Aspects of karitiâna vowels

This article represents a quantitatively oriented study of aspects of oral vowels in Karitiâna, an endangered Amazonian language. First, the basic formant characteristics of oral vowels are described, with attention paid to influences such as preceding place of articulation. Second, the effect of wordlevel stress on the spectral tilt of oral vowels is discussed. It is also demonstrated that stressed vowels are more displaced in the F1-F2 plane than their unstressed counterparts. Finally, the normalized vowel spaces of eight speakers are presented. These normalized spaces are suggestive of a sociolinguistic pattern meriting further investigation.