DOCSLIB.ORG

A Three-Way Contrast in Rounding

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Three-Way Contrast in Rounding A three-way contrast in rounding Tania E. Strahan [email protected] La Trobe University ltwp-v~1.doc page 1 of 11 A three-way contrast in rounding 1. Introduction Phonologists generally assume binary systems of features, ie [+/–back], [+/–high] (eg Jakobson et al., 1969, Shalev et al., 1993: 98). Indeed, when describing vowels, the three traditional dimensions of front-back, high-low and round-unround can be used to describe vowels in most of the world’s languages. However, work over the past two decades has shown that the features of height and backness are better understood as nonbinary (Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1989: 102). Height may be contrasted in up to five values, and backness may be contrasted in three ways. Norwegian is a language that is cited as showing three degrees of backness in the high vowels (eg Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1989, Shalev et al., 1993). I suggest that, for at least Sunnhordlandsk (Western) Norwegian, only 2 degrees of backness are present, while the high front vowels have the more unusual characteristic of contrasting 3 degrees of rounding. 2. Vowels in Sunnhordlandsk Norwegian Vowels in Sunnhordlandsk (Western) Norwegian include both monophthongs and diphthongs. The monophthongal vowel inventory is shown in Table 1 below. Monophthongs contrast length, with an associated change in quality. Long vowels of monosyllabic words said in isolation tend to be just over 200ms in duration, short vowels around 100ms (this difference is well above the minimum for a just noticeable difference, which is around 50ms). On average short vowels tend to have about 62% of the duration of long vowels (in stressed syllables in monosyllabic words). Where the two vowels in the short-long couplet have different qualities, the short vowel in normally more lax, ie more central, than the long vowel. The five diphthongs are not considered in this paper. Table 1: Long and short monophthongs in Sunnhordlandsk Long vowels Short vowels i ʏ ʉ u ɪ ʏ ʉ ʊ e ø o e œ ɔ æ ʌ ɛ a ltwp-v~1.doc page 2 of 11 The number of contrasts in rounding of vowels in the Sunnhordlandsk system differs depending on vowel height, backness, duration and stress. In stressed syllables, there are eight high vowels which contrast in degree of backness, rounding and duration, here represented by /i, ʏ, ʉ, u/. There are two tense mid-high front vowels that contrast rounding /e/ and /ø/. The front round vowel /ø/ also contrasts in backness with the back round /o/. The low vowels are all unrounded. It is clear from Table 1 that Sunnhordlandsk Norwegian has three phonologically relevant values of height. However, if we plot the formant frequencies, as shown in Figure 1, we can see that, phonetically, there are four values of height that are relevant, with only the short [ʊ] falling not as neatly as the other vowels. The data for Figure 1 is given in Table 1. In Figure 1, the x-axis represents a logarithmically scaled F2-F1, and the y-axis represents F1. The first formant (F1) frequency is indicative of height (300Hz = high, 1,200Hz = low), while the second formant (F2) is generally indicative of some function of rounding and backness (500Hz = back/rounded, 3,000Hz = front/unrounded); a more rounded vowel tends to have a lower F2 value than a less rounded vowel (Ladefoged, 1993). Using the difference between F2 and F1 for the x-axis, rather than F2 alone, is considered a better indicator of vowel backness, since it is the combination of F1 and F2 which produces the auditory effect of backness, not merely the movement of the second formant. The first formant is presented on a logarithmic scale in order to lessen the effect of the greater auditory space in the front region with respect to the articulatory area. Figure 1. Formant frequencies of long and short vowels in stressed syllables in Sunnhordlandsk Norwegian (the F1 scale is logarithmic). F2-F1 i: 10000 1000 100 ɪ 100 ʏ: ʏ ʉ: 300 ʉ e: e 500 ø: ø [œ] F1 æ: 700 æ [ɛ] ɑ: [ʌ:] ɑ [a] 900 o: o [ɔ] u: 1100 u [ʊ] ltwp-v~1.doc page 3 of 11 Table 2: Formant frequencies for long and short monophthongs in Sunnhordlandsk V word gloss F1 F2 F3 F2-F1 iː vin wine 250 2955 3953 2705 ɪ vind wind 519 2455 3169 1936 ʏː hyla scream 275 2384 3903 2109 ʏ hylla shelf 509 2170 3057 1661 ʉː gul yellow 275 2017 3801 1742 ʉ gull gold 500 1681 2850 1181 eː ve(ka) week 509 2282 3189 1773 e vek(ka) wake 754 2241 3322 1487 øː søt sweet (m.) 509 1875 3984 1366 ø [œ] søtt sweet (nt.) 733 1763 3077 1030 æː kjæ(te) cat (m.) 1039 1956 3210 917 æ [ɛ] kjæt(te) cat (f.) 754 1987 3189 1233 ɑː [ʌː] tak roof 743 1192 3790 449 ɑ [a] takk thanks 988 1783 4015 795 oː åte bait 479 723 3780 244 o [ɔ] åtte eight 529 1019 3953 490 