Word-medial Position Research Articles

K’abeena phonology

The article provides descriptive analysis of the phonology of K'abeena, a language belonging to the Afro-Asian phylum, spoken in central Ethiopia. In this article, I identify 25 consonant phonemes and 3 loan phonemes. The loan phonemes are included as they are used in the current language's orthography. The language has five vowels. Vowel length and Gemination of consonants are phonemic in the language. With the exception of /h/ and /f/, which never geminate in the language, the rest of the consonant phonemes appear together to geminate. This only happens in the medial position of the words. Consonant clusters are allowed in word medial position with a maximum of two consonants. The phonological process identified in this article involves processes like assimilation, palatalization and deletion. Kabeena does not appear to be a pitch-accent language, but further research is needed to establish confirmed statements.

베트남인의 한국어 폐쇄음 산출에 대한 한국인의 지각 연구

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perception patterns of Koreans regarding the production of Korean stop consonants by Vietnamese Korean language learners. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted on Koreans' perception of Vietnamese learners’ production of Korean stop consonants.
 The results of the experiment show that when the presentation sound is located at the beginning of the word, the correct answer rate was ‘/ㅌ/ 89%) > /ㅋ/(88%) > /ㅍ/=/ㅂ/(84%) > /ㄱ/=/ㄸ/(74%) ) > /ㄷ/(72%) > /ㅃ/(65%) > /ㄲ/(61%)', and in the case of word-medial onset consonants, ’/ㅍ/, /ㅋ/(91%) > /ㅌ /(88%) > /ㄷ/(68%) > /ㅂ/(61%) > /ㄸ/(60%) > /ㄲ/(51%) > /ㅃ/(46%) > /ㄱ/(40%)’. Except for the case of /ㄸ/ in word-initial and /ㄱ/ in word-medial, accuracy was found to be high in the order of aspirated consonants > plain consonants > tense consonants for both word-initial and word-medial positions. The percentage of correct responses in the word-initial environment was higher than that in the word-medial environment, and this was revealed more clearly through matrix analysis. In both word-initial and word-medial environments, when the target sound was ‘plain’, it was confused with ‘tense’, when it was ‘tense’ it was confused with ‘aspirated’, and when it was ‘aspirated’ it was confused with ‘plain’. Looking at the correct rate for each following vowel, except for the word-medial plain consonant (/ㅣ/ > /ㅜ/ > /ㅏ/), in all other cases, the correct rate was high in the order of /ㅣ/ > /ㅏ/ > /ㅜ/. This result shows that the correct response rate for the following vowels decreases as the vowels move from the front vowels to the back vowels.

The impact of interlingual correspondences on cognate recognition in Slavic intercomprehension

The present paper is devoted to the problem of cognate recognition in an intercomprehension setting, in which the target language is not directly known to the readers, but is closely related to their native language. Previous research has shown that once context is accounted for, intelligibility is partially predicted by measures of interlingual proximity such as Levenshtein distance. Taken alone, however, such measures are insufficient to fully explain empirical data. It has thus been suggested that specific interlingual correspondences may have a more conspicuous impact than others. To verify this hypothesis, 163 East Slavic-speaking learners of L2 Polish were asked to translate a set of non-words, obtained by manipulating a set of Russian words with respect to a single segment (e.g. initial consonant). All non-words were consistent with Polish phonotactics; however, some modifications matched existing phonological correspondences between Polish and Russian, while others did not. Target items were presented in writing through an online survey, initially in isolation, subsequently within a meaningful sentence.The results show that the presence of a meaningful context significantly improves the chances of cognate recognition. Further, non-words containing systematic sound correspondences resulted in a higher recognition rate than non-words comprising arbitrary modifications. Within the latter group, finally, modifications to consonants in word-initial and word-medial position as well as diverging positions of the stress resulted in significantly lower recognition scores.

Word-level prosodic and metrical influences on Hawaiian glottal stop realization.

