An Acoustic Analysis of Vowel Sounds in Kachchi Sindhi

Abstract

Kachchi is one of the six dialects of Sindhi spoken widely in India and the Sindh region of Pakistan. It is also spoken in the Kutch region of Gujarat, India. Kachchi is significantly distinct from other dialects because of geographical, and cultural differences. It is written in Perso-Arabic script in Pakistan and Gujarati script in India. Kachchi is the least studied language, particularly in the field of linguistics (acoustics), and therefore it is the prime focus of the study. The study aims to analyze the acoustic realizations of ten Kachchi vowel sounds. The study is based on ten Kachchi words from ten native Kachchi speakers, residing in Sindh, Pakistan. A total of (10×10×3=300) voice samples were analyzed, and each recording had all ten Kachchi words recorded by native Kachchi speakers. Each word had three utterances. The data consist of ten Kachchi-Sindhi vowels /i:/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, /u/, /e/, /ɛ/, /o/, /ɪ/, /ə/, and /ʊ/, were recorded by ten native Kachchi speakers (5 males and 5 females). For the collection of data, convenience sampling was collected. Four parameters were considered for the acoustic analysis of Kachchi-Sindhi vowels i.e. vowel quality (F1-F2), fundamental frequency (F0), duration, and stop the closure. Vowel quality, durational values of vowels and stop closures are acoustically described in the study. The acoustic examination revealed that the F0 value was relatively higher between female than male speakers. The vowel quality (F1-F2) was analyzed and the vowel space of Kachchi-Sindhi vowel sounds was plotted. The results further revealed that females’ vowel quality (F1-F2) was also higher than males. Between the two stop consonants, voiced alveolar /d/ had the longest durational value than voiceless velar /k/.