Rhotic sounds in the slavic languages
An Acoustic Study
This post-doctoral work offers a thorough exploration of the major allophones of rhotic phonemes in thirteen Slavic languages. It investigates whether phonological contexts influence the phonetic realization of rhotic sounds, specifically examining the phonemes /r/, /r?/, /r?/ and /?/ in five vowel-adjacent positions: word-initial, onset clusters, intervocalic, pre-consonantal coda positions, and word-final. The study also analyzes syllabic and obstruentized variants of the trill /r/ and /r?/ to determine if rhotics not adjacent to vowels differ acoustically from their vowel-adjacent counterparts. Findings suggest a division between trilling and non-trilling modern standard Slavic languages, with the acoustic properties of the allophones indicating potential future changes. REVIEWERS’ COMMENTS: Prof. Katarzyna Dziwirek highlights the book as an invaluable resource for phoneticians, phonologists, and historical linguists, praising its breadth and detail. Prof. Eduard Werner notes the significant focus on Upper and Lower Sorbian and Kashubian, languages often overlooked in existing literature.
