Syllable-final Consonants Research Articles

The fronting of back vowels after *j in Slavonic

Abstract In the field of Slavonic historical phonology, it has long been known that many of the Proto-Indo-European back vowels become front after *j in Late Common Slavonic (henceforth LCS). We call this sound change Vowel Fronting. Vowel Fronting plays an important role in the rise of one of the major characteristics of the Slavonic languages, namely, the distinction between hard and soft declensions. However, not all the back vowels become front after *j in LCS, and the exact conditions for the vowel fronting have not been found yet. Here we show that the fronting is a regular sound change. The presence or absence of the etymological syllable-final consonants, which are lost in LCS, plays a decisive role in Vowel Fronting. By assuming that Vowel Fronting occurred before syllable-final consonants are lost, we define Vowel Fronting as a sound law that occurs in the following four environments without any exception: (1) in final closed syllables, (2) in light syllables, (3) between two *j’s, and (4) when the nucleus is *y [ɨ].

Phylogenetic insight into the origin of tones.

The origin of tone, also known as tonogenesis, has long been a topic of great interest in language evolution and human cognition studies. Several linguistic studies of tonal languages have proposed various hypotheses that tonal origin may be related to different changes of phonological structures. However, such hypotheses have not been quantitatively tested in an evolutionary framework. Here, we conducted phylogenetic comparative analyses to assess the likelihood of different hypotheses of tonogenetic mechanisms across 106 Sino-Tibetan languages, of which approximately 70% are tonal. Our results showed that the presence of tones has a strong phylogenetic pattern and that Proto-Sino-Tibetan languages were most likely non-tonal. Our findings identified that tonal origin was strongly associated with the evolution of specific phonological structures, such as the loss of syllable-final consonants and voice quality on vowels. Furthermore, we found that tonal origin probably did not influence the diversification rates of Sino-Tibetan languages. These findings enabled us to better understand that tone arose as a compensatory mechanism for the structural organization and evolution of languages.

Tones in Danish dialects compared with Low German and Franconian tones

The article deals with tonal differences in Danish, northern Low German, and Franconian dialects, which appeared after the apocope. Dissyllabic words and forms become monosyllabic, but they continue to differ due to differences in accents: CVC — CVCV > CVC1 — CVC2, as in /hu.’s/ n. sg. hus ‘house’ — /hu.sә/ n. pl. huse ‘houses’ > /hu.s1/ — /hu.s2/ in Southern Jutlandic, /hu.s/ n.sg. nom/acc. Haus ‘house’ — /hu.sә/ Hause ‘house’ dat. sg. > /hu.s1/ — /hu.s2/ in northern Low German dialects and /haus/ n. sg. nom./acc. Haus ‘house’ — /hausә/ dat. sg. Hause ‘house’ > /haus1/ — /haus2/ in Franconian Arzbach dialect. The appearance of such tonal differences is associated with a sharp increase in monosyllabic words. The development in the Danish apocopated dialects has much in common with the development in northern Low German and Franconian dialects. It concerns not only the appearance of tones due to the apocope and the same lexical and morphological distribution of the accents in related words and forms (see above), but even the spread of the accent of apocope to original monosyllabic words with a special phonemic basis (spontaneous accentuation), the long phonetic duration of which was realized by the speakers as an accent of the apocope. Tonal differences of root morphemes, along with the coincidence of the root with the syllable and with the increase of the difference between syllable-initial and syllablefinal consonants, turn out to be one of the most important means of segmentation of the root morpheme in a text. The question is also raised about the possible contact nature of the apocope and of the appearance of the tonal differences.

중국 방언 화자들을 대상으로 한 한국어 발음 교육 연구를 위한 제언 -음절 말 자음 습득 관련 연구를 중심으로-

중국 방언 화자들을 대상으로 한 한국어 발음 교육 연구를 위한 제언 -음절 말 자음 습득 관련 연구를 중심으로-

초급 중국인 학습자의 한국어 자음 발음 유형 분석 -음절 경계의 자음을 중심으로 -

The goal of this study is to analyze articulatory errors of Korean consonants in the pronunciations of Chinese learners in Korean. In articulating Korean words, to enunciate any consonant sequence of a syllable boundary means to vocalize a final consonant by overlapping it with the subsequent initial consonant. This paper investigates these Korean phonological phenomena through the findings of Chinese students’ Korean pronunciations. There are three basic types of errors in phonetics at the consonantal sequences of syllable boundaries when Chinese students phonate Korean. Firstly, the syllable final deletion which is considered as the most typical error from Chinese learners occurs in various types of consonantal sequences. Although Chinese /n, ŋ/ can be distributed in syllable final positions, the Chinese students tend to delete Korean syllable finals such as ‘ㄴ,ㅇ’ due to their both distributional restrictions and characteristics of deleting convention of their native language. Secondly, the syllable initial alternation occurred in an isolated syllables can happen due to pronunciation errors of Korean obstruents. In this case, any syllable final consonants do not have any specific roles concerned with this progress. Lastly, the syllable final alteration attempted to the consonants has low sonority. The altered syllable final consonants tend to maintain their inherent places of articulations.

