Is a boat bigger than a ship? Null results in the investigation of vowel sound symbolism on size judgments in real language

Sound symbolism is the phenomenon by which certain kinds of phonemes are associated with perceptual and/or semantic properties. In this paper we explored size sound symbolism (i.e., the mil/mal effect) in which high-front vowels (e.g., /i/) show an association with smallness, while low-back vowels (e.g., /ɑ/) show an association with largeness. This has previously been demonstrated with nonwords, but its impact on the processing of real language is unknown. We investigated this using a size judgment task, in which participants classified words for small or large objects, containing a small- or large-associated vowel, based on their size. Words were presented auditorily in Experiment 1 and visually in Experiment 2. We did not observe an effect of vowel congruence (i.e., between object size and the size association of its vowel) in either of the experiments. This suggests that there are limits to the impact of sound symbolism on the processing of real language.

Shared Vowels in English Loanwords in Arabic: Variation in Similarity-Based Adaptation

This paper investigates vowel adaptation in English-based loanwords by a group of Saudi Arabic speakers, concentrating exclusively on shared vowels between the two languages. It examines 5 long vowels shared by the two vowel systems in terms of vowel quality and vowel duration in loanword productions by 22 participants and checks them against the properties of the same vowels in native words. To this end, the study performs an acoustic analysis of 660 tokens (loan and native vowel sounds) through Praat to measure the first two formants (F1: vowel height and F2: vowel advancement) of each vowel sound at two temporal points of time (T1: the vowel onset and T2: the peak of the vowel) as well as a durational analysis to examine vowel length. It reports that measurements of the first two formants of vowels in native words appear to be stable during the two temporal points while values of the same vowel sounds occurring in loanwords are fluctuating from T1 to T2 and that durational differences exist between loanword vowels in comparison with vowels of native words in such a way that vowels in native words are longer in duration than the same vowels appearing in loanwords.

Disc Jockeys’ Profile and Oral Performances in the Selected English Vowel Sounds: An Attempt on Relatedness

Pronunciation is a key element of the learning of oral skills in a second language. The role it plays in an English language program varies and the amount of time and effort devoted to it seems to depend to a large degree on the linguistic models and environment (Willing, 1988). The study examined the accuracy in the production of the selected English vowel sounds among the pioneering Disc Jockeys of Cool FM, Marawi City, in the year 2004. Moreover, it attempted to find the relatedness in the respondents’ oral performances and in their educational status, length of work experience as a DJ, and exposure to the language outside being a DJ. Three selected faculty members from the English Department of CSSH were consulted to evaluate the oral performances of the respondents. Results showed that high educational status did not affect the respondents’ performances in vowel sound production. Respondents with short work experience as DJs could perform better on the oral test. Respondents who had exposures to the English language outside being a DJ performed better on the oral test. Furthermore, teachers and foreigners were cited as good linguistic models that were described as highly influential in the performances of the respondents.

Comparing the Temporal Aspects of Velopharyngeal Closure in Children with and without Cleft Palate

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Children with cleft palate exhibit differences in the 4 temporal components of nasalization (nasal onset and offset intervals, nasal consonant duration, and total speech duration), with various patterns having been noted based on different languages. Thus, the current study aimed to examine the temporal aspects of velopharyngeal closure in children with and without cleft palate; this is the first study to do so in the Turkish language. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This study evaluated and compared the 4 temporal characteristics of velopharyngeal closure in children (aged 6–10 years) with (<i>n</i> = 28) and without (<i>n</i> = 28) cleft palate using nonword consonant and vowel speech samples, including the bilabial nasal-to-stop combination /mp/ and the velar nasal-to-stop combination /ηk/. Acoustic data were recorded using a nasometer, after which acoustic waveforms were examined to determine the 4 temporal components of nasalization. Flexible nasoendoscopy was then used to evaluate velopharyngeal closure patterns. <b><i>Results:</i></b> With regard to the 4 closure patterns, significant differences in the nasal offset interval (<i>F</i>_4–25 = 10.213, <i>p</i> = 0.04; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05) and the nasal consonant duration ratio (<i>F</i>_4–25 = 12.987, <i>p</i> = 0.02; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05) were observed for only /ampa/. The coronal closure pattern showed the longest closure duration (0.74 s). Children with cleft palate showed prolonged temporal parameters in all 4 characteristics, reflecting oral-nasal resonance imbalances. In particular, the low vowel sound /a/ was significantly more prolonged than the high vowel sounds /i/ and /u/. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> The examined temporal parameters offer more accurate characterizations of velopharygeal closure, thereby allowing more accurate clinical assessments and more appropriate treatment procedures. Children with cleft palate showed longer nasalization durations compared to those without the same. Thus, the degree of hypernasality in children with cleft palate may affect the temporal aspects of nasalization.

