Coda Position Research Articles

On the Phonological Derivation of Compensatory Lengthening in Standard Malay: A Stratal Optimality Theoretical Approach

This study used Stratal Optimality Theory (OT) as the analytical framework to analyze the phonological derivation of Compensatory Lengthening (CL) in Standard Malay that targets the moraic rhotic /r/ in the coda position. It was concluded that to ensure the moraicity assignment to the rhotic /r/ in the postvocalic position before any consonant deletion or vowel lengthening, the moraic structures were built based on Weight-By-Position (WBP) prior to the segmental changes that resulted in the CL, which meant that the floating mora became affiliated to the preceding stem vowel. This phonological derivation was seen to be a form of counterbleeding in which the consonant deletion counterbleeds the WBP. The Stratal OT model successfully accounts for this counterbleeding as an opaque rule interaction, with the first stratum ensuring that the moraic structure is built before any segmental deletion or lengthening changes and the second stratum dealing with the CL.

Tone-driven epenthesis in Wamey

AbstractThis paper argues that tone-driven epenthesis is possible in tonal languages. In Wamey, an epenthetic [ə] is inserted to host a high tone in two contexts: first, to host a tone which would otherwise be left floating due to a restriction on rising tones (/cv̀cⒽ/ maps to [cv̀cə́] due to a ban *[cv̌c]); and second, to host a tone which is introduced by word-level morphology but is restricted from associating across a stem boundary. These patterns cannot be attributed to syllable phonotactics, which freely allow all consonants in the coda position. We assemble the evidence for tone-driven epenthesis, focusing on the distribution of final [ə] in lexical stem structure and [ə]-alternating suffixes. A simple OT analysis derives [ə]-epenthesis, utilising common constraints (e.g. *Rise, OCP(H), etc.) together with constraints against associating tone across prosodic boundaries. In total, Wamey epenthesis exemplifies the cultivation of segmental environments for the purpose of realising pitch targets.

Phonetic variation of Irish English /t/ in the syllabic coda

The consonant /t/ is acknowledged as being an immensely variable sound in the accents of English. This study aims to contribute to accounting for this variability by analyzing the phonetic realizations of /t/ in 21 speakers (15 female, six male) of Southern Irish English. The speakers were asked to read a short text (Deterding 2006) and to speak spontaneously with the experimenter. In total, 1,519 items of /t/ in coda positions were examined by careful auditory analysis combined with visual inspection of spectrograms. The analysis shows, among others, a strong dependence on the neighbouring segmental context and semantic status of the word. Word-final /t/ is realized mostly as a flap in grammatical words linked to the following word-initial vowel, and as the traditional Irish English weakened fricative realization (slit-T) in lexical words. The second part of the analysis focuses on minor realizations of /t/ documented in the dataset which are noteworthy in their phonetic detail. We show that the slit-T – typically a voiceless apico-alveolar fricative – may exhibit sporadic voicing and, more rarely, be pronounced as a laminal [s]-like sound and as a fricative flap, in which a ballistic movement is combined with a fricative realization. An enhanced typology of /t/ lenition in Irish English is proposed based on these findings.

Segmental acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese: onset simple, complex and coda.

To present and analyze the acquisition segmental curve of Brazilian Portuguese in simple and complex onset position and coda position. 857 children with typical phonological acquisition participated in it, aged between 3:0 and 8:11, divided into age groups every 6 months. Participants were assessed using INFONO phonological assessment software. After analyzing the results, acquisition curves were drawn up for the segments analyzed in the different structures (simple and complex onset position and coda position). It was noted that, in simple onset position, some segments were acquired before 3:0 (stops, nasal and fricative, /f, v, s, z/. The /ʃ/ and /l/ segments were acquired at 3:0, /ʒ/ and /x/ at 3:6, /ʎ/ at 4:0, /r/ at 4:6; in coda position /N/ and /L/ were acquired before of 3:0, /S/ at 3:6 and /r/ at 4:6; in complex onset position, the structures composed by Fricative + /r/ and Stop + /r/ were acquired at 5:0, Stop + /l/ at 5:6 and Fricative + /l/ at 6:0. Analyzing the acquisition curve is essential, as it provides a reference on the age of acquisition of segments in different syllabic structures. The acquisition curve contributes to the early identification of delays in phonological acquisition process enabling a timely referral for speech therapy intervention.

