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.

Heritage Speakers’ Production of the Spanish Voiced Palatal Obstruent /ʝ/: A Closer Look at Orthography and Universal Phonetic Principles

The Spanish voiced palatal obstruent /ʝ/ is orthographically represented as ⟨y⟩ or ⟨ll⟩. The most closely related sound in English is /j/, which is often written with ⟨y⟩, but produced with weaker constriction compared to the Spanish /ʝ/. Our goal is to examine influence from English (i.e., the majority language) in heritage speakers’ production of the Spanish /ʝ/ by testing the effect of orthography (i.e., whether stronger influence is found in ⟨y⟩ than in ⟨ll⟩). Heritage speech data were collected using a read-aloud task in which the stimuli varied in orthography, preceding vowel height, and stress condition. Results showed that heritage speakers predominantly produced the Spanish /ʝ/ as an English-like approximant [j], which was preferred even more when /ʝ/ was written with ⟨y⟩. However, the orthography effect surfaced only when the phonetic contexts did not favor strong constriction, suggesting that orthography-induced majority language influence is conditioned by universal phonetic principles.

Intrinsic f0 and Sound Change: Evidence from Australian Languages

In this paper, a study is presented investigating two types of intrinsic f0 effects in sixteen Australian languages. Vowels are known to vary systematically in their mean f0 as a function of vowel height as well as voicing of the previous consonant, a property known as intrinsic f0. Vowel height has been known to have a positive correlation with f0, in which high vowels have a higher intrinsic f0 than low vowels on average. Differences in intrinsic f0 also vary systematically based on the voicing of a preceding stop, with voiceless stops correlating with higher intrinsic f0 and voiced stops with lower. Using automatic data processing methods on archival audio data, this study shows wide variation in the presence and robustness of intrinsic f0 effects in the Australian langauges investigated.

Vowel Modification (Aggiustamento) in Soprano Voices

Singers convey meaning via both text and music. As sopranos balance tone quality and diction, vowel intelligibility is often compromised at high pitches. This study examines how sopranos modify their vowels against an increasing fundamental, and in turn how such vowel modification affects vowel intelligibility. We examine the vowel modification process of three non-central vowels in Cantonese ([a], [ɛ] and [ɔ]) using the spectral centroid. Acoustic results suggest that overall vowel modification is conditioned by vowel height in mid-ranges and by vowel frontness in higher ranges. In a following perception task, listeners identified and discriminated vowels at pitches spanning an octave from A4 (nominally 440 Hz) to G♯5 (nominally 831 Hz). Results showed that perceptual accuracy rates of the three vowels’ match their acoustic patterns. The overall results suggest that vowels are not modified in a unified way in sopranos’ voices, implying that research on sopranos’ singing strategies should consider vocalic differences.

廣東省大埔縣高陂鎮與湖寮鎮客家話小稱詞調查研究

<p>本研究調查廣東省大埔縣湖寮鎮與高陂鎮客家話小稱詞（綴/調），採用依調類分類的152個客家話常用單音節詞根語素做為調查字表，每個鎮選取兩位發音人調查，調查結果總結如下：（一）湖寮與高陂客家話小稱詞均以詞根語素後接小稱詞綴的方式呈現，小稱詞綴為[(t)ə31]。當小稱詞綴前的詞根語素為[-m, -n, -ŋ, -p, -t, -k]等輔音結尾時，小稱詞綴為[mə31, nə31, ŋə31, pə31, tə31, kə31]。當詞根語素以[a]結尾時，高陂鎮與湖寮鎮小稱詞綴使用[lə31]，高陂鎮烏槎村則使用[ə31]。（二）高陂客家話有[35]及[55]兩個出現於詞根語素的連讀變調（均非本調），前者出現於陰平調字，後者則出現於去聲調字。湖寮客家話只有一個出現於陰平調字詞根語素的連讀變調[55]（亦非本調）。湖寮與高陂客家話上聲調字與入聲調字均透過後接小稱詞綴來形成小稱詞，詞根語素無連讀變調產生。（三）湖寮客家話陰入調詞根語素後接小稱詞綴時有[tə31]或[tə55]兩種形式，這種自由變異顯示出小稱詞綴形態演變的過渡階段。（四）就整個音系而言，高陂客家話讀為[am, ap]韻者，湖寮客家話則讀為[aŋ, ak]韻，且只出現於韻核為[a]時，這種變化與發音簡化、元音舌位高度、鼻音發音位置前後，以及漢語方言韻尾演變有關。（五）大埔縣小稱詞綴的形態演變過程為[tə55] &rarr; [(t)ə55/31] &rarr; [(t)ə31]。最後，本研究將高陂與湖寮客家話小稱詞的調查結果與東勢客家話小稱詞的相關研究相互連結，企圖為東勢客家話小稱調的來源提供更合理的解釋。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>This study targeted to investigate the diminutives of Hakka dialects spoken in Gaopi and Huliao townships in Dapu County, Guangdong. The word list used for the fieldwork survey included 152 common monosyllabic stems. Two speech informants in each township joined the study. They were asked to read the lexical tones, the sandhi tones, and the diminutives in their own dialects. The results are summarized as follows. First, diminutives are formed in the two townships by stems plus diminutive suffixes [(t)ə31]. When stems end with [-m, -n, -ŋ, -p, -t, -k], diminutive suffixes will surface as [mə31, nə31, ŋə31, pə31, tə31, kə31]. When stems end with [a], the diminutive suffix emerges as [lə31]. Second, two sandhi tones [35/55] occur in Gaopi Hakka, but only one sandhi tone [55] occurs in Huliao Hakka. Both [35] and [55] are not lexical tones in these two Hakka dialects. Third, two diminutive suffixes are used to form diminutives for Yinru stems in Huliao Hakka, and such free variation shows a transitional stage between diminutive suffixes. Fourth, [am, ap] rimes in Gaopi are systematically changed to [aŋ, ak] rimes in Huliao. This change may result from ease of articulation, vowel height, place of nasals, and coda development in Chinese dialects. Fifth, diminutive suffixes in Dapu Hakka undergoes a series of changing stages, that is, [tə55]&rarr;[(t)ə55/31]&rarr;[(t)ə31]. Finally, this study links the results to the diminutives in Dongshi Hakka, and attempts to offer reasonable explanations for the origin of the diminutive tones in Dongshi Hakka.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

