Temporal phenomena in Polish "hushing" affricates
Geoff Schwartz
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
This paper presents an acoustic and perceptual study of the “hushing” affricates in Polish, concentrating on the contrast between the alveolo-palatal /tɕ/ and the palato-alveolar /tʃ/ (sometimes analized as retroflex /tʂ/). The acoustic study characterizes the contrast not only in terms of the expected spectral differences in the frication noise, but also in terms of temporal differences, expressed in the parameters of frication duration and rise time. The alveolo-palatal was found to have significantly longer frication duration and rise time than the palato-alveolar. A set of perception tests using synthesized speech found that the temporal phenomena, especially the frication duration, are used by Polish listeners to maintain this distinction that can be such a challenge for foreign learners of Polish. The discussion section speculates on how these findings might be related to larger issues in speech perception, sound change, and sociolinguistics.
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