scholarly journals Asymmetry of Kazakh velar and uvular consonants

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Yawney
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Environment Effect ◽  
Markedness Constraint ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
Morpheme Boundary

Little descriptive work has been done on the place and voicing restrictions of the asymmetrical velar and uvular consonant inventory in Kazakh. In Kazakh, velar and uvular consonants are restricted depending on their neighbouring vowel. Velars appear in front vowel environments and uvulars appear in back vowel environments (place restriction). Voiced and voiceless velars and uvulars are restricted depending on their position in the word. At the morpheme boundary, velars and uvulars are voiceless in the word-final position and voiced in the stem-final position, when followed by a vowel-initial suffix (voicing restriction). The results from elicitation-based production experiments with six native Kazakh speakers reveal that the place restriction is not productive from real words to nonce words but the voicing restriction is. The data suggests a derived-environment effect where the resulting voicing process is conditioned morphologically. A theoretical analysis within Optimality Theory captures the voicing pattern using an indexed-markedness constraint and Local Conjunction.

scholarly journals Are Tims hot and Toms not?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Hartung
Keyword(s):  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Functional Feature ◽  
Physical Size ◽  
Gender Group ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
The Relationship

Sound symbolism – the idea that there are motivated links between the sound of a word and its meaning has been established to be an existing phenomenon across different languages. Especially size sound symbolism seems to be a functional feature in many languages meaning that different types of vowels in words are associated with different physical size. Words with front vowels (e.g. little, tiny) are more likely to be used to indicate small physical size whereas words with back vowels (e.g. humungous, huge) are more likely to indicate large physical size. Because physical size plays an important role in ratings of attractiveness, we tested whether vowels in first names can influence how attractive the bearer of the name is perceived. In our experiment, participants saw faces paired with popular first names and rated the attractiveness of the depicted person. Masculine names were paired with pictures of men and feminine names with pictures of women. The names either contained a front or back vowel in the accented syllable and were within gender group randomly paired with pictures. We found that female raters preferred faces paired with back vowel names while male raters preferred faces paired with front vowel names, showing that the rater's gender – far more than the gender of the depicted person – determined the relationship between vowel quality and perceived attractiveness of faces. Our results confirm the role of sound symbolism in perception of attractiveness.

scholarly journals Exceptionality and derived environment effects: a comparison of Korean and Turkish

Phonology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-572
Author(s):  
Adam J. Chong
Keyword(s):  
Environment Effects ◽  
Markedness Constraint ◽  
Morpheme Boundary ◽  
Phonotactic Learning

Morphologically derived environment effects (MDEEs) are well-known examples where phonotactic patterns in the lexicon mismatch with what is allowed at morphological boundaries – alternations. Analyses of MDEEs usually assume that the alternation is morphologically general, and that the sequences ‘repaired’ across morpheme boundaries are phonotactically well-formed in the lexicon. This paper examines the phonotactic patterns in the lexicon of two languages with MDEEs: Korean palatalisation and Turkish velar deletion. I show that Korean heteromorphemic sequences that undergo palatalisation are underattested in the lexicon. A computational learner learns a markedness constraint that drives palatalisation, suggesting a pattern of exceptional non-undergoing. This contrasts with Turkish, where the relevant constraint motivating velar deletion at the morpheme boundary is unavailable from phonotactic learning, and where the alternation is an example of exceptional triggering. These results indicate that MDEEs are not a unitary phenomenon, highlighting the need to examine these patterns in closer quantitative detail.

scholarly journals The Role of Anti-harmony in Learning Neutral Vowels

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Finley
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Grammar Learning ◽  
Artificial Grammar ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Learning Paradigm ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Back Vowel

The present study used an artificial grammar learning paradigm to explore the prediction that exposure to anti-harmony might help learners infer that a neutral vowel in a vowel harmony language is transparent. Participants were exposed to a back/round harmony language with a neutral vowel [a]. This neutral vowel either always selected a back vowel suffix,  always selected a front vowel suffix, or selected both front-and back vowel suffixes, in adherence to anti-harmony. Results indicated that exposure to a back/round harmony with the neutral vowel selecting either back vowel suffixes, or both front and back vowel suffixes, could induce a bias towards transparent vowels. Assuming that participants inferred that the centralized [a] paired with [o] harmonically, then the predictions that exposure to anti-harmony could induce a bias towards a transparent vowel interpretation were borne out. However, the bias towards a transparent vowel was not significantly different between the anti-harmony conditions and the harmony condition, suggesting that this effect should be replicated with other neutral vowels.

scholarly journals ADVERTISING BRANDS BY MEANS OF SOUNDS SYMBOLISM: THE INFLUENCE OF VOWELS ON PERCEIVED BRAND CHARACTERISTICS

