scholarly journals Variation in Breton word stress: new speakers and the influence of French

Phonology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-399
Author(s):  
Holly J. Kennard
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Medium Education ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Lexical Exceptions ◽  
New Speakers ◽  
Metrical Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds ◽  
Stress Patterns

This paper investigates stress patterns in Breton across speakers of different ages and with different linguistic backgrounds. Centuries of contact with French have led to French influence in Breton lexis, phonology and morphosyntax, and Breton's current status as an endangered minority language makes it vulnerable to further change. Additionally, younger ‘new speakers’ of Breton, who have acquired the language through Breton-medium education, are said to transfer features from French into their Breton. Analysis of stress usage shows that older, traditional speakers use stress largely as expected, while there is a greater degree of interspeaker variation among younger, new speakers. These data are used to form a metrical analysis of stress in Breton, taking into account lexical exceptions, loanwords and the variability of younger speakers. Rather than widespread transfer of French stress patterns into Breton, some younger speakers seem to be using two competing stress systems.

Russian iambic pentameter

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 187-203
Author(s):  
Emily Klenin
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Line Length ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Russian Poetry ◽  
Iambic Pentameter ◽  
Stress Patterns

The Russian pentameter is historically associated with the English and German traditions, but typologically it has with some justice been compared to the French decasyllable. The present article analyzes the structure and cultural context of Russian pentameter and examines in detail the use of caesura in a small corpus of iambic pentameter poems by Afanasy Fet. It is shown that the use of caesura correlates with patterns of word stress. In particular, the appearance of caesuraed lines in poems in which caesura is relatively weak correlates with the stress patterns of the lines in question: caesuraed lines are less heavily stressed than uncaesuraed ones, a correlation that theoretically should promote equalization of line length across the text. Russian poetry has a general tendency to promote equality of line length, and the intrusion of occasional I6 lines into I5 texts, a phenomenon known in many Russian I5 poems, can be viewed as a related strategy for handling ragged I5 lines.

scholarly journals The Impact of Visual Aids on the Retention of English Word Stress Patterns

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid Ghaemi ◽  
Fahimeh Rafi
Keyword(s):  
English Word ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Group A ◽  
Group B ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Stress Patterns

The present study aimed at comparing the effectiveness of three different techniques on learners’ long term memorization of English word stress patterns. After administering a quick placement test, 67 Iranian EFL elementary learners at language institutes were selected to participate in the study. Then they were divided into three groups. Before starting the instruction, a pretest was conducted to classify the participants’ abilities on word stress patterns. Then the new techniques were used to teach English word stress patterns. In all three groups, words were printed largely on a piece of paper and the syllables were clearly specified by dots. In group ‘A’, pronunciation and stress pattern of new words were taught aurally through the repetition of the words. In group ‘B’, all the procedure was exactly similar to that of group ‘A’, the only difference was that the stressed syllables were printed in bold. In group ‘C’, all the procedure was exactly similar to that of group ‘B’,  except that the stressed syllables were not only printed in bold, but also introduced by teacher’s hand gesture. After two weeks, a delayed posttest was conducted to check long term memorization of the word stress patterns. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference between pretest and delayed posttest in all three groups. But the most meaningful difference belonged to group ‘C’. That is, the participants in the third group (gesture group) outperformed those in the other groups. Finally, some implications and suggestions provided for further research.   

Meters and formulas

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 113-136
Author(s):  
Bruno Paoli
Keyword(s):  
Arabic Poetry ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Metrical Pattern ◽  
Word Boundaries ◽  
Aspectual Markers ◽  
Stress Patterns

This paper deals with the metrical and rhythmical foundations of the formulaic style of ancient Arabic poetry. It is first shown how proper formulas can match different verse-patterns, by means of slight modifications such as the adjunction, deletion or substitution of conjunctions, prepositions, interrogative pronouns or aspectual markers, which partly behave like “stop-gaps”, keeping the meaning unchanged while modifying the metrical pattern of the formula. The analysis is then extended to “rhythmical formulas”, i.e. to combined metrical and word-stress patterns which serve as models for a great number of “formulaic expressions”. Word boundaries may be specified, as well as some morphological and syntactical informations, so that expressions derived from a same rhythmical formula can be classified into a number of more or less abstract subcategories. Finally, the syntagmatic combination of rhythmical formulas into lines leads to the identification of a small number of prototypical verse-instances underlying the various actual instances of a same verse-pattern.

scholarly journals “New speakers” of Gaelic: perceptions of linguistic authenticity and appropriateness

