides.
    • Example for /w/:
    • Spectrogram reveals the transitions across vowel sounds adjacent to /w/.
    • Frequencies detailed for various vowel environments (/i/, /æ/, /a/, /u/).

  • Wideband Spectrogram for /j/:

    • Similar analysis for /j/ showcasing transitions and frequency shifts.
Liquids Characteristics

  • /l/:

    • Produces lateral emission with airflow through the sides of the central alveolar obstruction.
    • Characterized by low F1 and F2, high F3.
    • Dark /l/ in VC context shows smoothly produced transitions while CV context shows small discontinuities.
    • Similar to homorganic /n/.

  • /r/:

    • Notable dip in F3, resulting in a low F3 for rhotic vowels.
Nasals

  • Nasals include /m, n, ŋ/.

  • Vocal Characteristics:

    • Produced with vocal fold vibration, resulting in voiced sounds.
    • Velopharyngeal port is open to allow nasal airflow.
    • The nasal cavity acts as a primary resonator.

  • Resonant Characteristics:

    • Closed oral cavity serves as a side resonator.
    • Strong resonance in the nasal region between 200-500 Hz, known as nasal murmur, along with a voicing bar and first nasal formant (N1).
    • Higher formants exhibit low energy with high damping.
    • Antiformants lead to loss of energy at specific frequencies due to absorption in the oral cavity.

  • Articulation Influence:

    • The place of articulation affects the characteristics but does not specify exact effects.

  • Spectral Analysis of Nasals:

    • Waveforms and frequency changes exhibit patterns for different nasal sounds (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/) in detailed spectrograms, showing their individual frequencies across vowels.