The acquisition of the final coda position in the speech of a Greek-acquiring child

This case study investigates the acquisition of the word-final coda in child Greek. The data show that the child has acquired the CVC syllabic form word-finally and that the acquisition process of the final coda consonant involves intra-child variation. Initially, the child realizes a Stop word-finally, instead of the target sibilant /s/, which is a morphological marker in Greek. We claim that the realization of [t] word-finally is morphologically driven and is not attributed to input frequency effects since Stops are prohibited as codas in Greek. We argue that the child’s grammar prohibits a marked segment for continuancy in the prosodically weak coda position. Therefore, Positional Neutralization occurs resulting in the realization of the unmarked [−continuant] [t]. Later, [ts] and [tθ] occur word-finally, before the child’s realizations become adult-like. We argue that as long as a final coda consonant occurs, the morphological information is evident in the child’s realizations.

An Analysis of Perceptual Confusions on Logatome Utterances for Similar Language

In a polyglot speech synthesis, it is possible to use one language resource for another language. However, if the adaptation is not implemented carefully, the foreignness of the sound will be too noticeable for the listeners. This paper presents the analysis of respondents’ acceptance of a series of listening tests. The research goal was to find out in the absence of phonemes of a particular language, would it be possible for the phonemes to be replaced with another language’s phonemes. This will be especially beneficial for under-resourced language either in the case for 1) the language has not yet well researched into or 2) the language has not well documented in the required media. Preliminary studies were conducted to construct phoneme confusion matrices. The confusion study was observed based on the consonants’ position in syllable structure: onset and coda. These studies were then compared to similar studies to find possible overlap among them. Then, based on the outcome, two perceptual tests have been conducted to observe the applicability of phoneme substitutions. The first test was to observe the effect of phonemes substitution during the intelligibility test for individual words. The second test was to evaluate whether context influenced perception based on whether respondents noticed phoneme substitution on a word in a series of words. From these experiments, it can be concluded that it is possible to do phoneme substitution but with a certain condition. From significance testing, it was found that phoneme substitution may not be suitable to be implemented for onset position but can be applied for coda position provided the context is available.

Phonological acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese: Ages of customary production, acquisition and mastery.

AIMS: To describe typical phonological development of Brazilian Portuguese (BP)-speaking children, considering the following parameters: age of customary production, acquisition and mastery. Data were collected from 857 children aged between 3 years and 8 years 11 months with typical language and speech development. The sample was grouped into 6-month age bands. The data were analysed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Games-Howell post-hoc tests. Stops (/p, b, t, d, k, g/), nasals (/m, n, ɲ/) and some fricatives (/f, v, s, z/) were mastered before the age of 3 years (age of mastery). The age of acquisition for phonemes /ʃ, ʒ/ was 3;6, though both were only mastered at 4;0 years. The liquid /l/ was acquired at 3;0 and mastered at age 3;6, while /x/ was acquired and mastered at age 3;6. The phoneme /ʎ/ was acquired at 7;0 and mastered at age 8;6. The tap /ɾ/ was acquired between the ages of 4;0 and 4;6, and mastered at 4;6. In coda position, /n, l/ were acquired at 3;0, while /s/ was mastered at 4;6 and /ɾ/ between 4;6 and 5;0 years. Clusters involving /ɾ/ were acquired at 6;0, while those with /l/ were acquired between the ages of 6;6 and 7;0. This study presented acquisition for consonants in BP and can be used as a reference for the assessment of developmental speech disorders. In this study, stops and nasals were acquired first, followed by fricatives and, lastly, liquids. This finding is corroborated by previous studies in BP and other languages. What is already known on the subject What this paper adds to existing knowledge What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?

An Optimality Theory-Based Approach into the Phonotactic Constraints of English Spoken by Broadcasters in Nigeria

<p style="text-align:justify">One of the observations in the English spoken particularly in Nigeria is phonotactic constraints. The constraints pin down the generalization which guide the articulation of sequences of phonemes. The paper examines the patterns of English consonant clusters articulation of Nigerian broadcasters in the onset and coda positions against Received Pronunciation English. The study is conducted within the framework of Optimality Theory (henceforth OT). 20 radio and television broadcasters from 4 electronic media were selected as participants. Data were obtained by means of production test and OT was employed for the analysis. The findings revealed that the participants used epenthetic vowels to break-up consonants clusters in the onset and consonant deletion to simplify clusters in the coda. The subjects’ productions can be captured by ranking Markedness constraints higher than Faithfulness constraints.</p>

The Acquisition of Acoustic Cues to Onset and Coda Voicing Contrasts by Preschoolers With Hearing Loss.

