/fɑɪs/, /fes/ or /feɪs/? Teachers’ phonetic accommodation of diphthongs in an L2 classroom setting

Author(s): Piotr Steinbrich / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2016

The following paper aims to investigate whether, and if so to what extent, native speaker teachers resort to phonetic accommodation in the use of diphthongs in the classroom setting. In the course of analysis, seven native speaker teachers, each representing a different variety of British English, were recorded in two distinct contexts: classroom and natural. The recordings were used in acoustic analysis in order to gauge potential differences in F1 and F2 in each context. It was concluded that phonetic accommodation does occur in the classroom setting and the modifications of either individual segments or the whole glides can be observed, irrespective of the native accent of the user. It was found, however, that the speakers representing northern varieties of English accommodate more than those speaking with other accents. Another important observation resulting from the analysis was that some diphthongs are likely to undergo phonetic accommodation more than others. On the one end of the cline we observe the diphthong price, whereas the other end is occupied by the glides goat and cure. It is still unclear, however, whether the modifications occur consciously, thus representing a rather developed declarative knowledge of the users, or subconsciously, which would suggest an inner need to attempt to pronounce diphthongs in a standardized way.

ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF POST-ACCENTUAL QUANTITY IN SERBIAN

Author(s): Aleksandra Loncar Raicevic / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Due to its inconsistency, the prosodic norm of the Serbian language has generated a lot of discussion within the linguistic community. What has particularly been obvious in recent times is the major discrepancy between the prescribed and the actual language in use. Deviations from the norm relate to the sequence of accents and the repertoire of prosodic units. However, one of the most unstable positions is considered to be the pronunciation of the post-accentual length, which, based on the conducted research, is often equalized with the post-accentual shortness in younger population. This paper studies the pronunciation of the post-accentual length in the speech of western Serbia, and employs an acoustic analysis of duration and listening perception to examine the patterns of the disappearance of the post-accentual length (depending on the position within a word, type of syllable, type of accent, etc.).

Ainsuse pika ja lühikese sisseütleva valiku olenemine morfofonoloogilistest tunnustest – korpusanalüüs

Author(s): Ann Metslang / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 60/2014

This study examines the choice between the singular long and short illative case. The research question examined is which morphophonological variables are statistically significant for choosing the long or short illative case. The variables considered were gradation, the type and direction of gradation, the quantity degree of the base form, stem-final alternation and the stem-final alternation pattern, the final sound of the base form and the number of syllables in the genitive stem. The data for the study came from the Morphologically Disambiguated Corpus of the University of Tartu. A total of 1710 illative case forms were analysed. With the help of the computer software program R, a chi-square test and standardized Pearson residuals were performed. Based on the standardized Pearson residuals, the short illative is more likely when the word has gradation or quality alternation, the word has stem-end alternation, the final sound of the word’s base form is a consonant or there are more than three syllables in the genitive stem. Likewise, the short illative is more likely when the stem-final alternation pattern has words belonging to the seminar, redel, kringel, siil, sai, lagi, nali, sõber and õnnelik types. The long illative is more likely if the word has no gradation (or has quantity alternation), the word has no stem-final alternation (or the stem-final alternation pattern has the ending -(V)s, if the word has the ending -(V)ne or -ke, if the word belongs to the suur, küünal, soolane, uus–küüs, or käsi type, the final sound of the word’s base form is a vowel or there are three syllables in the genitive stem. The direction of gradation and the quantity degree of the base form are not statistically significant factors in the choice between the short and the long illative. However, the short illative form was preferred by all morphophonological variables in the analysed data. Future studies could perform a multivariate analysis with morphosyntactic and semantic variables.

