DOCSLIB.ORG

Linguistics Phonetic Transcription

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Linguistics Phonetic Transcription Linguistics Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology International Phonetic Alphabet Principal Investigator Prof. Pramod Pandey Centre for Linguistics, SLL&CS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067 Paper Coordinator Prof. Pramod Pandey Module ID & Name Lings_P2_M3; International Phonetic Alphabet Content Writer Pramod Pandey Email id [email protected] Phone 011-26741258, -9810979446 Phonetic Transcription Contents: 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The IPA chart 3.3 Features of the IPA Chart 3.3.1 General features Consonants 3.3.2 Consonants 3.3.3 Vowels 3.3.4 Suprasegmentals 3.4 Two main types of phonetic transcription 3.5 Summary Objectives: The main objective of this module is to introduce students to the International Phonetic Alphabet chart and its characteristic features 3.1 Introduction 1 The present module is an introduction to phonetic transcription. We take a detailed look at the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) chart in terms of its main features, features of consonants, vowels and suprasegmentals. In the end, we discuss the two main types of phonetic transcription. 3.2 The IPA Chart In Module1 of the present course, we saw how conventional orthography fails to meet the need of one-to-one correspondence between a written symbol and a sound. This need has been fulfilled by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The abbreviation IPA stands for both the International Phonetic Alphabet and the International Phonetic Association. The alphabet is a product of the efforts of the association. The International Phonetic Association was formed with the intention of developing a script for representing speech sounds that did not depend on the orthographic representation, since the same orthographic form may be pronounced differently in languages that share the orthographic form, as for example, words such as experiment and Paris in English and French. Besides, there are languages that lack a script for writing. The phonetic transcription could then be a useful and the only way of representing the languages. It is because of the IPA that it has been possible to carry out studies on world languages on a massive scale. A detailed introduction to the IPA can be had in the IPA Handbook, which can be freely downloaded at the following URL: https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-handbook-downloads For a brief story of how the IPA has come to be evolved, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet A point that needs to be noted is that the IPA chart is continually revised by the Association at its meetings held at regular intervals. Thus, each new version has features that are added to the chart and that make it different from the earlier versions. The changes are for the most part minor. The version we are looking at below is the 2005 version. 2 The IPA chart is produced below in Table 3-1. 3 Table 3-1: The IPA chart (2005) 3.2 Features of the IPA Chart The IPA chart (2005) has some important features that must be kept in mind in reading it. These features are discussed below under four heads: • General features • Consonants • Vowels • Suprasegmentals 3.2.1General Features of the IPA Chart The goal of the IPA is to represent those features of speech that are linguistically relevant by using letters (e.g. p t k a e, etc.) and diacritic marks. The diacritic marks may be placed above a letter, called ‘superscript’, (e.g. ã and á), below a letter, called ‘subscript’, (e.g. t̪, ‘voiceless dental plosive’, and ḁ, ‘voiceless low central vowel’) or in the middle of a letter, called ‘inscript’ (e.g. ɨ, ‘unrounded high central vowel’ and ɫ (‘voiced velarized alveolar lateral consonant’). An important task for a student aiming to be proficient in the use of the IPA is to know the significance of the letters and diacritic symbols. For this, it is necessary both to produce the sounds of the symbols and as well as the symbols for the sounds heard. Notice that the symbols are used precisely and although the differences between them may be minor they are crucial. For example, both ‘a’ and ‘ɑ’ are variants of the letter ‘a’, one is used in printed texts with conventional spelling, while the other is close to the one used more commonly in handwritten texts. Yet the two symbols signify different sounds: [a] is an ‘unrounded low central vowel’, while [ɑ] is an ‘unrounded low back vowel’. As you go through the list of the symbols in the IPA chart for vowels, you will discover some other letter symbols related to the letter ‘a’, e.g. [ɒ] and [ɐ]. This practice has been guided mainly by the goal to confine the symbols to the Roman symbols. Occasionally Greek symbols are also used (e.g. [β], a ‘voiced bilabial fricative’ and [θ], a ‘voiceless dental fricative’), and