scholarly journals Phonetic Sources of Sound Change: The Influence of Thai on Nasality in Pwo Karen

MANUSYA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
Karnthida Kerdpol ◽  
Volker Dellwo ◽  
Mathias Jenny
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Nasal Vowels ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Phonetic Realization

The phonetic realization of nasal vowels produced by Pwo speakers of different ages can vary. The present study investigated mid and low nasal vowels of Pwo speakers from Mae Hong Son province, Thailand. Due to the higher tendency of language contact with Thai, the younger group’s nasal vowels were expected to lose more nasality than the older group. The emergence of final nasal consonants was also expected in the younger group. The nasalization duration and consonant duration of both groups were analyzed. The results showed that, regardless of age, mid nasal vowels of some speakers had final nasal consonants, while low nasal vowels of all speakers did not. Furthermore, the older group had both longer nasalization duration and consonant duration than the younger group, suggesting their higher tendency to preserve nasality. The younger group had shorter nasalization duration and consonant duration, indicating the loss of nasality in vowels without compensatory final nasal consonants. The change might be due to the vowel quality. High vowels were fully denasalized with no compensatory final nasal consonants. Mid vowels were nasalized with the emergence of final nasal consonants. Low vowels remained nasalized without final nasal consonants. We could not confirm that the emergence of final nasal consonants was induced by Thai because it occurred in both groups. The existence of final nasal consonants in the younger group could not be used as evidence of an effect of contact.

Cognate similarity and intervocalic /d/ production in Riverense Spanish

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692199680
Author(s):  
Michael Gradoville ◽  
Mark Waltermire ◽  
Avizia Long
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Acoustic Measurements ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects Model ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Phonetic Realization

Aims and objectives: While previous research has shown that phonetic variation in language contact situations is affected by whether a word has a cognate in the contact language, this paper aims to show that such an effect is not monotonic. According to the usage-based model, items in memory are organized according to similarity, thus we anticipated that formally more similar cognates would show a stronger cognate effect. Methodology: This variationist sociophonetic study investigates the relationship between cognate similarity and phonetic realization. We examined this relationship in the bilingual community of Rivera, Uruguay, in which both Portuguese and Spanish are spoken with regularity. Specifically, we focused on intervocalic /d/, which in monolingual Spanish is realized as an approximant [ð̞] or phonetic zero, but in monolingual Brazilian Portuguese is produced as a stop [d] or, in most varieties, an affricate [ʤ] before [i]. Data and analysis: We analyzed a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews of the Spanish spoken in Rivera. Acoustic measurements were taken from approximately 60 tokens each from 40 different speakers. Using a linear mixed-effects model, we examined the relationship between several predictors and the degree of constriction of intervocalic /d/. Findings/conclusions: While there is an overall frequency effect whereby more frequent words exhibit less constriction of intervocalic /d/, as both frequency and cognate similarity increase, less constriction of intervocalic /d/ obtains. Therefore, frequent cognates in Portuguese that have very similar forms affect the production of intervocalic /d/ more so than other cognates. Originality: No previous study has demonstrated that the cognate effect on phonetic variation in a situation of language contact is regulated by form similarity between cognate pairs. Significance/implications: The data support the usage-based model in that similar cognates have more lexical connections and can therefore show greater influence on phonetic realization than can cognates that share less phonetic material.

scholarly journals Regional differences in the evolution of the merger of /ʃ/ and /ç/ in Luxembourgish

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
François Conrad
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
The South ◽  
Data Set ◽  
West Germanic ◽  
The North ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Old Men ◽  
Middle Generation