Akustičke značajke vokalnoga zamora

Author(s): Gordana Kovacic,Emica Farago / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 1/2017

Vocal fatigue is characterized by self-perceived increased laryngeal strain and voice quality changes. The condition can have organic or/and functional causes. Typically, it affects vocal professionals, and teachers are most numerous among them. Despite great number of studies, many questions about vocal fatigue such as its acoustic characterstics are still open. The hypothesis of the present study conducted on female teachers was that there are significant differences in acoustic variables between vocally fatigued teachers (N=23) and teachers without it (N=27). Running speech and prolonged phonation of the vowel /a/ were analyzed in PRAAT software calculating the long-term average speech spectrum LTASS and harmonic spectrum. The average speech F0 and series of spectral variables were calculated: the strength of the strongest spectral peak L0, the α ratio of the level difference above and bellow 1 kHz for the 0-5 kHz range analyzed, and the variables Δ1, Δ2, Δ3 and Δ4 showing the ratios of the respective spectral energy bands of 1-2 kHz, 2-3 kHz, 3-4 kHz and 4-5 kHz relative to the 0-1 kHz reference. The average H1/H2 ratio based on harmonic spectrum of three samples of the prolonged vowel /a/ production was calculated as well. The hypothesis was tested by multivariate and univariate analyzes of variance and discriminant analysis. The results showed that there are no significant differences in the set of acoustic variables between the two teacher groups, thus the hypothesis was rejected. However, the average speech F0 showed to be strong single discriminator. Its mean value in the group of teachers with vocal fatigue, that is 176 Hz, suggests dysfunction. Several factors may explain the absence of acoustic differences between the two groups, one of the most compelling of which is the fact that both groups reported similar numbers of subjective vocal and physical complaints. The results confirm the complex phenomenology of vocal fatigue syndrome, and suggest that acoustic analysis may have limited power to detect it.

An etymological case study on the and vocabulary in robert beekes’s new etymological dictionary of greek: m

Author(s): Filip De Decker / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

This article presents an etymological case study on Pre-Greek (PG): it analyzes about 20 words starting with the letter M that have been cataloged as or in the new Etymological dictionary of Greek (EDG), but for which alternative explanations are equally possible or more likely (discussing all instances would be tantamount to rewriting the dictionary). The article briefly discusses the EDG (for an in-depth appraisal the reader is referred to part one of the article) and then analyzes the individual words. This analysis is performed by giving an overview of the most important earlier suggestions and contrasting it with the arguments used to catalogue the word as PG. In the process, several issues of Indo-European phonology (such as the phoneme inventory and sound laws) will be discussed.

Anita Lorenc, Wymowa normatywna polskich samogłosek nosowych i spółgłoski bocznej, Warszawa 2016

Author(s): Andrii Baran / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 02/2017

The review of: Anita Lorenc, Wymowa normatywna polskich samogłosek nosowych i spółgłoski bocznej, Dom Wydawniczy „Elipsa”, Warszawa 2016, ss. 370

Aporije jezičke ideologije

Author(s): Zorana Simic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 19/2015

Archaic features of Bogdani’s language: overlappings with southern dialects

Author(s): Anila Omari / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2015

Albanologists have long noted a greater closeness between the two main dialects of Albanian, the Gheg and the Tosk, during an earlier stage of Albanian language. Gustav Meyer, questioning Hahn’s argument as being unsupported by facts, according to whom differences between the Gheg and Tosk dialects reflected an ancient division between the Illyrian and Epirotic languages, wrote: “In ogni caso la odierna differenza fra il gego e il tosco, la quale non è poi tanto grande, può derivare da una distinzione posteriore. Lo studio dell’albanese parlato in Grecia mi fa presentemente ritenere questa opinione come la piu plausibile.” Other scholars, such as Jokl and Tagliavini, later expressed that same position. After Gjon Buzuku’s Missal (1555) was discovered, various Arbëresh (i.e. Italo-Albanian) scholars offered remarks concerning similarities between the language of the earliest (known) Albanian author and that of the varieties of the Arbëresh of Italy.

