Making Sense of Strange Sounds: (Mutual) Intelligibility of Related Language Varieties. A Review

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent J. van Heuven
Keyword(s):  
Language Varieties ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Related Language

The elusive verbal classifiers in ‘Witoto’

2019 ◽  
pp. 176-196
Author(s):  
Katarzyna I. Wojtylak
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Closed Set ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Semantic Types ◽  
Verbal Classifiers

This chapter focuses on forms and functions of verbal classifiers in Murui and Mɨka, two closely related language varieties of the ‘Witoto’ dialect continuum from the Witotoan language family spoken in Northwest Amazonia. Murui and Mɨka verbal classifiers are used to refer to a previously mentioned referent or to re-introduce the referent into the discourse. They form a closed set of morphemes that signal the presence of S/O/peripheral arguments. ‘Witoto’ verbal classifiers interact with semantic types of verbs (they co-occur with verbs of ‘handling’ and ‘affect’), and categorize noun referents in terms of their physical properties (shape, size, structure, etc.). Further comparison of Murui and Mɨka verbal classifiers suggests that the productivity of this system has been gradually eroding in Murui as spoken today; this is unlike verbal classifiers found in older Mɨka narratives.

scholarly journals Phonemic and tonal analysis of Yongning Na*

2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis MICHAUD ◽  
Alexis MICHAUD
Keyword(s):  
Fine Grained ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Tonal Analysis ◽  
The Village

The Na language spoken in the village of Yongning, close to the border between Yunnan and Sichuan, has been classified as an Eastern Naxi dialect in the pioneering survey conducted by Chinese linguists. It is also referred to as 'Mosuo'. The phonemic and tonal analysis presented here on the basis of first-hand fieldwork aims to serve as a basis for linguistic documentation and research, from the accurate transcription of recorded materials to fine-grained synchronic and diachronic investigations. The ultimate aim is an in-depth understanding of Na, Naxi and other closely related language varieties, including an account of their historical relationships and their links with other Tibeto-Burman languages.

scholarly journals Linguistic innovation, political centralization and economic integration in the Kongo kingdom

Diachronica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Bostoen ◽  
Gilles-Maurice de Schryver
Keyword(s):  
Economic Integration ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Related Language ◽  
The Social ◽  
Linguistic Innovation ◽  
Political Centralization ◽  
African Linguistics ◽  
Insight Into

In this article we reconstruct the actuation and transmission of a phonological innovation known as prefix reduction within the Kikongo language cluster situated in the wider Lower Congo region of Central Africa. We argue that this change spread from a focal area coinciding with the heartland of the Kongo kingdom as a classical process of dialectal diffusion. Thanks to a unique Kikongo corpus that starts in the 17th century, we can provide diachronic empirical evidence for different phases of the process, which has been otherwise difficult, if not impossible, in Bantu historical linguistics. What is more, and also quite exceptional in African linguistics, we have fairly good insight into the ‘social ecology’ of this language change and argue that political centralization and economic integration within the realm of the Kongo kingdom facilitated such a contact-induced diffusion between closely-related language varieties.

The effect of bidialectalism on executive function

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 612-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J Poarch ◽  
Jan Vanhove ◽  
Raphael Berthele
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Usage Patterns

Aims and objectives: We investigate how varying usage patterns in speakers of closely related language varieties might impact executive function. More specifically, bidialectals with more balanced usage were predicted to show better inhibitory control than less balanced bidialectals. Design: Thirty-four adult bidialectals of Standard German and Swabian German performed two executive function tasks (flanker and Simon). Data and analysis: The participants’ reaction times on the two executive function tasks were analysed using regression models. Data and R code are available online. Findings: Contrary to predictions, Swabian-dominant bidialectals showed smaller flanker and Simon effects than balanced German-Swabian bidialectals. Furthermore, contrary to some previous studies, executive function task performances correlated significantly. Originality: We discuss how bidialectal language usage patterns can be assessed and how arbitrary analytical decisions affect findings regarding the effects of bidialectalism on executive function. Significance: These findings shed a new light on the effects of bilingualism/bidialectalism on executive function.