Children with hearing loss (HL), including those with hearing aids (HAs) and cochlear implants (CIs), often have difficulties contrasting words like " b each" versus " p each" and "do g " versus "do ck " due to challenges producing systematic voicing contrasts. Even when acoustic contrasts are present, these may not be perceived as such by others. This can cause miscommunication, leading to poor self-esteem and social isolation. Acoustic evidence is therefore needed to determine if these children have established distinct voicing categories before entering school and if misperceptions are due to a lack of phonological representations or due to a still-maturing implementation system. The findings should help inform more effective early intervention. Participants included 14 children with HL (eight HA users, five CI users, and one bimodal) and 20 with normal hearing, all English-speaking preschoolers. In an elicited imitation task, they produced consonant-vowel-consonant minimal pair words that contrasted voicing in word-initial (onset) or word-final (coda) position at all three places of articulation (PoAs). Overall, children with HL showed acoustically distinct voicing categories for both onsets and codas at all three PoAs. Contrasts were less systematic for codas than for onsets, as also confirmed by adults' perceptual ratings. Preschoolers with HL produce acoustic differences for voiced versus voiceless onsets and codas, indicating distinct phonological representations for both. Nonetheless, codas were less accurately perceived by adult raters, especially when produced by CI users. This suggests a protracted development of the phonetic implementation of codas, where CI users, in particular, may benefit from targeted intervention.

Phonological Analysis of Errors in the Consonant Cluster System Encountered by Saudi EFL Learners

This study investigates the pronunciation difficulty of selected English consonant clusters (CCs) encountered by Saudi EFL learners. The sample consisted of 134 female Saudi EFL students in their freshman year in the English Department at Najran University. Two instruments were used: a pronunciation test that assessed participants’ CC pronunciations in the onset and coda positions and a questionnaire that explored participants’ attitudes towards their CC pronunciations. This study provides detailed data on the participants’ pronunciation difficulties using Optimality Theory (OT). The results showed that the participants encountered CC pronunciation difficulties in both the onset and coda positions. However, most errors occurred in the coda position, especially for the four-consonant pattern (-CCCC). Participants used different strategies to simplify their CC pronunciations: epenthesis, deletion, substitution, or some combination thereof. Questionnaire data indicated that the participants attributed their pronunciation difficulties to inadequate knowledge of the pronunciation rules, insufficient language instruction, and native-language influence. The participants proffered some remedies to their difficulties, which included doing more pronunciation drills and offering a new course focused primarily on correct pronunciation. OT analysis revealed that onset clusters were mainly influenced by L1 ranking constraints whereas coda clusters were more influenced by universal Markedness constraints. OT indicated that the tendency to satisfy Markedness constraints over the Faithfulness constraints led the participants to use the above-mentioned simplification strategies.

Acoustic differences between Chilean and Salvadoran Spanish /s/.

This paper examines seven acoustic properties of /s/ in Chilean Spanish (CS) and Salvadoran Spanish (ES). Acoustic measurements from 36 speakers, balanced for gender and dialect, reveal several cross-dialectal differences: CS /s/ was significantly longer than ES /s/ in coda position and had a higher spectral center of gravity. Two findings were mitigated by gender: women in both dialects were more likely to voice /s/, but the magnitude of the difference in voicing between male and female speakers was greater in CS. There were no differences in relative intensity in CS, while in ES, /s/ used by males has significantly lower relative intensity than /s/ used by females. No dialect differences were found for variance, kurtosis, or skewness. While both CS and ES are frequently collocated under the umbrella of "/s/ weakening dialects," our results show that tokens of non-deleted /s/ are acoustically distinct. These findings suggest that shorter duration and lower spectral energy in ES could be the result of a looser or backer constriction of /s/ and may have implications for work examining cross-dialectal differences in /s/ lenition at the phonetics/phonology interface.

Investigation of possible Near-merger in Mandarin nasal codas

The two codas /n/ and /ŋ/ in Mandarin are known to undergo merger in production of speakers from various dialect groups such as Shanghai Mandarin (Faytak et al., 2020) and Taiwan Mandarin (Chiu et al., 2019). A study by Faytak et al. (2020) revealed that even for Beijing Mandarin speakers, who do not show such a merger in production, they still could not distinguish /n/ and /ŋ/ in perception. This indicates a possible instance of near merger in Standard Mandarin, meaning speakers can distinguish between two sounds in production but not in perception (Labov et al., 1991). This study aims to validate whether Mandarin nasal codas demonstrate patterns of near merger with consideration of potential influence by dialect groups. Both speakers of Beijing Mandarin and speakers of Shanghai Mandarin will be recruited. This study consists of one production section where subjects produce minimal pairs in Mandarin that only differ in coda position, and a perception task involving a phoneme categorization task and a goodness rating task of various productions of /n/ and /ŋ/. The hypothesis is that listeners’ perceptual performance will correlate with their production pattern (e.g., Fridland and Kendall, 2012). However, if this study validates near merger in Mandarin coda nasals, this will be the first case of a non-tonal near merger in Mandarin. If otherwise, this study still sheds light on how speakers from various Chinese dialect groups might exhibit different cue-weighting strategies.

