The notation of the General British English segments

1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Windsor Lewis
Keyword(s):  
British English ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Phonetic Transcription ◽  
The Many

Phonetic notation of segmental sounds is of two main types, phonemic transcription and phonetic transcription proper which, to avoid ambiguity, is generally now referred to by British phoneticians, following the suggestion of Abercrombie (1953), as ‘allophonic transcription’. The two most important discussions of types of notation for English are Jones (1956: Appendix A) and Abercrombie (1964); for further comments see Windsor Lewis (1969: Chap. III) and Gimson (1970: § 5.6). Of the many different phonetic notations used for English more or less all of them in the last half century or so have employed the symbols of the Association's alphabet, in Britain usually faithfully observing the principles laid down by the Association for their use. In America the principles have not been so generally accepted. They are set forth in Jones, 1949 (PIPA (1949)).

scholarly journals En[dj]uring [ʧ]unes or ma[tj]ure [ʤ]ukes? Yod-coalescence and yod-dropping in the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-526
Author(s):  
JOAN C. BEAL ◽  
RANJAN SEN ◽  
NURIA YÁÑEZ-BOUZA ◽  
CHRISTINE WALLIS
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
British English ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Social Motivations ◽  
The Many ◽  
Historical Variation ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Insight Into

Yod-coalescence involving alveolar consonants before Late Modern English /uː/ from earlier /iu > juː/ is still variable and diffusing in Present-day English. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gives both (/tj dj/) and (/ʧ ʤ/) British English pronunciations for tune (/tjuːn/, /tʃuːn/), mature (/mǝˈtjʊǝ/, /mǝˈʧʊǝ/), duke (/djuːk/, /dʒuːk/) and endure (/ᵻnˈdjʊə/, /ɛnˈdjʊə/, /ᵻnˈdʒʊə/, /ɛnˈdʒʊə/, /ᵻnˈdjɔː/, /ɛnˈdjɔː/, /ᵻnˈdʒɔː/, /ɛnˈdʒɔː/). Extensive variability in yod-coalescence and yod-dropping is not recent in origin, and we can already detect relevant patterns in the eighteenth century from the evidence of a range of pronouncing dictionaries. Beal (1996, 1999) notes a tendency for northern English and Scottish authors to be more conservative with regard to yod-coalescence. She concludes that we require ‘a comprehensive survey of the many pronouncing dictionaries and other works on pronunciation’ (1996: 379) to gain more insight into the historical variation patterns underlying Present-day English.This article presents some results from such a ‘comprehensive survey’: the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database (ECEP). Transcriptions of all relevant words located are compared across a range of eighteenth-century sources in order to determine the chronology of yod-coalescence and yod-dropping as well as internal (e.g. stress, phoneme type, presence of a following /r/) and external (e.g. prescriptive, geographical, social) motivations for these developments.

After Utopia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith N. Shklar
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Downward Trend ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The World ◽  
The Many ◽  
New Generation

After Utopia was the author's first book, a harbinger of her renowned career in political philosophy. Throughout the many changes in political thought during the last half century, this important work has withstood the test of time. The book explores the decline of political philosophy, from Enlightenment optimism to modern cultural despair, and offers a critical, creative analysis of this downward trend. It looks at Romantic and Christian social thought, and shows that while the present political fatalism may be unavoidable, the prophets of despair have failed to explain the world they so dislike, leaving the possibility of a new and vigorous political philosophy. With a foreword examining the book's continued relevance, this current edition introduces a remarkable synthesis of ideas to a new generation of readers.

Material progress and immaterial observations: An exhibition of molecules that make life a little easier

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Emsley
Keyword(s):  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Electric Cable ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Biological Polymers ◽  
The Many ◽  
Material Progress ◽  
Past Half ◽  
Long Chains