음절 연쇄에서 나타나는 일본인 학습자의 한국어 종성 발음 유형

This study aims to analyze the pronouncing patterns of Japanese learner in Korean syllable final consonant in terms of place and manner of articulation. For the analysis, we have assembled and researched actual data of the elementary-level learner’s pronunciation. As a result of the research, we claim the three types of pronouncing error which are concerned with the place assimilation, open syllabification and the changing of articulation based on the place and manner. In Japanese, there are phonemes so-called ‘sokuon(促音, つ)’ and ‘hatsuon(撥 音, ん)’ also depicted as /Q/ and /N/ that can be recognized as the coda. These elements influence the learner’s pronunciation of Korean syllable final consonants that is added up to typical error causes ill-formed place assimilation and the open syllabification. The Japanese learner’s error, however, is not only concerned with the place of underlying /Q/ and /N/. They also change the sonority of obstruent to avoid the unmarked segmental sequence. Moreover, some errors are caused by the asymmetry of phonetic feature between Japanese and Korean syllable final nasal.

Consonant Deletion and Eastern Andalusian Spanish Vowels: The Effect of Word-final /s/, /r/ and /θ/ Deletion on /i/

Syllable-final consonant deletion has been widely documented in Eastern Andalusian Spanish, although the effects of consonant deletion on preceding vowels are still unknown. Studies analyzing syllable-final consonants in Eastern Andalusian Spanish have focused on /-s/, disregarding other consonants which are also deleted in this position. The present paper aims to extend this traditional focus by analyzing how /-s/, /-r/ and /-θ/ deletion affects preceding /i/. After analyzing 383 samples of /i/ word-finally and before underlying word-final /s/, /r/ and /θ/ in Western Almería (Eastern Andalusia), it is confirmed that the deletion of these three consonants changes the quality of preceding /i/. Furthermore, the results of a perception test confirm that speakers of Eastern Andalusian Spanish can identify whether or not /i/ is followed by an underlying /-s/, /-r/ or /-θ/ and they can also identify two types of /i/ in isolation: word-final /i/ and /i/ preceding underlying /-r/; this identification occurs at a rate which is statistically significant. It is hypothesized that, apart from vowel height and frontness, a suprasegmental feature could be the perceptual cue used to identify an underlying consonant after a vowel in this variety of Spanish.

Phonological vulnerability for school-aged Spanish-English-speaking bilingual children

ABSTRACT This study examined accuracy on syllable-final (coda) consonants in newly-learned English-like nonwords to determine whether school-aged bilingual children may be more vulnerable to making errors on English-only codas than their monolingual, English-speaking peers, even at a stage in development when phonological accuracy in productions of familiar words is high. Bilingual Spanish-English-speaking second-graders (age 7–9) with typical development (n = 40) were matched individually with monolingual peers on age, sex, and speech skills. Participants learned to name sea monsters as part of five computerized word learning tasks. Dependent t-tests revealed bilingual children were less accurate than monolingual children in producing codas unique to English; however, the groups demonstrated equivalent levels of accuracy on codas that occur in both Spanish and English. Results suggest that, even at high levels of English proficiency, bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children may demonstrate lower accuracy than their monolingual English-speaking peers on targets that pattern differently in their two languages. Differences between a bilingual’s two languages can be used to reveal targets that may be more vulnerable to error, which could be a result of cross-linguistic effects or more limited practice with English phonology.

Four mid back vowels in Eastern Andalusian Spanish

AbstractThe deletion of syllable-final consonants in Eastern Andalusian Spanish has been extensively documented; however, there is no consensus about its effect on neighbouring vowels. Researchers have focused on the effects of /s/ deletion on vowels to analyse how its semantic value is conveyed, while other consonants which are also deleted have been ignored. This paper examines the effects of word-final /s/, /r/, and /θ/ deletion on preceding /o/ from the point of view of production and perception. Regarding production, acoustic analyses of data from El Ejido (Eastern Andalusia), show specific changes to the F1 and F2 of /o/ depending on the underlying consonant it precedes (/s/, /r/, or /θ/). Likewise, a perception test demonstrates that Eastern Andalusian speakers can distinguish between more types of mid back vowels than previously thought.

Phonological acquisition of Korean consonants in conversational speech produced by young Korean children.

