Native Dialect Research Articles

Does CEO-auditor dialect sharing affect stock price crash risk? Evidence from China

Using unique data on signing auditors’ and CEOs’ native dialects in China from 2007 to 2020, this study investigates the effect of dialect sharing between CEOs and auditors (CADS) on firm-specific stock price crash risk. We find that CADS is significantly and positively associated with crash risk, implying that social ties can have direct economic consequences for investors. Influence channel tests suggest that CADS impairs information quality and reduces risk disclosure in management analysis and discussion and extended audit reports, which increases crash risk. Cross-sectional tests show that the effect of CADS on crash risk is more prominent for firms located in weak legal environments and with low transparency. Additionally, we find that the positive association is more prominent when firms are audited by non-Big 4, more important for auditors, and whose auditors work outside their hometowns. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the role of social ties in the capital market and enriches the literature on the factors influencing stock price crash risk.

Language Death in Akoko-Edo: A Study of Some Students’ Attitude to Native Dialects in Akoko-Edo, Edo-State

Language is God’s special gift to mankind. Without language, human civilization, as we now know it, would have remained impossible. It is a carrier of civilization and culture, as human thoughts and philosophy are conveyed from one generation to the other through the medium of language. However, just like living things, languages die. Language death occurs when there are no more speakers of a particular language. In Edo-State, Akoko-Edo Local Government Area (LGA) to be precise, some indigenous dialects are about to go into extinction. Therefore, this paper examines the attitude of students to some native dialects in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo-State. The study used questionnaires to gather data on students’ perspective on why they think some native dialects in this particular part of the state are going into extinction. The results revealed that a considerable number of students’ attitude to their native dialects were not positive. The study revealed that various social phenomena have greatly affected some native dialects in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area. In the light of the results, the study recommends that necessary measures and awareness be created to sustain these threatened dialects. This is because young people constitute the future of the nation and if this trend is not checked, it will affect the coming generations.

Teaching Pronunciation to Young Learners in an ELF Context An Analysis of Pronunciation Activities in English Coursebooks for the Primary School

This paper deals with the teaching of English pronunciation in the primary classroom. It starts from two major premises. First, the Lingua Franca status of English (ELF), which has prompted a shift in pronunciation teaching from the attainment of a native accent to the achievement of mutual intelligibility. Second, the features of today’s primary classroom, which is de facto an ELF context, the school population being characterised by a growing number of multilingual pupils and of non-native teachers of English. Three English coursebooks for the primary school are analysed to investigate: 1) if and which pronunciation-focussed activities are suggested; 2) if and what support is provided to the primary teacher to make the most of the activities; 3) whether any of such activities/support show a trend towards an early inclusion of ELF-aware pronunciation pedagogy.

Exposure to nonnative-accented speech reduces listening effort and improves social judgments of the speaker

Prior research has revealed a native-accent advantage, whereby nonnative-accented speech is more difficult to process than native-accented speech. Nonnative-accented speakers also experience more negative social judgments. In the current study, we asked three questions. First, does exposure to nonnative-accented speech increase speech intelligibility or decrease listening effort, thereby narrowing the native-accent advantage? Second, does lower intelligibility or higher listening effort contribute to listeners’ negative social judgments of speakers? Third and finally, does increased intelligibility or decreased listening effort with exposure to speech bring about more positive social judgments of speakers? To address these questions, normal-hearing adults listened to a block of English sentences with a native accent and a block with nonnative accent. We found that once participants were accustomed to the task, intelligibility was greater for nonnative-accented speech and increased similarly with exposure for both accents. However, listening effort decreased only for nonnative-accented speech, soon reaching the level of native-accented speech. In addition, lower intelligibility and higher listening effort was associated with lower ratings of speaker warmth, speaker competence, and willingness to interact with the speaker. Finally, competence ratings increased over time to a similar extent for both accents, with this relationship fully mediated by intelligibility and listening effort. These results offer insight into how listeners process and judge unfamiliar speakers.

Neurophysiologic Patterns of Semantic Processing of Accented Speech

Perceiving and comprehending speech depends on the intelligibility of the speech signal. Frequently, communication occurs with adverse listening conditions including background noise or reverberation which compromise the intelligibility of the speech signal. Studies focused on the effects of these extrinsic degrading factors on the perception of a message after it has been produced. Fewer studies, however, explored the effect of a non-native accent on speech perception and comprehension ( Anderson-Hsieh et al., 1992 ; Munro & Derwing, 1995 ; van Wijngaarden et al., 2002 ). This study determines the effects of speech from a non-native speaker of English on semantic processing as it occurs in speech perception. Individuals made judgements about semantically congruent or incongruent sentences spoken by native or non-native accented speakers while we assessed processing of semantic information using behavioral and neurophysiological (ERP) responses. Two groups of 12 individuals between 20 and 30 years of age participated in this study. The results revealed a later N400 in response to a non-native accent. N400 effect results indicated that, compared to a native accent, listening to non-native accent increases semantic processing difficulty, even with relevant semantic context. • Non-native accented speech (NNS) has the same effect as noise on the listener. • Lower N400 amplitude shows semantic processing difficulty in non-native speech. • Addition of relevant semantic context does not significantly aid processing.