You may think of polymers as entirely manufactured and therefore unnatural, but they are often the chemists’ attempts to supplement and improve on the biological polymers that nature produces. Cotton, ivory, leather, linen, paper, rubber, silk, wood and wool are wonderful materials made from the biological polymers that plants and animals produce, and which have evolved to serve such useful ends as providing protective outer layers, insulation, reinforcement, weaponry and so on. Humans learned that with a little modification they could turn these polymers into quite useful articles, such as briefs and briefcases, condoms and tea cosies, tickets and toothpicks. Sometimes we want polymers with features that never evolved in nature, such as non-cracking insulation for electric cable, clothes that can be unpacked after a long voyage and still be without creases, or pans in which to fry eggs without them sticking. For these polymers we have had to look to chemists. Most of the portraits in this Gallery are of these kinds of polymers—materials that do not have natural equivalents. Polymers are rather special kinds of molecules consisting of long chains, usually made up of carbon atoms, to which other atoms, such as hydrogen, fluorine and chlorine, are attached. The older name for polymers is plastics, and you probably know several of them by name— polythene, polystyrene, Teflon, Orion—but these are only a few of the many that now play an important role in our lives. Whatever role polymers play, they cause many of us to adopt quite strong attitudes towards them. A few of us admire them, many of us ignore them, but a growing number despise them and a few abhor them and will avoid them at all costs. To a chemist, this opposition to polymers seems rather strange. By the time you come to the end of this exhibition I hope that visitors with strong views will have seen enough to persuade them to change their mind. Attitudes towards plastics have changed over the past half-century. In the 19305, when cellophane, PVC, polystyrene, Perspex and nylon were launched, plastics were welcomed.

scholarly journals A half-century of innovation in technology—preparing MRI for the 21st century

2020 ◽  
Vol 93 (1111) ◽  
pp. 20200113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Börnert ◽  
David G. Norris
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Imaging ◽  
Quality Improvements ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Scanning Time ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Tissue Contrast ◽  
125Th Anniversary ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
The Many ◽  
Huge Variety

MRI developed during the last half-century from a very basic concept to an indispensable non-ionising medical imaging technique that has found broad application in diagnostics, therapy control and far beyond. Due to its excellent soft-tissue contrast and the huge variety of accessible tissue- and physiological-parameters, MRI is often preferred to other existing modalities. In the course of its development, MRI underwent many substantial transformations. From the beginning, starting as a proof of concept, much effort was expended to develop the appropriate basic scanning technology and methodology, and to establish the many clinical contrasts (e.g., T1, T2, flow, diffusion, water/fat, etc.) that MRI is famous for today. Beyond that, additional prominent innovations to the field have been parallel imaging and compressed sensing, leading to significant scanning time reductions, and the move towards higher static magnetic field strengths, which led to increased sensitivity and improved image quality. Improvements in workflow and the use of artificial intelligence are among many current trends seen in this field, paving the way for a broad use of MRI. The 125th anniversary of the BJR is a good point to reflect on all these changes and developments and to offer some slightly speculative ideas as to what the future may bring.

scholarly journals Samspil máls og merkingar. Um litaheiti í íslensku táknmáli

Orð og tunga ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Þórhalla Guðmundsdóttir Beck ◽  
Matthew James Whelpton
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Colour Space ◽  
British English ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Basic Colour ◽  
Basic Color ◽  
The Many ◽  
Basic Color Terms ◽  
Colour Terms

Brent Berlin and Paul Kay brought a sea change in semantic studies of colour terms when they published their book Basic Color Terms in 1969. Up to that point the dominant view was that each language represented a unique conceptual organisation of the world, a view supported by the fact that the colour spectrum is a continuum which provides not obvious breaks for the purposes of naming. Despite the many criticisms of their work which have followed, their methodology has proven extremely influential and been widely adopted. The project Evolution of Semantic Systems, 2011–2012, adopted their methodology for a study of colour terms in the Indo-European languages and the Colours in Context project applied the same methods to a study of Icelandic Sign Language. Signed languages diff er in many ways from spoken languages but the results of this study suggest the broad organisation of the colour space is the same in Icelandic Sign Language, Icelandic and British English. The colour space is organised by a few dominant terms, largely the same as Berlin and Kay ́s original basic colour terms. Yet within that broad pattern is considerable microvariation, especially in the spaces between the dominant terms. There the characteristic patt erns of word formation in the language have a clear influence in colour naming strategies.

