Rounded Vowels Research Articles

Another Look at Velar Deletion in Turkish, with Special Attention to the Derived Environment Condition

UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2009) Another look at velar deletion in Turkish, with special attention to the derived environment condition Sharon Inkelas 1. Introduction Turkish velar deletion applies to /k/ and /g/ at the ends of stems, when rendered intervocalic by the addition of a suffix (e.g. Lewis 1967:10-11, Zimmer & Abbott 1978, Sezer 1981, Goksel & Kerslake 2005:14-17) 1 : ‘baby’ /bebek/ (nominative) Dative /-A/ Genitive /-In/ [be.bek] [be.be.e] [be.be.in] [ka.ta.log] [ka.ta.lo.a] [ka.ta.lo.un] bebek ‘catalog’ /katalog/ katalog bebege kataloga bebegin katalogun ‘mathematics’ /matematik/ [ma.te.ma.tik] [ma.te.ma.ti.e] [ma.te.ma.ti.in] matematik matematige matematigin Deleted velars are represented in the orthography as “ g ”. In some dialects they are pronounced as velar glides. 2 This paper documents the speech represented in TELL (Turkish Electronic Living Lexicon), in which the velars are phonologically and phonetically deleted. This is the pattern reported in Lewis 1967, Zimmer & Abbott 1978 and Sezer 1981, as well. The productivity of velar deletion is evidenced by its applicability to recent loans and confirmed by an experimental study by Zimmer & Abbott (1978), in which subjects were presented with a set of loanwords and asked to use them in an third person singular possessive context; the possessive suffix -/I/ is a velar deletion trigger. Zimmer & Abbott observed a deletion rate of 80-90% in the made-up words meeting the conditions for velar deletion. Velar deletion appears to be a classic derived environment effect. It applies to stem-final consonants when rendered intervocalic by suffixation, as in (1), but not to consonants which are intervocalic within a root morpheme, as in (2). Except where otherwise noted, Turkish data cited in this paper come from TELL (Turkish Electronic Living Lexicon; http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/TELL). I am grateful to Larry Hyman and Aylin Kuntay for comments on the paper, and take responsibility for any errors. 2 Even in standard Istanbul Turkish, “g” is sometimes reported to manifest as a weak labial glide between round vowels or as a weak palatal glide between front vowels (e.g. Lewis 1967:5, Goksel & Kerslake 2005:8). These glides are arguably excrescent, the expected phonetic transitions between vowels rendered adjacent by velar deletion, as in diger [dier] ‘other’.

Production of Australian English language-specific variability

This study presents acoustic and articulatory (EMA) data for the high rounded central vowel at different prosodic boundaries. Data are from three speakers of Australian English. Overall, there is very little variability in production of this vowel according to prosodic boundary, with the two female speakers showing slightly more variability than the male speaker. In particular, variability in F2 is limited, suggesting that the vowel is truly central and cannot be considered a back vowel phonologically. The present results are compared with results presented in Tabain & Perrier from three French speakers producing the high back rounded vowel /u/. The differences in articulatory strategies and in acoustic variability are discussed with respect to the vowel inventory of each language. It is speculated that the back vowel /u:/ has become centralized in several dialects of English due to ease of articulation considerations, as part of a strategy to maintain formant cues indicative of a high rounded vowel.

Compensation strategies for a lip-tube perturbation of French [u]: An acoustic and perceptual study of 4-year-old children

The relations between production and perception in 4-year-old children were examined in a study of compensation strategies for a lip-tube perturbation. Acoustic and perceptual analyses of the rounded vowel [u] produced by twelve 4-year-old French speakers were conducted under two conditions: normal and with a 15-mm-diam tube inserted between the lips. Recordings of isolated vowels were made in the normal condition before any perturbation (N1), immediately upon insertion of the tube and for the next 19 trials in this perturbed condition, with (P2) or without articulatory instructions (P1), and in the normal condition after the perturbed trials (N2). The results of the acoustic analyses reveal speaker-dependent alterations of F1, F2, and/or F0 in the perturbed conditions and after the removal of the tube. For some subjects, the presence of the tube resulted in very little change; for others, an increase in F2 was observed in P1, which was generally reduced in some of the 20 repetitions, but not systematically and not continuously. The use of articulatory instructions provided in the P2 condition was detrimental to the achievement of a good acoustic target. Perceptual data are used to determine optimal combinations of F0, F1, and F2 (in bark) related to these patterns. The data are compared to a previous study conducted with adults [Savariaux et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 106, 381-393 (1999)].