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Catalina Duduciuc
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Brand Names ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Brand Name ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Applied Social Psychology ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
And Performance

The aim of this study is to test the influence of sound symbolism on perceived characteristics of a brand as well as to highlight the importance of applied social psychology to current practice of advertising. Previous research showed that the phonetic structure of brand name communicates its characteristics, i.e. it drives consumers to assess certain features and performance of the product. I assumed that when consumers encounter an unknown brand name, they automatically infer characteristics from the meaning conveyed by the sounds (e.g. phonemes). Therefore, I supposed that a brand name for a shampoo (artificially created on experimental purpose) containing back vowel is evaluated better by consumers when they compare it to another brand name with front vowels. Furthermore, for the accuracy of responses, I used the semantic differential scale to measure the differences between two brands in terms of certain attributes of product. To this end, fifty students (N=50) participated in a research based on questionnaire. As the results of the current research showed, the brand name with back vowel outnumbered the brand name with front vowel on two dimension, i.e. on brand activity and brand efficiency. The brand name containing front vowel was rated better when subjects evaluated the product in generally. Last, but not least, when it comes to convey meanings, the sound of back vowels [a] could be used more when marketers promote products that communicate its characteristics such as efficiency, velocity and health. The back vowel could be also assessed to products with larger packing or special sailing such as extra quantity. Meanwhile, the brand names with front vowels [ie] could be created for more expensive products with good quality, mainly addressed to men.

scholarly journals An Optimality Analysis of the Phonology of French Loanwords as Manifested in the Eastern Part of Algeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Sara Kessar ◽  
Radwan S. Mahadin
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Nasal Vowels ◽  
Vowel Raising ◽  
Place Assimilation ◽  
Vowel Deletion ◽  
Spoken Arabic ◽  
Phonological System

The present study sheds lights on the French loanwords which are integrated in the Algerian Spoken Arabic (ASA), particularly the dialect spoken in the Eastern part. It identifies the phonological processes used to adapt them within an Optimality Theory (OT) framework. A thorough scrutiny of the data indicated that the French loanwords underwent a number of adaptations to fit into the phonological system of the Algerian Arabic. Moreover, the results revealed that this nativization process involves a number of phonological processes, namely unpacking of nasal vowels, nasal place assimilation, vowel deletion, front vowel raising, voicing, devoicing and stopping, in addition to lateral assimilation. The application of optimality framework as to explicate the adaptations of French loanwords has shown that they emanate from a steady conflict between the faithfulness constraints, which condition the preservation of original input forms, and the markedness constraints describing the Algerian Arabic marked phonological system.

Alveolar and Velarized Laterals in Albanian and in the Viennese Dialect

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Moosmüller ◽  
Carolin Schmid ◽  
Christian H. Kasess
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
The Other ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Other Hand

A comparison of alveolar and velarized lateral realizations in two language varieties, Albanian and the Viennese dialect, has been performed. Albanian distinguishes the two laterals phonemically, whereas in the Viennese dialect, the velarized lateral was introduced by language contact with Czech immigrants. A categorical distinction between the two lateral phonemes is fully maintained in Albanian. Results are not as straightforward in the Viennese dialect. Most prominently, female speakers, if at all, realize the velarized lateral in word-final position, thus indicating the application of a phonetically motivated process. The realization of the velarized lateral by male speakers, on the other hand, indicates that the velarized lateral replaced the former alveolar lateral phoneme. Alveolar laterals are either realized in perceptually salient positions, thus governed by an input-switch rule, or in front vowel contexts, thus subject to coarticulatory influences. Our results illustrate the subtle interplay of phonology, phonetics and sociolinguistics.

Feature spreading as dealignment: the distribution of [ç] and [x] in German

Phonology ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Noske
Keyword(s):  
Metrical Structure ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Phonological Word ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Morpheme Boundary ◽  
Modern Standard

Prosodification processes like syllabification and foot parsing are often limited to a particular morphological constituent; i.e. they do not apply across a morpheme boundary. Prince & Smolensky (1993) present a new interpretation of this phenomenon which identifies the edge of a morphological constituent, rather than the morphological constituent as such, as opaque to prosodification. On their view, the morphological boundedness of processes that erect metrical structure reflects the desire for a grammatical constituent edge to coincide with the edge of a prosodic constituent, formalised as ALIGN(GCat-Edge 1, PCat-Edge 1) in their theory. Since prosodification across a morpheme boundary results in a mismatch between the edges of a prosodic and a morphological constituent, it is blocked whenever alignment is obeyed.In this paper I claim that not only prosodification processes but also feature spreading is subject to pressure from an alignment constraint, and so is avoided. The case in point is dorsal fricative assimilation in Modern Standard German. Dorsal fricative assimilation does not apply across a compound boundary or to the dorsal fricative of the diminutive suffix -chen, which, though morphologically a suffix, is prosodically a separate phonological word of German (Noske 1990, Iverson & Salmons 1992, Borowsky 1993, Wiese 1996). Bringing Itô & Mester's (in press) notion of crisp alignment to bear on the analysis, I argue that the application of fricative assimilation is constrained by CRISPEDGE(PrWd), which requires the prosodic word to have sharply defined boundaries. Since spreading from a word-final back vowel to the initial dorsal of the following word results in a blurred word edge, it is ruled out, because CRISPEDGE(PrWd) is ranked higher than the constraint governing spreading.

