An investigation of aspiration in nɬeʔkepmxcin

Aspiration is a well-documented feature of sound systems cross-linguistically but is under-researched in Salish languages. Unlike in many Salish languages, a system of aspiration for nɬeʔkepmxcín was proposed where stops were unaspirated, somewhat aspirated, regularly aspirated, and strongly aspirated in four different environments. However, acoustic evidence for the proposed system was needed to confirm the four-category distinction. I present an acoustic analysis of aspiration for voiceless stops in these four environments from three fluent speakers of nɬeʔkepmxcín. My results highlight the need for an updated categorization system to account for the effect of word position rather than surrounding sounds as the main predictor of aspiration.