Examining the Imperative Clauses in Manggarai

Manggarai is one of the languages in West Flores studied by many researchers, either native or non-native speakers. Nevertheless, only a few describe the sound system in the imperative clauses of the Manggarai language. Imperative clauses are speech acts intended to influence the interlocutor to take specific actions and aim to give orders (commands), requests, requests, suggestions (advice), warnings, instructions, and hopes. Some researchers who briefly describe imperative clauses have failed to formulate case markers in imperative clauses. Thus, this study aims to formulate case markings in imperative clauses comprehensively. Researchers as native speakers of the Manggarai language in the Kempo dialect use familiar examples. The data used in this study are examples of imperative clauses that are often found and assessed based on the author's intuition as a native dialect speaker. This study also tested several formulas of imperative clause rules in previous research, which distinguished the use of gi and ga, and neka marker in negative imperative clauses. Some critical findings in this research are, firstly, the markers gi and ga are not an enclitic attached to the word they follow; secondly, the articles gi and ga are not specific markers for imperative clauses because they can also appear in other clause forms (e.g., declarative clauses); and third, the words neka and asi in the negative imperative clauses of the Manggarai language can be used interchangeably and do not change the meaning of the clause. Thus, this proves that there are no unique markers in the imperative clauses of the Manggarai language because the form varies relatively depending on the context with whom one is talking.

Singing on the Village Patron’s Feast and New Year’s Carols: the Case of the Village of Ugovizza (Italy)

Until recently, the inhabitants of the Val Canale (Sln. Kanalska dolina, Ger. Kanaltal, Fur. Val Cjanâl) spoke Slovenian, German, Italian, and Friulian, but today Italian predominates. The article presents the folk customs of the village patron’s feast and New Year’s caroling and greetings in the village of Ugovizza (Slo. Ukve, Ger. Uggowitz, Fur. Ugovitse), where the Slovenian dialect and multilingualism, intertwined thoroughly in the ritual events, have been preserved for the longest time. The collaborators of the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology and the Audiovisual Laboratory ZRC SAZU from Ljubljana participated in these events for several years and filmed customs, the stories of the locals, and scenes from the life in the village and the mountains. The author focuses on singing, songs, and linguistic communication, pointing out the great importance of multilingualism for preserving traditional culture and vice versa. Especially where the population does not receive education in the mother tongue, which is otherwise suppressed from public life, traditional culture offers people a rare opportunity to speak their mother tongue or the native dialect in public in a relaxed manner. It is because it expresses the meaning of the entire ritual.

Pause Length and Differences in Cognitive State Attribution in Native and Non-Native Speakers

Speech pauses between turns of conversations are crucial for assessing conversation partners’ cognitive states, such as their knowledge, confidence and willingness to grant requests; in general, speakers making longer pauses are regarded as less apt and willing. However, it is unclear if the interpretation of pause length is mediated by the accent of interactants, in particular native versus non-native accents. We hypothesized that native listeners are more tolerant towards long pauses made by non-native speakers than those made by native speakers. This is because, in non-native speakers, long pauses might be the result of prolonged cognitive processing when planning an answer in a non-native language rather than of a lack of knowledge, confidence or willingness. Our experiment, in which 100 native Polish-speaking raters rated native and non-native speakers of Polish on their knowledge, confidence and willingness, showed that this hypothesis was confirmed for perceived willingness only; non-native speakers were regarded as equally willing to grant requests, irrespective of their inter-turn pause durations, whereas native speakers making long pauses were regarded as less willing than those making short pauses. For knowledge and confidence, we did not find a mediating effect of accent; both native and non-native speakers were rated as less knowledgeable and confident when making long pauses. One possible reason for the difference between our findings on perceived willingness to grant requests versus perceived knowledge and confidence is that requests might be more socially engaging and more directly relevant for interpersonal cooperative interactions than knowledge that reflects on partners’ competence but not cooperativeness. Overall, our study shows that (non-)native accents can influence which cognitive states are signaled by different pause durations, which may have important implications for intercultural communication settings where topics are negotiated between native and non-native speakers.

