Onset Clusters Research Articles

A aquisição das consoantes laterais do português europeu por aprendentes chineses

The present study examined the production of European Portuguese (EP) lateral consonants by 14 Chinese learners, through a picture naming task eliciting the target segments in all possible syllable and word-level positions. Our results illustrate that /l/ is stable in singletons (100% target-like) due to the positive transfer from Mandarin Chinese. However, it is very often vocalized in codas (only 16.7% target-like production, [ɫ]), which might be attributed to a phonetically based tendency (Graham, 2017; Johnson & Britain, 2007). The high accuracy (97% target-like) of /l/ in onset clusters, an absent structure in the L1, can be the result of the heterosyllabic nature of EP obstruent-liquid sequences (Veloso, 2006) or of the association of two segments to a single skeletal position, which was also argued as an intermediate stage in EP L1 acquisition (Freitas, 2003). /ʎ/ is still in acquisition (52.4% target-like), and is often produced as an L1 category [lj], due to acoustic and articulatory similarity.

An acoustic study of vowel intrusion in Turkish onset clusters

<p class="p1">Studies in Articulatory Phonology (Browman &amp; Goldstein, 1993) have established that what sounds like insertion of a segment can be a side effect of gestural timing relations. Based on acoustic evidence from a production experiment with six Turkish speakers, I argue that such gestural timing produces non-lexical vowels in complex onsets in Turkish—previously described as harmonizing epenthetic vowels (Clements &amp; Sezer, 1982, inter alia). Non-lexical vowels occurred in 88.3% of tokens, and usually resembled [ɯ], failing to undergo vowel harmony. Non-lexical vowels are shorter than underlying vowels, and their F1 and F2 values are more affected by the following vowel, suggesting they are more subject to vowel-to-vowel coarticulation. These results support the hypothesis that the inserted acoustic vowels are targetless, created by timing relations between gestures, with the implication that Turkish phonology does not categorically ban complex onsets.

Adaptation of native clusters with non-native phonetic patterns

Non-native consonant clusters are modified to conform with native phonotactics. This study investigates how onset clusters that are phonotactically licit, but have non-native phonetic patterns, are adapted to match the native patterns. We tested Georgian speakers in a sentence completion task using CCV/CVCV sequences produced by a French talker. Georgian differs from French in having (1) longer inter-consonant timing lag for CCVs, and (2) default initial prominence for CVCVs. The long inter-consonantal lag often results in a transitional vowel in Georgian. Georgian participants (n = 11) first saw the target CCV/CVCV sequences embedded in a Georgian carrier phrase and read the phrase aloud (baseline). Then they heard the target sequences produced by a French talker while seeing the Georgian carrier phrase with an empty slot, and produced the phrase completed with the heard targets (test). Participants' test productions reflected modifications of French targets towards their native phonetic patterns, not only by producing occasional transitional vowels that are absent from French CCV targets, but by deleting the unstressed first vowel in French CVCVs (/pøta/ produced as /pta/). We claim that the effects of native language on adaptation of non-native sequences are not limited to their segmental composition, but also involve their phonetic implementation.

Truncating English and Arabic Onset Cluster by a Bilingual Child: An Optimality Theory Perspective

This study investigates the process of truncating English and Arabic onset cluster in the early speech of a bilingual child within the framework of Optimality Theory Model. It specifically proposes the child’s hierarchical grammar(s) responsible for the child’s process of simplifying English and Arabic consonantal sequences into singletons in onset position. The importance of this research stems from the absence of research on truncating Arabic onset cluster within the Optimality Theory perspective. Therefore, it is the first to put this theory into practice as far as reducing Arabic clusters is concerned. The data for this research were collected through parental diaries. Only data collected between the ages of 1;9 and 2;5 were analysed. The results reveal two different hierarchies of the grammar each of which is responsible for truncating the clusters into singletons in one particular language. The results also reveal a conformity with the universally fixed onset constraint hierarchy in the child’s English production. However, a deviation from this universally fixed onset constraint hierarchy is detected in the production of the sequence formed by fricative followed by stop or vice versa in Arabic.

Impact of Individual Factors on Perception and Production of Onset Clusters by Korean Speakers

Impact of Individual Factors on Perception and Production of Onset Clusters by Korean Speakers

Effects of syllable onset on the timing of pitch accent in Belgrade Serbian

In this paper, I present the results of an acoustic study on Serbian, a pitch-accent language with sonorant-sonorant onset clusters like /mr/ and /ml/. I show that peak timing in falling accents is not affected solely by syllable onset duration, as suggested by the segmental anchoring hypothesis, but rather is determined by an interaction between syllable onset complexity and syllable onset duration, indicating a gestural representation of tone.

