The Role of Foot Structure in Teaching Vowel Length Distinctions in Japanese

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masanori Deguchi
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Length ◽  
Foot Structure

scholarly journals Ternary vowel length in Shilluk

Phonology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-125
Author(s):  
Bert Remijsen ◽  
Otto Gwado Ayoker ◽  
Signe Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
The Other ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
The Mean

Ternary or three-level vowel length is typologically rare, and supporting evidence is limited. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the hypothesised case of this configuration in Shilluk. We first describe the role of vowel length in Shilluk phonology and morphology, and then report on an acoustic study in which minimal sets for vowel length (short, long, overlong) are measured for vowel duration, coda duration, vowel quality and fundamental frequency. Short, long and overlong vowels differ significantly and substantially in terms of vowel duration: 96% of the items can be classified successfully for vowel length on the basis of this measurement alone. Of the other measurements, only vowel quality is significant, and this effect is considerably smaller. The mean values for vowel duration – 68, 111 and 150 ms for short, long and overlong vowels respectively – are similar to those reported for ternary vowel length in Dinka.

Foot and Syllable Structure in Modern Icelandic

1989 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory K. Iverson ◽  
Courtenay A. Kesterson
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Consonant Cluster ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Foot Structure

As is well known, vowel length in Modern Icelandic is in general predictable on the basis of syllable structure such that, in polysyllabic words, stressed vowels in open syllables are long, other vowels are short; in stressed monosyllables, however, vowels are long whether the syllable is open or closed by a single consonant, and short only when the syllable is closed by a consonant cluster. In contrast to the ‘final maximalistic’ strategy of Árnason (1980) and other unlikely syllabification schemes designed to unify these two patterns, we invoke Giegerich's (1985) characterization of foot structure as applied to German and English, according to which stressed monosyllables categorize metrically as disyllabic feet whose rightmost member is null. Thus, CVC structures are metrically /CV.CØ/, with the result that the generalization regarding vowel length in words of all types is simply that stressed vowels in open syllables are long, others short.

scholarly journals Moraic preservation and equivalence in Gújjolaay Eegimaa perfective reduplication

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-56
Author(s):  
Abbie Hantgan ◽  
Serge Sagna ◽  
Stuart Davis
Keyword(s):  
Weight Bearing ◽  
Surface Representation ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Syllable Weight ◽  
Repair Strategy ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Vowel Lengthening ◽  
Compensatory Lengthening ◽  
Atlantic Language

AbstractThe role of syllable weight in Gújjolaay Eegimaa, an Atlantic language spoken in south-western Senegal, is evidenced by reduplicative patterns in the perfective stem, where we witness a difference in the surface representation of verb roots with underlying voiced obstruents from those with underlying voiceless obstruents. We argue that voiced plosives are weight bearing and therefore considered as moraic when in coda position in this language. We attribute the triggering of the gemination in the reduplicative perfective with roots having final voiced plosives to compensatory lengthening in order to make up for the loss of a mora as motivated by Hayes (1989). Gemination, rather than vowel lengthening, occurs because, as stated by de Chene and Anderson (1979) compensatory lengthening of vowels only occurs in a language where vowel length is contrastive. In this paper, we show evidence to support the proposition that there are no long vowels in this variety of Eegimaa, and therefore gemination (which is a contrastive feature in the language) is the repair strategy employed to compensate for the loss of a mora. Through a description of the weight-related processes observed in perfective reduplication in Eegimaa, we will detail the moraic analysis of the various patterns and discuss general phonological implications.

scholarly journals OBSERVING AND PRODUCING DURATIONAL HAND GESTURES FACILITATES THE PRONUNCIATION OF NOVEL VOWEL-LENGTH CONTRASTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 1015-1039 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Li ◽  
Florence Baills ◽  
Pilar Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Hand Gestures ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Disyllabic Words ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Phonological Contrasts

AbstractWhile empirical studies have shown the beneficial role of observing and producing hand gestures mimicking pitch features in the learning of L2 tonal or intonational contrasts, mixed results have been obtained for the use of gestures encoding durational contrasts at the perceptual level. This study investigates the potential benefits of horizontal hand-sweep gestures encoding durational features for boosting the perception and production of nonnative vowel-length contrasts. In a between-subjects experiment with a pretest–posttest design, 50 Catalan participants without any knowledge of Japanese practiced perceiving and producing minimal pairs of Japanese disyllabic words featuring vowel-length contrasts in one of two conditions, namely with gestures or without them. Pretest and posttest consisted of the completion of identical vowel-length identification and imitation tasks. The results showed that while participants improved equally at posttest across the two conditions in the identification task, the Gesture group obtained a larger improvement than the No Gesture group in the imitation task. These results corroborate the claim that producing hand gestures encoding prosodic properties of speech may help naïve learners to learn novel phonological contrasts in a foreign language.

scholarly journals The role of vowel length in comprehension during cross-cultural communication: An action research project

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1135-1145
Author(s):  
Gareth Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Experimental Group

The paper describes the process and outcomes of an action research project with the aim of determining whether focusing classroom input on vowel length has a positive effect on the production and comprehension of these sounds. The statistics were generated from respondents listening to the output of speakers from an experimental group, who had received instruction on this issue, and to the output of speakers from a control group, who had not been provided with any input, with the rate of intelligibility being compared. The conclusion drawn is t

Rapa Nui: A Case for Correspondence in Reduplication

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Yifan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Rapa Nui ◽  
Vowel Length

Abstract This squib argues for the role of correspondence in reduplication by examining the vowel length alternations in Rapa Nui reduplication. The analysis shows that vowel shortening in the base after reduplication is due to the enforcement of vowel length identity through Base Reduplicant Correspondence, while the motivation of vowel shortening is problematic for theories without surface-to-surface correspondence. The findings suggest that reduplication-phonology interactions cannot be handled solely by serialism or cyclicity, and a parallel Optimality-Theoretic evaluation with BR-correspondence is supported.

scholarly journals Locality in metrical typology

Phonology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Buckley
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Foot Structure ◽  
Stress Peak ◽  
Local Reference ◽  
Distribution Of Stress

Recent work in metrical typology within Optimality Theory has emphasised the rhythmic distribution of stress peaks by reference to clashes and lapses, compared to the more central role of foot constituency characteristic of most previous approaches. One consequence of this emphasis has been the introduction of constraints that require reference to non-adjacent objects in the representation, such as two unstressed syllables plus a word edge or a stress peak. I argue here for a constraint-based approach to metrical typology that permits only strictly local formulations. This approach requires increased reference to foot structure, while maintaining local reference to clashes and lapses. The revised set of constraints predicts a larger set of possible stress systems, but correctly includes an attested iambic pattern excluded by recent theories.

Role of Word-External Contexts in Native Speakers? Identification of Vowel Length in Japanese

Phonetica ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukari Hirataa ◽  
Stephen G. Lambacher
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Vowel Length
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document