The Breadth of Coarticulatory Units in Children and Adults

To assess, in children and adults, the breadth of coarticulatory movements associated with a single rounded vowel. Upper and lower lip movements were recorded from 8 young adults and 8 children (aged 4-5 years). A single rounded versus unrounded vowel was embedded in the medial position of pairs of 7-word/7-syllable sentences. Both children and adults produced movement trajectories associated with lip rounding that were very broad temporally (i.e., movement duration lasting 45% to 56% of the sentence). Some effects appeared to extend across the entire utterance. There were no differences between children and adults in the extent of the coarticulatory effect. However, children produced relatively variable movements associated with lip rounding. These data support the hypothesis that, for young children and adults, broad chunks of output have been planned by the onset of implementation of a sentence. This implies that, based on a change in a single phoneme, the motor commands to the muscles are altered for the production of the entire sentence.

The Persistence of Stereotyped Dialect Features among Portuguese-American Immigrants from São Miguel, Azores

Among dialects of Portuguese, the variety indigenous to the island of São Miguel exhibits an inventory of vocalic features not found elsewhere in the Lusophone world. The most emblematic characteristics of this dialect are the front round vowels [y] and [ø], which correspond to [u] and [ou/oi] (respectively) of the European standard language. There are also systematic differences in the pronunciation of the tonic vowels, reflexes of a historical chain shift: sete ‘seven’ is often rendered in S. Miguel as [sæt] (Std. [sεt]), avó ‘grandmother’ as [ɐ'vo] (Std. [ɐ'vɔ]), and avô ‘grandfather’ as [ɐ'vu] (Std. [ɐ'vo]). While these characteristic are attested in the contemporary speech of the island, one might ask whether they persist in the speech of Azorean emigrants in the United States. This paper presents a phonetic analysis of four emigrants from the village of Nordeste, members of the same family, each of whom presents different phonetic behaviors. While three speakers preserve most of the speech reflexes characteristic of the island, one presents a vocalic inventory more like that of the standard language. This variability reflects a tension between behaviors emblematic of Micaelense identity (e.g., [y] < [u]) and a need to accommodate to sociolinguistic pressures exerted by the standard language, which predominates in the larger community of Portuguese immigrants.

Salience and typology of epenthetic vowels: case from loanword adaptation

Lee, Juhee. 2008. Salience and typology of epenthetic vowels: case from loanword adaptation. Linguistic Research 25(1), 83-101. Lombardi (2002) assumes that epenthetic vowel is central vowels such as [ ], and [ ]. They are universally the least marked, followed by [i], which is an optimal epenthetic vowel in languages that do not have central vowels. On the other hand, Kenstowicz (2003) and Steriade (2003) argue that similar judgments derive from a perceptual map that allows speakers to access the relative similarity of any pair of sounds in a given context. In this paper, I shall focus on the default pattern of vowel epenthesis from a typological perspective. To do so, I examined the typology of epenthetic vowels. Focusing on default patterns, I also showed how loanword models function and run through cross‐linguistic data. Throughout the study, I argue that front and high vowels are preferred when compared with back, low or rounded vowels since they are articulatorily simple and then minimize pronunciation efforts. (Kyung Hee University)

Articulatory constaints on coarticulation in fricatives as a function of tongue involvement

Numerous studies have shown coarticulatory effects of vowel rounding on the spectra of sibilants. However, the extent to which the tongue contributes to coarticulation is not clear because most studies have used only fricatives whose constriction is formed with the tongue. This study examines the effects of vowel environment on coarticulation in fricatives under two conditions: when the constriction is formed with the tongue (i.e., [s]) and when it is not (i.e., [f]), paired with the English vowels occurring at the extremes of the vowel quadrilateral. Preliminary results for adult native speakers of American English suggest that in the absence of tongue constraint (i.e., [f]), there is a greater effect of vowel context on the fricative spectrum. This result reinforces the importance of considering the freedom of an articulator to anticipate an upcoming gesture when examining the extent of coarticulation.

