We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.

Download

HOW MUCH DO PHONETIC REALISATIONS OF SERBIAN ACCENTS ACTUALLY DIFFER FROM EACH OTHER IN VARIOUS DIALECTS?

Author(s): Dejan Sredojević / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

In this paper, we wish to examine accent realisations in the regional dialects of the East-Herzegovinian dialect (E-H) and in the Srem regional dialects of the Vojvodina subdialect, which are dialectally and geographically closest to the E-H dialect but distinctly differ from it by specific accent realisation. We wanted to see whether falling and rising quality in accents of the analysed regional dialects required the same phonetic features as in other Neo-Štokavian regional dialects or if the inventory of these features was altered here. Also, we wished to determine whether realisations of the same accent in these regional dialects were the same or different, that is, whether phonetic features constituted one accent in two different dialects in an identical manner. The two short accents are most consistently distinguished by pitch relation between the accented vowel and the following one. The two dialects show more prominent differences in realisations of words with short rising accent. Although the analysed parameters of pitch and intensity mainly significantly differ from each other in the given regional dialects, those differences are not always perceptible.

More...

Download

Aspects articulatoires des structures phonétiques composées dans la langue Française : particularités synchroniques et diachroniques

Author(s): Alexei Chirdeachin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2016

The correlation between form and content is presented in linguistics by the languagespeech dichotomy. Phonetics represents the speech (or the plane of expression) and phonology represents the language (or the plane of content). The operational unit of phonetics is the sound and the operational unit of phonology is the phoneme. The speech sounds (and the language phonemes) can be classified in terms of articulation (vowels, consonants and nasal vowels specific of French that include both vocalic and consonantal features) and structurally (single and compound units). According to the latter classification, there are units that can be regarded as compound phonetic sequences (CPS). Among researchers there is no consensus on the phonetic nature and phonological status of such units. Some of them regard CPS as monophonemic units, while others view these phenomena as phonetic sequences of simple sounds. From this point of view, the article is dedicated to synchronic and diachronic articulatory peculiarities of CPS in French at the level of vocalism.

More...

Download

Hungarian vowel quantity neutralisation as a potential social marker

Author(s): Katalin Mády / Language(s): English Issue: 2-3/2010

Hungarian is a language with distinctive vowel quantity, but it seems that quantity discrimination in acoustic and perceptual terms is less robust for high vowels than for low ones. In this paper, we argue that the unstable behaviour of high vowels could refer to a sound change from below in Labov’s terminology. Due to our results, quantity loss was observed both for high and partly also for mid vowels, especially in unstressed position. The extent of quantity neutralisation showed an interaction with speech style, linguistic attitude, and partly also social status, but not with gender, age-dependent occupation or regional affiliation.

More...

Download

Anticipatory coarticulation in Hungarian V n C sequences

Author(s): Mária Gósy,András Beke,Robert Vago / Language(s): English Issue: 2-3/2010

The duration of the vowel and the nasal was analyzed in the casual pronunciation of Hungarian words containing the sequence V n .C, where ‘.’ is a syllable boundary and C is a stop, affricate, fricative, or approximant. It was found that due to anticipatory coarticulation the duration of n is significantly shorter before fricatives and approximants than before stops and affricates.A teaching algorithm was used to distinguish between stops/affricates and fricatives/approximants in V n C sequences. We used an approach to the classification of C by means of the support vector machine (SVM) and the properties of Radial basis function (RBF) kernel (using MATLAB, version 7.0). The results show close to 95% correct responses for the stop/affricate vs. fricative/approximant distinction of C, as opposed to about 60% correct responses for the classification of the voicing feature of C.

More...

