〈'〉 in Tsimane': a Preliminary Investigation

Tsimane' is a language spoken in Bolivia by several thousand people. Yet, it has not been described in detail. We aim to take a step towards a better description by focusing on an aspect of language: the sound represented in spelling with 〈'〉, informally described as a glottal stop. We recorded two adult speakers of Tsimane' producing (near-)minimal pairs involving this sound. Perceptual analyses suggested 〈'〉 is very rarely realised as a full glottal stop, and is more often cued by creaky-voiced vow- els and nasals. Despite the variability in implementation, presentation of syllabic minimal pairs to these two informants and two other adult Tsimane' listeners revealed evidence that they could easily perceive when 〈'〉 was intended. Together, these data suffice to rule out the hypothesis that 〈'〉 is systematically realised as a full stop, and suggests instead a more complex set of perceptual cues may be at speakers' and listeners' disposal.