Previous research on the phonetic realization of Hawaiian glottal stops has shown that it can be produced several ways, including with creaky voice, full closure, or modal voice. This study investigates whether the realization is conditioned by word-level prosodic or metrical factors, which would be consistent with research demonstrating that segmental distribution and phonetic realization can be sensitive to word-internal structure. At the same time, it has also been shown that prosodic prominence, such as syllable stress, can affect phonetic realization. Data come from the 1970s-80s radio program Ka Leo Hawai'i. Using Parker Jones' (Parker Jones, Oiwi. 2010. A computational phonology and morphology of Hawaiian. University of Oxford DPhil. thesis) computational prosodic grammar, words were parsed and glottal stops were automatically coded for word position, syllable stress, and prosodic word position. The frequency of the word containing the glottal stop was also calculated. Results show that full glottal closures are more likely at the beginning of a prosodic word, especially in word-medial position. Glottal stops with full closure in lexical word initial position are more likely in lower frequency words. The findings for Hawaiian glottal stop suggest that prosodic prominence does not condition a stronger realization, but rather, the role of the prosodic word is similar to other languages exhibiting phonetic cues to word-level prosodic structure.

Duration impedes loss of the palatal lateral in Languedocien as compared to Gascon

Previous acoustic evidence suggests loss of /ʎ/ in the Gascon dialect of Occitan is due to contact with French, however this study probes acoustic evidence for the notable retention of /ʎ/ in the Languedocien dialect. Both dialects of Occitan have been in intense long-term contact with French and maintain /ʎ/ in positions where it was lost in the development of French. We analyze 181 tokens of /ʎ/ in oral narratives performed in the contemporary dialects of Gascon and Languedocien in the OcOr Corpus by using mixed-effects linear regression to predict the durations of the lateral and glide segments in word-medial positions in tokens of [ʎj], the most frequently realized variant of /ʎ/ in both dialects. By examining the durations of both the glide-like transition and lateral segment in these tokens, we find that the lateral segment of these variants is longer in Languedocien than other segments in either dialect (p = 0.0009). We propose that the increased duration of the lateral segment renders the lateral feature of /ʎ/ more salient in Languedocien than in Gascon. Thus, this increased duration aides in impeding the loss of the lateral segment due to contact, given that synchronic perception may influence diachronic sound change.

Mandarin lexical tone duration: Impact of speech style, word length, syllable position and prosodic position

This study aims to increase our knowledge of Mandarin lexical tone duration in continuous Mandarin speech. Related variation factors such as the number of syllable(s) in word, the position of syllable in word, its prosodic position and speech style were also explored. Large corpora of casual and journalistic speech (total ∼1000 hours) were used. More than 90% of the words (tokens) used in spoken Mandarin are monosyllabic and disyllabic words. In casual speech, 67% of the wordtokens are monosyllabic and 30% of the word-tokens are disyllabic. In journalistic speech, however, disyllabic words (49%) are more frequently used than monosyllabic words (45%). Tone 4 is the most frequently used tone among the four lexical tones in both casual (34%) and journalistic (36%) speech. Tone 1, Tone 2 and Tone 3 have similar occurrence frequencies in causal speech. Tone 3 appears to be the least frequently used tone in journalistic speech. With regard to tone duration, the results show that Tone 2 tends to have the shortest duration in causal speech and Tone 3 appears to have the longest duration in journalistic speech. Nonetheless, the studied variation factors (number of syllable(s) in word, position of syllable in word and prosodic position) are all found to influence the duration of Mandarin lexical tones, for both causal speech and journalistic speech. Tone durations in monosyllabic words appear to be closer to those of word-final syllables than to other syllable positions in multi-syllabic words. In terms of prosodic position, tone duration tends to increase with higher prosodic level in both casual and journalistic speech. Regardless of tone nature and speech style, the longest tone duration is in phrase-final position, followed by word-final and then word-medial position. Regional variety for tone duration is explored using casual speech productions from speakers of five major cities of North and South-East China, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, Suzhou and Nanjing.

