Phonological Phenomena Research Articles

The Acoustics of Vocalic Elements

This paper examines the acoustics of vowels in the phoneme inventory of Fulfulde language. The paper studies the Sokoto dialect of the language and conducts an acoustic analysis of its vowels. This is a departure from the traditional auditory impression-based accounts of phonological phenomena. The study uses the software Praat to measure the formant frequencies of the vowels in addition to an LPC analysis. The waveforms and spectrograms of the vowels as well as their formant frequencies determinie the status, height and positions of the vowels. Findings indicate that the Sokoto dialect of Fulfulde has five short vowels and five corresponding long ones. Using the software R, the study develops a vowel chart for the dialect. The status of diphthongs is however a subject of controversy and is therefore left for further research.

Modelling contrast and feature inventory: the nature of [web] in French Sign Language

Abstract Feature-based models of sign language use distinctive features to describe the phonological structure of signs. We use near-minimal pairs and phonological phenomena like productivity and neutralisation in French Sign Language to show that the feature [web], which refers to the webbing part of the fingers, should be (re)introduced into the list of phonologically active features. In discussing potential cases of [web] in other sign languages and the impact on the shape of phonological inventories, we first offer an account of [web] in terms of a location feature in line with most traditional feature-geometry models. We then offer some speculations on why a more uniform characterisation of [web] and the features in the same subclass in terms of the orientation type results in more economical models.

Assimilation and morpheme boundaries in Mgira

Phonological assimilation phenomena are often restricted by morphological boundaries. This paper presents data from Mgira in order to argue that both root boundaries and affix boundaries serve to block assimilation processes such as nasal place assimilation and postnasal voicing. The result is that assimilation may obtain, but only within morphemes, not across them. This is analysed as confirmation of the power of the CrispEdge constraints proposed by Itô and Mester (1999) to take precedence over general markedness constraints, blocking feature spreading across morphological boundaries. The analysis is claimed to yield the same effect as a Morpheme Structure Constraint, limiting the force of a constraint to within the boundaries of morphemes.

Мedia Text: Communication Tactics for Building Trust

Using the activities example of journalist-podcaster, Kommersant media holding expert Daria Tsivina, the article examines communicative tactics for building trust as an media culture integral part. One of the main reasons for the article topic relevance is the transformation of the formation processes and trust manifestation in a journalist associated with the development of information and communication technologies and convergence processes. Media trust is a key concept in the overall assessment of the journalistic text quality. We show the relationship between the main trust elements, which is understood as the truthfulness of words, actions, emotions and motives. The article presents the empirical study results, the purpose of which is to identify journalistic communication tactics that are of particular importance in the media trust formation. Nonverbal communication – voice intonation – is the most important, along with verbal, means of communication and infl uence. The features of nonverbal communication compared to verbal communication are described.Leading qualities determined based on the study results are indicated, which include speech skills (speech technique), communication skills (speech logic, emotional content); persuasiveness, ability to present information; erudition. To achieve the study purpose, an online survey was conducted. The research process used the content analysis method, as well as lexical-semantic and morphological analysis. It is concluded that the podcast is an audio version of a written text. This is one of the main differences between the podcast format and other formats of modern media discourse, which allows us to explore the author’s speech techniques. It can be concluded that the Tsivina’s texts lexical features show that the restaurant critic views his own podcast as an effective means of communication with the audience. In general, the podcast “Restaurant Criticism with Daria Tsivina” is characterized by a clear, concise structure and the use of easy-to-understand morphological units. Prosody as a super segmental phonological phenomenon in context. This study suggests that the podcaster must take into account prosody as a super segmental phonological phenomenon that is critical to the trust formation. Keywords: podcast, media trust, prosody, intonation, convergence

The Acoustic Characteristics and Phonological Phenomenon of Korean Stops -Focusing on ‘PK Alternation’-

The Acoustic Characteristics and Phonological Phenomenon of Korean Stops -Focusing on ‘PK Alternation’-

Similarities and differences between phonological phenomena in Arabic and Tamil languages: syllable-focused study