uː gjor(de) did 265 509 3719 244 u [ʊ] gjort done 366 540 3780 174 2.1 Too many high front vowels? It is generally possible to predict which vowels a language has a part of its phonological inventory. Engstrang and Krull (1994) state that if a language has a certain number of vowels, then a ‘principle of sufficient contrast’ will predict fairly well which vowels these are. The Adaptive Dispersion Theory states that in any system, the vowels will be ‘spread’ throughout the articulatory region, to maintain contrast between vowels. That is to say that any given language will have more vowels in the regions that allow maximal dispersion, ie the high vowel series and the front vowels, as the phonetic ‘area’ is greater in these places. This prediction holds true for Sunnhordlandsk. However, there is also the suggestion, that for languages which contrast nine vowel qualities, as indeed Sunnhordlandsk does, there will be maximally four values of vowel height or ‘sonority’ and three values of backness or ‘chromicity’ is a matter of some speculation. Vowels in Sunnhordlandsk do have four (phonetic) values of height, but it is difficult to ascertain how many degrees of backness are employed. Let us address this question now. As can be seen in Figure 1, there are four high vowels, represented in Table 1 with the symbols /i, ʏ, ʉ, u/. I will refer to these as Vowel 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively (as illustrated in Table 3) in the following discussion, to avoid confusion with the IPA symbols. ltwp-v~1.doc page 4 of 11 Table 3: The (long) high vowels in Sunnhordlandsk. The IPA characters are approximate, and do not necessarily reflect actual pronunciation (in particular ʉ is not a central vowel). Vowel 1 iː Vowel 2 ʏː Vowel 3 ʉː Vowel 4 uː Vowel 1 is a front, unrounded vowel, with an F2 value of 3,000Hz. Vowel 2 has a type of rounding known variously as ‘protrusive’ (Vanvik, 1978) or ‘exo-rounding’ (Catford, 1988). Its F2 value is around 2,500Hz. Vowel 3 has a type of rounding known as ‘flat’ rounding (Jakobson et al., 1969) or ‘compression’ (Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996), with an F2 value around 2,000Hz. Vowel 4 is a back vowel with compression, and an F2 value of around 500Hz. The question is then: Is there some three-way contrast being exhibited here, and if so, is it in the dimension of backness or rounding? Let us start this discussion with the traditional view in Norwegian linguistics, namely that Vowels 2, 3 and 4 show a three-way contrast in degree of backness. 2.2 Backness There are pairs of vowels in Sunnhordlandsk that contrast only in backness, eg (1) and (2). (1) a. /oː/ [ʃoː] ‘see’ b. /øː/ [ʃøː] ‘sea’ (2) a. /uː/ [duː] ‘loo’ (Vowel 4) b. /ʉː/ [dʉː] ‘you (sg.)’ (Vowel 3) Referring to Table 4, we see that there is a difference of 1100Hz between the F2-F1 difference of the front and back mid-high rounded vowels and 1500Hz between the F2-F1 difference of Vowels 3 and 4. The greater difference between the high vowels is expected, based on the vowel Dispersion Theory. Now, if Sunnhordlandsk Norwegian has a three-way contrast in backness in the high vowels (between Vowels 2, 3 and 4), it might be expected that the F2-F1 value of Vowel 3 would lie approximately half-way between Vowels 2 and 4. Yet if we include the third rounded vowel (Vowel 2) and compare it with Vowels 3 and 4, we see that its F2-F1 value is ltwp-v~1.doc page 5 of 11 367Hz greater than Vowel 3, which is only around 20-25% of the expected difference, if the difference in these three vowels were only in backness. Table 4: F2-F1 differences for selected long monophthongs. Bolded figures are those referred to in the text. V iː ʏː ʉː uː eː øː oː iː 0 ʏː 596 0 ʉː 963 367 0 uː 2461 1865 1498 0 eː 932 336 -31 1529 0 øː 1339 743 376 1122 407 0 oː 2461 1865 1498 316 1529 1122 0 An objection to these arguments can be raised, namely that F2 is representative of backness and rounding, not backness alone. More rounded vowels tend to have a lower F2 than less rounded vowels, thus appearing more back on a formant-based chart than they are actually articulated. The F2 values for Vowel 3 then, might make the vowel appear further forward than it really is, compared with Vowel 2, if Vowel 2 has somehow ‘greater rounding’ than Vowel 3.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Violability of Backness in Retroflex Consonants
