Foreign Phonemes Research Articles

Event-Related Potential Correlates of Learning to Produce Novel Foreign Phonemes.

Learning to pronounce a foreign phoneme requires an individual to acquire a motor program that enables the reproduction of the new acoustic target sound. This process is largely based on the use of auditory feedback to detect pronunciation errors to adjust vocalization. While early auditory evoked neural activity underlies automatic detection and adaptation to vocalization errors, little is known about the neural correlates of acquiring novel speech targets. To investigate the neural processes that mediate the learning of foreign phoneme pronunciation, we recorded event-related potentials when participants (N = 19) pronounced native or foreign phonemes. Behavioral results indicated that the participants' pronunciation of the foreign phoneme improved during the experiment. Early auditory responses (N1 and P2 waves, approximately 85-290 ms after the sound onset) revealed no differences between foreign and native phonemes. In contrast, the amplitude of the frontocentrally distributed late slow wave (LSW, 320-440 ms) was modulated by the pronunciation of the foreign phonemes, and the effect changed during the experiment, paralleling the improvement in pronunciation. These results suggest that the LSW may reflect higher-order monitoring processes that signal successful pronunciation and help learn novel phonemes.

Lithuanian Slang Adverbs of Slavic Origin

The article morphologically analyzes Lithuanian slang adverbs (215) of Slavic origin (mostly from Russian, sometimes from Polish and Belarusian), selected from Dictionary of Lithuanian Slang and Nonnormative Lexicon. There are four types of adverbs selected for analysis: hybrid derivatives of the suffix -ai from suffixal and nonsuffixal adjectives, adverbs without formants, and adverbialized word combinations. The aim of the analysis is to identify systematic morphological patterns and adaptive features. The analysis has shown that in Lithuanian slang Slavic adverbs are adapted phonetically and orthographically according to the principle of substitution of foreign phonemes as close as possible to their own. The Slavic slang lexicon tends to copy derivative models and integrate them into and inflectional paradigms of Lithuanian: morphological features are inherited from Slavic languages and specifically transformed in the Lithuanian language system; variability in borrowed slang appears due to spontaneous adaptation to language recipient features.

The Phonology of Anglicisms in French, German and Czech: A Contrastive Approach

Abstract In this article, I analyse the phonological adaptation of Anglicisms in three languages (French, German and Czech) from a contrastive perspective. The classification of standard phonological forms, based on a system of eight adaptation principles, aims at capturing the degree of phonological permeability/resistance for each of the languages. Phonological approximation (the substitution of foreign phonemes with native ones) seems to be the fundamental principle in all three languages analysed. The spelling pronunciation principle is observed predominantly in French; phonological import occurs only in German. Globally, phonological resistance increases in the following order: German – Czech – French.

Adverbialized individual words and adverbs without suffixes in Lithuanian slang and non-normative language and their adaptative features

here are a number of adverbialized individual words and adverbs without suffixes in Lithuanian slang and non-normative language. Most of them are assimilated borrowings adapted to the language system. Adaptive adverbialization of borrowed adverbs is determined by certain systemic features which are related to the territorial dialects of the Lithuanian language and the standart language. When the Slavic formants of the borrowed individual words are phonetically adapted, analogous hybrid derivatives with that formant are already available in Lithuanian slang. There are few adverbs derived from the singular nominative case. There are also few adverbs derived from the conjugation forms of the verb, mostly the forms are borrowed from informal Russian language. There are a number of borrowed adverbs without formants: there are mostly phonetically, graphically adapted borrowings from Russian language; borrowings of this type are rare from English and German languages. The analysis found that the adaptive features of the slang adverbs are determined by systemic regularities. Slang adverbs are adapted phonetically and graphically according to the principle of substitution of foreign phonemes as close as possible to their own. Slang lexicon tends to copy standart language models and integrate into Lithuanian language derivative and flexic paradigms.

