Archival examination of Nomlaki vowels

This study examines vowel quality and duration in Nomlaki, a Wintuan language of Northern California that survives via limited archival recordings. Five vowel pairs exist in Nomlaki, amounting to ten vowels in total. Internal tribal educational materials liken the pairs’ distinction to that of English tense/lax pairs [Blankenship, B., and Wenger, P. (1978). (Covelo Indian Community Council, Round Valley Reservation), Chap. 1.]; however, because these materials are written using non-technical language for a general audience, it is unclear which elements of the English tense/lax system are meant to cue the distinction between Nomlaki vowel pairs. This paper investigates the role of quality and quantity in distinguishing these Nomlaki vowels, using unsupervised (k-means), supervised (linear discriminant analysis), and statistical methods. In so doing, this paper is also the first to provide a quantitative analysis of Nomlaki vowels. Results suggest that Nomlaki has begun to depart from the pattern of its sister languages: while vowel pairs maintain their historical length distinction, vowel quality has also begun to shift into a significant cue.