Variation in the tonal space of Yangliu Lalo, an endangered language of Yunnan, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathryn Yang ◽  
James N. Stanford ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Jinjing Jiang ◽  
Liufang Tang

Abstract Endangered tone languages are not often studied within quantitative variationist approaches, but such approaches can provide valuable insights for language description and documentation in the Tibeto-Burman area. This study examines tone variation within Yangliu Lalo (Central Ngwi), a minority language community in China that is currently shifting to Southwestern Mandarin. Yangliu Lalo’s Tone 4, the rising-falling High tone, is lowering and flattening among young people, especially females, who also tend to use Lalo less frequently. Tonal range in elicited speech is shown to be decreasing as use of Lalo decreases. Concurrently, the standard deviation of the pitch of individual tones also decreases, while at the same time speakers with a narrow tonal range also show greater articulatory precision for each tone. Tonal range and standard deviation of pitch are both parameters of tonal space, the arrangement of, and relationship between, tones within the tonal system. The results from our apparent-time study suggest that tonal space provides a new avenue of sociolinguistic inquiry for tone languages.

Author(s):  
Neama Mostafa RaKaban ◽  
Hanaa Saeed Salama

The research aims to study the relationship between the management strategies of the small projects of the workers in their dimensions: (Project phase strategy, making decisions, the project management strategy of financial production, Marketing Productive Management Strategy, the strategy of managing productive legal projects) with satisfaction with life dimensions: (Psychological compatibility, Self-compliance, Work environment, and Social compatibility) . The research sample consisted of 102 persons working in four small projects, "Ceramics - Bamboo - Serma - Hand Carpets". They were selected in a pesky-purpose manner from the employees of these projects in Sakiet Abu Shaara village, Sentris, Menoufia Governorate and 10th of Ramadan City. "General data form", "Project Management Strategies scale", and "measure of satisfaction with life" were applied. The study followed the descriptive and analytical approach. The data were categorized and analyzed using appropriate statistical methods through the SPSS statistical program such as number and percentages, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, T-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Chi-square and F-test. The most important results are related to the relationship between the project management strategy and the financial productivity and self-compliance at the level of significance of 0.01, which means that the realization of the requirements of the project in terms of finance and meet the needs, resulting in self-compatibility.  There is also a correlation between the project management strategy and the business environment at the level of 0.01 meaning that whenever the project needs to be met in terms of funding and meet the needs of the project as this leads to compatibility with the place of residence of the project and the surrounding environment, there is an inverse correlation Between the social situation and the decision-making at the level of significance of 0.01, which means that the greater the number of employees are married the less ability to make the decisions needed in those small projects, which means the impact of the ability to make decisions on the social situation of the individual. There were statistically significant differences between the averages of the different projects in terms of the overall project management strategy according to the dwelling. The highest value was for the medium in the ceramics project and the lowest in the hand carpets where the ceramic represents the highest average 2.000 while the carpets represent the lowest average by 1.809 at the level of significance 0.1. There were significant differences between the mean of the various projects in terms of satisfaction with total life according to the dimension of psychological compatibility and the highest value for the average in the hand carpet project where the results showed that the average and standard deviation of hand carpets is (23.745 ± 4.38) The recommendations of the government, decision-makers and ministries to establish a culture of entrepreneurship and motivate young people to set up private projects through the media, paying attention to the enactment of laws on small projects to motivate young people to establish and develop small and micro enterprises, In various stages to ensure the success and continuity of the project.


Author(s):  
Olimpia Rasom

This chapter investigates the linguistic beliefs and ideologies of Ladin women in the Dolomites in Italy. The reasons that lead women to speak their heritage language in a progressively globalized Europe were investigated, to identify the role of ideologies about language and culture in shaping personal views. Focus groups of no more than seven women per group allowed the creation of a constructive setting where each woman could express her own ideas, which progressively evolved as other women’s opinions were heard. Life history interviews were used to investigate the ideologies of women aged 70 and over. Results suggest that reflection may lead to greater awareness of what it means to speak the ‘mother tongue’ and the consequent implications for an endangered minority language. Reflecting together makes women aware of their own skills and fosters willingness to promote their language and culture.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 266
Author(s):  
Leandro Oliveira ◽  
Rui Poínhos ◽  
Francisco Sousa