The Effectiveness of Communication-Oriented Pronunciation Instruction and Students' Perception

The purpose of this study is intended to empirically examine whether or not communication-oriented pronunciation teaching affects the English segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation improvements of Korean college learners, as well as their English speaking ability. The students who participated in this study were 26 college students, all of whom were taking an English pronunciation clinic course at a local university. Three types of pre and post-tests were conducted to find out how communication-oriented pronunciation teaching influenced the learners’ pronunciation. Namely, tests of consonant and vowel sound recognition, reading aloud tests, and picture description tests.First, a total of 40 questions were given as pre-and post-pronunciation recognition evaluations to find out how accurately the students perceived the sounds of consonants and vowels. In addition, the students’ voices were recorded as they read dialogue readings both before and after the evaluation, in order to examine the degree of improvement of the segmental and suprasegmental features. Finally, the students were asked to describe certain pictures before and after the course to see if there were any beneficial effects regarding their pronunciation of English.The findings showed that communication-oriented activities led to significant improvements, but only on the consonant recognition tests, not on the tests with vowels. The results from the reading aloud tests also demonstrated that the communication-oriented activities helped students to improve suprasegmental elements, such as stress, intonation, and rhythm. Moreover, there was a significant improvement in the speaking ability of the students, from which I can infer that communication-oriented activities have a positive effect on improving the students’ suprasegmentals, as well as their speaking ability.

Implementation Of Contrastive Analysis To Overcome The Difficulties of Learning English Pronunciation Sub-Skill

This research was conducted to investigate and understand pronunciation problems, which is the sub-skill of speaking in the first semester students of the UPR FKIP English Education Study Program through contrastive analysis. The purpose of this study was to analyze pronunciation errors in English words and the causes of the errors made by students who were the research subjects. The design used in this study to present the data is descriptive qualitative. The results of data analysis were classified into consonant errors (consonants), vowels (vowels), and vowels (diphthongs) and the causes why these errors occured. Based on the results of data analysis, the English segmental sounds that were difficult to pronounce by students of the English Education Study Program semester I in the academic year 2020/2021 were (1) long vowels or tense vowels (i:, u:, ?:, ?:, ?:]; (2) short vowels soundor lax vowels low vowel sound [æ], and neutral vowel (schwa) [?]; (3) the sound of diphthongs (double vowels), namely rising diphthongs [??] and falling diphthongs [??], [e?], and [??]; and (4) fricative consonant sounds [f, v, z, ?, ð, ?, ?]. The causes of difficulty in learning pronunciation of English segmental sounds are (1) differences in Indonesian and English sound systems and (2) lack of knowledge of the English sound system.

Publication of Koryak folklore texts: causes of orthography variability

This work is motivated by graphic and orthographic difficulties in preparing Koryak texts for publication in the “Monuments of Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East.” Koryak language spelling difficulties are analyzed for the first time, particularly non-trivial cases of ambiguous spelling requiring comprehension and codification. For example, the spelling of equivocal vowel sound [ә] proves a problem. The normative spelling not allowing two conso- nants at the beginning of a word is due to the historical reconstruction of the Koryak phonological system. However, the indefinite vowel [ә] sometimes is reduced so as not to be identified by the modern Koryak speakers, with its designation with the letter ы [ә] causing reading mistakes. Also, the spelling of йи [ji] or йы [jә] is complicated, with the choice between these two variants based on morphologic principle and defined by this syllable position in the word: root morpheme, affix or in between two morphemes. The spelling of soft consonant followed by equivocal sound [ә], designated in writing by ы [ә], remains to be identified. This combination provokes orthographic variability observed in th-ɣe publications in Koryak. Variability appears in spellings of word forms with -гыйӈ [-ɣәjŋ], -ӈыйт [-ŋәjt] and in spellings of double consonants between two morphemes. The orthographic variability in Koryak publications is due to the conflict in phonemic and morphologic principles relevant for Koryak spelling. Moreover, given the dominant bilingualism, Koryak writing is strongly influenced by the Russian spelling, making the possibility of developing a national writing culture questionable.