Constraining Welsh vowel mutation

Welsh vowel mutation is a purely positional vowel alternation, the effects of which serve to obscure phonemic contrasts between three vowels in the system, namely barred-i, schwa and [u]. The theoretical interest in this alternation stems from the surface orientation of current phonological theory: is such a non-surface-true state of affairs amenable to plausible modelling in an optimality-theoretic framework, or are the relevant relationships best accounted for through lexical listing? In this paper I argue that a straightforward optimality-theoretic account is available and that this account is simpler than any of its predecessors. The analysis differs from previous derivational analyses (e.g. Thomas 1979, 1984; Williams 1983; Bosch 1996) in various ways, including the underlying values of some of the vowels involved, the avoidance of ad hoc extrinsic rule ordering, and the lack of reliance on intermediate representations. Furthermore, reference to phonological position alone is sufficient, with no need to refer either to stress or to morphological complexity. The correct results emerge primarily through the interaction of a high-ranking structural constraint prohibiting schwa in a final syllable, an input–output faithfulness constraint on vowel features, and a constraint prohibiting a high central rounded vowel, [u with bar through].

He divn’t gan tiv a college ti di that, man! A study of do (and to) in Tyneside English

The following study uses data collected as part of the Tyneside Linguistic Survey (TLS) taken in the late 1960s in Gateshead, across from Newcastle on the River Tyne in the northeast of England. The Newcastle conurbation is situated in Tyne and Wear; this county and surrounding Northumberland comprise the Northumbrian dialect area. This paper, which concentrates on Tyneside English, has, as its primary goal, to etymologize a set of salient Tyneside linguistic forms, the Tyneside equivalents of Standard English do and to. In Tyneside English, these forms emerge with [ ɪ v] intervocalically, and with [i] (with rich allophony) otherwise. The vowel is claimed to be a result of Northern Fronting; where the consonant [v] appears, it likely reflects a fortition of [u, w], the round vowel’s offglide.

The rounded nasal vowel in the Freising Texts: pointers to linguistic diversity

The rounded nasal vowel in the Freising Texts: pointers to linguistic diversity

An articulatory and acoustic study of /u/ in preboundary position in French: The interaction of compensatory articulation, neutralization avoidance and featural enhancement

This study presents acoustic and electro-magnetic articulography (EMA) data for the back rounded vowel /u/ in preboundary position in French. Five boundary types are examined: the Utterance, the Intonational phrase, the Accentual phrase, the Word and the Syllable. The three speakers studied produce similar acoustic output, with both F1 and F2 becoming lower before stronger prosodic boundaries. However, the Utterance boundary has a particularly strong effect on F1, which is particularly low before this boundary. To achieve the acoustic output observed, the speakers adopt different articulatory strategies at different prosodic boundaries. The strategies observed before the strongest boundaries are tongue dorsum backing (coupled with either raising or lowering, depending on the speaker); tongue tip retraction; and lip protrusion. Somewhat unexpectedly in light of acoustic considerations, lip constriction is observed to be greater before the weaker prosodic boundaries. This result, considered in conjunction with the tongue data and with the lip protrusion data, leads us to suggest that the French speakers in our study are actively aiming to prevent F2 from becoming too high before the weaker prosodic boundaries. We suggest that a high F2 for /u/ may lead to perceptual confusion with the front rounded vowel /y/, which is also present in the French phoneme inventory. This result echoes our previous results for the front unrounded vowel /i/ (Tabain & Perrier, 2005. Articulation and acoustics of /i/ in preboundary position in French. Journal of Phonetics, 33, 77–100), and suggests that the structure of a language's phoneme inventory has important effects on the articulatory strategies adopted by its speakers.