    The violability of backness in retroflex consonants Paul Boersma University of Amsterdam Silke Hamann ZAS Berlin February 11, 2005 Abstract This paper addresses remarks made by Flemming (2003) to the effect that his analysis of the interaction between retroflexion and vowel backness is superior to that of Hamann (2003b). While Hamann maintained that retroflex articulations are always back, Flemming adduces phonological as well as phonetic evidence to prove that retroflex consonants can be non-back and even front (i.e. palatalised). The present paper, however, shows that the phonetic evidence fails under closer scrutiny. A closer consideration of the phonological evidence shows, by making a principled distinction between articulatory and perceptual drives, that a reanalysis of Flemming’s data in terms of unviolated retroflex backness is not only possible but also simpler with respect to the number of language-specific stipulations. 1 Introduction This paper is a reply to Flemming’s article “The relationship between coronal place and vowel backness” in Phonology 20.3 (2003). In a footnote (p. 342), Flemming states that “a key difference from the present proposal is that Hamann (2003b) employs inviolable articulatory constraints, whereas it is a central thesis of this paper that the constraints relating coronal place to tongue-body backness are violable”. The only such constraint that is violable for Flemming but inviolable for Hamann is the constraint that requires retroflex coronals to be articulated with a back tongue body. Flemming expresses this as the violable constraint RETRO!BACK, or RETRO!BACKCLO if it only requires that the closing phase of a retroflex consonant be articulated with a back tongue body.
    [Show full text]
  • Sociophonetic Variation in Bolivian Quechua Uvular Stops
    Title Page Sociophonetic Variation in Bolivian Quechua Uvular Stops by Eva Bacas University of Pittsburgh, 2019 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2019 Committee Page UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This thesis was presented by Eva Bacas It was defended on November 8, 2019 and approved by Alana DeLoge, Quechua Instructor, Department of Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh Melinda Fricke, Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh Gillian Gallagher, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, New York University Thesis Advisor/Dissertation Director: Claude Mauk, Senior Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh ii Copyright © by Eva Bacas 2019 iii Abstract Sociophonetic Variation in Bolivian Quechua Uvular Stops Eva Bacas, BPhil University of Pittsburgh, 2019 Quechua is an indigenous language of the Andes region of South America. In Cochabamba, Bolivia, Quechua and Spanish have been in contact for over 500 years. In this thesis, I explore sociolinguistic variation among bilingual speakers of Cochabamba Quechua (CQ) and Spanish by investigating the relationship between the production of the voiceless uvular stop /q/ and speakers’ sociolinguistic backgrounds. I conducted a speech production study and sociolinguistic interview with seven bilingual CQ-Spanish speakers. I analyzed manner of articulation and place of articulation variation. Results indicate that manner of articulation varies primarily due to phonological factors, and place of articulation varies according to sociolinguistic factors. This reveals that among bilingual CQ-Spanish speakers, production of voiceless uvular stop /q/ does vary sociolinguistically.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture 5 Sound Change
    An articulatory theory of sound change An articulatory theory of sound change Hypothesis: Most common initial motivation for sound change is the automation of production. Tokens reduced online, are perceived as reduced and represented in the exemplar cluster as reduced. Therefore we expect sound changes to reflect a decrease in gestural magnitude and an increase in gestural overlap. What are some ways to test the articulatory model? The theory makes predictions about what is a possible sound change. These predictions could be tested on a cross-linguistic database. Sound changes that take place in the languages of the world are very similar (Blevins 2004, Bateman 2000, Hajek 1997, Greenberg et al. 1978). We should consider both common and rare changes and try to explain both. Common and rare changes might have different characteristics. Among the properties we could look for are types of phonetic motivation, types of lexical diffusion, gradualness, conditioning environment and resulting segments. Common vs. rare sound change? We need a database that allows us to test hypotheses concerning what types of changes are common and what types are not. A database of sound changes? Most sound changes have occurred in undocumented periods so that we have no record of them. Even in cases with written records, the phonetic interpretation may be unclear. Only a small number of languages have historic records. So any sample of known sound changes would be biased towards those languages. A database of sound changes? Sound changes are known only for some languages of the world: Languages with written histories. Sound changes can be reconstructed by comparing related languages.
