Low Vowels Research Articles

“Initial-a-final”, Luwian low vowels, and language contact in the Syro-Anatolian world

Abstract The Anatolian hieroglyphic inventory features two phonetic signs conventionally translated as “a”: 〈a〉 = L. 450 and 〈a〉 = L. 19. Their distribution has eluded explanation due to the complicated conventions governing the use of the 〈a〉 sign, which can be placed at the end of a word (“initial-a-final”), replaced with 〈a〉 (“a-substitution”), or deleted (“a-deletion”). Some words also regularly change between 〈a〉 and 〈a〉 within their paradigm. Based on a more refined understanding of these conventions, which vary by period and location, and comparison with data from the closely related Lycian language and Luwian names in Greek transmission, it will be suggested that 〈a〉 and 〈a〉 corresponded to the low vowels /a/ and /ɑ/ respectively. It will be argued that distinction between the two vowels in Luwian ultimately arose from the Proto-Anatolian contrast between the short and long non-high vowels, but also in some instances from the Luwic umlaut (mostly anticipatory backing of /a/ to /ɑ/). New evidence is also put forth that the vowel system of some dialects of Late Luwian underwent a change due to contact with Semitic languages. This resulted in an orthographic reform beginning in the late 9th century BC, which has practical implications for the dating of certain inscriptions.

Is the Foot a Prosodic Domain in European Portuguese?

It is widely accepted that languages organize speech material into prosodic domains, which are hierarchically arranged. However, it is still a matter of debate whether this prosodic hierarchy is composed of a small number of universal categories, or whether these prosodic categories are language-particular and emergent. In this article, we concentrate on one of these categories, the foot, and we investigate its role in European Portuguese (EP). Whereas research on EP has shown that other prosodic domains commonly found crosslinguistically are active in the language, it seems that EP may lack this prosodic constituent. Therefore, the goal of this article is to systematically investigate the role of the foot in a number of areas within EP grammar. In our study, we defend some new approaches to several long-standing issues in EP phonology and we conclude that many facts of the language can be, in fact, better understood resorting to the foot domain. Namely, the distribution of stress in the most frequent morphological classes (thematic non-verbs and present tense verbs), -inh-/-zinh- diminutive formation, the domain for regular vowel reduction, obligatory glide formation, the stress window, and poetic rhyme seem to benefit from a metrically-governed account. By contrast, other facts, such as vowel lowering, word clipping, minimal words, secondary stress, and schwa deletion are shown not to be conditioned by the foot in EP. Importantly, the evidence we found for metrical structure only cues the prominent foot of the word, suggesting that pretonic material may not be footed. All in all, in addition to shedding light on facts previously poorly understood, and exposing some noteworthy specificities of EP in the realm of Romance languages and other varieties of Portuguese, we draw implications for the universal characterization of the prosodic hierarchy and its acquisition.

Exploring vowel errors produced in nonword repetition in children with speech and language disorders.