On the causes of compensation for coarticulation: Evidence for phonological mediation

This study examined whether compensation for coarticulation in fricative-vowel syllables is phonologically mediated or a consequence of auditory processes. Smits (2001a) had shown that compensation occurs for anticipatory lip rounding in a fricative caused by a following rounded vowel in Dutch. In a first experiment, the possibility that compensation is due to general auditory processing was investigated using nonspeech sounds. These did not cause context effects akin to compensation for coarticulation, although nonspeech sounds influenced speech sound identification in an integrative fashion. In a second experiment, a possible phonological basis for compensation for coarticulation was assessed by using audiovisual speech. Visual displays, which induced the perception of a rounded vowel, also influenced compensation for anticipatory lip rounding in the fricative. These results indicate that compensation for anticipatory lip rounding in fricative-vowel syllables is phonologically mediated. This result is discussed in the light of other compensation-for-coarticulation findings and general theories of speech perception.

Visual-acoustic mapping in posterior cortical atrophy: Evidence from a single case study

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USAAccepted 6 July 2006IntroductionAnomiacanresultfromarangeofperceptualdeficits(e.g.,agnosia);cen-tral semantic degradation (e.g., dementia); impaired linguistic access (e.g.,aphasia);oracombinationofthesefactors(HodgesPMar-tin & Saffran, 1990). One unexplored possibility, however, is that anomiamayalsostemfromimpairedmappingofarbitraryphonologicalformsontoconcepts. Here, we investigated integrity of the phonology-semantics map-pingprocessinapatientwithposteriorcorticalatrophyassociatedwithAlz-heimer’s disease. We predicted that visual deficits should interfere with theability to link phonetic attributes to a novel object. We introduce anapproach, known as phonetic symbolism, to test this hypothesis.Some phonemic combinations have been found to be associated withideas such as magnitude of physical size, brightness, affection, and propernounsacrossmanyunrelatedlanguages(Nuckolls,1999;Ohala,1994;Sapir,1949). This effect, phonetic symbolism, is tested with a novel object and achoiceofpossiblenonwordnames.The‘‘best’’nameisselectedbymappingacoustic-phoneticpropertiesofaworddirectlyontophysicalfeaturesoftheobject (Ohala, 1994). For example, if one is forced to choose between twonames (pleek or ploke) for a tiny, bright yellow animal, they choose Pleekwithagreementfargreaterthanchance.Thischoiceismadethroughnon-ar-bitrary mapping of phonology directly onto an object’s visual attributes.Phonetic symbolism taps many crucial elements of word learning thatarenotdirectlyaccessiblethroughassessmentofknownobjectsandwords.Inordertocorrectlychoosethename,Pleek,apersonmustperceivesalientvisual attributes (e.g., brightness), process acoustic-phonetic features (e.g.,vowel height), and then complete a mapping of these characteristics. Theuse of novel stimuli (both words and objects), therefore, provides a uniqueway of examining potential deficits in word to object mapping.MethodCase descriptionAtrophy in the occipital and temporal visual areas and posterior por-tions of the parietal lobes causes patients with the visual-variant of Alzhei-mer’s disease (vAD) to have object recognition deficits and visuospatialproblems including optic apraxia and simultanagnosia. As vAD evolves,memory and language difficulties also become prevalent (Levine, Lee, F Ross, Graham, Stuart-Green, & Prins, 1996). CP is a 61-year-old, right-handed female diagnosed with vAD through examinationby a behavioral neurologist and consensus review using NINCDS-ADRDA criteria (McKhann et al., 1984).CP initially presented to the University of Pennsylvania (12/03) withsignificant visual-perceptual difficulties (profound difficulty copying thesimplest visual geometric designs) and also demonstrates mild semanticimpairment (Pyramids & Palm Trees Words 46/52). CP shows impairedconfrontation naming of pictures (Boston Naming Test: 3/15) and speechproduction significant for frequent circumlocutions, word-finding pausesand anomia. She was able to read and could appreciate the color butnot the form of visual stimuli. Structural MRI obtained in 2003 revealedleft ventral-occipital and parietal-occipital atrophy as well as mild rightparietal and inferior frontal atrophy Fig. 1.Experiment 1—Phonetic symbolismCP viewed 25 randomized images of novel objects (i.e., blobs, n = 10)and pseudoanimals (n = 15) presented via E-prime software on a laptopcomputer. Stimuli were manipulated by salience of visual features, includ-ing: brightness, physical size, angularity, roundness, motion, and loudness.Two monosyllabic (CVC or CVCC) nonwords appeared below eachimage. Nonwords varied by medial vowel, which maximally differed byplace and height (e.g., pleek–ploke). CP was instructed to ‘‘choose the bestname’’ for each image by signaling with a key-press. 13 healthy controlsdemonstrated high agreement on the target nonword selected as a namefor each item. Small, bright pseudoanimals were associated with high fre-quency/narrow vocal tract vowels; large, dark pseudoanimals with low fre-quency/wide vocal tract vowels; dull, dark blobs with back vowelsproduced with lip rounding; and sharp, bright blobs with high frequen-cy/narrow vocal tract vowels.ResultsCP did show a strong effect of phonetic symbolism for the manipula-tion of ‘‘roundness’’ collapsed across conditions. That is, CP reliably asso-ciated back, rounded vowels (e.g., ‘‘mome’’) with rounded objects andpseudoanimals (8/8) p < .004. Otherwise she did not associate phoneticfeatures with visual-perceptual attributes of novel objects andpseudoanimals.doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2006.06.075* Corresponding author. Fax: +1 215 349 8464.www.elsevier.com/locate/b&lBrain and Language 99 (2006) 8–219

