A Bottom-Up Approach to Vowel Systems: The Case of Yadu Qiang*

Examining vowel harmony processes at work in Yadu Qiang reveals the smallest set of features needed to account for vowel oppositions, hence vowel structure. Arguments are evaluated for binarity/unarity of features, and the roles of marginal and disappearing contrasts. A minimal set of features that accounts for vowel processes predicts the existence of abstract vowels, which are shown to be active in the vowel system. The required binary features are Front, A TR, and Low, while Round and Rhotic are unary features. The study draws paralleis with Hyman's (2003) analysis of Kalong, in which all vowel features are shown to be unary.

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Aperture harmony

10.1093/oso/9780198813576.003.0006 ◽

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.

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Uvular approximation as an articulatory vowel feature

Journal of the International Phonetic Association ◽

10.1017/s0025100315000146 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 1-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jonathan P. Evans ◽

Jackson T.-S. Sun ◽

Chenhao Chiu ◽

Michelle Liou

Keyword(s):

Ultrasound Imaging ◽

Acoustic Signal ◽

Sichuan Province ◽

Vowel Harmony ◽

Imaging Data ◽

International Phonetic Alphabet ◽

Place Of Articulation ◽

Acoustic Correlates ◽

Vowel Systems ◽

The Difference

This study explores the phenomenon of uvularization in the vowel systems of two Heishui County varieties of Qiang, a Sino-Tibetan language of Sichuan Province, China. Ultrasound imaging (one speaker) shows that uvularized vowels have two tongue gestures: a rearward gesture, followed by movement toward the place of articulation of the corresponding plain vowel. Time-aligned acoustic and articulatory data show how movement toward the uvula correlates with changes in the acoustic signal. Acoustic correlates of uvularization (taken from two speakers) are seen most consistently in raising of vowel F1, lowering of F2 and in raising of the difference F3-F2. Imaging data and the formant structure of [l] show that uvular approximation can begin during the initial consonant that precedes a uvularized vowel. Uvularization is reflected phonologically in the phonotactic properties of vowels, while vowel harmony aids in the identification of plain–uvularized vowel pairs. The data reported in this paper argue in favor of a revision of the catalog of secondary articulations recognized by the International Phonetic Alphabet, in order to include uvularization, which can be marked with the symbol [ʶ] in the case of approximation and [χ] for secondary uvular frication.

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A Physics-Based Formal Vocabulary of Energy Verbs for Function Modeling

Volume 1: 39th Computers and Information in Engineering Conference ◽

10.1115/detc2019-98502 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Chiradeep Sen ◽

Joshua D. Summers ◽

Xiaoyang Mao

Keyword(s):

Complex Systems ◽

Object Oriented ◽

Expressive Power ◽

Top Down ◽

Minimal Set ◽

Bottom Up ◽

Complex Engineered Systems ◽

Survey Results ◽

Engineered Systems

Abstract Function modeling of complex systems relies on predefined vocabularies of functions and flows. These vocabularies are usually developed in a top-down approach, i.e., by starting with a survey of existing systems and identifying their functions empirically. These vocabularies, while highly useful in manual modeling due to their expressive power and coverage, can be unsuitable for computerized modeling and reasoning, esp. for physics-based reasoning. To this end, this paper presents a physics-based vocabulary of function verbs developed using the bottom-up approach, where the need for the verbs is identified through a survey of physics phenomena involving operations on various energy forms allowed in physics. This survey results in a minimal set of only six verbs and two logical nodes that are proposed here. Each term is formally defined as object-oriented classes derived from more foundational classes proposed in prior research. The paper shows many applications of these terms, for modeling both simpler devices and more complex engineered systems. Collectively, this new vocabulary provides sufficient coverage over modeling needs and ensures models that are logically consistent and physics-wise valid.

