Summary: | Based on an acoustic analysis we examine the variation between the vowel systems of Northern Lacandon, Southern Lacandon and Yucatec. The analysis shows evidence of the change in the middle central vowel, the long vowels, the accent pattern and the display of the laryngeal feature. The acoustic analysis shows that, phonetically, the peripheral vowels of Southern Lacandon and Yucatec can be produced with lengthening. This fact confirms the closeness between both languages. However, contrary to what has been said, in Northern Lacandon, phonetically there is no lengthening in the peripheral vowels. Regarding their accent pattern, we propose that Southern Lacandon and Yucatec are sensitive to syllabic weight, while Northern Lacandon has an immovable accent pattern. Finally, we show that the laryngeal vowels in Northern Lacandon and Southern Lacandon have a different production. In the first case the vowel has a glottal stop, while in the last case the vowel is rearticulated.
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