for features of speech sounds such as strong articulation/ weak articulation, silent articulation 4 or ‘mouthing’, etc. observed in areas such as language acquisition and speech pathology, there is Extended IPA. In addition to the letters and the diacritic marks, there are marks for the prosodic features Length, Stress, Tone and Intonation. A note of caution for handwritten symbols: unless you are careful, you might not notice the difference in the shape and size of the symbols, as we saw for the vowel symbols ‘a’ and ‘ɑ’. The letter ‘g’ is not an IPA symbol; instead there is ‘ɡ’. Similarly, sometimes students have the tendency to write letters such as [l] as , ‘f’ as , etc. Some of the letters have similar shapes but different sizes, e.g. [ɤ], a vowel and [ɣ], a consonant. Care should be taken to keep them distinct. It is interesting to take a look at the movements that the articulators make in the production of sounds at a stretch, such as a sentence. Take a look at the real-time MRI of the production of a sentence in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTOhDqhCKQs Now, let us turn to look at the charts from the point of view of the convention of presenting them. 3.3 Consonants There are three charts for consonants- for Pulmonic, Non-pulmonic and Co-articulated consonants. The difference between pulmonic and non-pulmonic consonants, as the terms suggest, lies in the source of the air-stream in producing them. Pulmonic sounds are produced with the air coming out (‘egressive’) from the lungs. Non-pulmonic sounds are produced with the air manipulated in the oral tract, either in the larynx or in the area of the velum. The rows in the pulmonic consonant charts are for Manners of articulation from the closest in contact (Plosives) to an opener position (Approximants). Affricates are not included here, but listed separately as instances of co-articulation. The columns in the 5 pulmonic chart are for the Places of Articulation, determined by the contact between the articulators between the lips and the vocal cords. Three of the Places are not separated by solid lines, on the assumption that in a majority of languages consonants in only one of the places occur- Dental, Alveolar and Palato-alveolar. This is not true for all languages. For example, Malayalam has both dental and alveolar plosives [ t̪] and [ ṯ]. In slots in which there are pairs of consonants, the ones on the left are voiceless and the ones on the right are voiced consonants. Unfilled white areas are for possible but rare consonants. Shaded areas are for impossible consonants. Co-articulated consonants are those consonants in the production of which there are two places of articulation, e.g. [kp],̑ a labio-velar consonant in Igbo, an African language, or two manners of articulation, e.g. [ts], a dental affricate in Marathi, which is produced first as a plosive and then quickly as a fricative. 3.4 Vowels There is one vowel chart. The chart deals with mainly monophthong vowels as in bit, cat, ball, etc.. These are produced by keeping the tongue and the jaw constant. Diphthongs or vowels of changing quality, as in try, how, main, etc. are assumed to be combinations of the two monophthongal positions. The chart has two main axes- vertical and horizontal. The vertical axis is mapped by vowel height, while the horizontal axis is mapped by vowel backness. Four degrees of vowel height are represented in the abstract- Close, Close-mid, Open-mid and Open. As the terms suggest, in the production of the Close vowels, the tongue is closest to the roof of the mouth in the vocal tract, as for [i] in bin. Try producing the vowel alone, and go as close to the roof of the mouth as possible. You will find that beyond a point, you don’t get the vowel [i], but a buzzing sound [z], which is consonant. The lowest vowel, called Open vowel, is produced by lowering the jaw as far as possible, for [a]. The lowering and raising of the tongue/ jaw gives you the vowels that differ in height. It is accompanied by a difference in backness. For each degree of height, speakers can use either the Front or the Centre or the Back of the tongue, represented on the horizontal dimension. 6 This way you get pairs such as [i]/ [u], [e]/ [o] etc. for Front and Back vowels or triples such as [i]/ [ɨ]/ [u] for Front, Central and Back vowels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cardinal_vowel_tongue_position-front.svg Besides, Height and Backness, vowels also differ in some languages on the basis of the roundness of lips, as for example, in French and German. Most of you will be familiar with the name Goethe, a great German poet of the 18th Century.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Towards a Practical Phonology of Korean
