ESTONIAN ACADEMY
PUBLISHERS
eesti teaduste
akadeemia kirjastus
PUBLISHED
SINCE 1965
 
Linguistica Uralica cover
Linguistica Uralica
ISSN 1736-7506 (Electronic)
ISSN 0868-4731 (Print)
Vowels in Word-Initial Syllables in Muhu Estonian; 241-249
PDF | 10.3176/lu.2007.4.01

Author
Ellen Niit
Abstract

The article provides an overview of the vowel quality in words of different quantity degrees as used in Standard Estonian spoken on the West Estonian Island of Muhu. The findings are based on the formant analysis of the data recorded by male informants of two age groups. The acoustic-phonetic measurements show that the vowel system in word-initial syllables of Muhu Estonian comprises nine vowels, just like that of Standard Estonian. It can be seen that in the older age group, the mid-high vowels /e/, /ö/ and /o/ are raised if they are of long and overlong duration. In the younger age group, only the mid-high front vowel /e/ is slightly raised, and additionally the mid-high vowels /ö/ and /õ/ have become closer in the formant space.

References

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