Acoustic Evidence for High Vowel Devoicing in Lezgi

This study uses acoustic analysis to determine whether unstressed pretonic high vowels in Lezgi are deleted or devoiced. We argue that the vowel gesture is not deleted, but it is overlapped and consequently devoiced by the preceding [s] gesture. We use spectral analysis to test the increased gestural overlap hypothesis. Three results support this hypothesis and consequently the devoicing interpretation: lower average energy in [s] before [u], higher energy in [s] before [i] in contrast to [a], and higher energy in [s] before unstressed [i] in contrast to stressed [a].