Adaptation of verbs borrowed from Spanish in the speech of descendants of Ukrainian immigrants living in South America

The paper discusses models and strategies for the adaptation of verbs borrowed from Spanish into the migrant dialects of the Ukrainian language spoken in South American countries. There are models in which the Spanish verb is borrowed with the Spanish infinitive ending and without it. The reasons behind choosing one of the models in the speech of descendants of Ukrainian immigrants are investigated. It is stated that one must take into account a set of criteria that affect this process (the frequency of lexemes, their semantics, the number of syllables, etc.). The paper identifies new types of adaptation of borrowed verbs that have not been previously discussed in linguistic publications. The cases of bare use of verbal lexemes in the speech of informants are also analyzed. Examples of the aspect pairs from borrowed Spanish verbs are discussed. This category is in the process of grammaticalization. In some cases, when forming an aspect pair with a prefix, informants apply prefixes inherent to the respective verbal prototypes in their native dialect. The copying of verb control from both Ukrainian and Spanish when using a borrowed verb is also attested. Using the example of the Ukrainian-Spanish bilingualism in the migrant community living in South American countries for a little more than a century, we have the opportunity to observe the changes that occur in the Slavic verbal system under the influence of the dominant Romance language.

Intra-Native Accent Shared Features for Improving Neural Network-Based Accent Classification and Accent Similarity Evaluation

Accent similarity evaluation and accent identification are complex and challenging tasks for various applications due to the existence of variant types of native and non-native languages in the world. The absence of existing studies for the non-native and native English accent similarity evaluation and the limitation of individual feature extraction techniques for accent classifications have led us to propose a new model termed the intra-native accent feature sharing based native accent identification (NAI) framework using an English accent archive speech dataset. The NAI network was employed for non-native English accent classification, native English accent classification, and identification of native and non-native English accents. Finally, the accent similarity of native and non-native English accents was evaluated based on a delicate NAI pre-trained model. Moreover, the proposed approach has a high role in training data augmentation to overcome the challenge of a huge amount of training datasets demands of deep learning. The ordinary individual voice feature extraction with data augmentation and regularization techniques was the baseline for our work. The proposed approach boosted the accuracy of the baseline method with an average accuracy value of 3.7% -7.5% on different vigorous deep learning algorithms. The Quade test method for the performance comparison gave a 0.01 significant level (p-value) that proved that the proposed approach performed better than the baseline significantly. The model makes the rank for non-native English accents based on their similarity to native English accents and the proximity rank is Mandarin, Italian, German, French, Amharic, and Hindi.

Linguistic Imperialism: Viability of the Use of Native -Like Accent among English Language Learners

This paper argues that English language should be used basically as a tool of communication, not as a tool of imperialism. There is no necessity for English language learners to speak in a native-like accent. Instead of spending much time, money and efforts on learning and emulating the different native speaker accents of English, English language learners should direct their efforts on learning what is important to develop their English language skills. The study devalues the importance of emulation of native accents of English. It uses the argumentative method to prove the argumentation logically. It illustrates that English language has become an international language and not a property of native speakers and it is not important to attach it with native speakers anymore. The study also discusses how that will help to avoid any hegemonic impact on the learners' culture and native language.

CODE MIXING AS POSTCOLONIAL MARKER: A CORPUS BASED ANALYSIS OF PAKISTANI ENGLISH POSTCOLONIAL NOVELS

The scope, nature, significance, and causes of code mixing in Pakistani Post-Colonial novels are discussed in the current study. It highlights the conceptual frameworks created by Kachru (1983) and the Modiano’s model of English (1999). The Heart Divided written by Mumyaz Shah Nawaz, Bitter Gourd written by Talat Abbasi, My Feudal Lord written by Tehmina Durrani, Burnt Shadows written by Kamila Shamsie, and The Triple Mirror of the Self written by Zulifkar Ghose were five post-colonial novels of Pakistani English authors that were chosen as a sample for this study. The features of post-colonialism in these works have been examined by the authors. Code mixing of a relatively larger extent has been discovered in English novels written by Pakistani authors in this research. The authors of these novels haven’t denigrated native dialects; instead, they’ve emphasized the significance of Pakistani English, since the English language occasionally falls short of meeting locals' communication needs. These translations into other native languages are made to fill in the vocabulary spaces of the ideological concepts that cannot be expressed in English. These borrowings are not intended to portray the code-mixing English as a poor variant. We draw the conclusion that the usage of local words has brought attention to the value of local languages and raised concerns about the lingua franca. Keywords: Code Mixing, Corpus Based Analysis, Pakistani English Novels, Post-Colonial Novels