Articulatory–acoustic relationships during vocal tract growth for French vowels: Analysis of real data and simulations with an articulatory model

This paper reports on the articulatory–acoustic relationships involved during vocal tract growth. Data were taken from a database of ten French vowels uttered by 15 speakers ranging in age from 3 years old to adulthood. Despite the important acoustic variation encountered, one feature is displayed by all the speakers: the production of extreme focal vowels /i/, /u/, /a/, and /y/, realized with a strong concentration of spectral energy related to the proximity of two formant peaks. This feature represents an acoustic goal guiding the speaker's task. Our simulations using an articulatory model demonstrate that the realization of the focalization feature may require different articulatory gestures for young children compared to adults, consisting of adaptive articulatory strategies exploited to compensate for the small pharynx of the former. Perceptual tests show that achieving focalization results in a lower intelligibility for the children than for the adults. Due to the relatively shorter pharyngeal cavity of the child compared to the adult, focalization cannot be achieved together with the perceptual objective related to rounded vowels /y/ in French. Results are discussed in light of the dispersion-focalization theory and the perception for action control theory (PACT).

The shape of boubas: sound–shape correspondences in toddlers and adults

A striking demonstration that sound-object correspondences are not completely arbitrary is that adults map nonsense words with rounded vowels (e.g. bouba) to rounded shapes and nonsense words with unrounded vowels (e.g. kiki) to angular shapes (Köhler, 1947; Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). Here we tested the bouba/kiki phenomenon in 2.5-year-old children and a control group of adults (n =20 per age), using four pairs of rounded versus pointed shapes and four contrasting pairs of nonsense words differing in vowel sound. Overall, participants at both ages matched words with rounded vowels to the rounder shapes and words with unrounded vowels to the pointed shapes (both ps < .0005), with no significant difference between the two ages (p > .10). Such naturally biased correspondences between sound and shape may influence the development of language.

