It is well-established that consonant duration in certain languages, such as Italian and Japanese, is contrastive, with consonant geminates primarily occurring in medial positions. However, in Pattani Malay, an Austronesian language spoken in South Thailand, consonant geminates are exclusively found in word-initial positions (e.g., [buwɔh] ‘fruit’ vs. [bːuwɔh] ‘to stand’). Notably, these initial geminates (IGs) are considered distinctive due to claims that they induce a categorical difference in the prominence profile. Previous research (Yupho, 1989) suggests that words without IGs exhibit final stress, while those with IGs exhibit initial stress.
Despite evidence demonstrating a correlation between IGs and increased saliency of initial syllables (Abramson, 1998; Phuengnoi, 2010), previous studies were not specifically designed to investigate prominence directly. Instead, they focused on the acoustic consequences of IGs. Notably, Pattani Malay words in these studies were often produced in isolation or in phrase-final positions, reflecting phrase-level acoustic patterns rather than word-level patterns. Therefore, Pittayawat Pittayaporn, Francesco Burroni, Sireemas Maspong and Pimthip Kochaiyaphum, researchers at ChulaSEAL, address the previous research gap by posing two research questions: 1) Does the presence of IGs affect the prominence profile of Pattani Malay words? and 2) Does the position in the utterance influence the prominence profile of Pattani Malay?
Fourteen speakers of Pattani Malay (six males, eight females), aged from 20 to 61 years, with native proficiency in Pattani Malay, are selected as participants. Thirteen disyllabic minimal pairs differing only in singleton and geminate onset were selected from previous literature. The data were collected in natural Pattani Malay sentences with the target word in final and non-final positions. Each sentence was repeated three times. The variables analyzed were syllable duration, vowel f0, vowel intensity, vowel formants, and spectral hilt (H1-A2, H1-A3). Statistical models such as linear mixed-effect regression models and third-order orthogonal polynomial growth curve analysis were also applied to the analysis.
Although the phrasal position and the presence of IG onsets have a significant effect on the duration ratio of the initial syllable to the word, their interaction does not. In lieu of intensity, no effect of interaction between the presence of IGs and their position was found, implying little effect of intensity on Pattani Malay IGs. Lastly, position, in contrast to the presence of IGs, has a rather strong effect on f0. The analysis of all three parameters shows that IGs in Pattani Malay do not affect the prominence profile of the words, as they have only small phonetic effects on syllable duration, intensity, and f0—the main characteristic of the prominence profile. However, the effect of phrasal position on the prominence profile is significantly stronger in comparison with the effect of IGs’ presence. The occurrence of words in final position is discovered to increase the raw duration of the final syllable, decrease the duration ratio of each syllable to the word. Moreover, the phrasal position also correlates with differences in intensity and the realization of f0 contours. The words in phrase-final position have lower intensity and f0 than the words in phrase-medial position. Similarly, the final syllable in phrase-final position exhibits a falling f0 contour, whereas the final syllable in phrase-medial position exhibits a rising f0 contour.
Subsequently, the question of why Pattani Malay has been reported in previous literature to possess final stress and stress shift in words with IGs, even though the result in this study does not suggest so, is addressed by the authors. They suggest that since the stimuli in previous studies are elicited Pattani Malay words in isolation or as the final word in a carrier sentence, exhibiting phrase-final prominence profile, the steeper fall of f0 resulted from the phrase-final position is likely to cause the perception of the stress shift for native Thai speaker researchers who perceive falling contours as posttonic. Based on the findings, the authors suggest that Pattani Malay, like other Malay varieties, lacks clear evidence for stress and the acoustic correlates indicating prominence profile.
In conclusion, this research challenges the ongoing debate about the effect of IGs’ presence in the prominence profile in Pattani Malay. The findings suggest that IGs do not trigger different prominence profiles or stress shift, as claimed in the previous literature. On the other hand, phrasal boundaries play an important role in the prominence profile in Pattani Malay, leading to the misperception of stress shift in previous literature. Additionally, this study also revisits the notion of regarding Pattani Malay as a typologically exceptional language in lieu of phonology. The results and analysis imply that Pattani Malay could be equally compared with other varieties such as Besemah or Malay regarding the dissociation of duration and f0 contours—a phonological typology.
References
Abramson, Arthur S. 1998. The complex acoustic output of a single articulatory gesture: Pattani Malay word-initial consonant length. In Udom Warotamasikkhadit and Thanyarat Panakul (eds.), Papers from the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 1–20, Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies.
Phuengnoi, Nattaphon. 2010. An acoustic study of stressed and unstressed syllables in Pattani Malay and Urak Lawoi. Master’s thesis, Chulalongkorn University.
Yupho, Nawanit. 1989. Consonant clusters and stress rules in Pattani Malay. Mon-Khmer Studies 15, 125–137.