Production and perception of phonetically “non-native” clusters by Georgian native speakers

This study examines the role of native inter-consonant timing patterns in perception and production of word-initial consonant clusters, asking how phonotactically native clusters with non-native timing patterns are perceived and produced by speakers of a cluster-heavy language. We tested Georgian speakers in two experiments using CCV/CVCV stimuli produced by a French talker. Georgian is a cluster-heavy language with a relatively long inter-consonant lag, often resulting in transitional vowels between two consonants within a cluster. French onset clusters have shorter inter-consonant lag than Georgian ones. In Experiment 1 (shadowing), Georgian participants (n = 14) were exposed to French CCV/CVCV stimuli and asked to produce what they heard. In Experiment 2 (discrimination), the same Georgian participants heard the same French stimuli in AX pairs and determined whether the two sequences (A and X) were the same or different. The results from the two experiments suggest that Georgian participants often confused French CCV (without any vocalic transition) with French CVCV. The confusion occurred almost exclusively when the first vowel of CVCV was /ø/, which is acoustically similar to the transitional vowel in Georgian, but did not seem to stem from Georgian speakers' incapability of producing French short-lag CCV. We claim that native inter-consonant timing patterns influence perception and production of consonant clusters even when the clusters are phonotactically licit in one’s native language.

The Acquisition of English and Arabic Onset Cluster: A Case Study

This study has investigated the development of English and Arabic cluster in the speech of a bilingual child. Data was related to several recording sessions of spontaneous and non-spontaneous speech between the author and the child. The gradual development of English and Arabic onset cluster was traced in the production of a bilingual child aged between 1 year 04 months and 4 years 06 months. A comparative description of the repair strategy types used by the child to break English and Arabic consonants clustering in word-initial position has been provided. English onset clusters started to appear before the Arabic clusters. Arabic core clusters appeared before the plateau and reversal clusters. Cluster reduction and epenthesis were used to get rid of the clusters in both languages and prosthesis was used to get rid of clusters in Arabic.

“&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;The Rain in Spain&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt;” Updated? An Elocution Drill for Efficiently Teaching English Consonant Clusters

This small-scale longitudinal study investigates a technique for assisting English learners to achieve more native-like pronunciation of onset consonant clusters. Study participants were ESL students with L1s that lack onset clusters (Arabic and Mandarin Chinese). In the study’s instruction phase, participants followed the venerable pedagogy of reciting an elocution drill, a 10-word sentence containing one occurrence each of the five three-consonant onsets of English, but containing none of the two-consonant onsets. This pedagogical technique conforms to the concept of language acquisition under Skill Acquisition Theory (SAT). Furthermore, Universal Grammar (UG) and the Markedness Hypothesis predict that by practicing only the more marked three-consonant onsets, two-consonant onsets might also be acquired despite not practicing them. Indeed, the results show statistically significant modification toward more native-like pronunciation of both three-consonant and two-consonant onsets from the pre-test to the immediate post-test and the delayed post-test, given 24 weeks later.

Tonal and morphophonological effects on the location of perceptual centers (p-centers): Evidence from a Bantu language

Perceptual centers (or ‘p-centers’) correspond to the perceptual moment of occurrence of a syllable or word, and are crucial in the perception of speech rhythm. A metronome alignment task was used to investigate how tone and prenasalization—two elements which affect speech timing and which also interact acoustically—influenced p-center location in Medʉmba, a Grassfields Bantu language. Plain CV words bearing low tones were found to have p-centers which were later (farther from consonant releases and closer to vowel onsets) than those bearing high tones, but the observed effect was not present in prenasalized words. We attribute this difference to the effects of tone depression and slope leveling in prenasalized forms. While prenasalization generally led to earlier p-centers (mirroring effects found for onset clusters in other languages), forms with morphologically-derived prenasal onsets behaved more like plain CV forms, suggesting that nasal prefixes do not contribute to p-center timing. Our findings for derived prenasal sequences parallel similar articulatory findings for languages with simplex onset coordination, where consonant ‘clusters’ actually behave as separate timing units.

Disentangling phonological well-formedness and attestedness

Disentangling the roles of phonological well-formedness and lexical attestedness in phonotactic processing has proven challenging. In this study, we present results from a passive listening ERP study showing that English speakers exhibit distinct neural responses to CCVC nonce words according to the phonological well-formedness and attestedness (in English) of the onset cluster. Clusters with poor sonority sequencing evoked an N400 effect compared to those without poor sonority sequencing, regardless of whether the well-formed clusters were attested in English. In contrast, unattested clusters, regardless of whether they were well-formed or ill-formed in terms of sonority sequencing, evoked a late positivity compared to attested clusters. The results suggest that listeners first perform a phonological analysis on potential words before submitting them to a lexical search.

