Loss Of Consonants Research Articles

Morphological autonomy and the long-term vitality of morphomes: stem-final consonant loss in Romance verbs and paradigmatic analogy

Morphologists of different backgrounds disagree with respect to the degree of autonomy of the morphological component of language from syntax and semantics. A precise and objective quantification of the diachronic productivity of Romance morphomes is the piece of evidence most crucially missing from this debate. On the basis of 502 morphophonological innovations associated with the loss of stem-final consonants across 63 Romance varieties, this paper quantifies the degree of productivity of different morphomes (the N pattern is found to be the most productive one) and of morphomic templates generally (15% of novel stem alternations are found to abide by them). Although a strong attraction effect is detectable for morphomes, the numbers suggest that the morphological autonomy and longevity of stem alternations in the family might have been somewhat overstated. For an optimal account of the morphological innovations observed, reference to inherited morphomic structure, semantic structure, and to frequency of use are needed in similar proportions.

Subjective and Objective Evaluation of Speech in Adult Patients With Repaired Cleft Palate.

To explore the speech outcomes of adult patients with repaired cleft palate through subjective perception evaluation and objective acoustic analysis, and to compare the differences in pronunciation characteristics between speakers with complete velopharyngeal closure (VPC) and velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) patients. Subjective evaluation indicators included speech intelligibility, nasality and consonant missing rate, for objective acoustic analysis, we used speech sample normalization and objective acoustic parameters included normalized vowel formants, voice onset time and the analysis of 3-dimensional spectrogram and spectrum, were carried out on speech samples produced by 3 groups of speakers: (a) speakers with velopharyngeal competence after palatorrhaphy (n=38); (b) speakers with velopharyngeal incompetence after palatorrhaphy (n=70), (c) adult patients with cleft palate (n=65) and (d) typical speakers (n=30). There was a highly negative correlation between VPC grade and speech intelligibility (ρ=-0.933), and a highly positive correlation between VPC and nasality (ρ=0.813). In subjective evaluation, the speech level of VPI patients was significantly lower than that of VPC patients and normal adults. Although the nasality and consonant loss rate of VPC patients were significantly higher than that of normal adults, the speech intelligibility of VPC patients was not significantly different from that of normal adults. In acoustic analysis, patients with VPI still performed poorly compared with patients with VPC. The speech function of adult cleft palate patients is affected by abnormal palatal structure and bad pronunciation habits. In subjective evaluation, there was no significant difference in speech level between VPC patients and normal adults, whereas there was significant difference between VPI patients and normal adults. The acoustic parameters were different between the 2 groups after cleft palate repair. The condition of palatopharyngeal closure after cleft palate can affect the patient's speech.

Sound change in Aboriginal Australia: word-initial engma deletion in Kunwok

Abstract This paper examines word-initial engma deletion in Bininj Kunwok. Loss of initial consonants is a well-documented historical process in many Australian languages (Blevins, Juliette. 2001. Where have all the onsets gone? Initial consonant loss in Australian Aboriginal languages. In Jane Simpson, David Nash, Mary Laughren, Peter Austin & Barry Alpher (eds.), Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages, 481–492. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics), but there has been no systematic analysis of initial consonant loss as a synchronic variable (Fletcher, Janet & Andrew Butcher 2014. Sound patterns of Australian languages. In Harold Koch & Rachel Nordlinger (eds.), The languages and linguistics of Australia, 91–138. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton). In the case of Kunwok, word-initial velar nasal deletion (e.g. nganabbarru ∼ anabbarru ‘buffalo’) has been described as having regional distribution and is a prominent feature of speakers from the western and southern peripheries of the dialect chain, but variable in speakers from the central region (Evans, Nicholas. 2003. Bininj Kunwok: A pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics). This study tests the distribution of the word-initial engma for both linguistic conditioning and sociolinguistic factors, and arrives at three conclusions. First, that preceding environment is a contributing factor. Second, that morphological class is a categorical conditioning factor. And third, that the phenomenon is spreading and there is evidence of language change in progress. This paper also takes into consideration community perspectives, noting that the sound change in progress is accompanied by a change in perceptions.

