mariaevj

• Evjen, Maria; Roettger, Timo & Johnsen, Sverre Stausland (2025). Investigating potential MERGED and DISTINCT speakers in an ongoing merger — Evidence from production and perception. Laboratory Phonology. 16(1), p. 1–42. doi: 10.16995/labphon.18881. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study investigates whether it is possible to use evidence from production and perception to identify different types of speakers in the study of the ongoing merger of /ʃ/ and /ç/ in Norwegian. Specifically, by investigating the acoustic and perceptual characteristics of the contrast between /ʃ/ and /ç/, we examine whether we can draw a principled line between speakers who have the merger (MERGED speakers) and speakers who do not have the merger (DISTINCT speakers). Our findings indicate that speakers and listeners in part rely on the same parameters when producing and perceiving the contrast between /ʃ/ and /ç/ in Norwegian, most notably spectral standard deviation and intensity. In both production and perception, speakers form continua, from having small or no acoustic differences between /ʃ/ and /ç/ to having large differences, and from having productions which cannot be distinguished by listeners to having productions which are reliably distinguished by listeners. While we find an overlap between these distributions, indicating that some speakers at the extremities are MERGED and DISTINCT speakers, these continua do not allow for a clear boundary between groups. Any grouping of speakers will therefore have to rely on an arbitrary boundary between MERGED and DISTINCT speakers.

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• Evjen, Maria; Johnsen, Sverre Stausland & Roettger, Timo (2026). The acoustics and perception of the Norwegian merger of /ʃ/ and /ç/. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This thesis investigates the ongoing merger of the fricatives /ʃ/ and /ç/ in Norwegian. Despite widespread attention in the literature, the merger has been subject to few thorough phonetic and phonological investigations. In this thesis, the merger is investigated from an acoustic and perceptual perspective. The overarching aims of the thesis are to 1) identify speakers who merge the fricatives (MERGED speakers) and speakers who do not (DISTINCT speakers), 2) document the outcome of the merger, and 3) investigate the motivation for the merger. These topics are addressed in three research papers. Paper I investigates the use of acoustics and perception to identify MERGED and DISTINCT speakers. The results show that speakers form continua both with regard to the magnitudes of their acoustic differences between /ʃ/ and /ç/ and with regard to listeners’ ability to identify their productions. Speakers in the lower and upper ends of the continua are likely to be MERGED and DISTINCT speakers, respectively, but any grouping of these speakers must rely on an arbitrary boundary. Paper II compares the acoustic and perceptual patterns of MERGED and DISTINCT speakers to document the outcome of the merger. The findings show that among the MERGED speakers, we find merging to [ʃ], [ç], and a sound in between. The outcome of the merger is thus subject to between-speaker variation. Paper III investigates the hypothesis that the perceptual similarity between /ʃ/ and /ç/ is the motivation for the merger. The results indicate that listeners confuse /ʃ/ and /ç/ for each other more than they confuse other pairs of Norwegian voiceless fricatives, suggesting that /ʃ/ and /ç/ are perceptually more similar. This similarity might lead to listener misperceptions and subsequently the merger of /ʃ/ and /ç/. In summary, this thesis contributes novel insights into our understanding of the merger of /ʃ/ and /ç/ and highlights the value of investigating acoustics and perception in the study of ongoing sound changes.

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