Carmel O'Shannessy will speak on "Obstruent Discrimination and Production in Light Warlpiri."

Abstract
Light Warlpiri is a mixed language that combines nominal structure from Warlpiri with verbal structure from English and Kriol (an English-lexified creole) with innovations (O'Shannessy, 2005, 2013). The lexicon is drawn from both Warlpiri and English-lexified sources. Warlpiri has one series of obstruents and no fricatives or affricates (Hale, 1977; Laughren, 1984) while Kriol (Baker, Bundgaard-Nielsen, & Graetzer, 2014) and English have voiced and voiceless obstruents as well as fricatives and affricates. Kriol differs from English in also relying on duration to realise the stop contrast, and in having a limited set of voiceless fricatives (/s ʃ f/; /v/ is an allophone of /b/).

How do these systems combine in Light Warlpiri? I report on a task about English and Kriol-like obstruent discrimination by speakers of Light Warlpiri. The study tests whether speakers of Light Warlpiri behave in accordance with a phonological inventory like that of 1) Warlpiri, resulting in difficulties discriminating all stop and fricative voicing distinctions; 2) Kriol, resulting in difficulties discriminating stop and fricative distinctions based on voicing, but improved discrimination of stop-distinctions based on voicing and duration, or 3) English, resulting in good voicing-based stop and fricative discrimination. I then present preliminary analysis of VOT and constriction duration in stops from Light Warlpiri production data.