Artikulacijsko-fonološke sposobnosti djece s cerebralnom paralizom

Author(s): Emica Farago,Draženka Blaži,Martina Vukovic Ogrizek / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 1/2016

The goal of this research was to examine and compare articulation and phonological abilities in children with cerebral palsy and their typically developing peers. An examination was conducted on a sample of 15 children with cerebral palsy and 15 typically developing children. The two groups were equalized by gender and age. The measuring instruments used were the Articulation Test and phonological ability tasks. The data were analysed using the robust discriminative analysis, t-test, chi-square test, as well as the Cohran-Cox test. The results showed a signifycant statistical difference in articulation and phonological abilities between children with cerebral palsy and typically developing children. The difference between the groups is for the most part due to the variables deletion of consonants and number of articulation errors. The variables first voice segregation, phonemic analysis, and rhyme searching are also signifi cant in creating this discriminant function. The results also confirm statistical differences in articulation and phonological abilities that are related to the type of cerebral palsy. A group of children with a spastic type of cerebral palsy was more successful in phoneme analysis, syllable analysis, consonant deletion tasks, and rhyme searching tasks. They also had better articulation abilities.

Atgriezeniskuma formālie rādītāji latviešu valodā

Author(s): Andra Kalnaca / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 3/2013

Latvian has different types of reflexive markers – the light form – a verbal affix, the heavy form and superheavy form, which are usually pronominal. In Standard Latvian the light reflexive marker is expressed by the final -s in verbal finite and non-finite forms. In Latvian subdialects, in prefixed verbs the light reflexive marker stands between the prefix and the root, e.g., sa-sa¬-runāt ‘to speak’ (Standard Latvian sarunāties) in Couronian subdialects of the Middle Dialect, na-sa-klauseit ‘not to listen’ (Standard Latvian neklausīties) in the High Latvian Dialect. The light marker can occur twice – the element -sa- between the prefix and the root as well as the final s: pa-sa-priecātie-s ‘to be happy’ (Standard Latvian papriecāties), ap-sa-rauduotī-s ‘to start crying’ (Standard Latvian apraudāties’). Heavy reflexive markers in Latvian are attested in the form of the reflexive pronoun sevi (ACC) or sev (DAT): es neieredzu sevi ‘I hate myself’, es nopirku sev grāmatu ‘I bought myself a book’. Superheavy reflexive markers in Latvian take the form of a cluster of two pronominals – the emphatic pronoun pats/pati (NOM) + reflexive pronoun sevi (ACC) or sev (DAT): es neieredzu pats sevi / sevi pats ‘I hate myself (male speaker)’, es nopirku pati sev / sev pati grāmatu ‘I bought myself a book (female speaker)’. Examples with pašu (ACC) and pašam, pašai (DAT) in the cluster of pronominals also attested.

Avrasya Türkçelerinin Karşılaştırmalı İncelenmesi

Author(s): Mehman Musaoglu / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 124/2004

This article focuses on diachronical descriptive studies of Turkic written languages and dialects, both confrontative and contrastive. These studies, which have commenced in 11th century and increased in number from the 19th century forth, are described and reviewed here. These languages, for which we coin the term 'modern Eurasian Turkic languages', are re-described according to written dialects and sociolinguistic spoken languages.

Białoruskie elementy językowe w rosyjskiej gwarze staroobrzędowców mieszkających w regionie suwalsko-augustowskim

Author(s): Dorota Pasko-Konieczniak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 38/2014

The article deals with the Belarusian elements in the Russian dialect of the Old Believers living in Poland. The Old Believers arrived in Poland in the second half of the 18th century. At present they live in the Suwałki-Augustów region in the north eastern Poland. They inhabit mostly two villages in the county of Suwałki, namely Gabowe Grądy and Bór, which are very close to each other, and three towns: Augustów, Suwałki and Sejny. The dialect used by the Polish Old Believers represents the western Central Great Russian dialects characterized by akanie, the so-called Pskov group. They share features which are typical of Pskov. The dialect was also influenced by other north-eastern Belarusian dialects, that is, the ones which were closest to the areas originally inhabited by Old Believers, who migrated in phases. After each phase, their dialect came to reflect some new linguistic influences. A large number of lexemes directly borrowed from Polish, or via the Belarusian language, are found in this dialect, which is also characterized by other features common in Belarusian dialects or the Bulgarian language. By way of illustration, they include the following features: the prosthetic j-, prosthetic v-, the occurrence of the endings -im and -ym in the case of singular masculine adjectives in the locative, promotion of the endings -i and -y in the case of the plural masculine and neutral nouns in the nominative, and the occurrence of lexemes borrowed from the Belarusian language.

