scholarly journals Excrescent vowels in Lamkang prefix sequences

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-213
Author(s):  
Mary Burke ◽  
Shobhana Chelliah ◽  
Melissa Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Short Duration ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Short Vowel ◽  
Vowel Epenthesis ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Epenthetic Vowel

AbstractLamkang is a Trans-Himalayan language spoken in the Chandel District of Manipur, India by under 10,000 ethnically Naga people. Due to a complex person indexation system in Lamkang clauses, multiple prefixes with the shape C- are attached to a verb stem creating lexemes with the shape CCCCVC. To make such forms pronounceable, speakers insert super-short vowel-like segments between the C- prefixes. Combining acoustic analysis with speakers’ intuitions about syllable structure, we examine the nature of these segments, arguing that an accurate phonetic description of Lamkang vowels must include these super-short vowels, as well as long and short vowels, which are phonemically distinct. We call these super-short vowels excrescent, following the terminology discussed in Hall (2011. Vowel epenthesis. In Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth V. Hume & Keren Rice (eds.), The blackwell companion to phonology, 1576–1596. Oxford: Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0067: 1584). The excrescent vowel is a type of epenthetic vowel, sometimes also called “intrusive”, and is typified by its short duration and centralized quality distinct from lexical vowels. It is unstressed and has the phonetic effect of helping to transition between consonants. We show that the excrescent vowels in Lamkang have formant structures that barely resemble the characteristic formant profiles of the short and long vowels. While excrescent vowels are not contrastive, they are phonologically relevant because they have just enough sonority to form nuclei of CiVCii syllables where Cii is often ambisyllabic with the following syllable. The Lamkang data show that while any language-specific phonotactic constraints must reference the syllable, what constitutes a syllable must include the possibility of excrescent vowels as nuclei.

The prosodic licensing of coda consonants in early speech: interactions with vowel length

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
KELLY MILES ◽  
IVAN YUEN ◽  
FELICITY COX ◽  
KATHERINE DEMUTH
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Short Vowel ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Lexical Constraints

AbstractEnglish has a word-minimality requirement that all open-class lexical items must contain at least two moras of structure, forming a bimoraic foot (Hayes, 1995).Thus, a word with either a long vowel, or a short vowel and a coda consonant, satisfies this requirement. This raises the question of when and how young children might learn this language-specific constraint, and if they would use coda consonants earlier and more reliably after short vowels compared to long vowels. To evaluate this possibility we conducted an elicited imitation experiment with 15 two-year-old Australian English-speaking children, using both perceptual and acoustic analysis. As predicted, the children produced codas more often when preceded by short vowels. The findings suggest that English-speaking two-year-olds are sensitive to language-specific lexical constraints, and are more likely to use coda consonants when prosodically required.

scholarly journals Syllable weight, vowel length and focus in Lebanese Arabic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Short Vowel ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Consonant Cluster ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Syllable Weight ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Levantine Arabic ◽  
Lebanese Arabic

Research on a variety of languages has shown that vowel duration is influenced by phonological vowel length as well as syllable structure (e.g., Maddieson, 1997). Further, the phonological concept of a mora has been shown to relate to phonetic measurements of duration (Cohn, 2003; Hubbard, 1993; Port, Dalby, & O'Dell, 1987). In Levantine Arabic, non-final closed syllables that contain a long vowel have been described as partaking in mora-sharing (Broselow, Chen, & Huffman, 1997; Khattab & Al-Tamimi, 2014). The current investigation examines the effect of vowel length and syllable structure on vowel duration, as well as how this interacts with durational effects of prosodic focus. Disyllabic words with initial, stressed syllables that were either open or closed and contained either a long or a short vowel wereexamined when non-focused and in contrastive focus. Contrastive focus was associated with longer words and syllables but not vowels. Short vowels were shorter when in a syllable closed by a singleton but not by a geminate consonant, while long vowels were not shortened before coda singletons. An analysis is proposed whereby long vowels followed by an intervocalic consonant cluster are parsed as open syllables, with the first consonant forming a semisyllable (Kiparsky, 2003), while long vowels followed by geminate consonants partake in mora-sharing (Broselow, Huffman, Chen, & Hsieh, 1995). The results also indicate compensatory shortening for short vowels followed by a singleton coda.

