Ngā āhuatanga o te /r/ o te reo Māori: preliminary investigations into the acoustics of Māori /r/

In this article we present three preliminary investigations into the acoustics of the /r/ sound in te reo Māori, the Māori language. Investigation A considers the spectrographic characteristics and duration of /r/ as produced by male kaumātua (elders) of the MAONZE corpus. These speakers produce /r/ as a tap/flap in most contexts, but with variations in their production as evidenced by spectrographic inspection. An approximant /r/ also appeared in conditioned locations where it was predicted to do so. Investigation B considers the Ngā Mahi corpus, honing in on the potential influence of lexical stress on /r/ duration. Duration was found to increase when /r/ was in closer proximity to the stressed syllable. Investigation C hones in on the fourth formant (F4) in the Ngā Mahi speech. We identify notable F4 lowering timed to /r/ in a wide range of segmental contexts. These investigations provide a starting point for further analysis of Māori /r/.