The merger of post-alveolar /ʃ/ and palatal /ç/ into alveolopalatal /ɕ/ has recently gained growing interest in sociophonetic research, especially in the Middle German dialect area. In Luxembourgish, a Continental West Germanic language, the sound change has been linked to age differences, while its origins remain unclear. Two studies with a regional focus are presented in this paper. The first study examines the merger in the Centre and the South of Luxembourg. The acoustic examination of both the spectral peak and the centre of gravity of a spoken data set of five minimal pairs embedded in read and orally translated sentences from 48 speakers (three generations (old generation, 65–91 years; middle generation, 40–64 years; young generation, 20–39 years; each generation, n = 16), men and women) reveals interesting results related to their regional background. In the old generation, the merger is further advanced in the speech of old men from the former mining region in the South compared to their peers in the Centre, the former leading this sound change. On the other hand, young speakers in both regions produce only alveolopalatal /ɕ/, the merger being complete in this generation. The second study presents exploratory data from the East and the North of the country. The analysis of this smaller sample (n = 6 speakers) reveals patterns similar to the central region. Pointing to language contact with Romance in the South as cradle and/or catalyser of the merger, these results not only give further clues as to the development in Luxembourg, but also add to a deeper understanding of sound changes in process in complex sibilant systems.

Bilingualism and sound change: perception in the /ʎ/-/j/ merger process in Majorcan Spanish

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-133
Author(s):  
Assumpció Rost Bagudanch
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Balearic Islands ◽  
Chance Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Inhibiting Effect ◽  
Change Perception ◽  
Merger Process ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
Contact Effects

AbstractYeísmo has been accounted for as a merger process occurring in Spanish irrespective of language contact effects though some scholars have claimed that the interference between Spanish and the variety of Catalan spoken in Majorca (Balearic Islands, Spain) has an inhibiting effect on yeísmo. This paper focusses on whether this inhibiting effect can be demonstrated at the perception level and whether it has an effect in the linguistic behaviour of bilinguals. To examine these effects, we conducted an identification experiment with three groups of listeners (Majorcan Catalan-dominant bilinguals, Spanish-dominant bilinguals and a control group of Spanish monolinguals). Results show that Catalan dominants do recognise [ʎ] stimuli, but Spanish dominants only identify [ʎ] at chance level. Consequently, it would seem that bilingual subjects display a bimodal performance at the perception level.

Lexical diffusion as a factor of phonetic change: The case of Modern French nasal vowels

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Berit Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Nasal Vowels ◽  
Lexical Diffusion

The present study explores the notion of lexical diffusion in relation to an ongoing change in Modern French nasal vowels. Data are interviews with 42 Parisians, recorded in 1972–74 and 1989–93. We start with the notion that sound change ought to be regular, according to the classification of Labov (1994): that is, being a phonetically gradual change, it should be lexically abrupt. The first part of our analysis, which includes more than 10,000 nasal vowel tokens, seems to indicate an influence of factors compatible with the hypothesis of regular sound change (i.e., stress and phonetic surroundings). A closer look at the vowel /[vowel symbol]/, however, reveals an independent lexical and grammatical conditioning, one not entirely explicable in terms of stress or phonetics. As other studies have shown (Krishnamurti, 1998; Yaeger-Dror, 1996), gradual phonetic change might show lexical irregularities, a fact which calls for a revision of Labov's classification.

scholarly journals A Dispersion-Theoretic Account of Taiwanese CV phonotactics

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-Fu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Distinct Component ◽  
Complementary Distribution ◽  
Nasal Vowels ◽  
Similar Restriction ◽  
Stage Analysis ◽  
Phonetic Realization

In Taiwanese, oral voice consonants and nasal stops are in complementary distribution in the onset position: oral voiced consonants only precede phonemically oral vowels, and nasal stops only precede nasal vowels. Similar restriction in the distribution of these segments is not found in other languages with phonemic nasal vowels, such as French and Portuguese. Following studies showing that Taiwanese nasal vowels are fully nasalized, while French and Portuguese ones have delay in nasality (Chang et al., 2011; Delvaux et al., 2008; Parkinson, 1983), this study proposes a Dispersion-Theoretic account to connect phonetic observation about vocalic nasality to the phonotactic restrictions on voicing and nasality. Using a three-stage analysis (Flemming 2006, 2008), where Phonetic Realization is a distinct component of the grammar, the analysis is show how a cross-linguistic different in phonetic implementation of nasality is able to derive differences in surface phonotactics. The analysis also makes explicitly testable predictions about the perception and the typology of the distributions of voiced and nasal segments.