Underlying representation of [w]-final words in Brazilian Portuguese: Evidence from morphological derivation

AbstractThis paper deals with the underlying representation of [w]-final words in Brazilian Portuguese, usually spelled with <l> and pronounced as [w] and occasionally as [ɫ] (e.g.,papel/ [paˈpɛw] ~ [paˈpɛɫ] ‘paper’). It focuses on non-verbs derived by a vowel-initial suffix preceded by [l] (e.g.,papel+eiro‘paper+suffix’ / [papeˈlejɾʊ] ‘papermaker’;cliente+ismo‘client+suffix’ / [kliẽnteˈlizmʊ] ‘patronage’). The results from a pseudoword task answered by 219 participants contrasted to lexicon data from Corpus Brasileiro show that native speakers associate such derived forms with bases already containing [l] in the last syllable, either in the onset or the coda position. This observation is interpreted in a constraint-based approach, with the assumption that a demand for alignment between vowel-initial suffixes and roots closed by /l/, along with the requirement for phonological correspondence between base and derivative, is highly ranked in a grammar that accounts for learning morphophonological representations in the language.

Phonological aspects of al-Issa Arabic, a Bedouin dialect in the north of Jordan

This study offers an account of selected key phonological aspects of al-Issa Arabic, spoken in three villages in al Mafraq: Ad-Dafyana, Mansiyat al-Gublan and Um As-srab. Forty suitable participants plus four language consultants were recruited. The dialect has a number of distinguishing features that make it stand out from the rest of Bedouin Jordanian Arabic dialects, e.g. the Bani Saxar dialect (Palva 1980), Bani Ḥassan dialect (Irshied 1984), Abbādi dialect (Sakarna 1999), and Wadi Ramm Arabic (Mashaqba 2015). These features include the unlimited affrication of ∗k, the realization of the palato-alveolar/j/ as [y] in all word positions (yaʔyaʔa phenomenon), and the unconditioned retention of Classical Arabic diphthongs ∗aw and ∗ay in all contexts. In terms of syllable structure, the core syllable types observed are: CV, CVC, CVV, CVVC, CCVVC, CVC1C1, and C1C2VVC. There is a strong ban against C1C2C3 and C1C2 coda clusters in the dialect. Following Kiparsky's (2003) typological classification, the dialect is a VC-dialect where a vowel is inserted between C1 and C2 in C1C2C3 clusters. To avoid gutturals in coda positions, the dialect exhibits of the gahawa syndrome where CVG.CV underlying forms are attested as CV.Ga.CV. Stress is predictable in the vast majority of forms and is controlled by a trochaic foot ('CV.CVC). Stress falls on the right-most heavy syllable in the last three syllables. Where a word lacks a heavy syllable, it falls on the antepenultimate, or a penultimate in two syllable words. However, stress assignment interacts with epenthesis and the gahawa syndrome: the inserted vowel attracts the main stress in the absence of an ultimate heavy syllable.

SG] and Final Consonant Allophony in Tz'utujil

This paper considers two phenomena in Tz'utujil (Mayan) phonology: final sonorant devoicing and final aspiration of plain (pulmonic) stops and affricates. Both occur word-internally in coda position, as well as word-finally. I present an Optimality-Theoretic (OT) analysis which accounts for both of these phenomena via positional constraints on [spread glottis] ([SG]). This analysis also accounts for attested variation in final aspiration and devoicing across the Mayan language family and predicts an implicational relationship between final nasal devoicing, final sonorant devoicing, and final obstruent aspiration. Final sonorant devoicing is typologically rare and somewhat difficult to explain in terms of phonetic motivation. Tz'utujil may be able to provide insight into the typology of laryngeal features and the roles of contrast and phonetic pressures in phonology.

