Intrinsic F0 and tongue depth in ATR languages

Intrinsic F0 (IF0) is the tendency for high vowels to have a higher F0 than low vowels. While IF0 has been found for every language studied [D. H. Whalen and A. Levitt, J. Phonetics 23, 349–366 (1995)], none of those languages distinctively contrasted advanced tongue root (ATR). Most languages conflate high tongue position with advanced tongue root, but some distinguish vowels by ATR. Here we report on two such languages, Igbo (a Niger‐Congo language of Nigeria) and Kinande (a Bantu language of Congo). Acoustic analysis of F0 in Igbo suggests that +ATR vowels have higher F0s than their ATR counterparts. For Kinande, a combined acoustic and ultrasound study was performed. All five vowels /ieaou/ occur in ±ATR versions. All +ATR vowels except /i/ had higher F0s than their ATR counterparts. Horizontal depth at tongue root (distance from the jaw to the anterior pharyngeal wall) varied with ATR, as expected, and correlated with F0. Height also affected F0, in an amount of the same magnitude as for ATR. Some of IF0 appears to be attributable to pharyngeal shape (inferred from tongue depth), not to tongue height. Further work will examine which plays the more important role. [Work supported by NIH Grant DC‐02717.]