Revisiting Tohono O’odham high vowels

2013 ◽  
pp. 107-132
Author(s):  
Colleen Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Tohono O'odham ◽  
High Vowels

Asian tongue root systems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry van der Hulst
Keyword(s):  
Root Systems ◽  
Language Group ◽  
High Vowels

This chapter is devoted to tongue root (ATR or RTR) harmony in Tungusic languages (a.o. Classical Manchu) and Mongolian languages (Khalka and Buriat), which all belong the Altaic language group. In addition to TR-harmony, most Tungusic and Mongolian languages also have a limited form of labial harmony, especially among low vowels. After discussing the Tungusic and Mongolian systems the chapter will focus on the behavior of high vowels, which do not participate in labial harmony, and are either transparent or opaque. A notable difference between Tungusic and Mongolic regards the fact that whereas [i] is transparent to labial harmony in Mongolic, it is opaque in Tungusic. High round vowels are opaque in both groups.

Aperture harmony

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry van der Hulst
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Common Element ◽  
Binary Features ◽  
High Vowels

This chapter analyzes a number of vowel harmony systems which have been described or analyzed in terms of aperture (lowering or raising, including complete harmony). This takes us into areas where the literature on vowel harmony discusses cases involving the following binary features: [± high], [± low], [± ATR], and [± RTR]. Raising has been thought of as problematic for unary ‘IUA’ systems as these systems lack a common element for high vowels. This chapter suggests that raising can be attributed to ATR-harmony. The chapter also discusses typological generalizations and analyzes metaphony in Romance languages.

scholarly journals Single-Word Speech Intelligibility in Children and Adults With Down Syndrome

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa Wild ◽  
Houri K. Vorperian ◽  
Ray D. Kent ◽  
Daniel M. Bolt ◽  
Diane Austin
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Adult Men ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Assessment And Treatment ◽  
High Vowels

Purpose A single-word identification test was used to study speech production in children and adults with Down syndrome (DS) to determine the developmental pattern of speech intelligibility with an emphasis on vowels. Method Speech recordings were collected from 62 participants with DS aged 4–40 years and 25 typically developing participants aged 4–7 years. Panels of 5 adult lay listeners transcribed the speech recordings orthographically, and their responses were scored in comparison with the speakers' target words. Results Speech intelligibility in persons with DS improved with age, especially between the ages of 4 and 16 years. Whereas consonants contribute to intelligibility, vowels also played an important role in reduced intelligibility with an apparent developmental difference in low versus high vowels, where the vowels /æ/ and/ɑ/ developed at a later age than /i/ and /u/. Interspeaker variability was large, with male individuals being generally less intelligible than female individuals and some adult men having very low intelligibility. Conclusion Results show age-related patterns in speech intelligibility in persons with DS and identify the contribution of dimensions of vowel production to intelligibility. The methods used clarify the phonetic basis of reduced intelligibility, with implications for assessment and treatment.

Markedness and dominance in the ATR harmony system of Diola-Fogny

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roderic F. Casali
Keyword(s):  
Function Words ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Traditional Understanding

Abstract Diola-Fogny is a well-known example of a tongue root harmony language with assimilatory dominance of [+ATR] vowels. Less well known, however, are some asymmetries involving the frequency and distribution of [+ATR] and [-ATR] vowels. In addition to being dominant, [+ATR] vowels are subject to restrictions on their occurrence in certain classes of function words and affixes and occur with far lower overall frequency than [-ATR] vowels. In essence, they pattern like a marked sound class. This paper focuses on some implications of these findings for a theoretical topic of interest: markedness relations involving tongue root features. The Diola-Fogny patterns conform quite well to the expectations of a traditional understanding of featural markedness, which equates the dominant value of a feature with the marked one. They are problematic, however, for a widely assumed view of tongue root markedness relations that treats [-ATR] as universally marked in high vowels. Under this view, marked patterning of all [+ATR] vowels (including high [+ATR] [i], [u]) is unexpected. I show that such patterning is intelligible in a framework in which markedness has a representational basis and in which [+ATR] quality is represented by a privative feature [ATR].

The role of NZ English in a binary feature analysis of English short vowels

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Feature Analysis ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Binary Feature ◽  
Acoustic Space ◽  
High Vowels

The Jakobsonian system of binary distinctive features is based on the premise that, as far as vowels are concerned, their articulation, and the resulting acoustic effects, are not distributed randomly over the available articulatory or acoustic space, but are organized into systems of binary contrasts, so that for example (in articulatory terms) a set of front vowels will be matched by a corresponding set of back vowels, a set of high vowels by a set of mid or low vowels, and so on. There will thus be a certain symmetry in the distribution of such vowels, either in their positions on a vowel quadrilateral, or in a similar schematic shape such as the five-vowel triangle.

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