Download

The realisation of voicing assimilation rules in Hungarian spontaneous and read speech: Case studies

Author(s): Alexandra Markó,Tekla Etelka Gráczi,Judit Bóna / Language(s): English Issue: 2-3/2010

Hungarian represents a particularly fruitful ground for exploring voicing assimilation. Although this topic has been extensively analysed, a contradiction can be observed between most phonological descriptions and acoustic-phonetics-based studies of voicing assimilation. Theoretical works suggest that this process in Hungarian speech is a purely regressive, obligatory and categorical phenomenon, but in practice divergent realisations can be observed. In the present paper three case studies of voicing assimilation are performed. CCC clusters, CC clusters interrupted by pause and partially voiced realisations were analysed. The results showed that in the first two cases the speech planning process and the degree of self-monitoring were the most influential factors, while the various concomitances of voicing and devoicing arising due to aerodynamic and articulatory reasons resulted in partially voiced realisations. The variability of the data confirms the hypothesis that Hungarian voicing assimilation is a gradient and sometimes only partly regressive process. Even if it operates mainly obligatorily, several factors can override it.

More...

Download

Variability in the articulation and perception of a word

Author(s): Mária Gósy / Language(s): English Issue: 2-3/2010

The words making up a speaker’s mental lexicon may be stored as abstract phonological representations or else they may be stored as detailed acoustic-phonetic representations. The speaker’s articulatory gestures intended to represent a word show relatively high variability in spontaneous speech. The aim of this paper is to explore the acoustic-phonetic patterns of the Hungarian word akkor ‘then, at that time’. Ten speakers’ recorded spontaneous speech with a total duration of 255 minutes and containing 286 occurrences of akkor were submitted to analysis. Durational and frequency patterns were measured by means of the Praat software. The results obtained show higher variability both within and across speakers than it had been expected. Both the durations of the words and those of the speech sounds, as well as the vowel formants, turned out to significantly differ across speakers. In addition, the results showed considerable within-speaker variation as well. The correspondence between variability in the objective acoustic-phonetic data and the flexibility and adaptive nature of the mental representation of a word will be discussed.For the perception experiments, two speakers of the previous experiment were selected whose 48 words were then used as speech material. The listeners had to judge the quality of the words they heard using a five-point scale. The results confirmed that the listeners used diverse strategies and representations depending on the acoustic-phonetic parameters of the series of occurrences of akkor .

More...

Download

Filled pauses in Hungarian: Their phonetic form and function

Author(s): Viktória Horváth / Language(s): English Issue: 2-3/2010

Filled pauses are natural occurrences in spontaneous speech and they may turn up at any level of the speech planning process and in a number of functions. The aim of this paper is to find out whether the diverse functions of filled pauses correlate with diverse articulations resulting in diverse acoustic structures. Spontaneous narratives are used as research material. The duration of the filled pauses and the frequency values of their first two formants are analyzed. The most frequent form, schwa, shows function-dependent realizations as confirmed by the durational values and by the second formant values of these vowel-like sounds.

More...

Download

Gyula Laziczius: A Hungarian structuralist

Author(s): Ferenc Kiefer / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2008

Gyula Laziczius was a well-known Hungarian structuralist and the first professor in general linguistics at Budapest University. His major contributions concern phonetics and phonology widely discussed in structuralist circles of his time. The paper reviews Laziczius’ most important ideas on linguistics.

More...

Download

The morphology-phonology interface: Isolating to polysynthetic languages

Author(s): Irene Vogel / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2008

Given the substantial variation in the nature of the grammatical word (GW) across languages, this paper addresses the question of whether the Phonological Word (PW) exhibits the same degree of variation or rather abstracts away from it due to the typically flatter nature of the phonological hierarchy. Various types of languages are examined, focusing on isolating and polysynthetic languages—opposite ends of a word structure continuum. It is demonstrated that, indeed, the PW exhibits substantially less variation across languages than might be expected on the basis of the differences in GW structure. Furthermore, it is shown that an additional constituent (i.e., the Clitic Group, renamed Composite Group) is required between the PW and the Phonological Phrase to fully account for the interface between morpho-syntactic and phonological structures.

More...

Download

Paradigmatic correspondences in the Brazilian Portuguese verbal vowel system

Author(s): Luiz Carlos Schwindt / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2007

In this paper, we reanalyse the alternation in the Brazilian Portuguese verbal system called verbal vowel harmony (VH), which applies to verb stems in the second and third conjugations (e.g., bebér ‘to drink’ > bébo ‘I drink’; segír ‘to follow’ > sígo ‘I follow’). We pose the following questions concerning VH: (i) Is it a synchronic process? (ii) Does it exhibit paradigmatic effects? and (iii) How can it be described in Optimality Theory? To answer question (i), we present a corpus of BP dictionarized verbs in the third person and results from empirical tests that evaluate acceptability/productivity in the conjugation of pseudo-verbs. Concerning question (ii), we show that a paradigmatic correspondence between verbal forms in BP accounts for misapplication patterns. Answering question (iii), we offer a description of the process in line with Transderivational Correspondence Theory (Benua 1997).