Preference Laws and Gradient Change: Selected Developments in Romance

1987 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Natural Class ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
Natural Classes ◽  
Gradient Change

This paper has two purposes. The first is to focus attention on the gradient nature of sound change. This characteristic of sound change, although an important one, is often overlooked. King (1969: 122), for example, states: “Phonological changes tend to affect natural classes of sounds (p, t, k, high vowels, voiced stops) because rules that affect natural classes are simpler than rules that apply only to single segments.” This perspective obscures the generalization pattern of phonological processes, for a particular process typically affects a subsection of a natural class and then may (or may not) generalize to other members of the particular class or even to other classes. The second purpose of this paper is to account for selected cases of gradient phonological change in Italian and other Romance languages on the basis of a partial theory of syllable structure preferences.

scholarly journals Bantu Lexical Reconstruction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Bostoen ◽  
Yvonne Bastin
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistic ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Intermediate Step ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Phonological Reconstruction ◽  
The Relationship

Lexical reconstruction has been an important enterprise in Bantu historical linguistics since the earliest days of the discipline. In this chapter a historical overview is provided of the principal scholarly contributions to that field of study. It is also explained how the Comparative Method has been and can be applied to reconstruct ancestral Bantu vocabulary via the intermediate step of phonological reconstruction and how the study of sound change needs to be completed with diachronic semantics in order to correctly reconstruct both the form and the meaning of etymons. Finally, some issues complicating this type of historical linguistic research, such as “osculance” due to prehistoric language contact, are addressed, as well as the relationship between reconstruction and classification.

On the Study of Strata in the Phonological History of Dialects

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-59
Author(s):  
Rulong Li
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Phonological Categories ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Dialects

Researchers studying strata in the phonological history of Chinese dialects should note the following: First, some historical strata emerged because of language contact. Second, beside the evolution of phonological categories themselves, it is also important to trace the actual sound change from one pronunciation to another. Third, primary (i.e. covering most characters in a category) and secondary strata should be differentiated, and the latter should not be blown out of proportion. Fourth, researchers should find out how the various strata in a dialect constitute a single synchronic system. The four points in discussion are all illustrated with examples from Min dialects.

scholarly journals Emphatic consonants beyond Arabic: The emergence and proliferation of uvular-pharyngeal emphasis in Kumzari

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 275-328
Author(s):  
Erik Anonby
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
European Language ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
Semitic Language ◽  
Strait Of Hormuz ◽  
Sound Changes

AbstractThe complex and cross-linguistically uncommon phonological phenomenon of “emphasis” is best known from Central Semitic languages such as Arabic and Aramaic. It is, however, found to varying degrees in a number of non-Semitic languages in contact with Arabic. This paper describes how in Kumzari, an Indo-European language spoken around the Strait of Hormuz, uvular-pharyngeal emphasis has arisen through language contact and has proliferated through language-internal processes. Beginning with the retention of emphatic consonants in a direct, extensive lexification by Arabic dating back at least 1300 years, emphasis has progressively penetrated the language by means of lexical innovations and two types of sound changes in both borrowed and inherited vocabulary: (i) analogical spread of emphasis onto plain but potentially emphatic consonants; and (ii) a sound change in which z has been invariably recast as an emphatic ẓ with no plain counterpart. The role of the back consonants w, x, q and ḥ, which induce emphasis on potentially emphatic consonants in diachronic processes but not synchronically, highlights the unique way in which this complex phenomenon operates in one non-Semitic language in contact with Arabic.

scholarly journals Convergence and the Retention of Marked Consonants in Sango: the Creation and Appropriation of a Pidgin

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-237
Author(s):  
William Samarin
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
West African ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Phonological System

AbstractSango challenges allegations that the sound inventories of pidgins are small and that in language contact sound change often leads to loss or assimilation in phonemic distinctions. Sango has retained almost the whole phonological system of Ngbandi, on which it is based. This is explained, not by substratal influence—the systems of co-territorial Ubangian languages of the Banda and Gbaya groups—but by similar systems of several West African and especially central Bantu languages spoken by the workers and soldiers who were brought to the Ubangi River basin by Belgian colonizers, beginning in 1887 and very soon after by the French, and who, with the indigenes, very quickly created a new language that was soon appropriated by the Ngbandis, thereby preserving at least this part of their own language.

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