Pathways of initial consonant loss

Abstract This paper investigates the historical loss of root-initial consonants, using a case study of Middle Paman languages of Cape York Peninsula, in northeastern Australia. Systematic loss of initial consonants is a typologically unusual phenomenon, mainly found in Australia, that has often been regarded as a starting point for far-reaching changes in root structure, phonotactics and even phoneme inventory. So far, the literature has focused mainly on identifying phonetic causes of initial loss. This study focuses on the actual processes and pathways of initial loss, which is an equally important part of the historical puzzle. Specifically, it shows that there are multiple pathways for initial loss: it can be the result of a gradual phonetic process involving intermediate steps like lenition, as is assumed in part of the literature, but it can also be due to more abrupt processes involving borrowing and even morphosyntactic alternations. This adds to a more diversified model of how initial loss actually proceeds, which together with earlier work on the diversity of phonetic causes of initial loss produces a more comprehensive understanding of this typologically and diachronically unusual phenomenon.

Stress Change and Initial Consonant Loss in Umpithamu: Cause or Consequence?*

AbstractThis study aims to reconstruct a change in the system of word stress in Umpithamu, a language of Cape York Peninsula, in northeastern Australia. The change involves a shift in parsing direction, from a left‐aligned system as found in most Pama‐Nyungan languages, to a system anchored at the right edge. The process of change is reconstructed using evidence from changes in root structure and root size, in combination with specifics of the synchronic system of word stress. The broader context for the analysis is a well‐known hypothesis about stress shift as a cause of initial consonant loss, a typologically rare phenomenon attested in areal patterns in Australia, including Umpithamu and its neighbours. The reconstruction of stress change in Umpithamu shows that the picture is more complex, with the major stress shift as a consequence rather than a cause of initial loss. Umpithamu shows partial rather than complete initial loss, and thus reveals the complexities of the actual processes rather than their end point. Comparison with languages at the end point of the processes shows how their stress systems can be derived from an Umpithamu‐type system simply by assuming further changes in root structure attested as following initial consonant loss.

GAGAUZ KONUŞMA DİLİNDE İKİNCİL UZUN ÜNLÜLER: KIPÇAK KASABASI ÖRNEĞİ

: The written form of the Gagauz language developed in the course of the 20th century and included in the school curriculum in 1986, is not used as widely as the spoken form. Most Gagauz living in Moldova and Ukraine use the spoken Gagauz as their native language. One of the most pronounced phonetic characteristics of spoken Gagauz is the appearance of secondary long vowels. In some cases, the written language shows evidence of long vowels which came about with the loss of consonants; in other cases, however, these long vowels are seen only in samples of the spoken language. Long vowels which developed in the spoken language came about as the result of the loss of consonants [r] and [n]. In this study it is noted that diphthongs which originated in consonant loss in the past have turned into long vowels in contemporary spoken Gagauz. The examples cited here were collected during field research in the city of Kıpçak in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia Republic of Moldova.Keywords: Gagauz, spoken language, phonetics, long vowels, town of Kıpçak.