Ditidaht Vowel Alternations and Prosody

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 71-104
Author(s):  
Adam Werle
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Folds ◽  
Short Vowel ◽  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Vowel Epenthesis ◽  
Additional Finding ◽  
Short Vowels

AbstractAmong the Southern Wakashan languages, Ditidaht has patterns of short vowel epenthesis and deletion that are unusually complex. It is shown that the surface presence or absence of short vowels is determined not by their underlying presence or absence, but by how segments are parsed by prosodic constituents. An optimality theoretic analysis is developed, according to which vowel alternations result from the low ranking of faithfulness constraints (Max/V and Dep/V) relative to constraints on the forms of syllables, feet, and prosodic words. Vowel presence creates ideal iambic feet, makes prosodic words minimally disyllabic, and ensures that adducted consonants (those that involve adducting the vocal folds for glottalization or voicing) are vowel-adjacent. Vowel absence ensures that prosodic words end in consonants, and eliminates unfooted syllables. An additional finding is that all adducted consonants must be postvocalic.

scholarly journals Alternation of upper and non-upper vowels in personal-possessive noun affixes in the Surgut dialect of the Khanty language

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 78-101
Author(s):  
Natalya B. Koshkareva ◽  
Timofey V. Timkin ◽  
Polina I. Li
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Short Vowel ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
R Language ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
Khanty Mansi Autonomous

Personal-possessive 1st and 2nd person singular noun affixes in the Surgut dialect of the Khanty language, as well as 1st person plural noun affixes (irregular in various dialects) with singular objects are represented by several allomorphs: 1SG.SG ‒ =əм / =эм / =ам; 2SG.SG ‒ =əн / =э (=эн) / =а; 1PL.SG ‒ (?)=əв / =эв / =ив / =ув / =ав. When the personal-possessive affixes are attached, vowel alternation occurs in several roots. The choice of specific allomorphs and the presence or absence of alternation depends on the root vowels. In roots with short vowels, there is no alternation, and affixes with lower vowels are used: =ам (1SG.SG) and =а (1SG.SG). When the personal-possessive affixes are attached to roots with long vowels, lower vowels are replaced by corresponding upper vowels. After roots with long upper vowels, =эм (1SG.SG) and =э (2SG.SG) affix variants are used, and no alternation occurs, because vowels can no longer be ‘moved’ upwards. After stems with long non-upper vowels, the =əм (1SG.SG) and =əн (2SG.SG) affixes are used, and alternation takes place in the root. This is not true for some specific cases: in roots with long middle vowels, these processes may occur according to the upper vowel model, or the lower vowel model; for example, the lexeme вӧӈ ‘son-in-law’, which contains a short vowel, can be followed by affixes with the vowel э, typical for roots with long upper vowels. Our research is based on field materials collected in the Surgut District, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, or Yugra, in 2017‒2019. The audio records were segmented and annotated in the Praat software. Acoustic analysis and further statistical analysis of our data was performed on the basis of Emu-SDMS corpus system and R language.

scholarly journals [Phonemic Transitions of Arabic Words in The Malay Language] Al-Tahwalat al-Sautiah lil Alfaz al-Arabiah fi al-Lughah al-Malawiya.

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-111
Author(s):  
Tasnim Binti Mohd Annuar
Keyword(s):  
Short Vowel ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Research Findings

This study aims to identify the phonic adaptations of Arabic loanwords in the Malay language which do not affect the syllabic system of those loanwords. The importance of the study is that it helps to produce a combined lexicon between Malay and Arabic which depends on the phonic adaptations to suit the Malay phonic systems. The method used in this study is contrastive method as the Arabic and Malay are not of one language family. Among the research findings is that the phonic adaptations that do not lead to the change of syllabic system of the loanwords include the replacement of consonant with consonant, and the replacement of short vowel with short vowel, and the replacement of semivowel with short vowel, and the replacement of the long vowel with diphthong, and the dissimilation  between the short vowels. Keywords : Arabic, Malay, Contrastive method, phones, Malay phones.        تسعى هذه الدراسة إلى الكشف عن التحولات الصوتيةالطارئة على الألفاظ العربية المقترضة في اللغة الملايوية وهي لا تؤثر في النظام المقطعي لتلك الألفاظ. وتظهر أهمية الدراسة في أنها تساعد في صناعة المعجم المشترك بين العربية والملايوية، حيث يعتمد الأمر على التولات الصوتية الطارئة لمناسبة النظام الصوتي في الملايوية. والمنهج المتبع في هذه الدراسة هو المنهج التقابلي، لأن العربية والملايوية ليستا من فصيلة واحدة. ومما توصلت إليه الدراسة أن التحولات الصوتية التي لا تؤدي إلى تغيير النظام المقطعي للالفاظ المقترضة تشمل إبدال الصامت بالصامت، وإبدال الحركة القصيرة بالحركة القصيرة، وإبدال شبه الحركة بالحركة القيصرة، وإبدال الحركة الطويلة بالحركة المزدوجة، والمخالفة بين الحركات. الكلمات المفتاحية: اللغة العبية، اللغة الملايوية، المنهج التقابلي، الأصوات، أصوات اللغة الملايوية.  

