Why Indo-Aryan languages adapt English alveolars as reʈroflexes: Acoustic evidence from Punjabi

In Indo-Aryan languages, English loanwords containing the alveolar /t/ are always adapted as retroflex /ʈ/ [1]. It is argued that English alveolars share the cues of release burst with the retroflexes in Indo-Aryan languages [2]. However, no quantitative acoustic evidence is provided by [2] as to what acoustic cues of English alveolars are important for the speakers of Indo-Aryan languages to adapt the English alveolars as retroflexes. We provide quantitative acoustic evidence from Punjabi, an Indo-Aryan language that contrasts dentals, retroflexes and palatals. Retroflexes have short burst duration compared to dentals [3]. Furthermore, the significant concentration of energy in the burst spectrum is around 3000 Hz for the retroflexes and 4000 Hz for the dentals [5]. The acoustic cues investigated in the current study are burst duration, 1 spectral moment and 2 spectral moment of the burst [4]. Given previous findings of [1 2], we predict that Punjabi speakers’ productions of the English alveolar /t/ will be similar to the native Punjabi retroflex /ʈ/ than dental /t̪/.