Phonological phenomena mean the rules and phonetic characteristics that help to build words and vocabulary, create and use speech, and differentiate between them according to context. Accordingly, in a language there are phonetic units that are studied at non-structual level and structual level. They have an impact on teaching the Arabic language to native speakers in general and to non-native speakers in particular. Errors in phonetic phenomena lead to linguistic errors. The research problem is defined by the question: “Is there a similarity in the syllable system of phonological phenomena between the Arabic and Tamil languages, which are from two different language families? This research aims to clarify the syllabic system of phonological phenomena between Arabic and Tamil languages, and to identify the similarities and differences in syllabic system of phonological phenomena between them. This research relies on qualitative methodology under contrastive descriptive analysis to identify similarities and differences in phonological phenomena between the languages. Secondary data were gathered from books, researches and literary studies. This research titled “Similarities and differences between phonological phenomena in Arabic and Tamil languages: syllable-focused study” finds that the syllables are divided based on length and the closing and opening in the two languages are in the same form. There are no two consecutive consonants at the beginning of the word in them. In terms of differences, the Arabic syllable begins with a consonant only, and there is no Arabic syllable that begins with a vowel, while the Tamil syllable begins with a consonant and a vowel. More than two consonants can not exceed in the middle of the Arabic word, meanwhile can exceed in Tamil. The places where the syllables occur in the two languages are differed according to characteristics of both languages. The Arabic syllable system is very similar to Tamil language.

HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF NARROW VOWELS IN THE TURKIC (KIPCHAK) LANGUAGES

On the basis of comparative historical methods, the degree of proximity and common features of related Turkic languages are determined. The phonetic and phonological structures of the Kazakh and related Turkic languages belonging to the Kipchak group are studied in a diachronic aspect. The universal phonological phenomena of narrow vowel phonemes based on the laws of synharmonism and the agglutinative structure of the Turkic languages are described on the material of the Kazakh, Karakalpak, Tatar, Bashkir, Nogai, Karachay-Balkar languages of the Kipchak group.The aim of the study is to identify common and distinctive features of the phonetic and phonological structures of the Kazakh and related (Kipchak) Turkic languages through comparative historical methods. The system of vocalism of related Turkic languages is compared with each other, their similarities and differences are revealed, and as a result, the stages of the historical development of phonetic systems are established, the ways of the emergence and formation of phonemes are described. As a result of comparing the vocalism of the narrow (y, i, u, ü) vowels of the Turkic languages of the Kipchak group, common and distinctive features in the phonological systems of related languages are determined. The results obtained in the course of the study are of great theoretical and practical importance. The study of the languages of the Kipchak group, which make up a large branch of modern Turkic languages and languages of written monuments of the ancient Turkic era from the point of view of diachronic phonology, opens up great prospects in the study of general patterns in other areas of linguistics.

Spreading and correspondence in Huave vowel copy

Assimilation is a central phenomenon in phonology, yet there is little consensus on either its representation or computation. In particular, the empirical distinction between spreading (feature sharing) and correspondence (feature copying) is disputed. In this paper, I identify novel diagnostics from two interacting assimilation processes in San Francisco del Mar Huave (isolate: Mexico). First, vowel-copy epenthesis displays a previously unattested blocking pattern that is problematic for spreading, but predicted by feature-copying approaches like Agreement By Correspondence. Second, in CV agreement, I argue that only feature sharing driven by Dep and Specify constraints can insightfully account for the role of underspecification, which produces a range of directionality effects. Huave shows that both spreading and correspondence are needed in phonological theory, and also demonstrates that monolithically assimilation-mandating constraints like Agree can be decomposed to derive assimilation from the interaction of more elementary, independently motivated principles of markedness and faithfulness.

백석의 작품을 통해 본 정주 지역어의 음운현상에 대한 고찰

The purpose of this study is to examine the phonological phenomena shown in Baek Seok's literary works. Baek Seok(1912~1996) who was born in Ikseong-dong, Galsan-myeon, Jeongju-gun of Pyeonganbuk-do in 1912, graduated from Osan Primary School and Osan High School. After going through the writing practice period, he made his debut as a writer by winning the prize in the Chosun Ilbo New-Year Literary Contest in 1930. After graduating from the Dept. of English in Cheongsan School of Tokyo, he started working as a proofreading reporter of Chosun Ilbo from the following year(1935). For about three years from 1936, he worked as a teacher of Yeongsaeng High School of Hamheung. After the liberation, he moved from his hometown Jeongju to Yanggang-do near Amnok River. Before he passed away in 1996, he cultivated literary people there. Baek Seok published his poetical works Deer in 1936. By following Irish novelist James Augustine Aloysius Joyce who aimed to protect his mother tongue under the British colonization, he utilized proper nouns and sensory words using Pyeongan-do dialect. Except for several native words, the initial law and palatalization were not mostly applied. While the front-vowelization was rarely applied, the high-vowelization was realized into ‘ㅗ > ㅜ’ and ‘ㅓ> ㅡ’, and the umlaut was realized into ‘ㅏ>ㅐ’ and ‘ㅓ>ㅔ’. In most cases, the vowel harmony was not followed while there was the vowel addition for the formation of rules. Such phonological phenomena not only show the characteristics of Jeongju dialect of Pyeonganbuk-do, but also show the renovated form according to the progressive assimilation of each dialect area.