    Towards a practical phonology of Korean Research Master programme in Linguistics Leiden University Graduation thesis Lorenzo Oechies Supervisor: Dr. J.M. Wiedenhof Second reader: Dr. A.R. Nam June 1, 2020 The blue silhouette of the Korean peninsula featured on the front page of this thesis is taken from the Korean Unification Flag (Wikimedia 2009), which is used to represent both North and South Korea. Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... iii 0. Conventions ............................................................................................................................................... vii 0.1 Romanisation ........................................................................................................................................................ vii 0.2 Glosses .................................................................................................................................................................... viii 0.3 Symbols .................................................................................................................................................................. viii 0.4 Phonetic transcription ........................................................................................................................................ ix 0.5 Phonemic transcription.....................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • And [W] Distinction in Back Round Vowel Contexts
    BRITISH ENGLISH [KW], [K], AND [W] DISTINCTION IN BACK ROUND VOWEL CONTEXTS Helena Beeley University of Oxford [email protected] ABSTRACT the effect of labialization on rounded vowel transi- tions was not discussed in these studies, nor were Corpus data from the Audio British National Cor- English stops with secondary labialization the focus pus was used to compare the acoustics of British of study. This paper aims to analyse the acoustics English stops with velar and/or labial articulation in of phonemic secondary labialization of stops and onset positions preceding back rounded vowels. The approximants and of non-phonemic coarticulatory acoustics of labialized velar stops in British English labialization of stops in back vowel contexts. Due have not commonly been described due to their fre- to the absence of a contrast between labialized velar quent phonological analysis as clusters. Labialized stops and /kw/ clusters in syllable onsets in English velars have been characterized cross-linguistically the question of the exact phonological status of the in terms of low second formant frequency, but it sounds is not considered very relevant to the present was found that third formant frequency is a more discussion. significant cue to differentiation in back rounded vowel contexts. Plain velars with non-phonemic 2. THE CORPUS labialization resulting from proximity to a follow- ing back rounded vowel did not differ significantly The Audio British National Corpus [2] consists of from labialized velars in formant transition frequen- approximately 7 million words of spontaneous En- cies. Lower F3 in labial-velar approximants indi- glish speech. Recordings were collected during the cates more lip-rounding but higher F2 suggests a period 1991 to 1994 using analogue audio casette more fronted tongue position.
    [Show full text]
  • Final Pre-Print. Version 7.0
    Final pre-print. Version 7.0. German, and conversely for /ts/, but seventy years after Trubetzkoy (1939) dis- cussed it, there is still no unanimity among phonologists. Phonologists studying Clicks, Concurrency, and Khoisan German range from those who admit no affricates at all, to those admit every phonetic affricate as a phonological affricate – see Wiese (2000) for a brief re- view. This article, on the other hand, is concerned with the word LINEAR, which is Julian Bradfield part of the usual understanding of SEGMENT. I claim that the restriction to lin- earity is an undue restriction on the definitions of segment (and hence phoneme), University of Edinburgh and that in some languages, entities traditionally viewed as single segments should be viewed as clusters. The difference is that the clusters are concurrent, rather than sequential. To put the thesis in a sentence, sometimes a co-articulated Abstract: I propose that the notions of segment and phoneme be en- segment really is better seen as two articulated co-segments. riched to allow, even in classical theories, some concurrent clustering. The notion of concurrent units is already commonplace in certain situations; My main application is the Khoisan language !Xóõ, where by treating clicks as phonemes concurrent with phonemic accompaniments, the in- languages with lexical tone are viewed as placing tones atop segmental units, ventory size is radically reduced, so solving the problems of many un- whether vowels, syllables or words, and sign languages often compose articu- supported contrasts. I show also how phonological processes of !Xóõ lations from each hand – though there one can argue about whether the com- can be described more elegantly in this setting, and provide support position belongs in the ‘phonology’.
