Acoustic properties of utterance-final prosodic events in Embosi

In some Bantu languages, the utterance-final prosodic juncture has been found to exhibit multiple acoustic properties, like a low f0 and final devoicing (Rialland & Aborobongui, 2016; Zerbian, 2016). However, a detailed quantitative analysis of these acoustic properties is still lacking, and the underlying causes are not well understood. To this end, we carry out an acoustic analysis of the utterance-final prosodic events in Embosi, a Bantu language spoken in the Republic of Congo. We analyze the mean f0, intensity and H1-H2* of the final three moras in an Embosi utterance. We hypothesize that the acoustic properties are correlates of the pulmonic pressure initiation dynamics, i.e., when subglottal pressure drops below the phonation pressure threshold towards the end of an utterance. Thus, f0 and intensity should be lowered and final-devoicing can also occur (Zhang, 2016). It is also likely that a glottal spreading or slackening gesture is present utterance-finally, reducing the vocal fold medial surface thickness. Then, the voice quality might become breathier, which can be characterized by a low f0 and an increase in H1-H2* (Zhang, 2016). The results show that utterance-finally both intensity and f0 are lowered but there is no evidence for an increase in H1-H2*. These findings are more consistent with the pulmonic pressure initiation hypothesis.