Transitory and sustained Cf0 effects: Evidence from Swiss German

Abstract

It is generally agreed that f0 following phonologically voiceless plosives is higher than after voiced plosives. Such consonant f0 (Cf0) effects have been reported in many languages. However, the phonetic basis of the ‘voiceless’ – ‘voiced’ distinction may differ between languages; for example, in English the distinction involves long-lag VOT in ‘voiceless’ plosives and short-lag VOT or prevoicing in ‘voiced’ plosives, while in Dutch the ‘voiceless’ plosives have short-lag VOT and the ‘voiced’ plosives are generally prevoiced. This study focuses on Swiss German, where neither long-lag VOT nor voicing is present: the primary difference between lenis (‘voiced’) and fortis (‘voiceless’) plosives lies in closure duration. Replicating Ladd and Schmid [Journal of Phonetics (2018), 71, 229–248], we show that both lenis and fortis plosives exhibit higher initial f0 followed by a brief fall, typical of ‘voiceless’ plosives in many languages. Using newer statistical methods (Generalised Additive Mixed Models), we also show that, during the latter part of the vowel beyond the initial f0 drop, overall f0 level is significantly higher after ‘fortis’ than after ‘lenis’ plosives. This suggests that two distinct but interacting Cf0 effects are involved. We discuss the relevance of this finding for future experimental work on Cf0.