Dialectal differences in the Production of English Vowels by Iraqi EFL Learners at University Level

The present study investigates whether or not Iraqi EFL learners’ native dialect has an impact on their pronunciation of English monophthongs and to examine the reasons, behind the mispronunciation, they are expected to commit. To achieve this goal, sixty Iraqi participants speaking two Iraqi dialects i.e. qeltu and gilit dialect, were engaged to achieve a speech production task of the eleven English monophthongs in a /hvd/ context. The data were analyzed using PRAAT to extract first and second formant frequencies and as well as vowel duration for each vowel. Lobanov’s TELESUR G normalization algorithm (2006) was tracked to normalize F1 and F2 values. The normalized data were compared to results from Deterding (1997) and walls (1962). The results showed that Iraqi EFLLs produced the targeted vowels shorter than the control group represented by native English. In terms vowel quality, they produced lower and more fronted vowels than the control group. In addition, this study revealed that there are statistically significant cross-dialectal differences between gilit and qeltu-speaking EFLLs in the production English vowels. It is concluded that learners’ mother tongue has a role in their production of English vowels.

A Qualitative Study of Traditional Bone Setters in South India: A Case Series.

There are approximately 60,000 Traditional Bone Setters (TBS) in India, who have no formal education or training in modern medicine but treat approximately 60% of bone related trauma. This study investigated the history of TBS, why they are so popular, and their methods. From a list of TBS from four states in South India, a purposive and convenience sampling method identified participants. One lead TBS from each state was interviewed. With recommendations from these TBS, a total of six participants were interviewed on Zoom® in their native dialect and these interviews were transcribed into English. The data were analyzed using a constant comparative method which included several iterations to refine common themes and determine counterfactual and specific focal points from each interview. Six overarching themes emerged: (1) history of traditional bone setters, (2) occupations outside bone setting, (3) training, certification, education, accolades, (4) patient characteristics and success stories, (5) infrastructure and approach to diagnosis/treatment, and (6) limitations of practice, challenges, and social relevance. The history of traditional bone setting is thousands of years old and passed down within families generationally. In rural India, where a large part of the population lives in poverty and without access to modern medicine, traditional healers provide a much-needed service, often without charge, and consequently, the income is not sufficient without other occupations such as farming. They follow a similar approach to diagnosis and treatment of simple fractures and dislocations as modern medical practitioners. Most would like to share their knowledge and collaborate with ayurvedic and allopathic practitioners and simply want to be respected and supported.

Would you respect a norm if it sounds foreign? Foreign-accented speech affects decision-making processes.

Does listening to a foreign-accented speaker bias native speakers' behavior? We investigated whether the accent, i.e., a foreign accent versus a native accent, in which a social norm is presented affects native speakers' decision to respect the norm (Experiments 1 and 2) and the judgement for not respecting it (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we presented 128 native Spanish speakers with new social norms, adapted from the measures imposed by the Spanish Government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., 'To avoid the spread of the Covid-19 virus, keep your distance'), whereas in Experiment 2, we presented 240 native Spanish speakers with everyday social norms learned from childhood (e.g., 'Not littering on the street or in public places'), that have an intrinsic cultural and linguistic link. In Experiment 1, the norms were uttered either in a native accent, or in a foreign accent unfamiliar to our participants to avoid stereotypes. In Experiment 2, we added an accent negatively perceived in Spain to assess the role of language attitudes on decision making. Overall, accent did not directly impact participants' final decisions, but it influenced the decision-making process. The factors that seem to underlie this effect are emotionality and language attitudes. These findings add up to the recent Foreign Accent effect observed on moral judgements and further highlight the role of the speaker's identity in decision making.

Languages of Minority Ethnic Groups of Southern Siberia: Status-Discursive Representation in the Socio-Cultural Context

The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the status-discursive representation of the indigenous languages on the example of the Republics of Southern Siberia with the involvement of empirical sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic material. The presence of zones of social consensus in the conditions of the trilingual communicative space of the republics, which is organized according to a single model “two state languages (Russian and titular) + language/languages of the respective indigenous ethnic groups”, is revealed. They are due to the common legal support of indigenous nations and their languages in the international and Russian official discourse, as well as the positive perception of minority ethnic groups in associative portrayal by speakers of the respective republican state languages. The prospects for minimizing the exclusion zones of contacting peoples refer to the inclusion of measures of more active support of the indigenous idioms in the relevant legal acts of the republican level. Certain zones of problematizing of socio-cultural mutual understanding in the Altai Republic are associated with a higher level of adherence of the Chelkans to their native idiom compared to loyalty to the second state language of their republic (Altai), which may be due to the actualization of their need for a correlation of ethnic and linguistic status, which is absent among Shors and Tuvan Todzhans.