Influence of the European Portuguese phonological system on the perception of close-mid and open-mid vowels

This study’s purpose was to analyse the influence of neutralisation on the perception of European Portuguese (EP) close-mid and open-mid vowels, and the gradient between the /i/, /e/, /ε/ and /a/ phonological categories. A fuzzy boundary between mid-vowels has been described in the phonological systems of various languages including EP, a variety of Portuguese with complex phonological phenomena and exceptional realisations of vowels in different contexts. Fifteen listeners from Lisbon participated in two tasks: Identification and goodness rating of 20 random repetitions of 31 stimuli from a /i/-/e/-/ε/-/a/ continuum. The boundaries between categories in the identification task, the internal structures of each category and the gradient of each boundary in the goodness rating task were analysed. Logistic regression was used to analyse the individual responses of listeners and the internal structure of phonemic categories, and prototypes were determined using bubble charts of goodness scores. The gradient of boundaries was analysed using two sets of data: X responses and goodness ratings. Models of the gradients of transition were developed using a mixed effects regression approach. Results from the identification task showed four vowel categories marked by three distinct boundaries. The stimulus with the highest score was approximately in the centroid and the goodness score decreased as the stimulus moved away from the centroid, which constitutes new evidence of an internal structure of the phonemic categories in EP. The main implications of the results obtained are for the description and typology of phonological phenomena in EP, supporting the existence of a non-partial contrast (which does not neutralise in any context) between /ε/ and /a/, and revealing less robust /i/-/e/ and /e/-/ε/ phonemic oppositions.

Kazakhstani Gansu Dungan as a Contact Language: An Analysis of Russian Influence

This paper discusses extensive language contact and its results in Kazakhstani Gansu Dungan, a divergent variety of Mandarin Chinese. Based primarily on recorded conversational source materials, this study offers a contact linguistic overview of the language, introducing both phonological and morphosyntactic contact phenomena. It is shown that Kazakhstani Gansu Dungan is currently under extensive Russian influence. The influence permeates all layers of the language and exceeds lexical borrowing mentioned in earlier Dungan studies. For instance, clause combining and complex clauses in Dungan have shifted to the direction of a Russian model, which makes the language stand out among other Sinitic varieties. This study demonstrates that, in addition to introducing new structures, extensive Russian influence on Dungan also reinforces earlier development that has led the language further away from the Sinitic prototype. In all, Kazakhstani Gansu Dungan forms its own kind of divergent Russianized Sinitic variety and thus offers a contribution to both researching language contact in the Russophone world and to understanding the typological diversity of Sinitic languages.

기층한자어 음운현상 연구 -朱熹의 四書集註 출현 한자어를 대상으로-

In this study I attempted to investigate the phonological phenomena of modern Sino-Korean words originated from Hanmun and establish its principles. I selected the annotations of the Four Books by Zhu Xi as research materials. I discussed the necessity and legitimacy of classification based on the writing style of Sino-Korean words, and conducted a comprehensive review of the overall phonological phenomenon and lexical analysis. As a result, 1) the driving force behind ‘regressive lateralization, ㄹnasalization, and ㄹinitial law’ is the distribution constraint of the [ɾ], which is also present in native words. 2) Glottalization after ㄹ, Saitsori and ㄴinsertion are all additional phenomena of [ˀ]. 3) Saitsori of Sino-Korean words is a complex phenomenon involving writing style, morphology, phonetics, and phonology. The pronunciation relating ‘-性, -的, 沒-' also showed a difference between basic and upper-class Sino-Korean words. It is possible to use the pronunciation of the ㄴinsertion as long as the phonological conditions are satisfied, regardless of the stylistic or morphological conditions. In this respect, it is judged that the two phenomena have been applied retrospectively starting from the upper Sino-Korean words. 4) In principle base Sino-Korean words are two-syllable words, three-syllable words accounted for only 1.26%.