    [Show full text]
  • LT3212 Phonetics Assignment 4 Mavis, Wong Chak Yin
    LT3212 Phonetics Assignment 4 Mavis, Wong Chak Yin Essay Title: The sound system of Japanese This essay aims to introduce the sound system of Japanese, including the inventories of consonants, vowels, and diphthongs. The phonological variations of the sound segments in different phonetic environments are also included. For the illustration, word examples are given and they are presented in the following format: [IPA] (Romaji: “meaning”). Consonants In Japanese, there are 14 core consonants, and some of them have a lot of allophonic variations. The various types of consonants classified with respect to their manner of articulation are presented as follows. Stop Japanese has six oral stops or plosives, /p b t d k g/, which are classified into three place categories, bilabial, alveolar, and velar, as listed below. In each place category, there is a pair of plosives with the contrast in voicing. /p/ = a voiceless bilabial plosive [p]: [ippai] (ippai: “A cup of”) /b/ = a voiced bilabial plosive [b]: [baɴ] (ban: “Night”) /t/ = a voiceless alveolar plosive [t]: [oto̞ ːto̞ ] (ototo: “Brother”) /d/ = a voiced alveolar plosive [d]: [to̞ mo̞ datɕi] (tomodachi: “Friend”) /k/ = a voiceless velar plosive [k]: [kaiɰa] (kaiwa: “Conversation”) /g/ = a voiced velar plosive [g]: [ɡakɯβsai] (gakusai: “Student”) Phonetically, Japanese also has a glottal stop [ʔ] which is commonly produced to separate the neighboring vowels occurring in different syllables. This phonological phenomenon is known as ‘glottal stop insertion’. The glottal stop may be realized as a pause, which is used to indicate the beginning or the end of an utterance. For instance, the word “Japanese money” is actually pronounced as [ʔe̞ ɴ], instead of [je̞ ɴ], and the pronunciation of “¥15” is [dʑɯβːɡo̞ ʔe̞ ɴ].
    [Show full text]
  • The Sound Patterns of Camuno: Description and Explanation in Evolutionary Phonology
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 The Sound Patterns Of Camuno: Description And Explanation In Evolutionary Phonology Michela Cresci Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/191 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE SOUND PATTERNS OF CAMUNO: DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION IN EVOLUTIONARY PHONOLOGY by MICHELA CRESCI A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City Universtiy of New York 2014 i 2014 MICHELA CRESCI All rights reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. JULIETTE BLEVINS ____________________ __________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee GITA MARTOHARDJONO ____________________ ___________________________________ Date Executive Officer KATHLEEN CURRIE HALL DOUGLAS H. WHALEN GIOVANNI BONFADINI Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract THE SOUND PATTERNS OF CAMUNO: DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION IN EVOLUTIONARY PHONOLOGY By Michela Cresci Advisor: Professor Juliette Blevins This dissertation presents a linguistic study of the sound patterns of Camuno framed within Evolutionary Phonology (Blevins, 2004, 2006, to appear). Camuno is a variety of Eastern Lombard, a Romance language of northern Italy, spoken in Valcamonica. Camuno is not a local variety of Italian, but a sister of Italian, a local divergent development of the Latin originally spoken in Italy (Maiden & Perry, 1997, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Palatals in Spanish and French: an Analysis Rachael Gray
    Florida State University Libraries Honors Theses The Division of Undergraduate Studies 2012 Palatals in Spanish and French: An Analysis Rachael Gray Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] Abstract (Palatal, Spanish, French) This thesis deals with palatals from Latin into Spanish and French. Specifically, it focuses on the diachronic history of each language with a focus on palatals. I also look at studies that have been conducted concerning palatals, and present a synchronic analysis of palatals in modern day Spanish and French. The final section of this paper focuses on my research design in second language acquisition of palatals for native French speakers learning Spanish. 2 THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES PALATALS IN SPANISH AND FRENCH: AN ANALYSIS BY: RACHAEL GRAY A Thesis submitted to the Department of Modern Languages in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in the Major Degree Awarded: 3 Spring, 2012 The members of the Defense Committee approve the thesis of Rachael Gray defended on March 21, 2012 _____________________________________ Professor Carolina Gonzaléz Thesis Director _______________________________________ Professor Gretchen Sunderman Committee Member _______________________________________ Professor Eric Coleman Outside Committee Member 4 Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 5 0.