Accurate nonword repetition (NWR) is contingent on many underlying skills, including encoding, memory and motor planning and programming. Though vowel errors are frequently associated with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), several recent studies have found that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) produce high rates of vowel errors in NWR tasks. This retrospective analysis explored whether the overall frequency and types of vowel errors produced in NWR distinguish children with DLD, children with CAS, children with speech sound disorder (SSD) and children with typical development (TD). We present data for 24 children (six per DLD, CAS, SSD and TD groups), ranging in age from 50-92 months. Children with DLD, CAS and SSD showed similar articulation scores and children with DLD and children with CAS showed similar expressive language scores. Total vowel errors, total monophthong errors, monophthong substitutions, diphthongization errors, total diphthong errors, diphthong substitutions and diphthong reduction errors were calculated by syllable length and group. Repeated measures analyses of variance were used to examine group differences. Children with DLD and children with CAS produced a higher frequency of total vowel errors compared to children with TD. Children with DLD produced more total monophthong errors than children with TD. Children with DLD and children with CAS produced more total diphthong errors than children with TD. For children with DLD, these were characterised by diphthong substitutions. For children with CAS, these were characterised by diphthong substitutions and diphthong reduction errors. For all measures, error rates in children with SSD did not significantly differ from any of the other three groups. Preliminary evidence indicates that children with DLD and children with CAS both show high rates of vowel errors in NWR tasks and weaknesses in encoding and memory. For children with CAS, additional motor planning difficulties are associated with an increased likelihood to reduce diphthongs. Children with SSD show more mild processing difficulties than children with DLD and children with CAS, though they do not perform as well as TD peers. Future work should replicate and further specify the processing weaknesses that affect vowel accuracy in NWR tasks in a larger sample. What is already known on the subject Nonword repetition (NWR) tasks are often included in diagnostic batteries to identify children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Poor performance on these tasks have historically been attributed to phonological working memory deficits in children with DLD. However, repeating nonwords relies on a number of underlying processing skills and many of these skills are affected to varying degrees in children with speech and language disorders. An in-depth analysis of vowel errors has the potential to reveal the shared as well as specific underlying processing weaknesses in children with DLD, children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and children with speech sound disorder (SSD). What this paper adds to existing knowledge We found that children with DLD and children with CAS show low vowel competence compared to children with typical development. A nuanced examination of vowel error types further revealed that children with DLD and children with CAS show weaknesses in encoding and memory. Motor planning and programming weaknesses were unique to CAS. Children with SSD show more mild processing deficits and their performance did not significantly differ from any of the other three groups. What are the clinical implications of this work? Examining the types of vowel errors produced by children with DLD, children with CAS and children with SSD in NWR allows us to further specify the underlying processing weaknesses that differentiate these three groups. This research informs theoretical accounts of language processing in children with different types of speech and language disorders and has the potential to improve the diagnostic utility of NWR tasks.

Characteristics of Nasal Coarticulation by Nasality Visualization System in Children with Speech Sound Disorders

Objectives: In this study, we analyzed the nasal coarticulation characteristics of children with and without speech sound disorders by comparing nasalance scores according to speech contexts. Methods: The subjects of this study were 30 children, 15 children with speech sound disorder (SSD) and 15 typically developing (TD) children, aged 4 to 6 years old. Subjects were asked to speak stimuli in different speech contexts-low vs. high vowels, nasal consonant+vowel (NV) vs. vowel+nasal consonant (VN) syllables, words vs. nonwords - and nasalance scores were measured using the Nasality Visualization System (NVS) on their speech samples. Results: First, both groups showed significantly higher naslance scores for high vowels compared to low vowels, with a significant between-group difference in high vowel. Second, both groups showed significantly higher nasalance scores for VN syllables than for NV syllables, with no between-group difference. Third, both groups showed significantly lower nasalance scores in nonwords compared to words. While there was no group difference in the words, the nasalance scores of the SSD group was lower in the nonwords, which was significantly different from that of the TD groups. Conclusion: These results suggest that the SSD group exhibits somewhat different nasal characteristics than the TD group, and furthermore, that SSD children articulate phoneme sequences more segmentally in unlearned nonword contexts.

Perceptual compensation for vowel intrinsic f0 effects in native English speakers.

High vowels have higher f0 than low vowels, creating a context effect on the interpretation of f0. Since onset F0 is a cue to stop voicing, the vowel context is expected to influence voicing judgements. Listeners categorized syllables starting with high ("bee"-"pea") and low ("bye"-"pie") vowels varying orthogonally in VOT and onset F0. Listeners made use of both cues as expected. Furthermore, vowel height affected listeners' categorization. Syllables with the low vowel /a/ elicited more voiceless responses compared to syllables with the high vowel /i/. This suggests that listeners compensate for vowel intrinsic effects when making other phonemic judgements.

Decoding Phonetic Meaning in a Semantically Meaningful Lexicon: Sound Symbolism in Steam Game Titles

It is widely believed that the marriage between a word’s sound and meaning is not an arranged one. A major exception to this, however, is sound symbolism. Inspired by previous research on the extensive use of sound symbolic associations in naming practices, this study directed attention towards the titles of popular games on Steam, which, unlike brand names, are mostly composed of semantically meaningful lexical items. The results showed that Action/Adventure/RPG game titles contained more voiced obstruents and fewer low vowels than Strategy/Simulation game titles. Additional research could delve into the interplay between semantic and phonetic meanings conveyed by names and titles.