Asymmetrical Realizations of NC Clusters in Malay

This paper deals with non-parallel realizations of NC clusters in Malay from the perspective of phonological positions and morphological affiliation of the NCs. It is argued that asymmetrical realizations of the Malay NCs stem from various combinations of phonological positions such as prominent onset position compared to coda position and morphological membership of the two elements belonging to prominent stem versus affix in the cluster. When a prefix-final nasal is followed by a voiceless obstruent, nasal substitution occurs. If the nasal is followed by a voiced obstruent, regressive place assimilation occurs but if the nasal is followed by a sonorant consonant, the prefix-final nasal is deleted. These processes do not apply to an NC̥ across the stem-suffix boundary. In prefix-prefix boundary, however, place assimilation only occurs when a nasal is followed by a voiceless obstruent. These various asymmetrical realizations of the Malay NCs are explained by constraints which reflect relativity of prominence of phonological positions and morphological affiliations of the NCs.

The obstruentised rhotic of Polish: An acoustic study

This paper reports the results of a study aimed at establishing the acoustic characteristics of the obstruentised rhotic of Polish, i.e. an r-sound that is neither adjacent to a vowel nor syllabic. The study has revealed that the physical realisation of the sound is dependent on the position it occupies within the syllable as well as on the manner of articulation of the following segment. In onset positions, the obstruentised rhotic is likely to be articulated as a trill when followed by a stop. In contrast, spirantised variants are common in those clusters where the rhotic precedes a fricative. In prosodically weak coda positions, the degree of phonetic reduction is greater than in the onset. The observed variants include voiceless trills, spirantised rhotics, affricated rhotics, taps and instances of deletion.

Rapid phonotactic constraint learning in ageing: evidence from speech errors

ABSTRACT Older adults are able to implicitly pick up structural regularities in the environment despite declining cognitive abilities. Here, we investigated elderly’s abilities to implicitly pick up novel linguistic constraints in speech production. Across four training days, young and healthy older Dutch-speaking adults were asked to rapidly recite Dutch phonotactic syllables. Two unrestricted consonants were experimentally constrained to onset or coda positions depending on the medial vowel. Analysis of speech errors revealed rapid adherence to the novel second-order constraints in both the younger and the older group. However, in the older group, there was weaker trial-specific learning compared to the younger group, potentially due to explicit memory deficits. Strikingly, the error pattern of the elderly mirrors earlier developmental work with children using the same paradigm. The findings are discussed in light of possible age-dependent differences in implicit and explicit cognitive subsystems underlying human skill learning.

The link between syllabic nasals and glottal stops in American English

Examples of syllabic nasals in English abound in phonological research (e.g., Hammond, 1999; Harris, 1994; Wells, 1995), but there is little explicit discussion about the surrounding consonant environments that condition syllabic nasals. This study examines the production of potential word-final syllabic nasals in American English following preceding consonants including oral stops, glottal stops, fricatives, flap, and laterals. The data come from a laboratory study of read speech with speakers from New York and other regions, a corpus of read speech with speakers from the Pacific Northwest and Northern Cities, and a spontaneous telephone speech corpus. Acoustic analysis indicates that [n̩] is only prevalent after [ʔ], with some extension to [d] or [ɾ]. Variation in rates of [n̩] versus [ən] is found across the speakers in a group, not within individual speakers. An articulatory sketch to account for the prevalence of [n̩] after coronal and glottal stops is laid out. To link this realization to the presence of the [ʔ] allophone in pre-syllabic nasal environment, previous analyses of acoustic enhancement proposed for glottally-reinforced [tʔ] in coda position (e.g., Keyser & Stevens, 2006) are extended to the syllabic nasal case.

New insights into /el/-/æl/ merging in Australian English

ABSTRACT A merger exists in Australian English in which /el/ is realized as [æl] for a number of speakers, particularly in Victoria. There have also been some observations of /æl/ raising to [el], termed “transposition”. Although thought to be characteristic of older speakers, empirical evidence for transposition is scant. Here we report the discovery of substantive degrees of merging in thirteen older speakers, aged between 51 and 80, from Ocean Grove, Victoria. Auditory and acoustic methods showed bidirectional vowel movement, with speakers converging on both the /æ/ and /e/ phonemes. Increasing velarization of the lateral has been posited as a factor in the development of the merger in Victoria, and thus /l/ quality was also investigated, with null results in terms of direct factors. The lateral, however, was shown to be dark in both syllable onset and coda positions, with evidence for /l/ being clearer in this age group when compared with younger speakers. Lexical frequency and orthography were also investigated as factors, the latter showing a significant effect and suggesting a role for velarization as a contrast maintenance strategy.