First-Language Phonetic Drift of Yemeni Arabic Stops

This study aims at examining the occurrence and direction of any phonetic interlanguage interference among Yemeni Arabic-English bilinguals by indicating the acoustic similarities and differences of L1 Yemeni Arabic stops produced by bilinguals and comparing it to monolinguals. It investigates Voice Onset Time of stops in initial and medial position as well as Preceding Vowel Duration of stops in medial position. A total of 60 native Yemeni Arabic subjects were involved in this study. Thirty subjects were late bilinguals with English as their L2 whereas the other 30 were monolinguals. Data was collected through two production tests: one for the bilingual group and the other for the monolingual group. All the subjects were asked to produce a list of Arabic words with the target stops /b, t, d, k/ in word-initial and word-medial position. Each subject in both samples was recorded individually. The bilingual subjects showed significantly longer mean Voice Onset Time values than monolinguals for /t, k/ whereas they showed mean Voice Onset Time values for the voiced stops /b, d/ that were very close in values to the monolingual group. However, bilinguals showed shorter mean values than monolinguals for the Preceding Vowel Duration, but the difference was not significant. The findings reveal that bilinguals showed signs of English-induced L1 phonetic drift in their pronunciation of Arabic /t, k/ whereas not in their realisation of Arabic /b, d/. This study provides conclusive evidence that L2 characteristics can systematically affect matured L1 phonological systems even among late bilinguals.

Analysis of Inter-language Syllabification of English by Pakistani Hindko- English Speakers

Hindko is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Hazara and Azad Kashmir regions. The current research aims to analyze the interlanguage syllabification of English by Pakistani-Hindko speakers of English under optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993). The current study argues that Hindko English speakers syllabify the English syllables influenced by L1. The study uses the elicitation method to collect the data. The syllabification was analyzed under the optimality framework. The current study analyses the markedness and alignment constraints that predict the syllabification of stop clusters at word medial position by Hindko English speakers. The study finds that Hindko-English syllabification can be correctly predicted through parsing and phonological processes like epenthesis and ambisyllabicity. Moreover, the study reveals that in Hindko, these processes are conditioned by markedness and faithfulness constraints. In addition, the study concludes that in Hindko-English, cyclic CON, EVAL and local encoding are the best ways to study the phonological processes. The study recommends a further, in-depth investigation of phonological processes like epenthesis based on spectrographic analysis.

External photoglottography, intra-oral air pressure, airflow and acoustic data on the Korean fricatives /s’, s/

From simultaneous recordings of the external photoglottography, intra-oral air pressure (P_io), airflow and acoustic data from four native Seoul Korean speakers (2 male and 2 female), we have found that the two fricatives are not significantly different in glottal opening peak and airflow peak height either word-initially or word-medially and that the duration of aspiration is significantly reduced in word-medial /s/, compared to those in word-initial /s/, not in /s’/. We have also found that the duration of a high P_io plateau is significantly longer in /s/ than in /s’/ both word-initially and word-medially and that airflow resistance (R=P_io/U) at the onset and offset of a P_io plateau and at the time of airflow peak height is significantly higher in /s’/ than in /s/ across the contexts. However, the differences in P_io peak and F0 are not significant. In addition, the transition time to reach airflow peak height from the offset of a P_io plateau is found to be significantly longer in /s/ than /s’/ in both word-initial and word-medial positions. No significant differences in glottal opening peak and airflow peak height confirm that /s/ is specified as [–spread glottis] like /s’/. As for the other significant differences, we propose that /s/ is [–tense], and /s’/ [+tense].

ПРОДУКЦИЈА ПОСТВОКАЛСКОГ /r/ КОД СРПСКИХ СТУДЕНАТА АНГЛИСТИКЕ

This paper presents a study of linguistic and sociolinguistic factors that modulate Serbian EFL learners’ production of postvocalic /r/. The aim of the study was to assess the degree of rhoticity, i.e. to test whether Serbian EFL learners’ speech is closer to the rhotic (General American), or the non-rhotic (Southern British Standard) English variety. Fifteen students (8 female and 7 male) participated in this research as informants. As for the external factors, the informants’ gender, target norm, and their media exposure to the rhotic/non-rhotic English variety were closely observed. Internal factors which were taken into account were: syllable structure, the quality of the preceding vowel and lexical frequency. The results revealed that Serbian EFL learners’ speech is, in fact, significantly closer (73.99%) to the rhotic English variety. The realization of postvocalic /r/ was higher among men, especially among those informants who labeled their pronunciation as General American and among the informants who reported greater exposure to the said English variety. In terms of linguistic factors, postvocalic /r/ was realized most often in less frequent words, specifically in word-medial position. The research findings also suggest that back vowels, in particular, tend to favor rhotic pronunciation.