Perception of Foreign Phonemes: The Case of Slovene Students of English

The study focuses on assessing the state of foreign phoneme acquisition by foreign language (FL) students at the end of their undergraduate studies. To determine whether they prioritise vowels over consonants, a perception experiment was devised that focuses on the phonemes in Standard Slovene and General British reported as most problematic for Slovene learners of English. Thirty-three Slovene students of English were tested, along with a positive and a negative control group (CG). A set of stimuli was tested using the AX discrimination method; the participants listened to 60 phonemic contrasts, played in a pseudo-randomised order. The results foregrounded the most problematic phonemes which act as perceptual magnets. Analysis shows that the students can discriminate foreign phonemes well, and that they consistently perform better in discriminating vocalic contrasts.

The Adaptation of French Consonant Clusters in Vietnamese Phonology: An OT Account

The phenomenon of phonological adaptation arises due to the segmental, phonotactic, supra-segmental, and morpho-phonological restrictions of the borrowing language. This paper specifically discusses the adaptation of French consonant clusters both in onset and coda positions when borrowed into Vietnamese in the framework of Optimality Theory. The primary objective of the current study is to examine how Vietnamese speakers select repair strategies such as epenthesis or deletion in modifying French words. The adaptation of foreign phonemes supports the role of the native language. In French loans adapted in Vietnamese, foreign segments not present in the native language, are completely banned. Phonotactic adaptations of illicit syllable structures showed that deletion is the favored option to avoid clusters in the coda position. Onset clusters, which are disallowed in native Vietnamese, are repaired either by the strategy of epenthesis or deletion. The constraint hierarchy for the Vietnamese loan phonology can be presented as follows: OK-σ >> IDENT-IO (µ) >> MAX-SON >> MAX-Licensed segment >> IDENT-F >> ALIGN-L/ ALIGN-R >> DEP-IO >> MAX-IO.

Lexical Factors in L2 English Vocabulary Learning of Korean 6th Graders

A multitude of factors are involved in the process and outcome of second language (L2) learners’ vocabulary learning. One relevant area of research concerns the identification of semantico-syntactic and morpho-phonological features related to a word’s learnability. The present study attempts to investigate how far such factors influence the ability of Korean elementary students to recognize and produce L2 English words. Participants from 12 classrooms in 3 different schools carried out a variant of Wesche and Paribakht’s (1996) Vocabulary Knowledge Scale, consisting of 39 words selected from the word list that they had learned in the previous year. Although the students had been taught in different learning contexts with varying materials, sequences, and input frequencies, they showed a largely shared pattern of acquisition. In order to assess the relationship between a word’s lexical properties and its learning difficulty, a set of formand meaning-related factors proposed in earlier works were taken into account. It was found that semantic factors such as meaning specificity and context-sensitive polysemy exerted a significant effect on learnability while phonological factors such as number of syllables, foreign phonemes, foreign consonant clusters, and incongruent sound-spelling pairings did not.

Langues bantoues de l’entre Congo-Ubangi (RD Congo): documentation, reconstruction, classification et contacts avec les langues oubanguiennes

This PhD thesis consists of the documentation, reconstruction and classification of ten Bantu langages (bolondó, bonyange, ebudzá, ebwela, libóbi, lingͻmbε, mondóngó, monyͻngͻ, mosángé, págaɓéte) spoken in the geographical area between the Congo and Ubangi Rivers in the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The study examines the interaction between these languages and seven neighboring Ubangian languages (gbánzírí, gͻbú, maɓó, mbānzā, monzͻmbͻ, ngbandi, ngbaka-mīnāgendē). By means of a lexicostatistical study which determines the degree of lexical similarity between the languages under study, a phylogenetic classification has been established which integrates these languages in the larger sample of 401 Bantu languages used by Grollemund et al. (2015). This quantitative approach has generated Neighbor-Net and Neighbor-Joining networks as well as Bayesian trees, which indicate the internal sub-groups of the Bantu family in general, and more specifically of the Bantu languages of the central Congo basin to which the Bantu languages spoken between the Congo and Ubangi Rivers belong. Subsequently, we have undertaken a descriptive and comparative study of the those languages as well as a study of regular sound correspondances with regard to Proto-Bantu. They possess certain foreign phonemes that have not been reconstructed to Proto-Bantu, such as implosives and labiovelar stops, which have the status of distinct phonemes. The study of these specific sounds suggests that they were borrowed from the neighboring Ubangian languages. The lexical comparison also revealed an interaction between Bantu and Ubangian languages. Certain lexical borrowings were transferred from Bantu to Ubangian, while others moved in the opposite direction. Through the comparative method, we have obtained a phonological reconstruction of the hypothetical ancestor language of these langues. This Proto-Congo-Ubangi Bantu split into two sub-branches, i.e. Proto-Congo Bantu and Proto-Ubangi Bantu.

