Intervocalic consonant voicing vs. lengthening in two Athabaskan languages

For over a century, various authors have described intervocalic consonants in Athabaskan languages as being long (e.g., Sapir 1914 on Chasta Costa, Cook 2004 on Dene Sųɬine (Chipewyan), McDonough and Ladefoged 1993 on Navajo). Such descriptions, even if instrumental, have generally not been very detailed, and have not adequately investigated the factors which may influence lengthening, such as stress and position in word. In this presentation, I first present results of an investigation of effects of position and stress on the duration of consonants with internal cues to duration (fricatives and consonantal sonorants) in two Athabaskan languages, Deg Xinag and Kwadacha Tsek'ene. Results show that intervocalic consonants are longer before stressed than unstressed syllables. Next, I present results of an instrumental study of [t] which shows that a competing and antagonistic process to intervocalic lengthening, intervocalic voicing, is also found in both languages. Intervocalic stops are voiced through approximately 80% of their closure duration before unstressed vowels in both languages. Intervocalic voicing of stops has been reported for Tahltan (Bob 1997) and Dene Sųɬine (McDonough and Wood 2008) but generally not for other Athabaskan languages except for those in which nasals have evolved into voiced obstruents (e.g., Jicarilla Apache, Tuttle 2000).For over a century, various authors have described intervocalic consonants in Athabaskan languages as being long (e.g., Sapir 1914 on Chasta Costa, Cook 2004 on Dene Sųɬine (Chipewyan), McDonough and Ladefoged 1993 on Navajo). Such descriptions, even if instrumental, have generally not been very detailed, and have not adequately investigated the factors which may influence lengthening, such as stress and position in word. In this presentation, I first present results of an investigation of effects of position and stress on the duration of consonants with internal cues to duration (fricatives and consonantal sonorants) in two Athabaskan languages, Deg Xinag and Kwadacha Tsek'ene. Results show that intervocalic consonants are longer before stressed than unstressed syllables. Next, I present results of an instrumental study of [t] which shows that a competing and antagonistic process to intervocalic lengthening, intervocalic voicing, is also found in both languages. Intervocalic stops are voiced through appr...