Isabella Shields, Catherine Watson, Peter Keegan
Thursday, December 15th, 2022, 2pm – 2.30pm
Abstract
This paper presents preliminary analyses of Māori /r/ in the speech of three fluent speakers. Māori /r/ is not yet fully understood and can be a somewhat misunderstood sound for Māori learners. We consider /r/ in several vowel environments and word- and phrase-stress contexts. Duration of /r/ was found to vary across speakers and phrasal stress. Most /r/ tokens were taps, although variation was found in formant behaviour and presence of frication and release bursts. Formant assessment of /VrV/ sequences indicates different articulations for /r/ are possible. We emphasise the need for more speakers/participants to characterise the sound.
SST2022 