An acoustic study of Dimasa tones

Priyankoo Sarmah and Caroline WiltshireUniversity of Florida

priyanku@ufl.eduwiltshir@ufl.edu

The Dimasa Language

Tibeto-Burman Language of the Bodo-Garo family.

Spoken by 88,543 people in Assam and Nagaland.(1991 Indian census report)

RCILTS, IIT Guwahati (http://www.iitg.ernet.in/rcilts/dimasa.htm )

2 tones: High, Unmarked Level

Singha (2003) 3 tones: High, Low and Unmarked Level

This study…

How many tones are there in Dimasa?

What are the acoustic properties of Dimasa tones?

How do tones operate in monosyllables and disyllables?

Methodology: Wordlist and speakers A list of segmentally homophonic words was constructed using data

from a native speaker of Dimasa.

The words were arranged in random order in the list.

10 native speakers of Dimasa (5 male, 5 female) were asked to produce the words in a sentence frame.

ang X thiba

Each word was repeated four times by the speakers.

Only the first three iterations were included in analysis to avoid listing effect.

Methodology: Recording the data Recorder: Marantz PMD660 solid state

Sampling frequency: 48 Khz

Microphone: Audio-Technica AT4041

Storage: HP compact flash card

Methodology: Analyzing the data Praat v.4.5.04

Measure 1: Track the pitch on the TBU at every 2% of the length of the TBU

Measure 2: The initiation point of the pitch on TBU

Measure 3: 20ms after initiation of the pitch on TBU

Methodology: Analyzing the data Measure 1 is taken to track the pitch of the TBU

in detail. Automatic pitch tracking of Praat is not detailed

enough. It also normalizes the length as % values are derived.

Measure 2 and Measure 3 are taken to see if and to what extent the consonant in the onset affects the pitch of the TBU.

Methodology: Analyzing the data Measure 1: Every 2% of the pitch on TBU = 50 points

TBU0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 0.272542

Methodology: Analyzing the data Measure 2: Point of initiation of the pitch on the TBU (Pi) Measure 3: 20ms after the point of initiation (Pi+20)

20ms TBU 20ms

0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 0.272542

Methodology

For all the measurements specific scripts were written.

The script were run on 103 underived words of Dimasa.

The 103 words included monosyllabic and polysyllabic words.

Measure 2 and 3

Pi and Pi+20 are compared statistically

A standard t-test (p<0.05) is conducted on the data.

Grouped by the onset consonant.

Results: Measure 2 and 3

Vowels b d

0.070238755 5.53732E-14 3.06496E-08

dz g h

0.026574588 0.029406493 3.09369E-08

kh l m

4.03054E-06 2.20243E-05 0.089387967

r s sh

0.000723691 5.13417E-05 1.39625E-12

th w z

1.22493E-10 0.826479848 0.000801464

Results: Measure 2 and 3

[ph], [kh], [b], [d], [g], [dz], [h], [l], [r], [s], [sh], [z]

Showed significant effect on the following pitch.

[m] and [w] did not show significant effect on the following pitch.

Pi – (Pi+20) showed that [ph], [kh], [b], [d], [dz], [h], [l], [s], [sh], [z] raises the following

pitch.

[r] depresses the following pitch.

Results: Measure 1

Pitch points were calculated on 50 points across the pitch of each TBU (every 2%)

These 50 points were replotted on a graph to reconstruct the pitch track.

Results: Measure 1

Initial examination of data set in Singha (2003):

thi ‘speak’ thi ‘to die’ thi ‘blood’

lai ‘page’ lai ‘easy’ lai ‘wish’

maithai‘year’ maithai‘crop’ maithai ‘source’

Results: Measure 1 Demonstrates tonal distinction in segmentally

homogeneous pairs./thi/

150

170

190

210

230

250

270

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51

Point no.

Freq

uenc

y (H

z) SPEAK

BLOOD

DIE

Results: Measure 1/lai/

150

160

170

180

190

200

210

220

230

240

250

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51

Point no.

Freq

uenc

y (H

z) EASY

WISH

PAGE

Results: Measure 1

/maithai/ ‘crop’

a ng m ai th ai th ib a

0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 0.918167

Results: Measure 1

/maithai/ ‘source’

a ng m ai th ai th i b a

0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 0.951438

Results: Measure 1

/maithai/ ‘year’

a ng m ai th ai th ib a

0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.15398

Results: Measure 1

Compared to Singha (2003):

/thi/ shows evidence for three distinct tones

/lai/ does not show evidence for three tones

/maithai/ does not show evidence for three tones.

Results: Measure 1

Another interesting set:

bai ‘to break’ bai ‘to cross’ bai ‘to dance’ bai ‘to order’ bai ‘to ship’ bai ‘to spin’

Results: Measure 1

/bai/

150

170

190

210

230

250

270

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51

Point no.

Freq

uenc

y (H

z)

CROSS

ORDER

DANCE

FILTER

BREAK

SPIN

Results: Measure 1

In most of the cases:/wai/

150

170

190

210

230

250

270

290

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51

Point no.

Freq

uenc

y (H

z)

FIRE

CHEW

Results: Measure 1

Tones: Dimasa has three lexical tones:

A high tone (rising) A level mid tone A low tone (falling)

Bisyllables in Dimasa

No mention in Singha (2003)

Bodo-Garo languages primarily show tone assignment on only one syllable.

(Joseph and Burling, 2001; Sarmah 2003)

Bisyllables in Dimasa

goron company goron to confuse

miya bamboo shoot miya male person miya yesterday

Results: Bisyllables

/goron/ ‘company’

a ng h a d i th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.11777

a ng h a d i th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.13108

ang h a z i th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.11525

ang h a z i th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.14958

a ng g o r o n th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.54158

a ng g o r o n th i b a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.25083

Results: Bisyllables

/goron/ ‘confuse’

a ng h a d i th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.11777

a ng h a d i th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.13108

ang h a z i th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.11525

ang h a z i th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.14958

a ng g o r o n th ib a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.54158

a ng g o r o n th i b a0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.25083

miya ‘male person’

a ng m i j a th i b a

0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.11527

miya ‘bamboo shoot’

a ng m i j a th i b a

0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.09115

miya ‘yesterday’

a ng m i j a h th i b a

0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 1.05615

Results: Bisyllables

Tone assigned only on the second syllable.

Similar phenomenon to Bodo (Sarmah 2003)

The first syllable is assigned a mid level tone.

Similar phenomenon in other 9 sets of bisyllables we examined.

Summary of results

Significant consonantal effects on pitch

3 tones in Dimasa A high tone (rising) A level mid tone A low tone (falling)

A mono/disyllabic word can have one and only one tone assigned to it.

Association of glottal stops with high tones.

Trisyllabic words.

A perception test

More data…

References

Joseph, U. V., and Burling, Robbins. 2001. “Tone correspondences among the Bodo Languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 24.2: 41-55.

Sarmah, Priyankoo. 2003. Some Aspects of the Tonal Phonology of Bodo. M.Phil. dissertation, CIEFL, Hyderabad, India.

Singha, Dhiren. 2003. The Phonology & Morphology of Dimasa. M.A. dissertation, Assam University, Silchar, Assam

Acknowledgment

Mr. Uttam Bathari, Asst. Director, ICHR, Guwahati, Assam.

University of Florida, Graduate Research Program.

and…

Acknowledgment

The Dimasa Students’ Association

Guwahati

This presentation is available: By email: priyanku@ufl.edu

Online: http://plaza.ufl.edu/priyanku/neils.ppt