The articulation of /ɹ/ in New Zealand English

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Heyne ◽  
Xuan Wang ◽  
Donald Derrick ◽  
Kieran Dorreen ◽  
Kevin Watson
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
American English ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Allophonic Variation ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Curvature Index ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
Speech Motor

This paper investigates the articulation of approximant /ɹ/ in New Zealand English (NZE), and tests whether the patterns documented for rhotic varieties of English hold in a non-rhotic dialect. Midsagittal ultrasound data for 62 speakers producing 13 tokens of /ɹ/ in various phonetic environments were categorized according to the taxonomy by Delattre & Freeman (1968), and semi-automatically traced and quantified using the AAA software (Articulate Instruments Ltd. 2012) and a Modified Curvature Index (MCI; Dawson, Tiede & Whalen 2016). Twenty-five NZE speakers produced tip-down /ɹ/ exclusively, 12 tip-up /ɹ/ exclusively, and 25 produced both, partially depending on context. Those speakers who produced both variants used the most tip-down /ɹ/ in front vowel contexts, the most tip-up /ɹ/ in back vowel contexts, and varying rates in low central vowel contexts. The NZE speakers produced tip-up /ɹ/ most often in word-initial position, followed by intervocalic, then coronal, and least often in velar contexts. The results indicate that the allophonic variation patterns of /ɹ/ in NZE are similar to those of American English (Mielke, Baker & Archangeli 2010, 2016). We show that MCI values can be used to facilitate /ɹ/ gesture classification; linear mixed-effects models fit on the MCI values of manually categorized tongue contours show significant differences between all but two of Delattre & Freeman's (1968) tongue types. Overall, the results support theories of modular speech motor control with articulation strategies evolving from local rather than global optimization processes, and a mechanical model of rhotic variation (see Stavness et al. 2012).

Regional differences in perceiving vowel tokens on Southerness, education, and pleasantness ratings

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Fridland
Keyword(s):  
Regional Differences ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Back Vowel

AbstractThis study investigates the role of regional dialect experience on the social awareness of synthesized vowel tokens to regional in-group and out-group members. For the study, speakers from Reno, NV, were given the same perception test used in a previous study in Memphis, TN. Comparing the Reno results to those found in Memphis, the study examines whether differences in regional vowel norms affect how Westerners rate Southern-shifted and non-Southern-shifted vowel variants on Southernness, education, and pleasantness scales. The study also looks at how Reno raters interpreted shifted back vowel variants, found productively in their local community, compared to front vowel shifts found exclusively in the South. Finally, the paper explores how the results suggest that regional dialect exposure attunes listeners to attend to different aspects of vowel quality than those outside the region. In examining how regional dialect experience affects listener recognition and evaluation of local and nonlocal vowel norms, the paper begins to explore how much the production/perception relationship is mediated by speakers' participation in locally constructed and defined speech communities.

scholarly journals Coarticulation and learnability of transparent vowels in vowel harmony

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Sara Finley
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Natural Condition ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
Training Control

The representations of transparent vowels in vowel harmony have been of interest to phonologists because of the challenges they pose for constraints on locality and complexity. One proposal is that transparent vowels in back vowel harmony may be intermediate between front and back. The present study uses two artificial language learning experiments to explore the psychological reality of acoustic differences in transparent vowels in back vs. front vowel contexts. Participants were exposed to a back/round vowel harmony language with a neutral vowel that was spliced so that the F2 was lower in back vowel contexts and higher in front vowel contexts (the Natural condition) or the reverse (the Unnatural condition). While only participants in the Natural condition of Experiment 1 were able to learn the behavior of the transparent vowel relative to a No-Training control, there was no difference between the Natural and Unnatural conditions. In Experiment 2, only participants in the Natural condition learned the vowel harmony pattern, though there were no significant differences between the two conditions. No condition successfully learned the behavior of the transparent vowel in Experiment 2. These results suggest that the effects of small differences in the F2 value of transparent back vowels on learnability are minimal.

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