Вторичная долгота гласных в говорах теленгитского диалекта алтайского языка

Telengit dialect is one of the southern dialects of the Altai language, with the native speakers living in the South-Eastern part of the Altai Mountains, mostly in the Kosh-Agach and Ulagan districts of the Altai Republic. There are two sub-dialects in the Telengit dialect: Kosh-Agach and Ulagan, named after the administrative districts. The research materials are the linguistic data collected by the author in the areas of compact residence of Telengits. The paper aims at describing secondary vowel longitude in the sub-dialects of the Telengit dialect of the Altai language in a comparative aspect. Research objectives were identifying the secondary long vowels, describing the phonetic processes that produce this type of longitude, and comparing this phonetic phenomenon with similar processes in the Northern dialects of the Altai lan-guage and other Turkic languages of southern Siberia. Long vowels in the Telengit sub-dialects have a secondary origin, i.e., they are the result of phonetic development. The main ways of longitude formation in the Telengit sub-dialects are compensation of the fallen final consonant of the word form, the contraction of two vowels in one syllable due to the loss of the intervocalic consonant, and the fusion of vowels at the junction of morphemes. The sec-ondary longitude formed due to the dropped auslaut consonant replacement is characteristic of the Altai southern dialects, including the Telengit sub-dialects. The longitude formed by the intervocalic consonant loss and the morpheme junction is characteristic of the entire South Siberian area of the Turkic languages.

Comparative Reconstruction of Proto-Mojeño and the Diversification of Mojeño Dialects

This paper addresses nine open issues in the historical phonology of Mojeño, an Arawakan language of Bolivia. We propose solutions to these problems by postulating reconstructed forms for Proto-Mojeño based on a comparison of the two extant varieties of the language, Ignaciano and Trinitario, and on 17th century sources on Old Mojeño. Contrarily to a recent claim, we argue that the contrast between *n and *ɲ can be straightforwardly reconstructed for Proto-Mojeño. We suggest that the marginally contrastive opposition between s and ʃ in Ignaciano derives from sound symbolism. We argue for a contrast between *a and *o in Proto-Mojeño that was later lost in Ignaciano. We reconstruct the accentual system of Proto-Mojeño, as a basis for explaining diachronic rhythmic syncope in Trinitario. Syncope of vowels in weak metrical positions accounts for the emergence of consonant clusters and morphophonological alternations in Trinitario. Besides, hiatus resolution has led to the phonologization of the consonant /c/, while the vowel /ə͡e / emerged from a process of monophthongization. Indirect consequences of Trinitario rhythmic syncope are the phonologization of the consonant /ç/, consonant loss and the development of phonological vowel length. An appendix presents 190 Proto-Mojeño reconstructions and cognate sets.

A Paradox: Merger or Compounding — Which comes First? Comments on Geoffrey Sampson’s Article