The many lives of a medieval Muslim scholar: An introduction to the life and times of Minhaj Siraj al-Din Juzjani, 1193–1260 CE

Afghanistan ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-134
Author(s):  
Jawan Shir Rasikh
Keyword(s):  
Political Connections ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
Muslim Scholar ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Political Landscapes ◽  
Historical Agency ◽  
The Many

This essay explores the many lives of Minhaj Siraj al-Din Juzjani (fl. 1193–1260), author of the Tabaqat-i Nasiri. Before writing the Tabaqat-i Nasiri in Delhi in 1259–60, Juzjani had served for a half-century in the role of judge, imam, and other positions. In re-reading the historical evidence, I offer twofold analyses of the extant evidence regarding this under-studied historian of Islam. Firstly, I show that Juzjani's personal and social privileges defined his career peregrinations across medieval “Afghanistan” and Hindustan. He belonged to a Sunni scholarly bureaucratic family from Khurasan with deep familial, career, and political connections to the Ghaznavid and Ghuri ruling houses. Secondly, this re-reading of the Tabaqat-i Nasiri is an attempt to make a contribution to the basic epistemic question of how to study the human and historical agency of medieval Muslim scholar-historians like Juzjani without losing sight of the political landscapes and historical contexts in which they operated, and wrote key works of medieval Islamic history.

British English Phonetic Transcription

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Carley ◽  
Inger M. Mees
Keyword(s):  
British English ◽  
Phonetic Transcription

F2 variation in Newcastle and Leeds English liquid systems

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Carter ◽  
John Local
Keyword(s):  
British English ◽  
Phonetic Transcription ◽  
Reverse Pattern ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Liquid Systems ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Newcastle Upon Tyne

In this paper we present a production study designed to explore the relationship between three observations which have previously been made about liquids in British English: first, that laterals have prosodically-determined ‘clear’ (syllable-initial) and ‘dark’ (syllable-final) variants; second, that some varieties of English have either clear [1] in all positions or dark [l] in all positions; third, that some varieties with clear [1] have dark [r] while some varieties with dark [1] have clear [r] (in broad phonetic transcription). We take F2 as an acoustic correlate of clearness/darkness and report on F2 variation in two representative varieties of British English, one which has clear initial [1] (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and one with dark initial [1] (Leeds). We show that Newcastle English has higher F2 frequencies in [1] than in [r] and that the reverse pattern is found in Leeds English. These patterns can also be found in adjacent unstressed vowels but not in adjacent stressed vowels. Final [1] in both varieties has a lower F2 than initial [1]. In intervocalic contexts, these F2 distinctions in the liquids are observed in iambic words for both varieties. In trochaic words they are observed for Leeds only, though the vowel effects can be observed in both varieties. We discuss some phonological consequences of these findings.

scholarly journals The Spoken BNC2014

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robbie Love ◽  
Claire Dembry ◽  
Andrew Hardie ◽  
Vaclav Brezina ◽  
Tony McEnery
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Design Data ◽  
British English ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract This paper introduces the Spoken British National Corpus 2014, an 11.5-million-word corpus of orthographically transcribed conversations among L1 speakers of British English from across the UK, recorded in the years 2012–2016. After showing that a survey of the recent history of corpora of spoken British English justifies the compilation of this new corpus, we describe the main stages of the Spoken BNC2014’s creation: design, data and metadata collection, transcription, XML encoding, and annotation. In doing so we aim to (i) encourage users of the corpus to approach the data with sensitivity to the many methodological issues we identified and attempted to overcome while compiling the Spoken BNC2014, and (ii) inform (future) compilers of spoken corpora of the innovations we implemented to attempt to make the construction of corpora representing spontaneous speech in informal contexts more tractable, both logistically and practically, than in the past.

scholarly journals The Written British National Corpus 2014 – design and comparability

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaclav Brezina ◽  
Abi Hawtin ◽  
Tony McEnery
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
British English ◽  
General Overview ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
The Many ◽  
Major Project ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract The British National Corpus 2014 is a major project led by Lancaster University to create a 100-million-word corpus of present day British English. This corpus has been constructed as a comparable counterpart of the original British National Corpus (referred to as the BNC1994 in this article), which was compiled in the early 1990s. This article starts with the justification of the project answering the question of ‘Why do we need a new BNC?’. We then provide a general overview of the construction of the Written British National Corpus 2014 (Written BNC2014); we also briefly discuss some issues of data collection before looking in detail at the design of the corpus. Compiling a large general corpus such as the Written BNC2014 has been a major undertaking involving teamwork and collaboration. It also required generosity on the part of the many individuals and organisations who contributed to the data collection.

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