Tonal Dialects and Consonant-Pitch Interaction in Yucatec Maya

29

3 Description of the Vowel System

3.1 Vowel Length
In Table 4 we see the average vowel lengths for the four vowel shapes. It
is clear from this table that the HIGH TONE, LOW TONE, and GLOTTALIZED
vowels are all long vowels, each almost twice as long as the SHORT vowel.
All differences in vowel length between two vowel shapes are statistically
significant (p < .0001) except GLOTTALIZED vowels vs. HIGH TONE
vowels.6 Cross-linguistically, low tone tends to be associated with longer
vowel duration than high tone, and contour tones tend to be associated
with longer vowel duration than level tones (Gandour 1977). It is therefore
interesting that both GLOTTALIZED and HIGH TONE vowels (those vowels
that start with relatively high F0) are significantly longer than LOW TONE
vowels. The lengths of these vowels in YM fit with the general pattern if
we consider that they are indeed contour tonesstarting with high F0 and
ending with low F0while the LOW TONE vowel is produced with level
pitch.
Table II-4 Mean vowel length by vowel shape
vowel shape
GLOTTALIZED
HIGH TONE
LOW TONE
SHORT

mean length (ms)

216
212
198
113

standard deviation
71.8
73.0
77.0
51.7

Table II-5 Mean vowel length for nonce forms vs. existing forms
vowel shape
GLOTTALIZED
HIGH TONE
LOW TONE
SHORT

mean length (ms)

nonce form
existing form
256
203
255
201
245
190
146
109

t
9.3
9.4
8.0
7.0

p
<.0001
<.0001
<.0001
<.0001


6

Two types of statistical tests are used in this a paper. In this case, and any time
the null hypothesis is that there is no difference between two means, a linear mixed
regression model is used to account for multiple observations within subjects.
When percentages are compared, the Rao-Scott 2 is used to account for multiple
observations within subjects.