Langues bantoues de l’entre Congo- Ubangi (RD Congo): documentation, reconstruction, classification et contacts avec les langues oubanguiennes

This PhD thesis consists of the documentation, reconstruction and classfication of ten Bantu languages (bolondo , bonyange, ebudzà , ebwela, lib bi, ling mb , mond ng , mony ng , mos ngé, pagabéte) spoken in the geographical area between the Congo and Ubangi Rivers in the north- western part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The study examines the interaction between these languages and seven neighboring Ubangian languages (gb nz r , g b , ma , mb nz , monz mb , ngbandi, ngbaka-m n gend ). By means of a lexicostatistical study which determines the degree of lexical similarity between the languages under study, a phylogenetic classi cation has been established which integrates these languages in the larger sample of 401 Bantu languages used by Grollemund et al. (2015). This quantitative approach has generated Neighbor-Net and Neighbor-Joining networks as well as Bayesian trees, which indicate the in- ternal sub-groups of the Bantu family in general, and more speci cally of the Bantu languages of the central Congo basin to which the Bantu languages spoken between the Congo and Ubangi Rivers belong. Subsequently, we have undertaken a descriptive and comparative study of the those languages as well as a study of regular sound correspondances with regard to Proto-Bantu. They possess certain foreign phonemes that have not been reconstructed to Proto-Bantu, such as im- plosives and labiovelar stops, which have the status of distinct phonemes. The study of these spe- ci c sounds suggests that they were borrowed from the neighboring Ubangian languages. The lexical comparison also revealed an interaction between Bantu and Ubangian languages. Certain lexical borrowings were transferred from Bantu to Ubangian, while others moved in the opposite direction. Through the comparative method, we have obtained a phonological reconstruction of the hypothetical ancestor language of these langues. This Proto-Congo-Ubangi Bantu split into two sub-branches, i.e. Proto-Congo Bantu and Proto-Ubangi Bantu.

Similarities and differences in brain activation and functional connectivity in first and second language reading: Evidence from Chinese learners of English

It has been evidenced that both similarities and differences exist in the brain network involved in second language reading in comparison to the first language reading. However, very few studies have been done to compare functional connectivity in L1 and L2 reading. Brain activation and functional connectivity during English pseudoword rhyming judgment in a group of late Chinese–English bilinguals (the CE group) were compared to a Chinese word rhyming judgment task in another group of late Chinese–English bilinguals (the CC group). Brain activation analyses revealed that the two groups engaged a similar network and that the only significant group difference was greater involvement of the right middle occipital gyrus in the CC group than in the CE group, due to greater holistic visuospatial processing of Chinese characters. English pseudowords can be read using the same network as Chinese characters, whereas psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses revealed different connectivity within the reading network between the two groups. Greater functional connectivity was found between three visuo-orthographic seed regions and the right precentral gyrus in the CC group, suggesting that the sensorimotor patterns of Chinese syllables are activated during Chinese word rhyming judgment. In contrast, we found greater connectivity between the three seed regions and the left postcentral gyrus in the CE group. In addition, the connectivity between one of the three seed regions (i.e. the right middle occipital gyrus) and the left postcentral gyrus was positively correlated with English proficiency in the CE group. This suggests that somatosensory feedback plays a key role in processing the foreign phonemes of English pseudowords and those highly proficient bilinguals tend to rely on this information to a greater degree. We also found that within the CE group, the connectivity between the right middle occipital gyrus and the left inferior parietal lobule was positively correlated with accuracy, and that the connectivity between the right middle occipital gyrus and the left superior temporal gyrus was negatively correlated with reaction time. These results suggest that even if a Chinese network is used in reading English pseudowords, the classic grapheme–phoneme-correspondence regions that are important for native English reading are involved in highly performing bilinguals by connecting them with the visuo-orthographic region.

