Preaspiration as a correlate of word-final voice in Scottish English fricatives

This is an updated version of working paper #12 http://www.qmu.ac.uk/casl/news/WP.htmBerlinThis chapter investigates the acoustics of aspiration noise in the intersegmental transition between a vowel and a following fricative, and how Scottish English speakers use this turbulence to convey phonologicalphonetic structure. 'Preaspiration' - the perceptually salient aspiration present in vowel-obstruent transitions - is usually associated with stops rather than fricatives, both at phonological and phonetic levels of description. This study describes the occurrence of phonetic (nonnormative) preaspiration of voiceless fricatives in Scottish Standard English (SSE), spoken in the Central Belt of Scotland. This variety-specific optional characteristic is variably present in different SSE speakers, and results from a learnt dissociation of the lingual and supralaryngeal gestures required for voiceless fricatives. 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