More...

Download

“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible”: Some reflections on the verbal morphophonology of Balearic Catalan

Author(s): Clàudia Pons Moll / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2007

In Balearic Catalan, first person singular present indicative verb forms do not show an explicit inflectional morph, as do most dialects of Catalan. Among these forms, we find final consonant clusters that involve a violation of the sonority constraint according to which the degree of sonority between the segments of a syllable must be decreasing in relation to the nucleus. The same clusters in nominal inflection are resolved by means of a process of vowel epenthesis. The exceptional phonological behavior of these consonant clusters is not circumscribed to sonority factors, but also concerns the regular phonology of the dialect, either because a general process fails to apply, or because a process applies though the conditions that make it applicable are not visible. Previous approaches have analyzed these final consonant clusters, not as codas, but as onsets of empty nuclei: this exceptional syllabic status would, according to these proposals, throw some light on this peculiar phonological behavior. In this paper we investigate the theoretical problems deriving from approaches of this kind and demonstrate that they are better analyzed by considering paradigmatic effects, such as uniformity and contrast between the members of a morphological paradigm. Furthermore, we critically review the different theories developed in Optimality Theory in order to account for surface resemblances and dissimilarities between the members of a paradigm and introduce a detailed formalization of Paradigmatic Contrast .

More...

Download

A phonetically-based approach to the phonology of [v] in Hungarian</o:p>

Author(s): Zsuzsanna Bárkányi,Zoltán Kiss / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2006

We propose a unified, surface-based functionalist analysis of the phonology of Hungarian v, which is shown to fare better than past generative formalist/representational models. The model introduced can account for the two-fold patterning of v with respect to voicing assimilation without evoking exceptional means. Furthermore, it can also explain certain asymmetries as well as graduality displayed by v's phonotactic distribution, namely, that some clusters are more frequent in the lexicon, whereas others are marginal. The analysis is grounded in the aerodynamics of v's articulation (which involves inherently contradictory targets) as well as in the relative perceptibility of its contrast in various contexts. It is shown with the help of quantitative experiments that v's phonological patterning is directly derivable from these phonetic factors.

More...

Download

Can 'nothing' be grammaticalised? Comments on Permian vowel ~ zero alternations

Author(s): Michael Geisler / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2004

The aim of this paper is to present the most salient characteristics of Permian vowel ~ zero alternations and to analyse them in terms of grammaticalisation. The term `grammaticalisation' will be used here in a non-traditional sense. When we investigate grammaticalisation, it is not merely individual linguistic units (having turned into grammatical ones), but also relationships between linguistic units that are to be taken into consideration. If, for instance, a phonological relationship that originally obtained between certain forms and triggered the application of some automatic process turns into a non-automatic alternation that distinguishes linguistic units from one another, this is just as much an instance of grammaticalisation as the well-known cases in which an originally lexical item turns into a grammatical one. This hypothesis will be substantiated in this paper with the help of some considerations concerning Permian vowel ~ zero alternations.

More...

Download

Hungarian yod

Author(s): Péter Siptár / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2003

This paper argues that the segment /j/ in Hungarian is neither a fricative (as traditionally claimed) nor a glide (as it is usually classified in the international literature). The arguments adduced involve syllabification patterns, processes of j-obstruentisation, phonetic details of hiatus resolution, as well as phonotactic phenomena. Additional problems that are touched upon include the question whether Hungarian has diphthongs, the behaviour of /j/ with respect to vowel zero alternation, voicing assimilation and final devoicing, the analysis of imperative forms of t-final verbs, as well as the relationship between the Duke of York gambit and the principle of Proper Inclusion Precedence.

More...