Deviant Realization of Foreign Vowels in the Speech-Form of Yoruba-English Nigerian Bilinguals

This paper discusses deviant realization of borrowed phonemes from English into Yoruba. It is not gainsaying that when a foreign phoneme enters into the syllable structure of English it changes its tongue position both horizontally and vertically. The reason for this change is not far-fetched. Since the majority of the foreign phonemes are absent in native languages, they tend to be substituted with the closest phonemes in the recipient language. This paper has been able to account for the various substitutions of foreign vowels that occur in the speech-form of Nigerians who code-mix English with Yoruba in their daily conversations. This has been done through the analysis of corpus of data collected from the existing foreign words as spoken by Yoruba-English bilinguals. The result of analysis shows that two or more foreign phonemes become one native phoneme that is entirely different from the input when processed in the recipient language.

Swoistość zapożyczeń z języków blisko spokrewnionych (na przykładzie zapożyczeń czeskich i wschodniosłowiańskich w języku polskim)

The author discusses the status of loanwords in cognate languages on the basis of Czech and Russian loanwords in Polish e.g. Polish zakąska ‘snack, starter’ from Russian zakuska ‘hors d’oeuvre’. Such borrowings are usually considered to be lexical (formal-semantic) loanwords, where foreign phonemes have been regularly replaced with the etymologically corresponding phonemes. The author provides evidence that in fact we deal here with the phenomenon of structural calques.

Discrimination of native and non-native vowel contrasts in bilingual Turkish–German and monolingual German children: Insight from the Mismatch Negativity ERP component

The development of native-like memory traces for foreign phonemes can be measured by using the Mismatch Negativity (MMN), a component of the auditory event-related potential. Previous studies have shown that the MMN is sensitive to changes in neural organization depending on language experience. Here we measured the MMN response in 5–6 year-old monolingual German and bilingual Turkish–German kindergarten children growing up in Germany. MMN was investigated to a German vowel contrast and to a vowel contrast that exists in Turkish and in German. The results show that compared to a German control group, the MMN response is less robust in Turkish–German children to the German vowel contrast. The response to the contrast that exists in both languages does not differ between groups. Overall, the results suggest that the Turkish–German children have not yet fully acquired the German phonetic inventory despite living in Germany since birth and being immersed in a German-speaking environment.

Discrimination of native and non-native vowel contrasts in Turkish-German and German children: Insight from Mismatch Negativity