All about ablaut: a typology of ablaut reduplicative structures

Abstract In this typological study, we identify 31 languages that have reduplication with a changed vowel, as in English tick-tock, referred to as ablaut reduplication. Cross-linguistically, this type of reduplication typically manifests as total reduplication with a changed vowel whose quality may or may not be fixed, and when it is not fixed the vowel differs maximally from the corresponding vowel in the base. The order of the copy relative to the base can be fixed or variable, and when it is variable the order enforces a language-specific vowel contour across the two components, such as a low vowel in the first constituent and a high vowel in the second, regardless of which constituent is the base. Furthermore, all cases of ablaut have strikingly similar semantics (playfulness, onomatopoeia, movement, etc.). We review previous treatments of the topic and outline the necessary components of a unified analysis that accommodates the typological patterns.

Phonological Variations of Ternate Malay Language

The people of North Maluku Province speak Ternate Malay, or North Maluku Malay language, as a medium for interethnic communication. This language is a dialect which is an archipelagic variant of the Malay language. Ternate Malay language underwent several phonological, grammatical, and lexical changes as it developed. The purpose of this Phonological Variations of Ternate Malay language study is to characterize the differences in phonological features between Ternate Malay and Standard Malay language (Indonesian). Both synchronic and diachronic research are conducted. The research findings synchronously demonstrate that MSt and MT have distinct linguistic properties. There is no long vowel in MSt, yet there is no [ʙ] sound in MT. Other than that, there are vowel variations and sounds that match both vowels and consonants. Diachronic studies reveal that substitution is a type of cooperative innovation. Assimilation, syncope, apocope, metathesis, prosthesis, lowering of high vowels, and monophthongization are examples of irregular innovations in MSt and MT. Given that MSt continues to use archaic forms, it may be concluded that whereas MT is an innovative dialect, MSt is a conservative dialect based on the retention and innovation forms shown above.

A Feature Alignment Approach to Plural Realization in Eastern Andalusian Spanish

Using an optimality theoretic analysis, this study offers a conception of the problem of plural realization in Eastern Andalusian Spanish (EAS) where plural suffix /s/ was deleted diachronically that differs from other accounts that assign the EAS plural an underlying suffixal /s/ synchronically. Using alignment constraints, we argue that plural /s/ does not appear in the underlying form synchronically in EAS, but that instead the plural morpheme is represented by a floating [–ATR]PL feature that aligns to the right edge of the word and spreads left. The [–ATR] feature, represented phonetically as a laxing or opening of vowels, applies to all mid vowels, low vowels in word final position, and combines with vowel epenthesis to explain Eastern Andalusian pluralization tendencies in words with final consonants. We discuss the behavior of high vowels, which can be transparent to harmony, and focus in particular on the plural of words that end in a final stressed vowel that have been rarely discussed in the EAS literature. We develop an optimality-theoretic analysis on the Granada variety and extend that analysis to other varieties with somewhat different patterns.

Modeling the consequences of an L1 grammar for L2 production: simulations, variation, and predictions

IntroductionThis paper presents a constraint-based grammar of Mandarin low vowel + nasal coda (loVN) sequences first as acquired by L1 learners, and then as transferred to L2 English.MethodsWe simulate phonological learning in Harmonic Grammar using a gradual, error-driven GLA learner, drawing on evidence from L1 Mandarin speakers' perceptual data to support our initial state assumptions. We then compare our simulation results with L2 English production (both anecdotal and ultrasound data), as well as evidence from Mandarin loanword phonology.ResultsOur results align with multiple patterns in the previous empirical literature, including an asymmetry among surface repairs for VN sequences, and we show how these emerge from our assumptions about both the L1 Mandarin grammar and the grammar's evaluation method (i.e., weighted constraints).DiscussionWe discuss the extent to which these results derive from our somewhat novel analysis of place contrasts in L1 Mandarin, and the variability in loVN outputs that we encode directly into the L1 grammar, which are then transferred to the L2 context. Ultimately we discuss how this type of modeling can make falsifiable predictions about phonological development, in both L1 and L2 contexts.

