Phonological Variation in Verb in Pashto Spoken in District Swat

Abstract This paper presents the project Stimmen fan Fryslân ‘Voices of Fryslân’. The project relies on a smartphone application developed to involve local communities in the creation of speech corpora, particularly of lesser used languages. This paper lays out the scientific and societal context of the project, showcases the smartphone application and gives an overview of the results from the project that attracted more than 15,000 users. Some key methodological issues are considered, and the paper discusses the role of smartphone technology for citizen science in minority language areas while also showing new maps with distributions of lexical and phonological variation in Frisian.

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Variation in Faroese and the development of a spoken standard: In search of corpus evidence

Nordic Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0332586514000079 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 87-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Remco Knooihuizen

Keyword(s):

Social Change ◽

Morphological Variation ◽

Language Change ◽

Linguistic Variation ◽

Social Changes ◽

Linguistic Variables ◽

Phonological Variation ◽

Rapid Social Change ◽

Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽

Constrained Variation

Although Faroese exhibits extensive linguistic variation and rapid social change, the language is near-uncharted territory in variationist sociolinguistics. This article discusses some recent social changes in Faroese society in connection with language change, focusing in particular on the development of a de facto spoken standard, Central Faroese. Demographic mobility, media and education may be contributing to this development in different ways. Two linguistic variables are analysed as a first step towards uncovering the respective roles of standardisation, dialect levelling and dialect spread as contributing processes in the formation of Central Faroese: morphological variation in -st endings and phonological variation in -ir and -ur endings. The analysis confirms previously described patterns of geographically constrained variation, but no generational or stylistic differences indicative of language change are found, nor are there clear signs that informants use Central Faroese. The results may in part be due to the structure of the corpus used.

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Subjective reactions to phonological variation in Costa Rican Spanish

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research ◽

10.1007/bf01068177 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 415-442 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Susan Berk-Seligson

Keyword(s):

Costa Rican ◽

Phonological Variation ◽

Costa Rican Spanish

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Affect and iconicity in phonological variation

Language in Society ◽

10.1017/s0047404520000871 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Annette D'Onofrio ◽

Penelope Eckert

Keyword(s):

Experimental Evidence ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Essential Role ◽

Sound Symbolism ◽

Linguistic Variation ◽

Phonological Variation ◽

Sociolinguistic Variation ◽

Production Studies ◽

Basic Level

Abstract The study of iconic properties of language has been marginalized in linguistics, with the assumption that iconicity, linked with expressivity, is external to the grammar. Yet iconicity plays an essential role in sociolinguistic variation. At a basic level, repetition and phonetic intensification can intensify the indexicality of variables. Iconicity plays a further role in variation in the form of sound symbolism, linking properties of sounds with attributes or objects. Production studies have shown some phonological variables exhibiting sound symbolism, particularly in the expression of affect. In some cases, the observation of sound symbolism has been largely interpretive. But in others, stylistic variability as a function of speaker affect has provided empirical evidence of iconicity. This article examines the role of iconicity and performativity in transcending the limits of reference, reviews iconicity in production studies, and provides experimental evidence that sound symbolism influences how listeners attribute affect to linguistic variation. (Variation, iconicity, affect)

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‘So, well, whatever’

Sign Language & Linguistics ◽

10.1075/sll.14.2.01mck ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 213-247 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Rachel McKee ◽

Sophia Wallingford

Keyword(s):

Linguistic Context ◽

Phonological Variation ◽

Discourse Marker ◽

Signed Languages ◽

Vocabulary Item

This study investigates the frequency and functions of a ubiquitous form in conversational NZSL discourse glossed as palm-up. Dictionaries show that it is a polysemous vocabulary item in NZSL, although many of its uses in discourse are not accounted for in the lexicon. Analysis of discourse data from 20 signers shows it to be the second most frequently occuring item, and to exhibit phonological variation. We identify and discuss four (non-exclusive) functions of palm-up in this data: cohesive, modal, interactive, and manual frame for unpredictable mouthings (codemixing). Correspondences in form, linguistic context, and meaning are found between uses of palm-up in NZSL, similar forms in other signed languages, and co-speech palm gestures. The study affirms previous descriptions of this form as having properties of both gesture and sign, and suggests that it also has features of a discourse marker.

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