A sociophonetic approach to the acquisition of Spanish rhotics in a bilingual community

This study explores Spanish-English bilingual children’s acquisition of Spanish rhotics. The children’s productions are compared to a group of Spanish-English bilingual adults who represent the Spanish spoken in the same community: Albuquerque, New Mexico. In their narrations of a wordless picture-book, both children and adults produce more non-canonical than canonical variants. Binary logistic regressions run on 817 rhotics produced by 21 children, ages 3-9-years-old, and 6 adults demonstrate that non-canonical variants, instead of canonical variants are more likely to occur as Spanish use increases and in word medial position. The results point towards the propagation of a working change in Spanish rhotics that sees both articulatory and sociolinguistic motivations. Implications for research on phonetic-phonological development are also discussed

Extreme stop allophony in Mixtec spontaneous speech: Data, word prosody, and modelling

Word-level prosody plays an important role in processes of consonant lenition. Typically, consonants in word-initial position are strengthened while those in word-medial position are lenited (Keating, Cho, Fougeron, & Hsu, 2003). In this paper we examine the relationship between word-prosodic position and obstruent lenition in a spontaneous speech corpus of Yoloxóchitl Mixtec, an endangered Mixtecan language spoken in Mexico. The language exhibits a surprising amount of lenition in the realization of otherwise voiceless unaspirated stops and voiceless fricatives in careful speech. In Experiment 1, we examine the relationships between word position, consonant duration, and passive voicing and find that word-medial pre-tonic position is the locus of both consonant lengthening and less passive voicing. Non-pre-tonic consonants are produced with more voicing and shorter duration. We also find that the functional status of the morpheme plays a role in voicing lenition. In Experiment 2, we examine manner lenition and find a similar pattern – word-medial pre-tonic stops are more often realized with complete closure relative to non-pre-tonic stops, which are more often realized with incomplete closure. In Experiment 3, we model these lenition patterns using a series of deep neural networks and find that, even with limited training data, we can achieve reasonably high accuracy in the automatic categorization of lenition patterns. The results of this research both complement recent work on the phonetics of lenition in the world’s languages (Katz and Fricke, 2018; White et al., 2020) and provide computational tools for modeling and predicting patterns of extreme lenition.

The /s/ ~ /z/ voice contrast in L1 French, L1 Spanish and L1 Italian learners of L2 English

Abstract In this study, we present a comparative corpus-based analysis of the English /s/ ~ /z/ voice contrast for learners of three L1s. Acoustic analysis of periodicity and duration for target segments confirms expectations based on L1 transfer and on the Markedness Differential Hypothesis. We found that, due to the absence of phonemic /z/ in Spanish, L1 Spanish learners exhibit great difficulty in producing voiced realisations for /z/, and more so in the (more marked) word-final position than in the (less marked) word-medial position. In contrast, L1 French and L1 Italian learners did not exhibit difficulties in reproducing the voicing patterns of English /s/ ~ /z/ neither word-medially nor word-finally, due to the existence of these sounds in their L1 (and despite differences in relative markedness for these two positions, especially considering that word-final /z/ does not exist in Italian). Finally, we observed the impact of orthography on the production of L1 French and L1 Italian learners, affecting the periodicity of /s/ and /z/ depending on spelling transparency.

Consonants lost: a Swedish girl with protracted phonological development

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the phonology of a Swedish girl, aged 3 years 10 months, with extensive phonological difficulties that include an unusual phonological pattern. She had relatively well-developed phonological building blocks in terms of features, stress pattern and word length (number of syllables), but had extensive difficulties regarding syllable and word shapes, with frequent deletions of both segments and whole syllables. Word-initial position was dominated by non-continuant consonants, both voiced and voiceless, with extensive deletion. Word-medial position was dominated by voiceless obstruents, with extensive use of [j] in place of voiced consonants. Word-final position was similar to word-medial, but with more deletion than [j]. Non-initial stressed syllables resemble word-initial syllables. Consonant clusters mirrored singletons, i.e. with similar substitution patterns or deletions. We present a non-linear analysis of her speech production, and a plan for intervention targeting her special difficulties.