How word stress is realized in Thai: evidence from the ordering of coordinate compounds

Abstract This study challenges the widespread belief that Thai lacks word stress, demonstrating its pivotal role in morphophonology. Through a Maximum Entropy analysis, we investigated how specific segmental properties statistically influence speakers’ choices of word order in coordinate compounds. Results indicate a significant effect of phonological weight on the ordering patterns. Specifically, the dispreference for stop codas in final positions and the preference for long or low vowels word-finally converge to differentially distribute phonological weight, ensuring that final syllables are heavier in accordance with the Stress-to-Weight Principle. Additionally, a marginal affinity is observed between the final syllable and the (historical) high-register tone, aligning with the well-documented tone-stress interaction where high tones gravitate towards stressed syllables. These findings provide compelling evidence for the existence of word stress in Thai: compound stress necessarily coincides with word stress, as dictated by the Continuous Column Constraint. Thus, this work suggests that relying solely on phonetic cues is insufficient for identifying stress; instead, a comprehensive analysis incorporating “phonological exponents” is essential to capture the greater phonological contrasts licensed in stressed syllables. This study also contributes to a deeper understanding of metrical and prosodic prominence, revealing that word stress can sometimes be masked by higher-level prominence.

Sound symbolism in manual and vocal responses: phoneme-response interactions associated with grasping as well as vertical and size dimensions of keypresses

It has been shown that reading the vowel [i] and consonant [t] facilitates precision grip responses, while [ɑ] and [k] are associated with faster power grip responses. A similar effect has been observed when participants perform responses with small or large response keys. The present study investigated whether the vowels and consonants could produce different effects with the grip responses and keypresses when the speech units are read aloud (Experiment 1) or silently (Experiment 2). As a second objective, the study investigated whether the recently observed effect, in which the upper position of a visual stimulus is associated with faster vocalizations of the high vowel and the lower position is associated with the low vowel, can be observed in manual responses linking, for example, the [i] with responses of the upper key and [ɑ] with lower responses. Firstly, the study showed that when the consonants are overtly articulated, the interaction effect can be observed only with the grip responses, while the vowel production was shown to systematically influence small/large keypresses, as well as precision/power grip responses. Secondly, the vowel [i] and consonant [t] were associated with the upper responses, while [ɑ] and [k] were associated with the lower responses, particularly in the overt articulation task. The paper delves into the potential sound-symbolic implications of these phonetic elements, suggesting that their acoustic and articulatory characteristics might implicitly align them with specific response magnitudes, vertical positions, and grip types.

Protective face masks affect clearly produced diphthongs by L1 and L2 English talkers

The study investigated how the use of protective face masks and language experience shape the production of listener-oriented clear speech. One L1 and one L2 English talker read sentences in a clear and conversational speaking style with and without a surgical mask. Formant trajectories between the onset and offset of two diphthongs, /aɪ/ and /eɪ/, were analyzed using Euclidean distance in the F1–F2 vowel space. The results showed that the distance between the onset /a/ and the offset /ɪ/ was larger when speech was produced without the mask and when speaking clearly. These modifications were larger for L1 talker compared to the L2 talker. The Euclidian distance for /eɪ/was only affected by speaking style. The results suggest that talkers produced hyperarticulated diphthongs characterized by larger formant movements in clear speech. The presence of a mask limited jaw movement for the diphthong containing the low vowel. Additionally, the L1 talker made larger articulatory modifications in response to the presence of a mask and listener-oriented clear speech compared to the talker with less extensive experience with the target language. These production patterns may be related to lower word recognition in noise for masked, conversational, and L2 speech found in previous work.

Place-name lexicalization in Akan: on the segmental and prosodic processes and constraint

