Phonetic realization of contrastively aspirated affricates in Nepali

International audienceThis paper investigates the phonetic realization of the contrastively aspirated affricates /tsh/ and /dzh/ in Nepali. Static palatography reveals no consistent articulatory difference between these sounds and their nonaspirated counterparts /ts/ and /dz/. However, acoustic examination shows that /tsh/ and /dzh/ differ from /ts/ and /dz/ in several ways depending on the identity of the following vowel (open /a/ vs. palatal /i/). The most prominent and consistent cue to aspiration, voiceless as well as voiced, is breathy or muffled voice and lowered F0 on the following vowel