A Paradox:Merger or Compounding — Which comes First? Comments on Geoffrey Sampson’s Article Matthew Y Chen Geoffrey Sampson’s paper highlights a peculiar fact about Chinese: the prevalence of coordinate compounds consisting of two near-synonyms. To illustrate this point, in a randomly chosen article of about 670 characters, I found as many as 74 such tokens, depending on how loosely one defines “near-synonyums”. That is almost 1/5 of the running text! Here etc.1 Word-formation of this type is rare, for example in English. The closest examples I can think of are expressions like first and foremost, rules and regulations, and twists and turns. This observation raises the intriguing question of whether such redundant compounds are motivated by the avoidance of massive homophony created by phonological mergers (such as the neutralization between -m and -n endings) or, vice-versa, the mergers arise from the profusion of such pleonastic compounds that render finer phonological distinctions unnecessary. At the heart of Sampson’s argument is the relative chronology of merger (e.g. -m and -n) and compounding, e.g. (cf. M.Chen 1976, Relative chronology: three methods of reconstruction, Journal of Linguistics, 12:209-258). There are three logical possibilities: [End Page 692] A. merger > compounding (x > y means x precedes y) B. compounding > merger C. merger & compounding “co-evolved” Scenario (A) constitutes a counterexample to Gilliéron-Martinet’s hypothesis, which “outlaws” mergers resulting in massive homophony. Therein lies the enigma of Chinese compounds, so maintains Sampson. To make this case, ideally one would like to be able to date the onset of mergers and the rise of disyllabic compounds. Unfortunately such philological evidence is spotty at best. For one thing we don’t have anything close to the venerable, magisterial Oxford English Dictionary, that documents the first occurrence of each lexical entry (more precisely, ). That being the case, Sampson does not offer a direct proof of (A), instead he arrives at (A) by a process of elimination. He rejects (B) by noting that in this case (i.e. before the onset of massive phonological mergers) compounding would be “pointlessly redundant” (e.g. friend + friend = friend). It goes without saying that not all compounds are pleonastic. Prof. Sampson could strengthen his case by providing some statistical estimates of compounds made up of near-synonyms vs. other types of disyllabic words (e.g. ). Next, the author dismisses (C) by saying that such a scenario “seems to reduce homophony avoidance to an unfalsifiable doctrine with no predictive power” (p.5, fn. 3). Indeed, (C) gives too much wiggle room for Gilliéron-Martinet’s hypothesis, and introduces unwelcome wrinkles into the tidy world of logical positivism, where falsifiability is the golden yardstick of truth value. But in the real world, the timeline and relationship between cause and effect may not be as neat as we would like them to be. Specifically: 1. The massive homophony in modern Chinese was the result of multiple sound changes, including nasal ending mergers, final consonant loss, devoicing, palatalization (hence the neutralization between k,kh,x and ts, tsh, s), and so forth — processes that need not happen all at once. It is entirely conceivable that, for instance, nasal merger took place at time x, creating pressure for disambiguation by means of compounding at time y, which in turn facilitates devoicing at time z, and so forth. [End Page 693] 2. Even within one single sound change (e.g. nasal merger), there is the logical possibility of gradual lexical diffusion instead of an instantaneous sweep across the vocabulary as conceived by the Neogrammarians. (For the latest discussion on this topic, see A dialogue on Sound Change between William Labov and William S-Y. Wang, ed. by Sh.L. Feng and Virginia Yip, Peking University Press, 2014). Apart from the core argument, there are a number of related issues. • First of all, Gilliéron-Martinet’s hypothesis bears some scrutiny. Almost half a century ago, as a graduate student I noted in a long-forgotten memo (Monthly Internal Memos, Phonology Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, circa 1968) that all phonological change is an instance of neutralization. X > Y / Z means there is no contrast...

Noise mitigation at the Combat Arms Training Facility, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH

The Combat Arms Training Facility (CATF) at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio was evaluated for the effect of noise treatment to the interior of the firing range. Measurements were conducted in 2009 and 2010 before and after noise treatment. Reverberant energy in the range was reduced through the installation of cementatious shredded fiber board and basalt rock wool to the walls and ceiling of the range. No modifications were made to the windows and doors connecting the range interior to adjacent rooms. Prior to the application of noise treatment, the reverberation times (RT60) ranged from about 3.5 seconds at 100 Hz to about 1.3 seconds at 10 kHz. Following application of the noise treatments, the RT60 was reduced to about 1.6 seconds at 100 Hz to 0.5 seconds at 10 kHz. The critical distance for speech intelligibility increased from about 12 feet to about 22 feet in the speech frequencies 800 to 4000 Hz. The Articulation loss of consonants was improved from 22.5 for the untreated range to 7.2 for the treated range. The noise treatments reduced the reverberation time, increased the critical distance and improved speech intelligibility in the CATF firing range.

Methodology in Linguistic Prehistory

Intervocalic consonant epenthesis is used as a case study for investigating grammar change. An emergentist framework is adopted, whereby a simple learning mechanism transforms a phonetically-based sound change into a synchronic phonological process. A two-part model of such 'grammaticalizing' change is developed, along with a formal analysis of the necessary model properties. This work demonstrates that perception-based consonant loss could, in principle, lead to synchronic epenthesis. However, the larger number of historic conditions required for its emergence are predicted to make it less likely than other outcomes such as deletion or suppletion (unpredictable alternation). An important corollary of the latter result is that theoretically dispreferred grammars do not necessarily have to be explicitly marked or removed from the learning space. Input to the hypothetical learner is automatically filtered by asymmetries in the way sound changes occur, the way sounds are organized in words, and the way words are organized in paradigms. The conclusion is that mechanisms other than Universal Grammar are sufficient to produce the observed epenthesis typology without overgenerating. Furthermore, it is argued that the research methodology is a promising one in general for explaining the universal tendencies of human languages.