Borrowings in Ukrainian: Etymological, Semantic, and Orthographic Issues

Author(s): Maksym O. Vakulenko / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

In the article, the borrowings in Ukrainian as a linguistic and terminological problem are studied on the basis of etymological, comparative, morphosemantic, and acoustic phonetic analysis. It is shown that one of the most prevalent modifications that foreign words undergo in Ukrainian is a shift of values that can lead sometimes to the breach of motivation ties with the etymon meaning, and to irregularities or distortions of lexical semantic relations and to unwanted connotations. Therefore, normalization of foreign words usage is extremely important. In addition, excess of foreign words in Ukrainian – as in many European languages – often causes orthoepic and orthographic difficulties in their mastering. It is expedient therefore to intensify use of native units, minimizing the number of unnecessary borrowings. Relevant spelling propositions are formulated, including the use of the Ukrainian “ă” and “č” and expediency of some simplifications in the loanwords.

Bosančica Divkovićevih izdanja između ustava, minuskule i brzopisa

Author(s): Mateo Žagar / Language(s): Croatian / Publication Year: 0

Kao što je poznato, pismo Divkovićevih izdanja, tako i velikoga Nauka krstjanskoga (VNK), otisnutoga u Veneciji 1611. g, višestruko stoji na razmeđu: uzusa ustavne, minuskulne i brzopisne ćirilice, ali i između uzusa staroslavenske i zapadne (latiničke) grafi je i ortografi je, između oslanjanja na fonologiju onodobnih bosanskih govora i na naslijeđenu staroslavensku praksu itd. Isto tako, Divkovićev VNK stoji i na razmeđu povišenoga i pučkoga, između rukopisa i nove tehnologije, još uvijek između srednjega vijeka i novovjekovlja, doslovce na rubu zapadne i istočne Europe, u kontekstu između latinske i crk venoslavenske tradicije u koji se uglavljuje književnojezični izraz utemeljen na narodnome idiomu.

Bünyesinde Art Veya Ön Damak /G/ Ünsüzü Bulunduran Yapim Eklerinin Eski Türkçeden Eski Anadolu Türkçesine Tarihsel Seyirleri Üzerine

Author(s): Aziz Gökçe / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 61/2010

The progress of fore palate and rear palate consonants /g/ used in Old Turkish period within Modern Turkish have attracted attention of Turkish Language researchers. But only general outline of rules were mentioned about them. In this article some specific cases of fore palate and rear palate consonants “g” which have been out of consideration of researchers are mentioned and their historical development throughout Old Turkish and Old Anatolian Turkish. Examples of construction affixes which include fore palate and rear palate consonants have been given from all historical written language of Turkish considering its functions of derivation from nouns or verbs.

classroom talk; gender; interruptions; language; overlaps

Author(s): Margareta Bašaragin / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 47/2016

This paper aims to explore form and function of overlap and interruption sequences in a classroom talk and how they affect the formation of gender and language identities of pupils in Serbian and Hungarian classes during the final year of bilingual primary schools in Subotica (Vojvodina) in the year 2015. The basic unit of analysis is one IRE-circle presented in turn, consisting of multiple or single speech contributions of actors, which are further divided into single predications as the smallest units of analysis. The corpus consists of the fine transcript of two video recordings of mother tongue lessons in Serbian and Hungarian classes during the final year of primary schools. The results confirm the differences in overlaps and interruptions performed by male and female pupils and by a teacher in both cultural micro-groups. They are mostly cooperative but there are also some intrusive interruptions in a classroom talk that influence the conversational status of participants. The classroom talk is the socialization model and affects the formation of stereotypical gender-based behavioral patterns of female and male pupils.