    [Show full text]
  • A Dispersion-Theoretic Account of Taiwanese CV Phonotactics Sheng-Fu Wang New York University
    A Dispersion-Theoretic Account of Taiwanese CV phonotactics Sheng-Fu Wang New York University 1 Introduction Incorporating the notion of contrast in explaining the structure of sound inventories and sound distributions has been an important development in phonological theory. As summed up by Flemming (2004), from the ‘Theory of Adaptive Dispersion’ (Lindblom, 1986, 1988) to ‘Dispersion Theory’ (Flemming, 1996, 2002), three functional goals have been assumed to determine the structure of phonological contrasts: (1) a. Maximise the distinctiveness of contrasts b. Minimise articulatory effort c. Maximise the number of contrasts Flemming’s (2004) work formalizes the notion of maximal distinctiveness with constraints on contrasts, and demonstrates that such constraints better explain sound inventories than markedness constraints that evaluate individual sounds. The major difference is that constraints on contrasts capture the generalization that certain contrasts are absent because of a lack of distinctiveness, not because of inherent markedness of the segments in contrast. In addition to accounting for the structure of inventories, the notion of distinctive contrast has been shown to capture generalization in different phonological phenomena, such as co-occurrence restrictions (Gallagher, 2010) and segmental alternation that preserves phonemic contrasts (Stanton, 2016). Along this line, this study presents data on the surface phonotactics of voicing and nasality in Taiwanese, and aims to demonstrate that perceptual distinctiveness can provide an account for the distribution of segments, and the configuration of these constraints on contrasts is grounded in language-specific phonetic details, in this case, realization of contrastive vocalic nasality. Taiwanese has a phonemic nasal contrast in vowels (i.e., pi55 ‘sad’ vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Developments of the Lateral in Occitan Dialects and Their Romance and Cross-Linguistic Context Daniela Müller
    Developments of the lateral in occitan dialects and their romance and cross-linguistic context Daniela Müller To cite this version: Daniela Müller. Developments of the lateral in occitan dialects and their romance and cross- linguistic context. Linguistics. Université Toulouse le Mirail - Toulouse II, 2011. English. NNT : 2011TOU20122. tel-00674530 HAL Id: tel-00674530 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00674530 Submitted on 27 Feb 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. en vue de l’obtention du DOCTORATDEL’UNIVERSITÉDETOULOUSE délivré par l’université de toulouse 2 - le mirail discipline: sciences du langage zur erlangung der doktorwürde DERNEUPHILOLOGISCHENFAKULTÄT DERRUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITÄTHEIDELBERG présentée et soutenue par vorgelegt von DANIELAMÜLLER DEVELOPMENTS OF THE LATERAL IN OCCITAN DIALECTS ANDTHEIRROMANCEANDCROSS-LINGUISTICCONTEXT JURY Jonathan Harrington (Professor, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) Francesc Xavier Lamuela (Catedràtic, Universitat de Girona) Jean-Léonard Léonard (Maître de conférences HDR, Paris
    [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]
  • UC Merced Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
    UC Merced Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Title Cross-Linguistically Shared and Language-Specific Sound Symbolism for Motion: An Exploratory Data Mining Approach Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2s01d8pf Journal Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 35(35) ISSN 1069-7977 Authors Saji, Noburo Akita, Kimi Imai, Mutsumi et al. Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Cross-Linguistically Shared and Language-Specific Sound Symbolism for Motion: An Exploratory Data Mining Approach Noburo Saji ([email protected]) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science/Keio University, 4-1-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku Yokohama, Kanagawa 223-8521 Japan Kimi Akita ([email protected]) Studies in Language and Culture, Osaka University, 1-8 Machikaneyama-cho Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043 Japan Mutsumi Imai ([email protected]) Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, 5322 Endo Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0882 