The specific nature of the acoustic structure of polysyllabic consonant clusters in the Serbian language

Abstract

This paper is aimed at examining the specific nature of static and dynamic, in other words invariant and transitional acoustic characteristics of polysyllabic consonant clusters in the articulation of the Serbian language. The sample group consisted of about twenty Serbian native speakers of both sexes. The speakers were recorded, and later on the sound recordings were analyzed by a spectrograph. An analysis of the recorded material was done both by audio estimate and tracking of a spectrogram of a particular consonant cluster in the observed words. The results show that the invariant characteristics of certain consonant clusters have a certain variability depending on the phonetic environment. The greatest variability in the invariant characteristics is evident in the vibrant, which is as expected because a vibration can, in some cases be the carrier-syllable. In such cases, its vibration is reduced to one touch of the alveoli with the tip of the tongue or sometimes only a neutral vowel can be heard, which significantly differs from a full vibration, which can be observed in some other cases.

Cilj rada je bio da se ispitaju specifičnosti statičkih i dinamičkih odnosno invarijantnih i tranzicionih akustičkih karakteristika višesložnih suglasničkih skupova u artikulacionoj bazi srpskog jezika. Uzorak je bio sastavljen od 20-oro izvornih govornika srpskog jezika oba pola. Govornici su snimani, a kasnije su tonski zapisi spektrografski obrađivani. Analiza snimljenog materijala je rađena paralelno putem auditivne procene i praćenjem spektrograma određenog suglasničkog skupa u posmatranim rečima. Rezultati ukazuju da invarijantne karakteristike određenih suglasničkih grupa imaju određenu varijabilnost u zavisnosti od glasovnog okruženja. Najveću varijabilnost u invarijantnim karakteristikama pokazuje vibrant što je i očekivano jer vibran u nekim slučajevima može biti i nosilac sloga. U tim slučajevima njegova vibrantnost se svodi na jedan udar vrha jezika od alveole ili se ponekad čuje samo neutralni vokal, što se značajno razlikuje od pune vibrantnosi koja se može zapaziti u drugim slučajevima.