The Emergence of Epenthesis: An Incremental Model of Grammar Change

AbstractIntervocalic consonant epenthesis is used as a case study for investigating grammar change. An emergentist framework is adopted, whereby a simple learning mechanism transforms a phonetically-based sound change into a synchronic phonological process. A two-part model of such 'grammaticalizing' change is developed, along with a formal analysis of the necessary model properties. This work demonstrates that perception-based consonant loss could, in principle, lead to synchronic epenthesis. However, the larger number of historic conditions required for its emergence are predicted to make it less likely than other outcomes such as deletion or suppletion (unpredictable alternation). An important corollary of the latter result is that theoretically dispreferred grammars do not necessarily have to be explicitly marked or removed from the learning space. Input to the hypothetical learner is automatically filtered by asymmetries in the way sound changes occur, the way sounds are organized in words, and the way words are organized in paradigms. The conclusion is that mechanisms other than Universal Grammar are sufficient to produce the observed epenthesis typology without overgenerating. Furthermore, it is argued that the research methodology is a promising one in general for explaining the universal tendencies of human languages.

Individual variance of hearing-impaired consonant perception

Individuals with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) are prescribed hearing aids (HAs), based on the results of clinical measurements. Although the HAs do help these individuals communicate in quiet surroundings, many listeners have complained that their HAs do not provide enough benefit to facilitate understanding of normal speech. We argue that the current clinical measurements, which interpret the result as a mean score (e.g., pure-tone average, speech recognition threshold, AI-gram, etc.), do not deliver sufficient information about the characteristics of a SNHL listener's impairment when hearing speech, resulting in a poorly fitting HA. We confirm how reliably this consonant-vowel (CV) test could measure a SNHL listener's consonant loss using only zero-error utterances (in normal hearing listeners) and having a statistically suitable number of presentations in CVs, in order to characterize unique SNHL consonant loss. As noise increased, the percentage of error and confusions of target consonants increa...

Consonant recognition loss in hearing impaired listeners

This paper presents a compact graphical method for comparing the performance of individual hearing impaired (HI) listeners with that of an average normal hearing (NH) listener on a consonant-by-consonant basis. This representation, named the consonant loss profile (CLP), characterizes the effect of a listener's hearing loss on each consonant over a range of performance. The CLP shows that the consonant loss, which is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) difference at equal NH and HI scores, is consonant-dependent and varies with the score. This variation in the consonant loss reveals that hearing loss renders some consonants unintelligible, while it reduces noise-robustness of some other consonants. The conventional SNR-loss metric DeltaSNR(50), defined as the SNR difference at 50% recognition score, is insufficient to capture this variation. The DeltaSNR(50) value is on average 12 dB lower when measured with sentences using standard clinical procedures than when measured with nonsense syllables. A listener with symmetric hearing loss may not have identical CLPs for both ears. Some consonant confusions by HI listeners are influenced by the high-frequency hearing loss even at a presentation level as high as 85 dB sound pressure level.

Comodulation masking release to detect cochlear dead regions in hearing impaired ears.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if comodulation masking release experiments with hearing impaired (HI) individuals can be used as a reliable method to detect dead regions in the cochlea, if any. The experiment involves detection of a pure tone in a narrow band of noise (the on-signal band) in presence of four other narrow bands of noise that fall outside the auditory bandwidth at the center frequency of the on-signal band. These flanking bands are either all co-modulated so as to have the same amplitude envelope as the on-signal band or are randomly modulated and are presented monaurally to an impaired ear. Each band is level adjusted to be audible to the HI ear. Data are being collected for both these cases from normal-hearing listeners and HI listeners with no dead regions. Every HI individual also undergoes psychophysical tuning curve and threshold-equalizing noise tests which are currently used tests to detect cochlear dead regions. Each HI individual also takes speech perception tests with CV syllables under various noise conditions. The consonant loss profiles from the perception experiments help make a reasonable estimate of the possibility of a dead region. [Work supported by NIH.]