Japan Katerina Kantartzis ([email protected]), Sotaro Kita ([email protected]) School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT UK Abstract smallness more frequently than words containing /a/. Another celebrated example of sound symbolism is the This paper demonstrates a new quantitative approach to identify what is behind universally sensed sound symbolism association between sonorancy and roundness (Köhler, and sound symbolism detected only by speakers of a 1929/1947). It has been repeatedly observed that speakers of particular language. We presented 70 locomotion videos to many languages prefer a round shape for maluma and an Japanese and English speakers and asked them to create a angular shape for takete (Brenner, Caparos, Davidoff, word that would sound-symbolically match each action, then Fockert, Linnell, & Spence, 2013; Davis, 1961; Holland & to rate the action on five semantic dimensions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1
    Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures The Tiberian Pronunciation Khan Tradition of Biblical Hebrew (Vol. I) The Tiberian Pronunciation Geoffrey Khan Tradition of Biblical Hebrew The form of Biblical Hebrew that is presented in printed edi� ons, with vocaliza� on and Tradition of Biblical Hebrew Vol. I accent signs, has its origin in medieval manuscripts of the Bible. The vocaliza� on and Volume I accent signs are nota� on systems that were created in Tiberias in the early Islamic period The Tiberian Pronunciation The by scholars known as the Tiberian Masoretes, but the oral tradi� on they represent has roots in an� quity. The gramma� cal textbooks and reference grammars of Biblical Hebrew in use today are heirs to centuries of tradi� on of gramma� cal works on Biblical Hebrew in GEOFFREY KHAN Europe. The paradox is that this European tradi� on of Biblical Hebrew grammar did not have direct access to the way the Tiberian Masoretes were pronouncing Biblical Hebrew. In the last few decades, research of manuscript sources from the medieval Middle East has made it possible to reconstruct with considerable accuracy the pronuncia� on of the Tiberian Masoretes, which has come to be known as the ‘Tiberian pronuncia� on tradi� on’. This book presents the current state of knowledge of the Tiberian pronuncia� on tradi� on of Biblical Hebrew and a full edi� on of one of the key medieval sources, Hidāyat al-Qāriʾ ‘The Guide for the Reader’, by ʾAbū al-Faraj Hārūn. It is hoped that the book will help to break the mould of current gramma� cal descrip� ons of Biblical Hebrew and form a bridge between modern tradi� ons of grammar and the school of the Masoretes of Tiberias.
    [Show full text]
  • Formant Characteristics of Malay Vowels
    International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE) Vol. 9, No. 1, March 2020, pp. 144~152 ISSN: 2252-8822, DOI: 10.11591/ijere.v9i1.20421 144 Formant characteristics of Malay vowels Izzad Ramli1, Nursuriati Jamil2, Norizah Ardi3 1,2Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia 3Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: The purpose of this study was to investigate and examined the eight vowels formant characteristic of Malay language. Previous research of Malay Received Dec 3, 2019 language only investigated six basic vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, /ə/. Revised Jan 28, 2020 The vowels /ɔ/, /ε/ that usually exist in a dialect were not included in Accepted Feb19, 2020 the previous investigations. In this study, the vowels sound were collected from five men and four women producing the vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, /ə/, /ɔ/, /ε/ from different regions and dialects in Malaysia. Formant contours, F1 Keywords: until F4 of the vowels were measured using interactive editing tool called Praat. Analysis of the formant data showed numerous differences between Acoustic phonetic vowels in terms of average frequencies of F1 and F2, and the degree of Formant analysis overlap among adjacent vowels. When compared with the International International phonetic alphabet Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), most pronunciation of the Malay vowels were at Malay vowels the same position but the vowel /ε/ seen more likely to become a front vowel Vowel chart instead of a central vowel. Consequently, vowel features of the two Malay allophones /ɔ/ and /ε/ were documented and added to the IPA vowel chart.