(l) as a sociolinguistic variable in Francoprovençal

AbstractThis article argues for (l) as a sociolinguistic variable in Francoprovençal: (l) refers to variable palatalisation of /l/ in obstruent+lateral onset clusters (/kl, ɡl, pl, bl, fl/), a feature that has long been the subject of metalinguistic commentary, but no systematic analysis. Our data, which come from a larger study of Francoprovençal (FP), show significant intraspeaker variation. Sociolinguistic interviews were carried out in the Lyonnais region of France among 21 FP speakers with different acquisition routes. /l/-palatalisation is far from categorical in our sample, with increased rates of the French variant [l] over the traditional [j] variant. We interpret these data as contact-induced change: phonological leveling is underway, with convergence towards French. These findings are consistent with the language death literature, and are now widely reported in the context of other minority varieties spoken in the Hexagon. Conversely, somenew speakersshow different patterns with a greater range of palatalised variants. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that suggest laterals to be a locus for socio-indexical cues cross-linguistically.

Word-initial rhotic clusters in Spanish-speaking preschoolers in Chile and Granada, Spain

ABSTRACTThe current paper describes Spanish acquisition of rhotic onset clusters. Data are also provided on related singleton taps/trills and /l/ as a singleton and in clusters. Participants included 9 typically developing (TD) toddlers and 30 TD preschoolers in Chile, and 30 TD preschoolers and 29 with protracted phonological development (PPD) in Granada, Spain. Results showed age and developmental group effects. Preservation of cluster timing units preceded segmental accuracy, especially in stressed syllables. Tap clusters versus singleton trills were variable in order of mastery, some children mastering clusters first, and others, the trill. Rhotics were acquired later than /l/. In early development, mismatches (errors) involved primarily deletion of taps; where substitutions occurred, [j] frequently replaced tap. In later development, [l] more frequently replaced tap; where taps did occur, vowel epenthesis sometimes occurred. The data serve as a criterion reference database for onset cluster acquisition in Chilean and Granada Spanish.

Explaining the orthography–phonology interface in written corpora: an Optimality–Theoretic approach

This paper has two goals. The first goal is to contribute to the literature of Second Language Writing Systems (L2WS) by focussing on the British University in Dubai (BUiD) and the Arab Learner Corpus (BALC). The second is to demonstrate the close orthography–phonology interface in L2WS and critically address the issue of reform in a script. Unlike previous studies, which provide a holistic and descriptive analysis of all possible spelling errors of Arab learners of English (e.g., Haggan, 1991 ; and Randall and Groom, 2009 ), this study is different in two ways. First, BALC will be interpreted within a markedness framework and a constraint-based theory known as Optimality Theory. Second, particular emphasis will be given to the erroneous spelling forms which appear in lexical items exclusively with complex onset and coda clusters at the phonological level. The motive for this study is to look beyond spelling errors and bridge linguistic theory with learner corpora. The sub-corpora will be identified and categorised by using the Wmatrix3 program ( Rayson, 2003 , 2005 ). The fulfilment of the above goals will provide new insights for researchers and teachers who are working closely in the areas of L2WS and learner corpora.

Defying the stimulus: acquisition of complex onsets in Polish

Behavioural findings indicate that English, Mandarin and Korean speakers exhibit gradient sonority sequencing preferences among unattested initial clusters. While some have argued these results support an innate principle, recent modelling studies have questioned this conclusion, showing that computational models capable of inducing generalisations using abstract phonological features can detect these preferences from lexical statistics in the three languages. This paper presents a computational analysis of the development of initial clusters in Polish, which arguably presents a stronger test of these models. We show that (i) the statistics of Polish contradict the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), favouring sonority plateaus, (ii) models that succeed in the other languages do not predict SSP preferences for Polish and (iii) children nonetheless exhibit sensitivity to the SSP, favouring onset clusters with larger sonority rises.

Consonant Cluster Acquisition by L2 Thai Speakers

Attempts to account for consonant cluster acquisition are always made into two aspects. One is transfer of the first language (L1), and another is markedness effects on the developmental processes in second language acquisition. This study has continued these attempts by finding out how well Thai university students were able to perceive English onset and coda clusters when they were second year and fourth year students. This paper also aims to investigate Thai speakers’ opinions about their listening and speaking skills, and whether their course subjects enhanced their performance. To fulfil the first objective, a pretest and posttest were launched to measure how the 34 Thai participants were able to identify 40 onset and 120 coda clusters at different periods of time. The statistical findings show that even though their overall scores in the fourth year were higher than those in the second year, there was no statistically significant difference in both major types of clusters [t = -1.29; p value &gt;0.05 in onsets; t = -0.28; p value &gt;0.05 in codas]. The Thai participants performed slightly better in onset (84% / 86%) than in coda (70% / 71%). To complete the second objective of the study, a 24-item questionnaire was distributed to the participants. The responses indicated positive opinions about their listening and speaking skills and the English courses they took in a four-year study. However, they still had difficulty identifying some English consonant clusters even though those were widely used or found. Finally, most participants claimed that English Phonetics and Phonology Course was one of the significant course subjects instrumental in establishing their fundamental knowledge of how to pronounce English words and develop their listening skill as well.

