Supplementary Material for: Acoustic Realization and Inventory Size: Kannada and Malayalam Alveolar/Retroflex Laterals and /ɻ/

This study examines formant and spectral moment data for the apical and retroflex lateral sounds /l ɭ/ of the Dravidian languages Kannada and Malayalam, together with the rhotic /ɻ/ of Malayalam. Data are presented for 10 male speakers of each language. We find that the first spectral moment is lower for retroflex laterals than for alveolar laterals, and lower for the rhotic /ɻ/ of Malayalam than for the retroflex lateral in the same language. Differences emerge when the retroflex lateral of Kannada is compared with the same sound in Malayalam. For both languages, F1 is higher and F3 and F4 are lower for the retroflex /ɭ/ than for the alveolar /l/. However, F2 is higher for the retroflex than for the alveolar sound in Kannada, but lower in Malayalam. This difference is also reflected in differences in the second spectral moment between the languages. It is suggested that since proximity of F2 and F3 is known to be a defining feature of the rhotic /ɻ/ in Malayalam, principles of phonetic dispersion apply to keep F2 from becoming too close to F3 for the retroflex lateral /ɭ/ of Malayalam, but not for the same sound in Kannada.

本研究针对达罗毗荼语系（Dravidian languages）中卡纳达语（Kannada）与马拉雅拉姆语（Malayalam）的舌尖齿龈边音/l/与卷舌边音/ɭ/，以及马拉雅拉姆语的卷舌近音/ɻ/的共振峰（formant）与谱矩（spectral moment）数据展开分析，共采集两种语言各10名男性发音人的语料。研究发现，卷舌边音的一阶谱矩低于齿龈边音，且马拉雅拉姆语的卷舌近音/ɻ/的一阶谱矩低于该语言内的卷舌边音；对比卡纳达语与马拉雅拉姆语的卷舌边音时，二者亦存在显著差异。针对两种语言的声学参数分析显示：卷舌边音/ɭ/的第一共振峰（F1）均高于齿龈边音/l/，第三、第四共振峰（F3、F4）则低于齿龈边音，但第二共振峰（F2）存在跨语言差异——卡纳达语中卷舌边音的F2高于齿龈边音，而马拉雅拉姆语则恰好相反。这一差异同样体现在两种语言间的二阶谱矩差异中。研究提出，鉴于已有研究证实F2与F3的接近程度是马拉雅拉姆语卷舌近音/ɻ/的核心声学特征，依据语音分散原则，马拉雅拉姆语的卷舌边音/ɭ/需避免F2与F3过于接近，但卡纳达语的卷舌边音则无此约束。