A significant condition for place-name formation in Akan is the preservation of marked, lexically-significant, segmental and prosodic items over their unmarked counterparts. Much of the alteration processes are at the stem-stem boundary where these two inputs are joined into a single word. It is observed that, in principle, there is a four-syllable requirement on partative-based place-names. Also,*[+high][-high]and*[-high][-high]are impermissible vowel-sequences that output forms must avoid. These requirements underlie observed segmental and prosodic processes in place-name lexicalization. Lexicalization involves processes such as deletion, compensatory vowel lengthening, vowel and consonant assimilation and glide/onset formation. These processes apply and interact significantly in ways that sustain marked sonorous segment over their unmarked counterparts, and unpredictable units over predictable units. A constraint-based account of the phenomenon reveals this interaction of constraints in partative-based place-name lexicalization in Akan:*[-hi][-hi], [+low/+RT/+LEX], *x<3ơ >> (*[+hi][-hi]),[1][+low/-RT/-LEX], [+high/+RT/+LEX] >> [-hi/-lo/+RT/+LEX] >> [-hi/-lo/-RT/-LEX].The ranking argument shows, in a vowel-sequence, the preference for: (i) a low root-vowel over a low affix-vowel; (ii) a low (root or affix) vowel over a non-low (root or affix) vowel) such that a mid-vowel deletes (either as V1 or V2). A high vowel as V1 instigates a glide-onset to insulates itself from deletion with the low vowel (i.e., [-Hi]) being the immediately succeeding sound.

Thinking outside the guttural box: fresh perspectives on vowel lowering in Qeltu

This study revisits the process of vowel lowering in the Arabic dialect known as Qeltu, which is spoken in parts of northern Iraq and neighboring Syria and Turkey. It aims to uncover hitherto unreported patterns of vowel lowering and re-examines a frequently held axiom that attributes a categorical impact of specific linguistic units on the behavior of this phonological process (e.g. Al-Ani, 1970; Thelwall, 1990; Rose, 1996). The analysis of spoken data from 30 speakers considers various linguistic and social constraints that may or may not influence the process of vowel lowering. The data was collected through sociolinguistic interviews (Tagliamonte, 2006). It is generally acknowledged that the main allophones of Iraqi Arabic [i], [iː], [uː] (Al-Khalesi, 2006) are respectively realized as [a], [ɛː], and [ɔː] in Qeltu (Jastrow, 1994 & 2006). This is especially noticeable when these vowels are adjacent to guttural sounds, as exemplified in the words: /miʃhuːr/ famous, /sˤtˤuːħ/ roof and /daqiːq/ flour, which are pronounced as [maʃhɔːr], [sˤtˤɔ:ħ] and [daqɛ:q], respectively (Jastrow, 1994; Muhammad, 2018). Results indicate that the relationship between guttural sounds and the lowering of vowels in Qeltu cannot be solely predicted by their proximity to each other, and that additional social factors are involved in determining this phenomenon.

L2 Proficiency Level Influences Loanword Adaptation: Variable Adaptation of English Co-occurrence of Low Vowel and Nasal Into Mandarin

As the most commonly established and attested language contact phenomenon, loanwords, also known as lexical borrowings, may undergo transformations when borrowed from the source language (SL) to the borrowing language (BL). Previous studies have separately illustrated the role of perception and phonology in the borrowing process. However, the speech perception or phonology contributes more to the adaptation pattern in some cases than others. Few studies attempt to explain this phenomenon. To fill in the gap, the present study hypothesizes that differences in borrowers’ L2 proficiency level of the SL are the potential source. To examine this hypothesis, an online adaptation experiment was designed and conducted. The experiment examines how Mandarin Chinese native speakers adapt the English non-words ended in the combination of low vowel and nasal coda. The results suggest that BL monolinguals and less proficient L2 learners of the SL tend to use a phonetic mapping strategy guided by the backness of vowels, while advanced learners of the SL are more likely to adopt a phonological mapping strategy based on coda nasal place. This paper concludes by proposing that borrowers’ L2 proficiency level has an effect on the certain randomized variations in the process of loanword adaptation.

Vowel production: a potential speech biomarker for early detection of dysarthria in Parkinson's disease.

Our aim is to detect early, subclinical speech biomarkers of dysarthria in Parkinson's disease (PD), i.e., systematic atypicalities in speech that remain subtle, are not easily detectible by the clinician, so that the patient is labeled "non-dysarthric." Based on promising exploratory work, we examine here whether vowel articulation, as assessed by three acoustic metrics, can be used as early indicator of speech difficulties associated with Parkinson's disease. This is a prospective case-control study. Sixty-three individuals with PD and 35 without PD (healthy controls-HC) participated in this study. Out of 63 PD patients, 43 had been diagnosed with dysarthria (DPD) and 20 had not (NDPD). Sustained vowels were recorded for each speaker and formant frequencies were measured. The analyses focus on three acoustic metrics: individual vowel triangle areas (tVSA), vowel articulation index (VAI) and the Phi index. tVSA were found to be significantly smaller for DPD speakers than for HC. The VAI showed significant differences between these two groups, indicating greater centralization and lower vowel contrasts in the DPD speakers with dysarhtria. In addition, DPD and NDPD speakers had lower Phi values, indicating a lower organization of their vowel system compared to the HC. Results also showed that the VAI index was the most efficient to distinguish between DPD and NDPD whereas the Phi index was the best acoustic metric to discriminate NDPD and HC. This acoustic study identified potential subclinical vowel-related speech biomarkers of dysarthria in speakers with Parkinson's disease who have not been diagnosed with dysarthria.