    [Show full text]
  • Information to Users
    INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information C om pany 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9401204 Phonetics and phonology of Nantong Chinese Ac, Benjamin Xiaoping, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1993 Copyri^t ©1993 by Ao, Benjamin Xiaoping.
    [Show full text]
  • Velar Segments in Old English and Old Irish
    In: Jacek Fisiak (ed.) Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1985, 267-79. Velar segments in Old English and Old Irish Raymond Hickey University of Bonn The purpose of this paper is to look at a section of the phoneme inventories of the oldest attested stage of English and Irish, velar segments, to see how they are manifested phonetically and to consider how they relate to each other on the phonological level. The reason I have chosen to look at two languages is that it is precisely when one compares two language systems that one notices that structural differences between languages on one level will be correlated by differences on other levels demonstrating their interrelatedness. Furthermore it is necessary to view segments on a given level in relation to other segments. The group under consideration here is just one of several groups. Velar segments viewed within the phonological system of both Old English and Old Irish cor relate with three other major groups, defined by place of articulation: palatals, dentals, and labials. The relationship between these groups is not the same in each language for reasons which are morphological: in Old Irish changes in grammatical category are frequently indicated by palatalizing a final non-palatal segment (labial, dental, or velar). The same function in Old English is fulfilled by suffixes and /or prefixes. This has meant that for Old English the phonetically natural and lower-level alternation of velar elements with palatal elements in a palatal environ ment was to be found whereas in Old Irish this alternation had been denaturalized and had lost its automatic character.
    [Show full text]
  • Nasalization of the Initial Consonant (D-) of the Present Perfect Tense Marker (-Dẹ) After the Main Verb in Ịzọn: a Case Study of the Tarakiri Dialect
    US-China Foreign Language, ISSN 1539-8080 January 2014, Vol. 12, No. 1, 36-43 D DAVID PUBLISHING Nasalization of the Initial Consonant (d-) of the Present Perfect Tense Marker (-dẹ) After the Main Verb in Ịzọn: A Case Study of the Tarakiri Dialect God’spower Tamaraukuro Prezi Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Nigeria In Ịzọn, as in Akan and Edo, nasalization is distinctive, because it brings about a change in meaning as in: /s/ “fight” and /s/ “to stretch”; /bu/ “soft” and /bu/ “honey”. /d/ and /n/ are both alveolar stops in Ịzọn: /d/ is an oral stop, while /n/ is a nasal stop. Also, while /d/ is a voiced alveolar plosive, /n/ is an (voiced) alveolar nasal. This means, in effect, that the two consonants (/d/ and /n/) are homorganic in Ịzọn, because they are made at the same place of articulation and with the same articulators. However, in many verbs, whose present perfect tenses are represented by -dẹ in the Tarakiri dialect of Ịzọn, the -dẹ is changed to -nẹ after the main verb. That is, in phonological terms, /d/ rewrites as /n/ in the environment after a syllable consisting of a nasal consonant or a nasalized vowel, i.e., [+ voice + alveolar + plosive] becomes [+ alveolar + nasal] after [+ nasal]. This paper looks at, describes, and examines this phonological process/phenomenon of the replacement of an oral stop by a nasal stop after a syllable consisting of a nasal consonant or a nasalized vowel. Keywords: Ịzọn, Tarakiri, homorganic, nasal, nasalization, -dẹ, -nẹ, assimilation Introduction A Brief Introduction to Ịzọn Ịzọn is the major one of the Ijoid group of languages spoken in the Niger Delta Region and the South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria.
