Stressed Vowels in Batsbi
An Exploratory Acoustic Investigation of Vowel Quality and Duration
This presentation reports on an exploratory acoustic investigation of stressed vowels in Batsbi (Tsova-Tush), an endangered Nakh language spoken in a single village in eastern Georgia. The data were collected during the Zemo Alvani Field Research Week (ZAFieR) in August 2026 and consist of elicited lexical items and sentence productions from three native speakers. Using measurements of vowel duration and the first two formants (F1 and F2), the study examines vowel realization across speakers and contexts. As instrumental investigations of the Batsbi vowel system remain scarce, the project aims to provide a preliminary acoustic perspective on the language and establish a basis for future research.
The study focuses on stressed vowels in CVC and CVCVC words. Since unstressed vowels in Batsbi are frequently subject to reduction, the analysis is restricted to stressed syllables in order to provide a more stable basis for acoustic comparison. Vowel realizations are examined in three contexts: isolation, sentence-initial position, and sentence-final position.
Acoustic analysis is based on vowel duration and the first two formants (F1 and F2), allowing for a preliminary assessment of vowel quality and contextual variation. Particular attention is paid to methodological challenges arising from exploratory fieldwork, including heterogeneous elicitation contexts, speaker variation and the selection of suitable acoustic measures.
While descriptions of Batsbi phonology exist, instrumental studies of its vowel system remain limited. The present study therefore aims to contribute an initial acoustic perspective on the language and to establish a foundation for future research. Rather than presenting definitive conclusions, the talk discusses preliminary observations regarding vowel production across speakers and contexts, evaluates the usefulness of different acoustic measures, and outlines directions for a larger-scale study planned as part of an MA thesis.
Speakers
Eva Könings
Completed a BA in Linguistics at Universität Leipzig Part of the Organising Team for the 77th...