Signal-to-noise-ratio loss in hearing-impairment and feature enhancement.

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate detailed consequences of hearing loss and to scrutinize if individual hearing impaired (HI) listeners exhibit individual patterns in their consonant confusion scores. 16 English nonsense CV syllables, by 18 various talkers in five speech-weighted noise (−12, −6, 0, +6, and +12-dB signal-to-noise-ratios) and quiet conditions, were randomly presented to 11 HI subjects (18 HI ears) having sensorineural hearing losses at two different amplified levels: with and without NAL-R (similar to fitting hearing aids). The HI ears have sensorineural hearing loss with flat (mild-to-moderate-to-severe), ski-slop at low- and/or high-frequency regions, and cookie-bite configurations. To characterize the consonant loss, the performance of each HI ear was compared to average normal-hearing listeners in masking noise. Preliminary analysis shows that each HI ear has an individual profile, which is a characteristic of the impaired ear. Once the noise-sensitive consonants are identified, the aim is to use signal processing techniques to selectively enhance features to make them audible in noise. [Work supported by the NIH Grant RDC009277A.]

The lost consonants of Atlanta

Consonant elision is readily observable in one of the English dialects of Atlanta GA. The account of elision offered here shows that the simplest account of the facts is available only if we acknowledge that consonant loss is sensitive to the prosodic domain foot. Non-clustered consonants are prone to elision from within a full trochee (e.g., [neɪ bə]) or from consonant-final position (e.g., [waɪ t]). This paper asserts that these positions are prosodically identical (both onsets) which means the conditions that allow elision need only be stated once, i.e. out of the onset of a dependent syllable. This simplicity would not be possible with a traditional ‘coda’ analysis of syllable structure. The phenomenon of consonant elision necessitates the amendment of the observed link between consonants and high contrastive load so that we include the segment’s metrical status. Elision is rooted in standard English prosody, and is accounted for by normal historical language change. It is here identified as the delinking of melodic material, lenition to the max, rather than as the loss of a prosodic position.

Verifying two commercial software implementations of impulse-response-based speech intelligibility measurements

A number of objective evaluation methods are currently used to quantify the speech intelligibility in a built environment, including the speech transmission index (STI), rapid speech transmission index (RASTI), articulation index (AI), and the percent articulation loss of consonants (%ALCons). Certain software programs can quickly evaluate STI, RASTI, and %ALCons from a measured room impulse response. In this project, two impulse-response-based software packages (WinMLS and SIA-Smaart Acoustic Tools) were evaluated for their ability to determine intelligibility accurately. In four different spaces with background noise levels less than NC 45, speech intelligibility was measured via three methods: (1) with WinMLS 2000; (2) with SIA-Smaart Acoustic Tools (v4.0.2); and (3) from listening tests with humans. The study found that WinMLS measurements of speech intelligibility based on STI, RASTI, and %ALCons corresponded well with performance on the listening tests. SIA-Smaart results were correlated to human responses, but tended to under-predict intelligibility based on STI and RASTI, and over-predict intelligibility based on %ALCons.

The Pronunciation of English: A Course Book (review)