    [Show full text]
  • Clicks, Concurrency, and Khoisan
    Final pre-print. Version 7.0. Clicks, Concurrency, and Khoisan Julian Bradfield University of Edinburgh Abstract: I propose that the notions of segment and phoneme be en- riched to allow, even in classical theories, some concurrent clustering. My main application is the Khoisan language !Xóõ, where by treating clicks as phonemes concurrent with phonemic accompaniments, the in- ventory size is radically reduced, so solving the problems of many un- supported contrasts. I show also how phonological processes of !Xóõ can be described more elegantly in this setting, and provide support from metalinguistic evidence and experiment evidence of production tasks. I describe a new allophony in !Xóõ. I go on to discuss other, some rather speculative, applications of the concept of concurrent phoneme. The article also provides a comprehensive review of the segmental phonetics and phonology of !Xóõ, together with previous analyses. 1 Opening 1.1 Introduction Phonology can be said to have emerged as a discipline with the invention, or discovery, of the notion of PHONEME as a contrastive UNIT OF SOUND. Contrast is a much discussed topic, but in this article I concentrate instead on the term UNIT OF SOUND, usually now called a SEGMENT. When in 2006 the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED 2011) re- vised their entry for PHONEME, to have a short definition in everyday language that would cover all the quotations they have in their files, they wrote ‘a unit of sound in a language that cannot be analysed into smaller linear units and that can distinguish one word from another’. These words, although they still reflect an early 20th century view of the subject, neatly encapsulate both an old problem and the related problem I wish to discuss.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Proper Names Are More Equal Than Others. the Sound Symbolic Value of New Names », Cahiers De Lexicologie, N° 113, 2018 – 2, Néologie Et Noms Propres, P
    ELSEN (Hilke), « Some Proper Names are more Equal than Others. The Sound Symbolic Value of New Names », Cahiers de lexicologie, n° 113, 2018 – 2, Néologie et noms propres, p. 79-94 DOI : 10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-08791-5.p.0079 HILKE ELSEN SOME PROPER NAMES ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS The sound symbolic value of new names RESUME – Cet article traite de la valeur symbolique des sons des nouveaux noms propres. Après avoir précisé la signification des termes clés, il présente un test portant sur l’interprétation des noms de médicaments ainsi qu’une expérience effectuée sur des noms de créatures fantastiques. Il montre enfin que certains noms “sonnent” mieux que d’autres, les créateurs de ces noms tentant de livrer des informations par le biais de leur structure phonologique. MOTS-CLES – Noms littéraires, noms artificiels, symbolique phonétique ABSTRACT – This paper is about the sound symbolic value of new names. After discussing the relevant terms and problems concerning the present state of definitions, a test on the interpretation of names of drugs is outlined, followed by an experiment with names for fantastic creatures. As will be shown, some names are better than others, and possible explanations are offered. Name creators do not build their names arbitrarily but try to deliver information via sound structure. KEY-WORDS – Literary names, artificial names, sound symbolism. Introduction Questions concerning sound symbolism are usually not tackled by modern linguists, probably because of the dominance of Western European and US-American research and de Saussure’s conclusion that the relation between form and meaning of the linguistic sign is arbitrary – except for just a few onomatopoetic terms such as cuckoo.
    [Show full text]
  • Effects of Articulatory Training on English Middle-School Learners’ Production and Perception of SENĆOŦEN Uvular Stops
    Effects of articulatory training on English middle-school learners’ production and perception of SENĆOŦEN uvular stops Sarah Smith University of Victoria This study examines the effects of linguistic training (explicit training on the nature of the target sounds) on the perception and production of difficult sound contrasts for middle-school learners of SENĆOŦEN, a Central Salish language. Also, the motivation and attitude towards learning is examined through a self-reporting survey. The participants completed a survey on language attitude and motivation, a production task and a perception task before and after a training session. The training focused on explicitly teaching the physical properties of the production of the target sound (e.g. where the tongue moves in a particular sound). The training did have a positive effect on the production and perception of the difficult sound in SENĆOŦEN in the posttest, but attitude and motivation towards learning language did not change as a result of explicit training in the language. 1 Introduction1 Although much effort has been expended on second language learning and training effects of certain languages, less attention has been paid to the effects of explicit linguistic training. That is, training which involves direct attention to how certain sounds are made in a language. This paper will examine the effects of linguistic training on middle-school learners’ perception and production of a First Nations language—SENĆOŦEN. SENĆOŦEN is a Central Salish language spoken in the Northern Straits around the southern tip of Vancouver Island (Bird & Leonard, 2009a). The phonology of this Central Salish dialect is rich in its consonant inventory (35 consonants) with few vowels (only four) (Montler, 1986).
    [Show full text]