Dialects, motivation, and English proficiency: Empirical evidence from China.

Within the context of China, this study seeks to examine the relationship between English language proficiency, the native dialect of the learner, and the learner’s reason, or motivation for learning English. English language proficiency can be an important vehicle for accessing high quality higher education, for interacting with non-Chinese, and for enhancing employment and career opportunities Data was gathered through an online survey with 985 usable responses recorded. Respondents included a distribution of speakers from five of the major distinct dialects of China. The analysis provides empirical evidence of a diversity of propensities and motivations for English language acquisition among learners from different regions and native dialects. Access to international higher education as a type of motivation is found to have a moderating effect on English proficiency. Other findings suggest that learners in regions with more historic exposure to foreign interaction are more likely to be motivated for social reasons, those from regions with export focused commerce will be motivated for business related reasons. The results of this study may be of interest to policy makers, linguists, educators, and those with an interest in socioeconomic sustainability through language acquisition and education as a method of socioeconomic mobility.

Textual manifestations of Ottoman architectural revival and the search for a national idiom in the late Ottoman period

AbstractThis article applies a critical approach to rethinking the relationship between nationalism and Ottoman architectural historiography by examining the intellectual medium during the late Ottoman period. More precisely, it examines how the history and theory of Ottoman architecture were initially established by Tanzimat (Reform) intelligentsia with the publication of Usûl-i Mimâri-i Osmani (Fundamentals of Ottoman Architecture) (1873). It addresses how the text was later comprehended and criticized by their successors, who utilized it to constitute their own vision of Turkish national architecture. By detailing the rise of the Turkish nationalist movement and the transition from Ottomanism to Turkism as the dominant identity, this article highlights the demand for the materialization of a national architecture as a component of the cultural construction of a national architectural style and the role of new public buildings as the site of nationalizing endeavors at the beginning of the twentieth century. Finally, this article problematizes the extent to which these new constructions can be deemed “national” by investigating the works of a pioneer figure of architecture, Kemaleddin Bey’s writings and the design and construction of his dormitory building, the Fifth Vakıf Han, in Istanbul.

Matched-accent processing: Bulgarian-English bilinguals do not have a processing advantage with Bulgarian-accented English over native English speech

The Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB) hypothesis for Talkers suggests that there is a potential benefit when listening to one’s second language when it is produced in the accent of one’s first language (matched-accent processing). This study explores ISIB, considering listener proficiency. According to second language learning theories, the listener’s second language proficiency determines the extent to which they rely on their first language phonetics, hence the magnitude of ISIB may be affected by listener proficiency. The accuracy and reaction times of Bulgarian-English bilinguals living in the UK were recorded in a lexical decision task. The English stimuli were produced by native English speakers and Bulgarian-English bilinguals. Listeners responded more slowly and less accurately to the matched-accent stimuli than the native English stimuli. In addition, they adapted their reaction times faster to new speakers with a native English accent compared to a Bulgarian accent. However, the listeners with the lowest English proficiency had no advantage in reaction times and accuracy for either accent. The results offer mixed support for ISIB for Talkers, and are consistent with second language learning theories according to which listeners rely less on their native language phonology when their proficiency in the second language has increased.

The development of the Language-Independent Speech in Noise and Reverberation test (LISiNaR) and evaluation in listeners with English as a second language

Objective Create a language-independent, ecologically valid auditory processing assessment and evaluate relative stimuli intelligibility in native and non-native English speakers. Design The Language-Independent Speech in Noise and Reverberation Test (LISiNaR) targets comprised consonant-vowel (CVCV) pseudo-words. Distractors comprised CVCVCVCV pseudo-words. Stimuli were presented over headphones using an iPad either face-to-face or remotely. Scoring occurred adaptively to establish a participant’s speech reception threshold in noise (SRT). The listening environment was simulated using reverberant and anechoic head-related transfer functions. In four test conditions, targets originated from 0°. Distractors originated from either ±90°, ±67.5° and ±45° (spatially separated) or 0° azimuth (co-located). Reverberation impact (RI) was calculated as the difference in SRTs between the anechoic and reverberant conditions and spatial advantage (SA) as the difference between the spatially separated and co-located conditions. Study sample Young adult native speakers of Australian (n = 24) and Canadian (25) and non-native English speakers (34). Results No significant effects of language occurred for the test conditions, RI or SA. A small but significant effect of delivery mode occurred for RI. Reverberation impacted SRT by 5 dB relative to anechoic conditions. Conclusion Performance on LISiNaR is not affected by the native language or accent of groups tested in this study.