The phonetic profile of Swedish

This chapter is “typological” in two senses: Whereas the first section considers some of the sounds and sound patterns of Swedish from a universal-typological point of view, the second section discusses the considerable phonetic variability observed across the various dialects of the language. It is argued that, with some exceptions, Swedish is typologically fairly mainstream. Exceptions concern particularly the inventory of non-back rounded vowels, voiceless fricatives and partly prosody. The Swedish dialects are found to contain several distinct consonant and vowel types that are not encountered in Standard varieties. It is also found that the intonational structure of the Swedish dialects is fairly complex and diversified. The third section concludes the chapter with some informal observations of possible sound changes in progress. (Less)

The preservation of schwa in the converging phonological system of Frenchville (PA) French

The phonological system of the French of Frenchville, Pennsylvania (USA) demonstrates a dramatic case of transfer in the latest (and last) generation of bilingual French–English speakers: the mid front round vowels, [œ] and [ø], have often been replaced by the English rhoticized schwa as found in the word sir. However, French schwa, which is arguably phonetically non-distinct from the mid front round vowels, does not participate fully in this merger. This result is unexpected given both the phonetic identity of schwa and [ø], and the fact that our speakers are not literate in French and, as such, have no access to the differential orthographic representations manifest between schwa and the mid front round vowels. The data argue strongly that schwa is, in some sense, “real” for these speakers. Based on a phonetic analysis of the vowels under consideration, we argue that transfer between two sound systems cannot be perceived as a simple case of phonetic replacement. Instead, transfer or convergence with English must be viewed as a systemic process that preserves contrast in unexpected ways. In the case at hand, the data suggest that the traditional separation between the phonetic and phonological levels of grammar cannot be maintained as each level contributes to both provoking merger and maintaining contrast in bilingual speech.

An acoustic investigation of the Cantonese vowels in the speech of the adult and child speakers

The study analyzes the formant center frequencies for the seven Cantonese vowels [i, y, u, ε, æ, ɔ, a] from 30 native speakers of Cantonese, 10 male and 10 female adults and 5 male and 5 female 9–10 year old children. Results show that the formant frequencies for the vowels are largest for the female children, followed by the male children, female adults, and male adults in decreasing order. Despite the differences, the patterns of formant frequencies for any one vowel for the different groups are similar. The difference in F-values for any one vowel between the male and female children is smaller than the difference between the male and female adults. As for individual formant frequencies, the difference in F1 between the males and females of the same age group and between the adults and children of the same gender group is smaller for the high vowels [i, y, u] than the non-high vowels [ε, æ, ɔ, a]. The difference in F2 between the males and females of the same age group and between the adults and children of the same gender group is smaller for the high rounded vowels [y, u] than the other vowels. The paper will also present the ratios of speaker group-to-speaker group for individual formant frequencies.

Phonological change in a small language community

Bullock and Gerfen show that two of the last speakers of French in Frenchville, Pennsylvania, systematically replace the French front mid round vowel (in words like deux, neuf) with the rhoticized schwa of American English, their dominant language. As the authors argue, it is unlikely that this sound change would have arisen in the speech of French speakers who were not bilingual in English.

Exploring production-perception relationships for 4-year-old children: A study of compensation strategies to a lip-tube perturbation

The relationships between production and perception for 4-year-old children were examined through a study of compensation strategies to a lip-tube perturbation. Acoustic and perceptual analyses of the rounded vowel [u] produced by 12 4-year-old French speakers were conducted under two conditions: in normal condition and with a 15-mm-diam tube inserted between the lips. Recordings of isolated vowels were made in normal condition before any perturbation (N1), immediately upon insertion of the tube (P1), for each of the next 20 trials in this perturbed condition (P2), and in normal condition after the perturbed trials (N2). Results of the acoustic analyses reveal speaker-dependent alteration of F1, F2, and/or F0 in the perturbed conditions and after the removal of the tube. For some subjects, the tube introduced very little changes; for some others, an increase of F2 was observed in P1, which was generally at least partly compensated during the P2 repetitions. Perceptual data are used to determine optimal combinations of F0, F1, and F2 (in bark) related to these patterns. The data are compared to a previous study conducted with adults [Savariaux et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 106, 381–393 (1999)].