Reviewed by: The pronunciation of English: A course bookby Charles W. Kreidler Alan S. Kaye The pronunciation of English: A course book. 2nd edn. By Charles W. Kreidler. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. Pp. xvi, 308. ISBN 1405113367. $34.95. Charles Kreidler is well known as the editor of Phonology: Critical concepts(6 vols.; London: Routledge, 2000). This is the revised edition of his excellent (1989) textbook on English phonetics and phonology. A look through the glossary of technical terms informs the prospective reader of the book’s contents (284–95). I expected to encounter terms such as allophone, allomorph, assimilation, aspiration, constraint, neutralization, schwa, and so on; however, I did not expect to find deep structure or Great Vowel Shift. The term approximant is conspicuously absent (also from the index). The fourteen well-organized chapters cover all of the fundamentals of phonological analysis, English consonantal and vocalic phonemes with their allophones, and the phonotactic structure of English. As might be anticipated, K thoroughly treats rhythm, stress, and intonation in addition to the phonological processes involved in casual speech. More than eighty exercises allow students to master the material presented. Chs. 1 and 2 cover such topics as language variation, hearing, resonance, the differences between [End Page 203]speech and language, and the history of English. The latter topic seems out of place in a work of this type. Chs. 3 and 4 present the consonants, vowels, and glides. I see little advantage to K’s replacing the term labial with lip consonant (34). The information on dialectal differences is germane and useful (46–48). Ch. 5 contains information on syllables and stress. I do not believe it helps students to read that when an Old English affix is added to a word, in has no effect on stress, whereas when words have been borrowed from Greco-Latin or French sources, there is often a stress shift ( origin, original, originality, 79). Ch. 6 on phonotactics wisely contains a brief section on borrowed words as exceptions to phonotactic constraints (e.g. pueblowith * pw-, 100). Ch. 7 discusses consonant and vowel variation. In his discussion of gemination, K repeats information found in a plethora of texts, viz. that English has geminated consonants across morpheme boundaries. He specifically mentions unknown(116). Here, I agree with Bertil Malmberg ( Phonetics, New York: Dover, 1963, p. 77, n. 3), who mentions degemination in un[k]nownfor many speakers. (See now my ‘Gemination in English’, English Today21.43–55, 2005.) Ch. 8 deals with the consequences of phonotactics. The discussion of plural and possessive allomorphy uses /- iz/ for the far more common /-əz/ or /-ɨz/ (e.g. churches). Similarly, he uses the transcription /- id/ for /-əd/ or /-ɨd/ for the past tense (e.g. waited). In the remarks on allophonic vowel nasalization, K affirms that ‘the /ə/ in an aim… is likely to be nasalized, while the /ə/ in a name… is not nasalized’ (136). A vowel before a nasal consonant tends to be nasalized (see Peter Ladefoged, A course in phonetics, 4th edn., Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 2001, p. 84). Ch. 9 is on the rhythm of English speech. K explains herein why English is a stress timing, not a syllable timing, language. Ch. 10 covers intonation. Happily, K makes good use of the outstanding work by Dwight L. Bolinger. Ch. 11 presents basic stress rules, essentially following Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle ( The sound pattern of English, New York: Harper and Row, 1968). Ch. 12 covers prefixes, compounds, and phrases. Many excellent observations will help motivate students to get involved in these intricate data; for example, bisectis sometimes stressed on its initial syllable, and influenced by this verb, dissectfollows along similar lines. The final two chapters explain the phonological processes of vowel reduction, vowel and consonant loss, progressive and regressive assimilation including palatalization ( did you), spirantization ( part, partial), velar softening ( electric, electricity), and vowel shifts ( goose, gosling). Once again, the indebtedness to Chomsky & Halle 1968 is obvious. Two remarks on the author’s bibliography (296–302) are in order. K should have used Ladefoged’s 4th edition of A course in phonetics(2001), not his 3rd (1993). I would also recommend the...

A verification of computer modeling predictions of speech intelligibility

Computer modeling has become a popular tool in the field of architectural acoustics to predict the acoustical characteristics of a built environment. One characteristic commonly investigated in computer models is speech intelligibility. This project compares speech intelligibility measures of the speech transmission index (STI), the rapid speech transmission index (RaSTI), and the articulation loss of consonants (ALCons) predicted by computer models to measurements taken in existing spaces. Three spaces in the Omaha, NE, area of varying size and function are analyzed: a theater, church, and classroom. Research methodology and conclusions are presented. The results aid in understanding the reliability of 3D computer modeling in speech intelligibility predictions. [Work partially supported by the Univ. of Nebraska Center for Building Integration.]