tʃ or ʈʂ? Polish affricates revisited
Marzena ¯ygis
Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin
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The Polish affricates è and ǯ̍̌ are commonly described as postalveolars in the IPA system, i.e., tʃ, dʒ; cf., e.g., Jassem (2003), Rubach (1984).
In this paper I present articulatory and acoustic evidence showing that the Polish affricates are retroflex and not postalveolar. This evidence is mainly based on (i) the measurements of the first central moment (COG) of friction portion present in affricates, and (ii) an EPG study. For comparison reasons, I also analyze German /tʃ/ from the same acoustic and articulatory perspective.
Preliminary results of COG measurements show significant differences between the fricative portion of Polish ʈʂ (1.5-2 kHz) and the corresponding component of German tʃ (2.5–3kHz) due to a greater sublingual cavity in the first case than in the second.
The results of the EPG study show that the stop component of the affricate is retracted in comparison to /t/; it is produced at and behind the alveolar ridge, similarly to the fricative part. The length of constriction is smaller and the lateral contact is narrower in the stop part of /ʈʂ/ than in /t/. As far as German tʃ is concerned, the anterior section forms the closure and the postanterior section forms the fricative constriction. The lateral contact is greater in /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ than in the corresponding Polish sounds.
Finally, the motivation for the retroflex status of the Polish affricates is argued to have perceptual grounds; cf. Zygis (2003).
References:
Jassem, Wiktor (2003). "Illustrations of the IPA. Polish." JIPA 33, 103-107.
Rubach, Jerzy (1984). Cyclic and Lexical Phonology. The Structure of Polish. Dordrecht: Foris.
Zygis, Marzena (2003). "Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Slavic Sibilant Fricatives." In Hall, T. A. and S. Hamann (eds). ZAS Papers in Linguistics 32, 175-213.