Introduction: Functional foods are those that promote health and well-being and/or decrease the risk of certain chronic diseases. It is known that young people’ knowledge about functional foods is low. The aim of this study is to assess the psychometric proprieties of the “Attitudes towards Functional Foods Scale” in a sample of adolescents and, based on that analysis, adapting the scale for its use among this population group.Material and Methods: After a pre-test, the scale was applied to 340 students attending the 3rd cycle of basic education in Terceira island (Azores, Portugal), whose ages ranged between 11 and 19 years (mean = 14.0, standard deviation = 1.2). We analyzed the scale’s internal consistency and construct validity.Results: The study of the psychometric proprieties led to the exclusion of one item. Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.876) showed a good internal consistency of the scale, and factor analysis revealed that, as the original (adults) version, it presents an unifactorial structure.Discussion: The scale showed to be an instrument easy and quick to apply among adolescents. We emphasize that its application should be preceded by the clarification on the concept of functional foods in order to ensure the adequacy of the answers.Conclusion: This study has demonstrated the adequacy of the Attitudes Towards Functional Foods Scale to assess Portuguese adolescents’ perception regarding functional foods, highlighting the need of using its adapted version.


1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Demuth

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the acquisition of the grammatical tone system of Sesotho, a southern Bantu language where tone sandhi is rich, and where surface and underlying representations are often quite distinct. Results of the longitudinal case study show that rule-assigned tone on subject markers is generally marked appropriately by age two. In contrast, underlying tonal representations on verb roots are learned gradually over time, showing an early Default High tone pattern. The study also finds that, while some tone sandhi rules are in the process of being acquired between 2;6 and 3;0, problems in the mapping between tonal representations and segments persist. The paper raises methodological and theoretical issues not only for the acquisition of tonal systems, but for the acquisition of phonology in general.


Author(s):  
Shakuntala Mahanta ◽  
Kalyan Das ◽  
Amalesh Gope

It is discussed widely in the literature on tone and intonation that both these phenomenon make use of changes in the f0. It is often assumed that intonation in tone languages is only slightly more limited than it is in non-tonal ones (Yip 2002). This paper addresses the question of tone assignment in Boro and investigates how it operates as a function of focus. This paper studies both the phonetics and phonology of intonation in Boro and delineates the way in-situ and morphological focus markers influence sentence prosody. The results show that in-situ focus does not result in any change of the f0 value of the target word. The only consistent acoustic correlate for focus marking is found to be post focus compression. The morphological focus marker leads to discrete downstepping of the following High tone and also emerges with an H* by deleting the neighboring H tones. One of the significant results of this experiment is that while H tones were realized at a higher f0 while co-occurring with the H* of the MF marker, L tones did not lead to any changes unless the stem were disyllabic, showing that there are phonological factors constraining sentential prosody.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heini Karjalainen

Veps is a Finnic minority language that has long been influenced by Russian, the prestige language in the speech area. The influence of Russian can be perceived in all subsystems of the Veps language, but hardly any research has been done on its impact on morphology. The current paper focuses on the influence of Russian on the Veps indefinite pronouns and their restructuring. The contemporary Veps indefinite pronoun system is based on the use of different affixes and particles, i.e., indefiniteness markers, which are attached to interrogative stems. This article describes the various Veps indefiniteness markers, which have been acquired via morpheme transfer (MAT) and morphological pattern transfer (PAT) from Russian. The borrowing of indefiniteness markers is typical for languages under the very strong influence of another language. According to contemporary studies, the motivation for borrowing should primarily be attributed to sociolinguistic factors and less to structural-typological similarities of the languages in question. In the Veps language community, such sociolinguistic factors are the minority status of the Veps language and the bilingualism of its speakers. 


2018 ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
Bhim Lal Gautam

This paper explores the patterns of language shift in Newar, the ethnic indigenous language community living in the Kathmandu Valley. The research focuses on language contact situations in different domains viz. social, cultural, personal, and official as well as media related activities where the informants are asked to use different languages along with the use of their own mother tongue i.e. Newar. This socio-ethnographic research aims at providing some clues as to how the discovery of a minority language triggers changes in representations and attitudes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 276-281
Author(s):  
Daniel E Lumsden ◽  
Jill Cadwgan

Elevated tone (hypertonia) is a common problem seen in the paediatric clinic. For most children and young people, hypertonia is just one aspect of a broader disorder of movement and posture. This paper describes a clinical approach to the management of hypertonia in children, considering the contribution of high tone to the functional problems experienced by the child, the potential adverse effects of reducing tone, side effects of the intervention and the importance of setting objectives/goals for intervention which can be measured at follow-up. We describe this as the ‘MOTOR’ approach and provide some examples of how it can be used in practice.


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