The Dynamics of Closing Diphthong Formant Trajectories in Te Reo Māori

Abstract

Te reo Māori, an Eastern Polynesian language, is one of the official languages of Aotearoa/New Zealand and is spoken by approximately 148,400 people, 84.5% of whom identify as Māori. Two pairs of closing diphthongs are usually described as merging phonetically in the speech of modern language speakers. Some diphthong pairs can be confused for second language learners, although they occur in grammatically and semantically distinct words. The current study examines recordings of 18 elder speakers (9M, 9F) of te reo Māori, collected as part of the MAONZE project, an ongoing investigation of sound change within the language. The aim is to describe these diphthongs in terms of trajectory, duration and overall prominence, using measurements of averaged trajectories of formants (F1 and F2) and duration. Results show that there are differences in duration as well as the formant trajectories within diphthong pairs /ai/, /ae/ and /au/, /ou/, suggesting contrasts beyond formant dynamics.