Download

The intonation of monosyllabic Hungarian yes-no questions

Author(s): László Varga / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2002

The paper examines the intonation of monosyllabic Hungarian yes-no questions, which, according to the literature, is different from the intonation of polysyllabic Hungarian yes-no questions. The paper's conclusion is that the difference is only phonetic, not phonological. From a phonological point of view, such questions carry a rising-falling intonation pattern, just like their polysyllabic counterparts. This is proved by the facts of contour concord, which we can observe between the melodies of so called equivalent blocks in Hungarian sentences (Varga 2002, 100-2). From a phonetic point of view, however, the falling part of the abstract rising-falling pattern is normally truncated, leaving only a rise. The final fall (in the form of a downglide) is optionally preserved in surprised monosyllabic yes-no questions, when the syllable has a long vowel in it, able to accommodate the downglide.

More...

Download

Predicting Hungarian sound durations for continuous speech

Author(s): Gábor Olaszy / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2002

Direct measurements show that a number of factors influence the final value of sound durations in continuous speech. On the segmental level it is mainly the articulatory movements that determine important influence factors, while on the suprasegmental level accent, syllabic stress, within-word position, the preceding and following syllables and finallyutterance position may have an influence on final sound durations. So the problem of how to predict sound durations can be described with a multivariable function in which the effect of the variables cannot be easily defined with good accuracy. It is difficult to separate the effects of certain functions, i.e., it is difficult to model this function, making direct measurements on the speech signal. A model has been constructed and realized in which three well-defined levels are working separately. In the first one (this is the segmental level) the separation of the effect of articulation from other factors is solved. The second and third levels relate to the suprasegmental level of speech.

More...

18.00 €

Preview

The Structure of the Chinese Text: Prosody and Grammar

Author(s): Vadim Kassevitch,Nikolai Speshnev / Language(s): English Issue: 2-4/2003

This paper presents an overview of the authors' recent findings concerned with the rhythmic structures typical of the Chinese text. The proportion of disyllabic and trisyllabic words is shown, disyllabic words or binomials being predominant. The intervals between two strong (full-toned) syllables are found to reproduce the same two-syllable pattern. Chinese is proposed to be classified as a binomial-timed language. With accelerating speech rate, certain syllables tend to loose their inherent full-tone characteristics, thus becoming “weak” or even light (neutral). Since full-toned “strong” syllables are often interpreted as stressed, their “disappearance” under certain conditions seems to be another evidence of superfluity of word-level phonological stress in Chinese.

More...

26.00 €

Preview

Strict CV without government

Author(s): Guillaume Enguehard / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

In this paper, I aim to unify the Empty Category Principle of Government Phonology with another (more general) principle: the Obligatory Contour Principle. I show that these principles share numerous structural properties: (i) they prevent sequences of identical entities, and (ii) they trigger the same repair mechanisms. The main difference is substantial: ECP handles empty syllabic components, when OCP handles phonological features. I propose to broaden the definition of OCP in including all phonological entities and I show to what extent this definition can account for the effects of ECP. Finally, I point out that this analysis can also account for some specificities of word-edges.

More...

26.00 €

Preview

Sawing off the branch you are sitting on

Author(s): Markus A. Pöchtrager / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

This article argues that vowel reduction can be insightfully understood by reinterpreting openness as structural instead of melodic (i.e., mediated by an element). This allows for a unified account of various reduction phenomena in different languages and also extends to lenition in consonants. The proposal made here is couched within Government Phonology 2.0, a further development of Government Phonology.

More...

Download

Nazwy terenowe związane z gospodarką rolną i leśną w powiecie sokólskim

Author(s): Alina Filinowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2012

The article discusses microtoponyms in the Sokolka District derived from the names of plots of ground and the processes connected with haymaking. The author’s attention is focused on verb forms, e.g.: карчаваць, церабiць, расчышчаць, драць which indicate how pioneer farmers “attained” parcels of forest to change it into plough-land. Microtoponyms with Polish phonetics and morphology, Belarusian names as well as two names with Lithuanian etymology have been revealed. Some names of the Sokolka District have their equivalents on the territory of Belarus, mainly in Grodno region where settlers of eastern part of the Bialystok District came from.

More...