Event Abstract Back to Event Discrimination of native and non-native vowel contrasts in Turkish-German and German children: Insight from Mismatch Negativity Tanja Rinker1, 2, 3*, P. Alku4, S. Brosch3 and M. Kiefer2 1 Transfercenter for Neuroscience and Learning, University of Ulm, Germany 2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulm, Germany 3 Section of Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology, Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic, Germany 4 Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland The development of native-like memory traces for foreign phonemes can be measured by using the Mismatch Negativity (MMN), a component of the auditory event-related potential. Previous studies have shown that the MMN is sensitive to changes in neural organization depending on language experience. Here we measured the MMN-response in five to six year-old monolingual German children and in bilingual Turkish-German children growing up in Germany. Using MMN the discrimination of a German and a Turkish vowel contrast was investigated. The results show that compared to a German control group, the MMN-response to the German vowel contrast is less prominent in the Turkish-German children. The response to the Turkish-Turkish contrast is more prominent in the Turkish-German children in a later time window, but delayed with regard to its onset. Overall, the results suggest that the Turkish-German children have not yet fully acquired the German phonetic inventory despite living in Germany since birth and being immersed in a German-speaking environment. Furthermore, their native Turkish vowel discrimination is also delayed which may presumably reflect the cost of second language acquisition. Conference: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Presentations Citation: Rinker T, Alku P, Brosch S and Kiefer M (2009). Discrimination of native and non-native vowel contrasts in Turkish-German and German children: Insight from Mismatch Negativity. Conference Abstract: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.099 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Mar 2009; Published Online: 26 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Tanja Rinker, Transfercenter for Neuroscience and Learning, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany, tanja.rinker@uni-ulm.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Tanja Rinker P. Alku S. Brosch M. Kiefer Google Tanja Rinker P. Alku S. Brosch M. Kiefer Google Scholar Tanja Rinker P. Alku S. Brosch M. Kiefer PubMed Tanja Rinker P. Alku S. Brosch M. Kiefer Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

The scope of linguistic generalizations: evidence from Hebrew word formation

Does the productive use of language stem from the manipulation of mental variables (e.g. “noun”, “any consonant”)? If linguistic constraints appeal to variables, rather than instances (e.g. “ dog”, “ m”), then they should generalize to any representable novel instance, including instances that fall beyond the phonological space of a language. We test this prediction by investigating a constraint on the structure of Hebrew roots. Hebrew frequently exhibits geminates (e.g. ss) in its roots, but it strictly constraints their location: geminates are frequent at the end of the root (e.g. mss), but rare at its beginning (e.g. ssm). Symbolic accounts capture the ban on root-initial geminates as *XXY, where X and Y are variables that stand for any two distinct consonants. If the constraint on root structure appeals to the identity of abstract variables, then speakers should be able to extend it to root geminates with foreign phonemes, including phonemes with foreign feature values. We present findings from three experiments supporting this prediction. These results suggest that a complete account of linguistic processing must incorporate mechanisms for generalization outside the representational space of trained items. Mentally-represented variables would allow speakers to make such generalizations.

Acquisition of non‐native vowel categories.

Is the acquisition of foreign phoneme identification determined by native abstract categories [Best, Development of Speech Perception, pp. 167–224 (1994)] or by particular tokens [Pisoni et al., Development of Speech Perception, pp. 121–166 (1994)]? If Best is correct, members of all instances of the same phonological contrast should be equally easy to identify. If Pisoni et al. are correct, then listeners should not generalize to new speakers or contexts. The acquisition by American English listeners of the potentially four front rounded German vowels /y:,y,oe:,oe/ was examined. Speaker and consonantal context were manipulated. Listeners improved with training. Our listeners, in contrast to those of Pisoni et al. (1994), generalized to new speakers and contexts. Contrary to Best’s 1994 prediction that identification of the same contrast would be equally easy, it was found in this study that listeners who heard one set of speakers identified the mid tense:lax /oe:,oe/ pair more accurately than the high /y:,y/ pair, and identified the lax high:mid /y,oe/ pair more accurately than the tense /y:,oe:/ pair. Listeners who heard a second set of speakers reversed these inequalities. Thus assimilation makes generalization to novel stimuli possible but does not preclude sensitivity to phonetic differences. [Work supported by NIH Grant No. 5‐R29‐DC01708 and NSF Grant No. DBD92‐12043.]

Factors influencing the initial stages of foreign language phoneme acquisition

Abstract The paper presents an analysis of the initial stages of foreign language phoneme acquisition and a report from two years of empirical research designed to verify the validity of some of its findings. The most interesting results seem to have been obtained so far in the study of those linguistic and non-linguistic factors which are related to the learner’s age: they indicate that interference from native phonemes the learners have stored in their memory may not necessarily be the only, or the most important, factor responsible for older learners’ problems with learning foreign phonemes during the initial stages.