This study investigates the phonological acquisition of Korean consonants using conversational speech samples collected from sixty monolingual typically developing Korean children aged two, three, and four years. Phonemic acquisition was examined for syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants. Results showed that Korean children acquired stops and nasals followed by affricates, fricatives, and the liquid. In general, Korean consonants were acquired earlier in syllable-initial position compared to syllable-final position, except for the liquid /l/. The findings are compared with previous research based on single-word assessments, and differences that appear to be associated with the unique morphological system of Korean are noted.

The Influence of Moraic Structure on L2 English Syllable-Final Consonants

[Abstract not available]

Perception of English Consonants in Different Prosodic Positions by Korean Learners of English

The focus of this study was to investigate whether there is a position effect on identification accuracy of L2 consonants by Korean listeners and to examine how Korean listeners perceive the phonetic properties of initial and final consonants produced by a Korean learner of English and an English native speaker. Most studies examining L2 learners` perception of L2 sounds have focused on the segmental level but very few studies have examined the role of prosodic position in L2 learners` perception. In the present study, an identification test was conducted for English consonants /p, t, k, f, ɵ, s, ʃ/ in CVC prosodic structures. The results revealed that Korean listeners identified syllable-initial consonants more accurately than syllable-final consonants. The perceptual accuracy in syllable initial consonants may be attributable to the enhanced phonetic properties in the initial consonants. A significant correlation was found between error rates and F2 onset/offset for stops and fricatives, and between perceptual accuracy and RMS burst energy for stops. However, the identification error patterns were found to be different across consonant types and between the different language speakers. In the final position, Korean listeners had difficulty in identifying /p/, /f/, /ɵ/, and /s/ when they were produced by a Korean speaker and showed more errors in /p/, /t/, /f/, /ɵ/, and /s/ when they were spoken by an English native speaker. Comparing to the perception of English consonants spoken by a Korean speaker, greater error rates and diverse error patterns were found in the perception of consonants produced by an English native speaker. The present study provides the evidence that prosodic position plays a crucial role in the perception of L2 segments.

Consonant acquisition in the Malay language: A cross-sectional study of preschool aged malay children

To date, there has been little research done on phonological acquisition in the Malay language of typically developing Malay-speaking children. This study serves to fill this gap by providing a systematic description of Malay consonant acquisition in a large cohort of preschool-aged children between 4- and 6-years-old. In the study, 326 Malay-dominant speaking children were assessed using a picture naming task that elicited 53 single words containing all the primary consonants in Malay. Two main analyses were conducted to study their consonant acquisition: (1) age of customary and mastery production of consonants; and (2) consonant accuracy. Results revealed that Malay children acquired all the syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants before 4;06-years-old, with the exception of syllable-final /s/, /h/ and /l/ which were acquired after 5;06-years-old. The development of Malay consonants increased gradually from 4- to 6 years old, with female children performing better than male children. The accuracy of consonants based on manner of articulation showed that glides, affricates, nasals, and stops were higher than fricatives and liquids. In general, syllable-initial consonants were more accurate than syllable-final consonants while consonants in monosyllabic and disyllabic words were more accurate than polysyllabic words. These findings will provide significant information for speech-language pathologists for assessing Malay-speaking children and designing treatment objectives that reflect the course of phonological development in Malay.

Factors That Enhance English-Speaking Speech-Language Pathologists' Transcription of Cantonese-Speaking Children's Consonants

To investigate speech-language pathology students' ability to identify errors and transcribe typical and atypical speech in Cantonese, a nonnative language. Thirty-three English-speaking speech-language pathology students completed 3 tasks in an experimental within-subjects design. Task 1 (baseline) involved transcribing English words. In Task 2, students transcribed 25 words spoken by a Cantonese adult. An average of 59.1% consonants was transcribed correctly (72.9% when Cantonese-English transfer patterns were allowed). There was higher accuracy on shared English and Cantonese syllable-initial consonants /m,n,f,s,h,j,w,l/ and syllable-final consonants. In Task 3, students identified consonant errors and transcribed 100 words spoken by Cantonese-speaking children under 4 additive conditions: (1) baseline, (2) +adult model, (3) +information about Cantonese phonology, and (4) all variables (2 and 3 were counterbalanced). There was a significant improvement in the students' identification and transcription scores for conditions 2, 3, and 4, with a moderate effect size. Increased skill was not based on listeners' proficiency in speaking another language, perceived transcription skill, musicality, or confidence with multilingual clients. Speech-language pathology students, with no exposure to or specific training in Cantonese, have some skills to identify errors and transcribe Cantonese. Provision of a Cantonese-adult model and information about Cantonese phonology increased students' accuracy in transcribing Cantonese speech.

