Phonetic exponence of word-level stress in Ashaninka(ARAWAK)

This quantitative study examines the phonetic exponents of word-level stress in Ashaninka, an Arawak language of Peru, ISO-639-3 cni; glottocode asha1243. The variety under study is spoken in the Districts of Rio Negro, Satipo, Mazamari, and Llayla of the Satipo province, and District of Pichanaki of the Chanchamayo province of Junin Region. The analysis of Ashaninka word-level stress is based on the audio corpus of elicited speech made during focused fieldwork in the research community. The study results indicate that the right edge oriented primary stress is cued by two robust phonetic exponents, such as duration and intensity. The left edge oriented secondary stress is expressed via intensity. Vowel quality is not a statistically significant correlate to stress in the elicited data, except for the mid back /o/ whose formant structure is indicative of the levels of stress.