Prolegomena zu einer neuen mittelhochdeutschen Metrik

The purpose of this paper is to criticize established doctrines in the field of metrical analysis of Middle High German verse by incriminating ‒ especially from a methodological view ‒ the inconsistency and arbitrarity of traditional scansion instruments. Thus, broad descriptive research on prosodic regularities, which a new metric theory of Middle High German verse could build upon, is shown to be a desideratum.

Variation in Breton word stress: new speakers and the influence of French

This paper investigates stress patterns in Breton across speakers of different ages and with different linguistic backgrounds. Centuries of contact with French have led to French influence in Breton lexis, phonology and morphosyntax, and Breton's current status as an endangered minority language makes it vulnerable to further change. Additionally, younger ‘new speakers’ of Breton, who have acquired the language through Breton-medium education, are said to transfer features from French into their Breton. Analysis of stress usage shows that older, traditional speakers use stress largely as expected, while there is a greater degree of interspeaker variation among younger, new speakers. These data are used to form a metrical analysis of stress in Breton, taking into account lexical exceptions, loanwords and the variability of younger speakers. Rather than widespread transfer of French stress patterns into Breton, some younger speakers seem to be using two competing stress systems.

Sex dimorphism according to the nasozygomatic triangle

Sex is one of the first features to be diagnosed in human identification, composing, with age, ancestry and stature, the so called “big four”. Aim: The present study aimed to metrically analyze the sexual dimorphism in skulls of known age and sex from Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil. Methods: This was a crosssectional study of metrical analysis, which used a sample comprised of 209 human skulls (106 male and 103 female) older than 22 years old at the time of death, undamaged and without signs of trauma or abnormalities. The point nasion and the most superior points on the zygomaticotemporal sutures from each side were connected forming a triangle. This area was calculated using Heron’s formula, and the results were submitted for statistical analysis. Results: All measurements showed significant values for sexual dimorphism. Through the area of the triangle, it was possible to determine sex with an accuracy of 83.97% for males and 83.50% for females. Conclusion: This simple method requires only a caliper, and still can be reliable for forensic human identification. It must be diffused and tested on other samples, and can be used as a good and inexpensive tool for experts in day-to-day practice.

Suprasegmental Features of Indonesian Students’ English Pronunciation and the Pedagogical Implication

This minor study aims at describing learners’ features of pronunciation in terms of their suprasegmental aspects found in their speech. Students were asked to read aloud a text entitled The Gorilla Joke from the © BBC British Council 2006. Students oral narrations were then analysed in terms of their intonation pattern and stress assignment in sentence level. A metrical analysis was also used to show how students produced their speech rhythm. The result of the analysis shows that given the same text to read students may produce various combination of intonation patterns. Students also misplaced stress within the syllables or assigned no stress at all. Based on the metrical phonology analysis, learners did not assign foot timely based on the timing units in connected speeches. The speech production is more like a broken speech. Students also neglected the morphophonemics rules in which they did not produce the appropriate allomorphs [t], [d], and [id] in the past participle words. These features bring about some pedagogical implication. Keywords: student’ pronunciation features, suprasegmental aspects

Prosodic Rules of wolofal Compositions

The paper focuses on the prosodic norms that rule the formation of the metrical patterns of wolofal verses. Wolofal is a genre, developed between 1800 and 1900 in Senegambia, of poetry in Wolof but composed according to Arabic metrical schemas and stanzas. From the beginning this genre used al-Ḫalīl’s metres, widely employed in Classical Arabic literature: it was therefore necessary for wolofal poets to elaborate a prosodic norm that allowed them to use the Arabic metres with their language’s phonology. Among the phonological particularities of Wolof one finds the syllabic structures CVC and CVCC, the possibility of crasis between different words, and the particular phonological status of prenasalised and geminate consonants. All these peculiarities have certain consequences for the metric and prosodic organisation of the verse, which will be analysed here both through metrical analysis of the texts studied, and by looking at the orthography adopted for the transcription of these poems in Arabic script.

Intestinal Strongyle Genera in Different Typology of Donkey Farms in Tuscany, Central Italy

Intestinal strongyles are common helminths of donkeys, in which they may be responsible for disease and poor performance. This study aimed to identify intestinal strongyle genera in 55 naturally infected donkeys from three different farm typologies in Tuscany, central Italy, using morphological and metrical analysis of third stage larvae (L3) obtained from faecal cultures. Larvae were identified using two previous reported morphological identification keys. Moreover, eggs per gram (EPG) data were also evaluated to assess differences, if any, according to the farm typology, sex, and age of the examined donkeys. The results showed that small strongyles were prevalent in all donkey farms. In all examined farms, most (92–100%) of L3 were identified as cyathostomin species of the genera Cylicocyclus spp. and Cylicostephanus spp. Large strongyles of the genera Strongylus spp. and Triodontophorus spp., were identified at low percentage (8%), only in the single organic farm included in the study. A high agreement was observed between the two different morphometric keys used. No significant differences were found for EPG according to farm typology, and sex and age from the examined donkeys. This is the first report about genera identification of intestinal strongyles infecting donkeys in Tuscany, Italy.

Prominence conditioned transformation in metrical analysis

Crowhurst and Michael (2005) develops an OT analysis of the complex word stress system of Nanti, an Amazonian language of the Kampa group. They claim that the difficulty of developing a transformational analysis of the system clearly demonstrates the superiority of OT. One goal of this paper is to show that their claim is false and the complexities of the system are well within the scope of transformational phonology; a straightforward analysis is possible. The second goal is to show how prominence can naturally be included in rule systems.