Complexities in the Level Tone Systems of Naish Subgroup (Sino-Tibetan languages)

Phonological and Phonetic Perspectives on Qiansuo Na

Author(s): Xu Duoduo / Language(s): English / Issue: 1-2/2015

The level tone systems, widely spread in the Naish subgroup of Sino-Tibetan languages, are contrastive in comparison with the register tone systems as spotted in Sinitic languages. This paper reviews published evidences about the tonal systems in languages of the Naish subgroup of Sino-Tibetan languages and presents the results of a preliminary analysis on Qiansuo Na, a new field of documentation in the Na language studies. After a brief introduction on the background of Na, the second section aims at displaying the level tone systems revealed in several Naish subgroup languages and at summarizing the approaches applied so far by scholars to the tonal systems analysis. The case study section has its origin from the fact that the level tone systems are widespread in Naish languages. It reports the initial reconstruction of the tone systems in Qiansuo Na, highlighting in them a level tone system, categories of surface phonological tones, and complex underlying / lexical tones. The collected data about Qiansuo Na could contribute to a better understanding of Naish tone systems and to further comparative studies.

Dalibor Brozović, Rasprave i članci

Author(s): Šimun Musa / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 91/2016

Dalibor, Brozović, Rasprave i članci, Matica hrvatska, 2015

Danielo Joneso kardinalinių balsių spektrinės charakteristikos

Author(s): Jurgita Jaroslaviene,Lidija Kaukeniene / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 53/2004

The number of studies, which not only analyze the acoustic and articulation characteristics of the vowels, pronounced in an isolated way in different Lithuanian dialects, but also discuss the relation between the said vowels with the vowel quality references, pronounced in the same way, i. e. D. Jones’s cardinal vowels, increases each year. However in the said studies the examination of spectrum of the isolated vowels of the dialects is performed with the help of the PRAAT computer sound analysis programe, developed by P. Boersma and D. Weenink and the meanings of formants of D. Jones’s cardinal vowels, taken from W. Jassem’s study of acoustic phonetics are identified by employing an older methodology. The article aims at, by employing the newest sound analysis programme PRAAT, examination and description of the acoustic and articulation characteristics of D. Jones’s isolated cardinal vowels, comparing the spectrums of the primary cardinal vowels, pronounced by even and variable intonation and discussing the differences between the new data on cardinal vowels and those, presented by W. Jassem. The study employs the records, obtained from A. Girdenis, on which the isolated cardinal vowels are pronounced by D. Jones himself in a neutral and the primary cardinal – in a rising and falling intonation. Comparing the new results with W. Jassem’s data, the conclusion can be made that the meanings of the first formants of D. Jones’s isolated cardinal vowels, studied by employing different methods are more or less different. It is possible that W. Jassem used other records or the quality of records adversely changed during the quite a long period of time elapsed. In any case, when comparing the vowels of specific languages or dialects with the cardinal ones, one should also take into consideration both the older measurements of spectrograms and those, referred here.

Deminutīvu darināšana un lietvārdu deklinācijas

Author(s): Inta Urbanovica / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 4/2014

The current article is devoted to the derivation of diminutives from the view of Language culture field. The norms of Latvian Standard require that the diminutive goes to declension determined by motivation noun (1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th declensions). There are two very productive diminutive suffixes -iņ- and -īt- that dominate in the derivation of diminutives, and both of them are used in making irregular diminutives. Some irregular diminutives have taken over the regular derivatives, while others may be used for stylistic purposes in order to highlight the connotational information of diminutive. Several irregular diminutives are used as terms. Only irregular diminutives, the use of which is neither semantically nor stylistically conditioned, are considered to be non-standard in the Latvian.