Questions about Module 2

[Catherine Lai]

Post your questions about module 2 content here before the Q&A sessions (or in the chat on Teams)

[Manas M]

In the lecture video for VOT, there is initially a mention of how [b] has a negative VOT (attachment 1) and towards the end while comparing VOTs b/w languages [b] is said to have 0 VOT for English but negative for Spanish (attachment 2). I wanted to check if [b] actually has 0 VOT for English so, I used Praat for the word “bat” and got a voice bar before the burst. Doesn’t this indicate that b has negative VOT for English as well?

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[Rebekka Puderbaugh]

This is a great question. The text of the video is imprecise in that I refer to “English” when I should really be referring to certain varieties, or even more specifically my own speech. The main point is that [b] in the canonical sense of the IPA might be expected to be produced with pre-voicing, but in actual language data we often hear/interpret sounds as belonging to a certain category even though they lack a particular characteristic. In many varieties of North American English the cue to stop voicing the length of the vowel that precedes the stop, rather than voicing during the stop closure itself.

[Andrei B]

I just tested it on me saying bat and did not have -ve VOT.
Is it possible that your linguistic background may be causing you to use a different [b] perhaps?
(I believe this may be stated to make difference somewhere in the readings)

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