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Vowel harmony in Khalkha Mongolian, Yaka, Finnish and Hungarian

Phonology Yearbook ◽

10.1017/s0952675700000452 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 253-275 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

John Goldsmith

Keyword(s):

West African ◽

Vowel Harmony ◽

Theoretical Discussion ◽

Vowel Systems ◽

Made In

The discussion of vowel harmony in this paper continues the theoretical discussion that was sparked by Clements' first proposals concerning an autosegmental treatment of vowel harmony in general (1980 [1976]). I will attempt to show that problems that arose in early autosegmental treatments of certain types of vowel harmony can be elegantly overcome and that autosegmental theory more generally provides an attractive framework for the treatment of vowel systems and vowel harmony. I will discuss three distinct types of systems here: the slightly asymmetrical system of Khalkha Mongolian, the canonical five-vowel system as it can be seen in Bantu (Yaka, in this case), and the well-known Finnish/Hungarian type of system. The kinds of advances made here answer, I believe, the critical comments made in Anderson (1980), in which significant sceptical questions are raised concerning whether the successes of autosegmental accounts of West African systems can be extended to other types of vowel harmony systems.

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A comparative approach to the vowel systems and harmonies in the Transeurasian languages and beyond

The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198804628.003.0030 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 486-508

Author(s):

Andrew Joseph ◽

Seongyeon Ko ◽

John Whitman

Keyword(s):

Vowel Harmony ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Vowel Systems ◽

Northeast Asian ◽

Asian Languages

In this chapter the standard treatments of the Transeurasian vowel correspondences are reviewed, including their reconstructions of hypothetical proto-inventories, for the purpose of establishing a description of the Transeurasian vowel inventory and vowel harmony type. The review commences with a comparison of two major types of vowel-harmony systems in the Transeurasian languages, i.e. the palatal vs. the tongue-root harmony systems, and presents phonetic, phonological, and comparative evidence for a tongue-root harmony analysis of Korean, Mongolic, and Tungusic. Interpretations of the main Transeurasian reconstructions are then proposed, such as Ramstedt (1952–66) and Poppe (1960b) according to tongue-root harmony analysis as opposed to the conventional palatal harmony analysis. After this, there is an effort to situate the Transeurasian vowel inventory in its typological and geographical neighborhood, including Northeast Asian languages and beyond, and in its linguistic geographical setting.

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Vowel Harmony

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.38 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Harry van der Hulst

Keyword(s):

Vowel Harmony ◽

The Other ◽

Specific Context ◽

Root Position ◽

Control Pattern ◽

The Subject ◽

Binary Features ◽

Complex Words

The subject of this article is vowel harmony. In its prototypical form, this phenomenon involves agreement between all vowels in a word for some phonological property (such as palatality, labiality, height or tongue root position). This agreement is then evidenced by agreement patterns within morphemes and by alternations in vowels when morphemes are combined into complex words, thus creating allomorphic alternations. Agreement involves one or more harmonic features for which vowels form harmonic pairs, such that each vowel has a harmonic counterpart in the other set. I will focus on vowels that fail to alternate, that are thus neutral (either inherently or in a specific context), and that will be either opaque or transparent to the process. We will compare approaches that use underspecification of binary features and approaches that use unary features. For vowel harmony, vowels are either triggers or targets, and for each, specific conditions may apply. Vowel harmony can be bidirectional or unidirectional and can display either a root control pattern or a dominant/recessive pattern.

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A bottom-up approach to vowel systems: the case of Yadu Qiang

Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale ◽

10.3406/clao.2007.1838 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 147-186 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jonathan P. Evans ◽

Chenglong Huang

Keyword(s):

Bottom Up ◽

Vowel Systems

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Deriving the Feature-Filling/Feature-Changing Contrast: An Application to Hungarian Vowel Harmony

Linguistic Inquiry ◽

10.1162/002438903321663389 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 34 (2) ◽

pp. 199-224 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Charles Reiss

Keyword(s):

Vowel Harmony ◽

Lexical Representations ◽

Binary Features ◽

Rule Systems

The article explores an alternative to the interpretive procedure adopted in SPE and proposes a unified interpretive procedure for all languages. The proposal solves long-standing problems by making it unnecessary to refer to a third value of binary features [θF], to introduce negation into lexical representations (e.g., [NOT + rd]), or to introduce a feature filling/feature changing diacritic on rules.The article provides a metric for comparing extensionally equivalent rule systems and argues that the most concise formulation is not always the correct one, by appealing to crosslinguistic evidence.The proposal is illustrated by application to the target/trigger relations in Hungarian vowel harmony.

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