STUDENTS’ PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION ERROR ANALYSIS: A CASE STUDY IN TUZLA AND BANJA LUKA ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS

This paper examines phonemic transcription errors of L2 learners of English, majoring in English language and literature, undergraduate students affiliated with the English Departments in two of the country’s major university cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), as case study and provides a comparison of their performance across several levels. The paper is a result of collaboration between two English Departments in BiH, one based in Tuzla and the other one in Banja Luka. The main focus of the paper is to look into English phonemic transcription errors made by students of English at the Bachelor’s level.The study encompasses a total of 30 students from the English Department in Tuzla, and 40 students in the Banja Luka English Department in the academic year 2022/2023. All students attended the English Phonetics and Phonology courses taught during the first year of study. Students’ English transcription errors were first collected and then analysed and categorised, respectively, focusing on the most important aspects of connected speech. More specifically, the study shows the extent to which the two groups of students, following the same curriculum and syllabus, developed their English phonemic transcription skills, with a particular focus on the use of diacritics for aspirated and unexploded plosives, velarized, dental and syllabic consonants. Additionally, keeping in mind that various phonological phenomena are found in connected speech, the paper focuses on coalescence (the coalescent type of assimilation) as one of the most frequent such phenomena found in everyday usage. In the concluding remarks, the paper discusses the levels to which both groups of students in the two English Departments have succeeded in comprehending basic terms in this field, an understanding of the sound system in English, and to what degree they mastered narrow transcription skills in particular.

Acoustics of stress and weight in Central Alaskan Yup’ik

In Central Alaskan Yup’ik, syllables with long vowels are always stressed, light syllables alternate stress, but only certain closed syllables are stressed. The acoustic correlates of stress, however, have only been the subject of one small-scale preliminary study so far. Moreover, there are divergent accounts of how phonological phenomena such as gemination and syllable closure affect weight. This article presents an acoustic investigation of gemination, stress, and phonemic length. Six Yup’ik recordings were annotated, resulting in a dataset of 2,602 syllable onsets and 2,282 vowels, which were then modelled using linear mixed-effects models. The first part of the study, examining the distribution of gemination as a metrical-adjacent phenomenon, revealed that singleton onsets were shorter than geminated onsets both within feet and across foot boundaries. The main study showed that stressed vowels were longer, louder, and, for short vowels only, higher in f0 than unstressed vowels, while long vowels were longer, louder, and featured greater f0 falls than short vowels. These results corroborate the literature that asserts that long, short unstressed, and short stressed vowels are all produced distinctively, and moreover, that vowel duration is affected by iambic lengthening and syllable closure. The identification of stress correlates and other metrical behaviors examined here set the stage for future prosodic work on Yup’ik.

English Consonant Clusters Difficulties for EFL Iraqi Learners

The consonant strings, one of the most important phonological phenomena, are the subject of this study. Consonant strings are the various combinations of sounds that can begin or end a syllable in a language. The majority of Iraqi EFL students have trouble creating some English consonant strings. The purpose of this study is to analyze the challenges faced by Iraqi EFL learners and to provide sufficient background information on the concepts of phoneme, consonant strings, and phonotactics.

Phonological metathesis phenomenon in the early speech of Arabic-speaking children

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the phonological metathesis phenomenon in the early speech of Arabic-speaking children. Based on analysis of a longitudinal data from 11 children's speech, the study mainly aims at investigating (1) the characteristics/nature of the phonological metathesis process in early child speech and (2) how it is different from adult phonological metathesis. The study explores the causes behind the metathesis phonological process in child speech.Design/methodology/approach This paper explored the phonological metathesis phenomenon based on a longitudinal study of 11 monolingual Arabic speakers of Yemeni-Ibbi Dialect (YIA) and cross-linguistic data from various languages.FindingsThe data analysis showed that metathesis phenomenon in child speech has several characteristics. It occurs at an early age, at 2 years and decreases with age. It was found that metathesis occurs mostly in disyllabic and trisyllabic words or more complex syllabic words, but metathesis rarely occurs in monosyllabic words in children's speech. The results indicated that unlike metathesis in adult speech, metathesis in children's speech occurs in undeliberate, slow, fast speech. The study explored that adjacency of sounds with similar phonological features, the ease of pronunciation, or the sonority effect are the motivations that trigger metathesis phenomenon to occur in child speech.Originality/valueIn the literature, the metathesis phonological process has got a little attention from researchers, and this is due to the rare cases of metathesis and the inconsistency of cases and the occurrence of metathesis. However, there is no consensus among the researchers about the causes of emergence and the occurrences behind the metathesis process. However, this study argues that the metathesis process has unique characteristics in child speech in comparison to adult speech and that there are some causes for metathesis to occur in human speech particularly in children's data such as adjacency of sounds with similar phonological features or sonority effect.

