Effect of Initial /s/ on The Voice Onset Time (vot) of following Stops in Bahdini Kurdish

Abstract

Voice onset time (VOT) is one of the acoustic properties of stop consonants. It is a durational measure of the time between stop release and vocal fold vibration. English voiceless stops are characterized by loss of aspiration when preceded by an initial /s/ and their VOT is largely reduced. This paper aims to examine this phenomenon in Bahdini Kurdish. It seeks to investigate the effect of initial /s/ on the VOT of following stops and whether variables of place of stop articulation, following vocalic context and gender influence this effect. In order to measure this effect, the VOT values for voiceless stops were measured both initially and when preceded by /s/. (30) adult Bahdini Kurdish native speakers from Duhok City took part in this study. They read a list of words which contrasted words with initial voiceless stops with those followed by /s/. The list included two examples of each voiceless stop preceding a high and a low vowel. The results were analyzed acoustically and statistically to search for significant interactions. The study's findings demonstrate that Bahdini Kurdish voiceless stops have reduced VOT values when preceded by initial /s/. Variables of place of articulation (POA), following vowel height, and gender of participants all have significant effects on the results of the study.