Sound-symbolic association between speech sound and spatial meaning in relation to the concepts of up/down and above/below

AbstractResearch has shown sound-symbolic associations between speech sounds and conceptual and/or perceptual properties of a referent. This study used the choice response time method to investigate hypothesized associations between a high/low vowel and spatial concepts of up/down and above/below. The participants were presented with a stimulus that moved either upward or downward (Experiments 1 and 2), or that was located above or below the reference stimulus (Experiment 3), and they had to pronounce a vowel ([i] or [æ]) based on the spatial location of the stimulus. The study showed that the high vowel [i] was produced faster in relation to the up-directed and the above-positioned stimulus, while the low vowel [æ] was produced faster in relation to the down-directed and the below-positioned stimulus. In addition, the study replicated the pitch-elevation effect showing a raising of the vocalization pitch when vocalizations were produced to the up-directed stimulus. The article discusses these effects in terms of the involvement of sensorimotor processes in representing spatial concepts.

Instrumental Analysis of English Vowels Produced by Male and Female Zilfaawi Arabic Speakers

Arab and non-Arab English as a foreign language (EFL) students continue to have difficulty pronouncing English vowels accurately. To examine this, our study analyzes how male and female Saudi EFL students pronounce English monophthongs when compared to native speakers assessed in previous research. Gender-related variations between male and female Arab English speakers are also explored. Formant frequencies (F1 and F2) are employed to evaluate vowel quality, with vowel duration measured to investigate vowel length. Learners’ pronunciations of English words containing vowels of interest are used to collect data. Five male and five female EFL learners produced English monophthongs in the /hVd/ context. We then compare the results with previous data on native English speakers and conduct acoustic analysis. Regarding duration, male non-native English speakers’ data are compared with previous results for male native speakers, revealing that the vowels of Saudi learners are shorter than those of native English speakers, and those of non-native men are longer than those of non-native women. Moreover, the low vowels produced by Saudi and native men are longer than their non-low vowels. Regarding vowel quality, men produce lower vowels than native speakers. Women, however, produce lower and more front vowels than native women. Statistically, this study reveals significant differences between male and female Saudi EFL learners in producing English vowels. Saudi men’s vowel space is more centralized than Saudi women’s space. Both men and women overlap low vowels. Saudi learners’ mispronunciations of English vowels indicate that L1 interference is not the only cause of mispronunciations.

A Contrastive Study of The Effect of Initial /s/ on the Voice Onset Time (VOT) of Following Stops in English, Kurdish and Kurdish EFL Learners

When an initial /s/ precedes a voiceless stop in English, the aspiration is lost, and the voice onset time (VOT) is significantly shortened. This causes an allophonic variation of English stops based on context. This paper intends to comparatively investigate this phenomenon in English, Kurdish and Kurdish EFL learners from two proficiency levels. (40) participants which are divided among four groups (Kurdish, English, learners G1 and learners G2) are asked to read lists of words including voiceless stops preceded by /s/, constructed in English and Kurdish. Each stop in the list has two examples followed by a high and a low vowel. All the participants are asked to repeat each word three times to provide three tokens. These productions are recorded and VOT values are acoustically measured. Results are then statistically analyzed to check the significance of variable interactions. Results have shown that Kurdish voiceless stops preceded by /s/ are more aspirated than those of English in similar contexts and thus produced with longer VOT values. This indicates that Kurdish learners need to modify their voiceless stop production when speaking English. Results also show that advanced Kurdish learners have improved at pronouncing the aspirated English stop variety, but they still produce it with a noticeably extended VOT.