scholarly journals Resolving the Issue of the Target of Vowel Copy in Fijian Loanwords

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gakuji Kumagai
Keyword(s):  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Minimal Projection ◽  
Loanword Adaptation ◽  
Vowel Epenthesis ◽  
Epenthetic Vowel

English loanwords into Fijian undergo vowel epenthesis, as Fijian disallows coda consonants and consonant clusters. Vowel copy is an option for determining epenthetic vowel quality in loanword adaptation (Kumagai 2016a; Schütz 1978, 2004). The target of copy epenthesis seems to be either the preceding or following vowel of the epenthetic site. However, the choice of target vowel is indeterminate, as there is no vowel copy in Fijian native phonology. This paper offers a resolution to the problem by adopting an expanded version of prosodic projection theory (Martínez-Paricio 2012, 2013), in which feet are allowed to exhibit maximal/minimal projection. I propose Foot Condition, which requires the Foot[±max/±min] to circumscribe the vowel copy domain.

scholarly journals Vowel Epenthesis in Loanword Integration: A Study of English Consonant Cluster at Onset

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 332
Author(s):  
Muhammad Asad Habib ◽  
Arshad Ali Khan
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Consonant Cluster ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Vowel Epenthesis ◽  
Feature Theory ◽  
Epenthetic Vowel ◽  
Phonological System

This study examines the process of vowel epenthesis used by the Punjabi speakers to integrate the English consonant cluster at onset position of the syllable. English and Punjabi are two different phonological system where English allows consonant cluster and complex consonants at onset while Punjabi only allows complex consonants. Hence for the integration of syllables with consonant cluster, Punjabi speakers have to insert a vowel to make the consonant configuration according to Punjabi phonotactics. The data for this study are collected from recordings of focus group discussions, interviews and video clips. The data are analyzed by using CV phonology and Distinct Feature theory. The results suggest that Punjabi speakers insert vowels to modify the English consonant clusters according to Punjabi phonological environment. Thus, they add another vowel node and resyllabify the consonant clusters. The mid central /ə/ vowel is the default epenthetic vowel while in some cases /e/ is also used before the consonant clusters.

scholarly journals Perception and production of English initial /s/ clusters by Brazilian learners

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosane Silveira
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Separate Category ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Epenthetic Vowel ◽  
Learning English

The present study investigated the relationship between perception and production in the acquisition of word-initial /s/ clusters in the interlanguage of Brazilians learning English as a foreign language. In addition to the interface between perception and production, other factors that might influence both mental processes, e.g., faulty perception, L1 interference, or a combination of these factors, were taken into account. The results part ially support studies which propose that perception influences production. There was also support for the power of L1 interference over Markedness and Universal Canonical Syllable Structure. Epenthesis was the strategy of syllable simplification present in all cluster types. Some subjects, though, resorted to a short epenthetic vowel (/I/), thus indicating that they might be developing a separate category for initial /s/ clusters.

scholarly journals Lenisering etter kort vokal: relikt-fenomen eller opphav?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-241
Author(s):  
Gjert Kristoffersen
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Short Vowel ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Stressed Syllable ◽  
Limited Distribution ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Stage Process

The topic of the paper is a small group of Norwegian dialects where lenition of p, t, k into b, d, g in intervocalic and word-final position is limited to words characterized by a monomoraic, stressed syllable in Old Norse. These dialects are spoken in the easternmost local communities in Agder county, at the eastern margin of the South-Norwegian lenition areas where lenition hit all short oral stops irrespective of preceding vowel length. After the quantity shift had made all stressed vowels bimoraic, with rimes being either VV or VC, the distribution of the lenited plosives are after both long and short vowels (the main area) or after short vowels only (the eastern marginal area). Haslum (2004) argues that the limited distribution in the east ist the result of a reversal after long vowels only. While this cannot be refuted as a possibility, I argue below that it may also be the result of a two-stage process, whereby lenition after a short vowel has spread further than the generalized process.

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