ON MEDUMBA BILABIAL TRILLS AND VOWELS

Kenneth Olson (1) , Yohann Meynadier (1)

1 LPL - Laboratoire Parole et Langage

The Medumba consonant inventory includes plain and prenasalized bilabial trills /ʙ, mʙ/, which contrast with bilabial stops. The trills occur most often before the central vowels / ə/, while they are not attested before /u/. The central vowel / / has a vowel posture that is particularly conducive to trilling of the lips: it does not form a circular opening, the corners of the mouth are drawn slightly apart, the lips are tensed, particularly at the corners of the mouth, and there is a narrow aperture between the lips. This suggests that it is close lip aperture of the following vowel— rather than rounding—that provides the most conducive environment for bilabial trill production.

Mots clés: bilabial trill; central vowel; lips; Niger-Congo; Narrow Grassfields; phonetics; phonology

Domaines: Linguistique

Kenneth Olson, Yohann Meynadier. ON MEDUMBA BILABIAL TRILLS AND VOWELS. 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2015, Glasgow, United Kingdom. pp.USBkey#0522. ⟨hal-01211220⟩