The Exposition of the Vowel /ɔ/ in Katuli Dialect

The purpose of this paper is to prove that vowel /ɔ/ is phonetically contrastive in Katuli dialect, spoken in MohammadAbad of Ali Abad-Katul in Golestan province. The research hypothesis concentrates on existence of a back round low-mid vowel in the Katuli dialect. Five old women were interviewed each separately for one hour. They were encouraged to talk about target words so that their natural pronunciations can be recorded. At last, 100 target words containing /o/, /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ vowels were gathered. The words were segmented in Praat. The steady states of vowels were demarcated by a visual examination and minimum change of the second formant. Fundamental frequency, first and second formants were measured for steady states of vowels. Formant vowel space showed that the research hypothesis worthy to investigate. F1 variable was selected as an acoustic cue for tongue height and f2 for place of articulation and lip shape. According to normality of f1 and f2 distributions for three vowels and independence of tongue height from place of articulation and lip shape, two one-way ANOVA tests for f1 and f2 of the vowels were conducted. The tests hypothesized equality of f1 and f2 means each separately in three vowels. Statistical results showed significant differences for f1 and f2 means in three vowels at ɑ = 0.05. We concluded that a phonetic distinction among /o/, /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ can be accepted in Katuli dialect. Vowel /ɔ/ Phonemic distinction was proven too, investigating its minimal pairs and phonemic distribution.