Phonetic and Lexical Predictors of Intelligibility

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Gooskens ◽  
Wilbert Heeringa ◽  
Karin Beijering
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Scandinavian Language ◽  
Phonetic Distance

In the present investigation, the intelligibility of 17 Scandinavian language varieties and standard Danish was assessed among young Danes from Copenhagen. In addition, distances between standard Danish and each of the 17 varieties were measured at the lexical level and at different phonetic levels. In order to determine how well these linguistic levels can predict intelligibility, we correlated the intelligibility scores with the linguistic distances and we carried out a number of regression analyses. The results show that for this particular set of closely related language varieties phonetic distance is a better predictor of intelligibility than lexical distance. Consonant substitutions, vowel insertions and vowel shortenings contribute significantly to the prediction of intelligibility.

Experimental Methods for Measuring Intelligibility of Closely Related Language Varieties

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Gooskens
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Speech Pathology ◽  
Speech Technology ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Related Language ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Single Number

To test intelligibility, a large number of tests have been developed. By means of such tests, the degree of intelligibility can be expressed in a single number, often the percentage of input that was correctly recognized by the subject. This chapter presents an overview of methods for measuring the intelligibility of closely related languages, and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. It focuses on spoken-language comprehension, but many tests can also be applied to the comprehension of written language. Methods for investigating mutual intelligibility can be taken from other disciplines, for example in the area of speech technology, second language acquisition, and speech pathology.

scholarly journals Introduction: Case variation and change in the Nordic languages

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-218
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Keith Parrott
Keyword(s):  
Rural Community ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The North ◽  
Major Language ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Case Morphology ◽  
Germanic Languages

Shortly after arriving in Copenhagen five years ago, I realized what many linguists have long understood: the case situation in the Nordic languages is formidably complex. Of course, the broad outlines of inter-speaker (or, cross-linguistic) variation in Nordic nominal case inflection are well known. Within two major language families, (North) Germanic and Uralic, there are dozens of closely related language varieties. The Finnic and Sami languages of Uralic have adpositional case systems, while the North Germanic languages can be further subdivided into the Mainland and Insular groups, partially on the basis of their different case systems. The latter group, namely Icelandic, Faroese, and Älvdalian (which is spoken in a fairly isolated rural community in the interior of Sweden), has ‘rich’ inflectional case morphology on a range of elements comprising nominal phrases, including articles, determiners, demonstratives, nouns, pronouns, wh-words, and more. The former group, namely Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, are ‘case-poor’, maintaining only a vestige of their historically rich case morphology on a subset of personal pronouns, which have Nominative, Oblique, and Possessive forms. Furthermore, certain varieties of Swedish and Norwegian retain vestigial Dative forms of clitic pronouns.

The role of dialect exposure in receptive multilingualism

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Gooskens ◽  
Wilbert Heeringa
Keyword(s):  
General Public ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Linguistic Distance ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Strong Position ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Better Than

AbstractPrevious investigations of inter-Scandinavian intelligibility have shown that, in general, Norwegians are better at understanding the closely related languages Danish and Swedish than Danes and Swedes are at understanding Norwegian. This asymmetry is often explained by the strong position that dialects hold in Norway as opposed to in Denmark and Sweden. In Norway, the general public is more exposed to language variation than in Sweden and Denmark. Due to this exposure Norwegians are assumed to have higher language awareness and more possibilities for linguistic transfer than Swedes and Danes. This could make it easier for them to understand closely related language varieties. The aim of the present investigation is to get an answer to the question whether Norwegians are better at understanding Nordic varieties relative to linguistic distances than Danes. If it is indeed the case that Norwegians have more language awareness, we would expect them to be better than Danes at understanding varieties with the same linguistic distance to their native variety. Our results show that Norwegians are generally better at understanding Nordic language varieties than Danes are. However, this can be explained by linguistic distances and knowledge of the language varieties in the test. No evidence was found for more general language awareness among Norwegians than among Danes.

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