A phonetic-phonological study of vowel height and nasal coarticulation in French

ABSTRACTThe majority of previous studies on nasal coarticulation in French find an inversely proportionate relationship between vowel opening and nasality, such that high vowels are the most nasalized, sometimes exceeding 50% nasality. However, it has been unclear whether this is a mechanical or controlled property of French, given the typically short duration of high vowels in natural speech, as well as the aerodynamic and acoustic factors rendering them more susceptible to spontaneous nasalization. This study uses nasometric data to quantify progressive and regressive nasalization in 20 Northern Metropolitan French speakers as a function of vowel height. Furthermore, the relationship between degree of nasal coupling and overall vowel duration serves as a proxy for distinguishing mechanical from controlled nasalization, in the spirit of Solé (1992, 2007). This study finds evidence that high vowel nasalization in French is mechanical in pre-nasal position, but controlled in post-nasal position. Meanwhile, nasalization of mid and low vowels is blocked in pre-nasal position but, at most, mechanical in post-nasal position. In consequence, French appears to block nasalization in otherwise lexically impossible positions (*ṼN), while passively allowing, though not actively requiring, nasalizing in positions where conflation is possible (both NṼ and NV being permitted in the lexicon).

Tense? (Re)lax!

This article looks at what is referred to as the tense/lax contrast in English and proposes that members of the two sets of vowel have the same basic structure but differ in how part of that structure is made use of by its neighbours. The proposal forms part of a general theory of the representation of vowel height within the framework of Government Phonology 2.0.

Arabic-Spanish Language Contact in Puerto Rico: A Case of Glottal Stop Epenthesis

The current study examines the realization of adjacent vowels across word boundaries in Arabic-Spanish bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals in Puerto Rico, focusing specifically on the rate of glottal stop epenthesis in this context (e.g., hombre africano to [ˈom.bre.ʔa.fri.ˈka.no]). It was hypothesized that Arabic-Spanish bilinguals would show a higher rate of glottal stop epenthesis than Spanish monolinguals because of transfer from Arabic. In addition, we investigated the possible effects of stress, vowel height, language dominance and bilingual type on the rate of glottal stop epenthesis. Results from a reading task with 8 participants showed no significant difference in glottalization between bilinguals and monolinguals. For monolinguals, glottalization was significantly more likely when the first vowel was low or stressed; significant interactions between vowel height and stress were found for the bilingual group. Language dominance was a significant factor, with Arabic-dominant bilinguals glottalizing more than the Spanish-dominant bilinguals. In addition, early sequential bilinguals favored glottalization slightly more than simultaneous bilinguals, without reaching significance. Our data suggests some effects of syllable structure transfer from Arabic, particularly in Arabic-dominant participants. To our knowledge, our study is the first exploration of Arabic and Spanish in contact in Puerto Rico, and the first to acoustically examine the speech of Arabic-Spanish bilinguals.