러 불규칙 활용의 형성에 대하여

This paper aims to study ‘rʌ(러)’ irregular of Modern Korean, which has gotten less attention than other irregular classes. The ‘rʌ’ irregular is a conjugation in which ‘irɨda(이르다), purɨda(푸르다), nurɨda(누르다)’ are combined with the vowel ending, which ‘r(ㄹ)’ is added, resulting in the conjugated forms that ‘irɨrʌ(이르러), purɨrʌ(푸르러), nurɨrʌ(누르러)’. The ‘rʌ’ irregular of Modern Korean is the irregular with different characteristics from ‘p(ㅂ)’ irregular and ‘s(ㅅ)’ irregular. Because the ‘rʌ’ irregular isn’t the irregular conjugation formed by phonological motivations such as the changes of phonetic value and phonological phenomena. However, there is a limit that cannot be specifically discussed the motivations of forming the ‘rʌ’ irregular in previous studies. Thus, this study discussed how the ‘rʌ’ irregular of Modern Korean was formed by which motivations and gone through which processes of diachronic changes. According to the data of Middle Korean, it can be seen that the ‘rʌ’ irregular was composed of only color-adjectives such as ‘pɨrɨda(프르다), nurɨda(누 르다)’ in the 15th century, and was added ‘nirɨda(니르다)’ the 16th century, finally formed. In addition, it could analyze that the ‘rʌ’ irregular was formed by the non-phonological motivation of the convergence between paradigms. As a result, it comes to have the possibilities to solve various problems related to the formation of ‘rʌ’ irregular.

Phonological Exploitation in Constructing Humourous Utterances

This research is conducted to reveal the strategy of humour construction dealing with phonological exploitation in Mind Your Language situation comedy. Mind Your Language is a British comedy television series that portrays a learning process by immigrants coming from various countries. Varieties of cultures and levels of English knowledge naturally influence humour creation by the characters. The data were taken from humourous utterances in season one of that situation comedy. Applying a descriptive qualitative approach, this research is in an attempt to find out the forms and the motives of those humourous utterances created to entertain audiences, especially those dealing with phonological aspects. The findings demonstrate that six forms of phonological aspects are employed to create humour. Sounds addition, omission, substitution, and minimal pairs are frequently exploited in humour creation rather than other strategies such as sound compatibility and metathesis. Based on the motives of humour construction, besides the interlocuter’s influence, the phonological interference phenomenon also grounds the humour production in Mind Your Language situation comedy. The humourous utterances produced illustrate a contextual relation of the situation comedy as an English learning process by immigrants coming from various countries, languages, and cultures.

Numeral Incorporation as Grammaticalization? A Corpus Study on German Sign Language (DGS)

Numeral incorporation describes the merging of a numeral sign with a lexical sign to create a single sign with a compositional meaning, e.g., “three weeks.” As a phenomenon of simultaneous morphology, numeral incorporation is unique to sign languages. While researchers disagree on the exact morphological structure of the construction, it has, thus far, mainly been described as a synchronic, phonological phenomenon. Using the DGS corpus, a language resource on German Sign Language, we explore the possibility of numeral incorporation resulting from a language change process, specifically a grammaticalization process. Our dataset comprises tokens belonging to nine different signs that may occur in numeral incorporations. We find a cline of three constructions in the corpus, which shows a progression from free morpheme to cliticized morpheme to bound morpheme (affix). A comparison of the usage frequency of the three constructions in different age groups reveals that signers use more incorporations the younger they are. Following the apparent time approach, these observations are taken as indicators of diachronic language change. We describe to what extent the properties of numeral incorporation fit with the grammaticalization hypothesis and conclude that while the emergence of numeral incorporation is an instance of language change and shows some aspects seen in grammaticalization, the gradual change fails to exhibit some crucial aspects of grammaticalization and, thus, should not be regarded as an example thereof.

Prosodic Studies on the Spoken Corpus of the Khalkha Mongolian Language: Age and Gender Effects on F0 and Speech Rate

There are many studies on age- and gender-dependent analyses in multiple languages. Still, the fundamental frequency (F0) and speech rate in different age and gender groups with Khalkha Mongolian have not yet been studied. In this investigation, we analyzed the speaker’s age and gender effects on F0 and speech rate based on a spontaneous speech corpus of the Khalkha dialect of the Mongolian language. We have discovered some universal aspects of these phonological phenomena and specific relevant characteristics of speech rate change depending on gender. The average speech rate of Khalkha Mongolian is 5.3 syllables per second. The male speakers spoke much quicker than the female speakers. Age and gender affect the F0 and speech rate in particular systematic ways. The F0 of the female and male speakers tended to decrease with age. Also, that elderly male speakers talk slower than elderly female speakers, while young and middle-aged male speakers tend to talk faster than female speakers of the same age.