Articulatory mechanisms underlying onset-vowel organization

Previous research on articulatory correlates of syllable structure suggests that the temporal organization of syllables varies as a function of the segmental make-up of the onset cluster, yet there is currently little understanding of the details conditioning this variation. We pursue the hypothesis that consonantal coarticulation resistance is one such segment-based determinant of onset-vowel timing. In order to test this we recorded articulography data for Polish and systematically varied the coarticulation resistance of C2 in #C1C2V clusters. We examined singleton and cluster onsets with different vowel-adjacent consonants in terms of temporal lag measurements as done in previous studies as well as in terms of tongue body position measurements. Both analyses revealed parallel results and substantiate the hypothesized interaction of coarticulation resistance of the vowel-adjacent consonant and onset-vowel organization. We discuss how this interaction between articulator dominance and temporal overlap can be modeled within the gestural approach to syllable organization by giving a novel interpretation to the coupling strength parameter in terms of coarticulation resistance.

An OT Analysis of Efik Contrastive Verbal Reduplication

This paper provides an optimality-theoretic analysis of two types of contrastive verbal reduplication in Efik (Niger-Congo; Nigeria). Lexical contrast reduplication puts contrastive focus on the meaning of the verb while performance contrast reduplication puts contrastive focus on the tense/aspect of the verb. Lexical contrast and performance contrast reduplication have distinct phonological patterns in the affirmative but do not contrast in the negative, giving rise to three patterns (Cook 1985). I posit three verbal reduplicants, REDNEG, REDLEX, and REDPRF, and derive their segmental and tonal properties in Generalized Template Theory (McCarthy &amp; Prince 1995). I propose that REDLEX and REDPRF are affixes while REDNEG is a root. REDLEX and REDPRF exhibit TETU effects that REDNEG does not, including onset cluster simplification, coda deletion, monosyllabicity, and the absence of high vowels. These effects are derived by ranking various markedness constraints between IO and BR-Root faithfulness and BR faithfulness. As a root, REDNEG has faithful tones. I analyze the polar tone of REDLEX as a case of alternating fixed autosegmentism (a TETU effect driven by the OCP) and the fixed high tone of REDPRF as a case of morphological fixed autosegmentism. Finally, the constraint *HLH explains the tonal behavior of LH verbs.

Evidence against the morpheme: The history of English phonaesthemes

Phonaesthemes like the onset /sn-/ in snore, snort, and sniffle straddle the boundary of phonology and morphology and thus seemingly argue against the “theoretical desideratum” of absolute modularity in the grammatical architecture (Lowe, 2016). If modularity is psychologically real, however, a “correction” of the phonaesthemic problem should occur so that phonaesthemes either become more clearly phonological or more clearly morphological over time. Since the morpheme-like nature of phonaesthemic onsets is grounded in their type frequency (Bergen, 2004), a development toward either pole should manifest itself in a change of this frequency. This hypothesis is investigated by collecting all roots beginning with four onset clusters of phonaesthemic value (fl-, gl-, sl-, sn-) in Middle and in Present-Day English. The comparison of these counts shows that there is a significant decrease of the phonaesthemic share in only one group (sl-), mostly due to loanwords. In the other groups, the ratio of phonaesthemic to arbitrary roots has remained virtually the same. I take these results to show that a strict separation between phonology and morphology is psychologically implausible. In order to account for the diachronic stability of phonaesthemes, I invoke word-based approaches to morphology, in which segmentable morphemes are not theoretical primitives.

An Aspect of Consonant Cluster Simplification in English

The goal of this study was twofold: 1) to observe an aspect of consonant deletion in coda clusters of English and 2) provide an alternative analysis of consonant deletion. It is argued that a segment occurring between consonants is subject to deletion if it has a potential of being weakened or glottalized in a syllable coda. Unlike claims by some of previous studies, this study asserts that a word final /t/ or /d/ preceded by (a) consonant(s) does not undergo deletion unless it is followed by a consonant-initial suffix or a word. This type of argument boils down to segments with [-cont, -son] feature specifications as possible deletion targets in coda clusters. If two segments with peripheral and coronal places of articulation are surrounded by other consonants, the least marked coronal place of articulation is selected as the target deletion. This type of coda simplification can enhance syllable-wellformedness in two aspects: making a simpler coda and maximizing an onset cluster if Ons-Con is satisfied. At the end of this study, some implications for phonology were suggested.