    [Show full text]
  • Vowels and Consonants
    VOWELS VOWELS AND CONSONANTS THIRD EDITION Praise for the previous edition: “This is a fascinating, accessible, and reader-friendly book by a master phonetician, about AND how speech sounds are made, and how they can be analyzed. I warmly recommend the book to everyone with an interest, professional or otherwise, in spoken language.” John Laver, Queen Margaret University College Praise for the third edition: CONSONANTS “This book conveys an amazing range of current science, including phonetics, CONSONANTS psycholinguistics, and speech technology, while being engaging and accessible for novices. This edition maintains Ladefoged’s friendly, enthusiastic style while adding important updates.” Natasha Warner, University of Arizona This popular introduction to phonetics describes how languages use a variety of different sounds, many of them quite unlike any that occur in well-known languages. Peter Ladefoged rightly earned his reputation as one of the world’s leading linguists, and students benefitted from his accessible writing and skill in communicating ideas. The third edition of his engaging introduction to phonetics has now been fully updated to reflect the latest trends in the field. It retains Peter Ladefoged’s expert writing and knowledge, and combines them with Sandra Ferrari Disner’s essential updates on topics including speech technology. Vowels and Consonants explores a wide range of topics, including the main forces operating on the sounds of languages; the acoustic, articulatory, and perceptual THIRD EDITION components of speech; and the inner workings of the most modern text-to-speech systems and speech recognition systems in use today. The third edition is supported by an accompanying website featuring new data, and even more reproductions of the sounds of a wide variety of languages, to reinforce learning and bring the descriptions to life, at www.wiley.com/go/ladefoged.
    [Show full text]
  • Phonetics and Phonology Seminar Introduction to Linguistics, Andrew
    Phonetics and Phonology Phonetics and Phonology Voicing: In voiced sounds, the vocal cords (=vocal folds, Stimmbände) are pulled together Seminar Introduction to Linguistics, Andrew McIntyre and vibrate, unlike in voiceless sounds. Compare zoo/sue, ban/pan. Tests for voicing: 1 Phonetics vs. phonology Put hand on larynx. You feel more vibrations with voiced consonants. Phonetics deals with three main areas: Say [fvfvfv] continuously with ears blocked. [v] echoes inside your head, unlike [f]. Articulatory phonetics: speech organs & how they move to produce particular sounds. Acoustic phonetics: what happens in the air between speaker & hearer; measurable 4.2 Description of English consonants (organised by manners of articulation) using devices such as a sonograph, which analyses frequencies. The accompanying handout gives indications of the positions of the speech organs Auditory phonetics: how sounds are perceived by the ear, how the brain interprets the referred to below, and the IPA description of all sounds in English and other languages. information coming from the ear. Phonology: study of how particular sounds are used (in particular languages, in languages 4.2.1 Plosives generally) to distinguish between words. Study of how sounds form systems in (particular) Plosive (Verschlusslaut): complete closure somewhere in vocal tract, then air released. languages. Examples of phonological observations: (2) Bilabial (both lips are the active articulators): [p,b] in pie, bye The underlined sound sequence in German Strumpf can occur in the middle of words (3) Alveolar (passive articulator is the alveolar ridge (=gum ridge)): [t,d] in to, do in English (ashtray) but not at the beginning or end. (4) Velar (back of tongue approaches soft palate (velum)): [k,g] in cat, go In pan and span the p-sound is pronounced slightly differently.
    [Show full text]
  • Natasha R. Abner –
    Natasha R. Abner Interests Sign languages, morpho-syntax, syntax-semantics interface, language development & emergence. Employment 2017–present University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Assistant Professor Linguistics Department Sign Language & Multi-Modal Communication Lab Language Across Modalities 2014–2017 Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ. Assistant Professor Linguistics Department 2012–2014 University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Postdoctoral Scholar Goldin-Meadow Laboratory Department of Psychology Education 2007–2012 PhD in Linguistics. University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Fall 2010 Visiting student. Département d’études cognitives École normale supérieure Paris, France 2001–2005 BA in Linguistics, Summa Cum Laude. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Theses Dissertation Title There Once Was a Verb: The Predicative Core of Possessive and Nominalization Structures in American Sign Language Committee Hilda Koopman and Edward Stabler (chairs), Karen Emmorey, and Edward Keenan Master’s Thesis Title Right Where You Belong: Right Peripheral WH-Elements and the WH-Question Paradigm in American Sign Language Linguistics Department – 440 Lorch Hall – Ann Arbor, MI Ó (734)764-0353 • Q [email protected] Last Updated: April 27, 2019 1/11 Committee Edward Stabler and Anoop Mahajan (chairs), and Pamela Munro Honor’s Thesis Title Resultatives Gone Minimal Advisors Acrisio Pires and Samuel Epstein Grants & Awards 2019 Honored Instructor University of Michigan 2018 New Initiative New Infrastructure (NINI) Grant ($12,500) University of Michigan 2016 Summer Grant Proposal Development Award Montclair State University 2011–2012 Dissertation Year Fellowship UCLA 2010–2011 Charles E. and Sue K. Young Award UCLA + Awarded annually to one student from the UCLA Humanities Division for exemplary achievement in scholarship, teaching, and University citizenship.
    [Show full text]