韓国人海事英語の音声的特徴について―日本人が感じる外国語訛り―

The present study investigated pronunciation elements of Korean speakers' Maritime English that are likely to hinder successful English communication between Japanese and Korean speakers working in maritime sectors. Contrastive analyses of English, Japanese, and Korean yielded descriptions of phonological/phonetic characteristics in Korean accented English and predictions of difficulties Japanese listeners may encounter. This was followed by the analysis of Maritime English data pronounced by eight students of a maritime institute in Korea and accent judgment by Japanese listeners. The Japanese listeners were predicted not to perceive accent in sound pairs such as /l/ and /r/ since the two sounds are not distinguishable in Japanese in the first place, while it was expected voiced sounds pronounced as voiceless in certain environments due to Korean phonology would be judged accented. Also, where realization of a sound deviates from the value expected by Japanese listeners, e.g., /æ/ realized as [e], /f/ realized as [p], it was expected Japanese listeners would point out foreign accent. Although the majority of the results were consistent with what had been expected, some of the results, e.g., perception of syllable-final consonants and consonant sequences, did not match the predictions made by contrastive analysis.

Locus equations as measures of consonantal variation in Wisconsin English: Revisiting the vowel-to-consonant transition

Extant literature on vowel-to-consonant (VC) locus equations (defined as a regression line fit to F2 transition measurements of one consonant paired with many vowels) suggests that they lack the high linearity of the corresponding consonant-to-vowel ones (CV) [Sussman et al. 1997]. Measurements of the second formant taken at the vocalic midpoint and last glottal pulse yielded four VC locus equations from 31 respondents from west-central Wisconsin for the syllable-final consonants /d, t, g, k/ (n = 124). Previous work with WI English indicates the existence of a differential in locus equations for the voiced vs. voiceless velar stops [Purnell 2008]. Apical stops are included for comparison across place of articulation (i.e. apical to velar) with no differential expected. High levels of linearity were found for VC locus equations for all the consonants examined. Fitting second-order locus equations [Chennoukh, et al. 1995, 1997] to the coefficients revealed a differential between /g/ and /k/, but not /d/ and /t/. Moreover, discriminant analyses yielded higher classification rates for locus equations than for token level data. These results run counter to previous characterizations of VC locus equations and suggest the potential for the use of locus equations as measures of dialect-specific coarticulation.

Maldivian Thaana, Japanese kana, and the representation of moras in writing

Thaana, the script used to write the Maldivian language Dhivehi, represents the segments—the individual vowels and consonants—of the language but also notates the mora count of its syllables by assigning long vowels two vowel marks each and by using an absence-of-vowel mark on syllable-final consonants. The two Japanese kana—hiragana and katakana—do not represent individual segments, but they too notate mora count by giving long vowels two signs and by using signs for syllable-final consonants. In both languages, the kinds of consonants that can occur syllable finally are severely restricted. It is the presence or absence of such a consonant, rather than the identity of the consonant, that is important. Using a writing system that represents mora count thus makes sense in both languages. Yet Thaana and the two kana otherwise work on different principles, so it is not adequate to call them simply moraic writing systems. This prompts an expansion of the inventory of script types: Thaana is a moraic alphabet...

Analysis of stressed human speech

Stress is a condition in which the normal speech of a person is changed. It has been observed that stressed syllables are longer than unstressed ones. The investigation of the speaker's stress is based on specific changes in short-time spectrum of phonemes. Comparative results between the normal speech and stressful speech are achieved. In case of speech under stress, the obtained spectra differ towards the higher frequency due to enhanced pitch modulation observed in the envelope of the normal speech spectrum. In this work, a new database of speech under stress and normal condition consisting of data collected during the examination of final year students. Frequency domain analysis is most useful for speech processing and is done in this paper. It is observed that stress primarily affects vowel duration, whereas syllable final consonants have little stress variation and the durations typically differ 20%-40% between stressed and unstressed syllables.

Accounting for Variabilityin 2-Year-Olds' Productionof Coda Consonants

One of the challenges in child language research is determining when children have acquired a particular linguistic structure, and of particular interest is the identification of factors that contribute to variable performance. The purpose of the current study is to better understand the mechanisms underlying children's variable production of syllable-final (coda) consonants (e.g., moon). Fifteen 2-year-olds were asked to imitate novel words of different phonological shapes. Production accuracy was assessed by comparing coda consonant production in stressed versus unstressed syllables, in word-medial versus word-final syllables, in monosyllabic versus bisyllabic words, and also stop codas versus nasal codas. Children were most accurate at producing codas in monosyllables, and least likely to produce codas in medial unstressed syllables, with no systematic segmental effects. Because existing data cast doubt on purely perceptual accounts of the role of acoustic prominence, we argue that the longer durations of acoustically prominent syllables provide learners with more time to articulate coda consonants, thereby enhancing production accuracy. This article concludes with a discussion of the larger implications of variability in phonological development.

Baudrillard : Terrorisme et violence

Baudrillard : Terrorisme et violence