The use of phonation types in Javanese
Ela Thurgood
English Department, CSU-Chico
The somewhat misnamed breathy voiced vowels of Javanese have
been retermed "slack voiced" by Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996). This
paper extends the analysis of Javanese vowels to a wider range of vowels, describes
in precise detail what the acoustic characteristics of Javanese slack voice
are, and then examines the acoustic characteristics of the 'emphatic' voice
quality often used in Javanese. The acoustic qualities of this emphatic voice
quality are the characteristics usually associated with what is more typically
called breathy voice. Thus, it is necessary to extend the range of voice qualities
found in Javanese from stiff and slack to include this breathy voice used for
emphasis.