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilson McLeod ◽  
Bernadette O’Rourke
Keyword(s):  
Language Production ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Medium Education ◽  
New Speakers ◽  
Traditional Communities

AbstractThis article considers the experiences and views of “new speakers” of Gaelic, focusing on how they characterise their language production and its relationship to the language of traditional speakers. In contrast to some other European minority languages, a significant population of new Gaelic speakers in Scotland has emerged only recently, particularly with the development of Gaelic-medium education since 1985, provision that increasingly serves children who do not acquire Gaelic in the home. Given the ongoing decline of Gaelic in traditional “heartland” areas, it is apparent that new speakers of Gaelic emerging from urban Scotland will become increasingly important in coming years. This study of 35 new speakers in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow builds on emerging research on new speakers of minority languages across other European contexts (see O’Rourke et al. 2015) where traditional communities of speakers are being eroded as a consequence of increased urbanisation and economic modernisation. This article considers issues involving legitimacy, authority and authenticity amongst new speakers of Gaelic and the extent to which new speakers are producing their own set of contexts of language use and their own standards of performance or conversely, if they continue to reproduce ideals of localism, tradition and linguistic purity. Participants expressed contrasting views on these topics, some of them endeavouring to accommodate what they perceived as native speakers’ perceptions and preferences, others expressing a rather more oppositional viewpoint, rejecting practices or assumptions that they view as impeding the modernisation and normalisation of the language.

Diacritic extrametricality vs. diacritic accent: a reply to Hammond

Phonology ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Franks
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Treatment ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Primary Word ◽  
Lexical Exceptions ◽  
Regular Patterns ◽  
Lexical Accent

Although primary word stress regularly falls on the penult in Polish and on the antepenult in Macedonian, there are a number of lexical exceptions in both languages. In the first generative treatment of such exceptions, Comrie (1976) suggested two unrelated diacritic features, [± stressable] for Polish and [ ± never posttonic] for Macedonian, in order to accommodate the accentual paradigms exhibited by exceptional words within the framework of Chomsky & Halle (1968). More recently, metrical accounts of exceptional stress have been proposed in Franks (1985), Halle & Vergnaud (1987) and Rubach & Booij (1985) for Polish and in Franks (1987, forthcoming) and Halle & Vergnaud (1987) for Macedonian. These analyse deviations from the regular patterns in the two languages in completely unrelated ways – in Polish exceptional stress is a consequence of idiosyncratic extrametricality, whereas in Macedonian it results from the idiosyncratic presence of an inherent accent. Responding to this type of analysis, Hammond (1989) argues that an alternative treatment in which exceptional stress in both languages is treated similarly is conceptually more elegant and descriptively superior. He accomplishes this by employing roughly the same set of stress rules for Polish and Macedonian, with the exception that lexical accent is interpreted differently in the two languages.

scholarly journals New varieties of English: Issues of incomprehensibility and unintelligibility

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Z. N. Patil
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
New Varieties ◽  
Stress Patterns

The present article discusses new varieties of English with reference to intelligibility and comprehensibility. It has been observed that new varieties of English display deviant phonological features. Speakers of these varieties insert a sound, delete a sound, substitute a sound, and rearrange sounds when they pronounce certain words. Moreover, they use deviant word stress patterns. These things affect the intelligibility of their speech. The new varieties differ at the level of discourse as well; the content and language used to perform certain speech acts such as coaxing, responding to questions, etc., may result in miscommunication. Thus, unintelligibility is a result of mother tongue interference and incomprehensibility is a result of mother culture interference. The article illustrates unintelligibility and incomprehensibility using examples from non-native varieties of English.

scholarly journals Transatlantic Context for Gaelic Language Revitalisation

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Stuart S. Dunmore
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
North America ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
New Speakers ◽  
Language Revitalisation

Abstract The notion of the ‘new speaker’, and its salience particularly in relation to minority language sociolinguistics, has become increasingly prevalent in the last decade. The term refers to individuals who have acquired an additional language to high levels of oracy and make frequent use of it in the course of their lives. Language advocates in both Scotland and Nova Scotia emphasise the crucial role of new speakers in maintaining Gaelic on both sides of the Atlantic. As a result, Gaelic language teaching has been prioritised by policymakers as a mechanism for revitalising the language in both polities. This article examines reflexes of this policy in each country, contrasting the ongoing fragility of Gaelic communities with new speaker discourses around heritage, identity, and language learning motivations. Crucially, I argue that challenging sociodemographic circumstances in Gaelic communities in Scotland and Nova Scotia contrast with current policy discourses, and with new speaker motivations for acquiring higher levels of Gaelic oracy in North America.

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