Effects of word position and flanking vowel on the implementation of glottal stop: Evidence from Hawaiian

Much of the literature on the phonetic realization of phonemic or allophonic glottal stop has shown that it is often not produced with full glottal closure. Some studies of languages like English or German suggest that full glottal closure might be more likely in stressed syllables or positions of prosodic prominence (Garellek, 2014; Kohler, 1994), but the conditioning factors in the realization of contrastive glottal stop are less well understood. This study focuses on Hawaiian, which has phonemic glottal stop that is contrastive in both word-initial (/ʔaka/ ‘laugh’ vs. /aka/ ‘shadow’) and word-medial position (/pua/ ‘flower’ vs. /puʔa/ ‘to excrete’) (Parker Jones, 2018). Glottal stop realization is examined with respect to three factors: word position, different vs. identical flanking vowel (/puʔa/ ‘to excrete’ vs. /puʔu/ ‘hill’), and duration of the target /V(#)ʔV/ sequence. Recordings from the Ka Leo Hawaiʻi Hawaiian language radio program that aired from 1972 to 1988 were examined. Results show that the majority of phonemic glottal stops are produced as a period of creaky voice, most often in a modal voice-creaky voice-modal voice configuration, but also as modal-creaky or creaky-modal. Full glottal stops were more likely in word-initial position, and identical flanking vowels led to longer periods of creaky voice. Shorter target intervals led to longer proportions of creaky voice. These findings for phonemic glottal stop are consistent with research on the timing of contrastive voice quality in vowels, which has shown that modal-nonmodal-modal patterns are preferred to ensure that vowel quality, voice quality, and tone (for languages with all three) are recoverable (Silverman, 1995/1997). The effects of word position and flanking vowel are also related to recoverability and segmentation. The potential articulatory configurations common to glottal stops and creaky voice which may explain why they are on a continuum are also discussed.

Domain-initial effects on C-to-V and V-to-V coarticulation in French: A corpus-based study

This corpus-based study investigates whether and how coarticulation is modulated domain-initially in French. Post-boundary IP-initial sequences were compared to the same sequence in word-medial position according to the composition and structural link between the elements of that sequence. We examined 4 cases of coarticulation: C-to-V coarticulation within syllable in #CV and #VC. sequences, across syllables in #V.C sequences, and anticipatory V2-to-V1 coarticulation in #V1.C(C)V2 sequences. Coarticulation was determined by the amount of spectral change in the formant of the vowel /a/ according to its context: an alveolar vs. uvular C context for C-to-V coarticulation, and a high vs. low V context for V-to-V coarticulation. The analysis of 15,000 tokens of /a/ revealed that coarticulation can be modulated by prosody but this effect appeared to depend on the structural relationships (the relation of the sounds relative to each other and to the syllable structure) between the elements in the IP-initial sequence. A reduction of coarticulation of IP-initial sequence was only found for the two cases of anticipatory C-to-V coarticulation (VC and V.C sequences). Interestingly, this reduction of coarticulation was larger in the heterosyllabic V.C sequence. These results are discussed in terms of difference of the coupling between the elements in the sequence and the proximity of the vowel to the boundary. They suggest that coupling relations constrain prosodically-induced variation.

The interplay of stress saliency and word beginning saliency: an experimental study

There is a robust amount of evidence (mostly from English) suggesting that, while listening to speech, the initial part of words is scrutinised with more attention. Similarly, data suggests that stressed syllables are processed with more precision than unstressed syllables. How do these two kinds of saliencies interact? In this experimental study, the issue was investigated in a group of Italian speakers. Participants were presented with minimal pairs of nonwords differing in one individual phoneme (and specifically one trait, voicing). Nonwords were created as to contain phonological clusters in either an initial or medial position, and, similarly, stress was placed in either initial or medial position. Results show that when the clusters were in word medial position, there was a large effect of stress, with stressed syllables being recognised with greater accuracy. When the clusters were in initial position, instead, accuracy was at an intermediate level and we did not observe any effect of stress. The result is discussed in relation to previous literature addressing these phenomena in English.

Question of syllable structure: contextual acquisition of English /p/ and /k/ in a laboratory setting

Using a laboratory approach, this study investigates the acquisition of the stops /p k/ by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) learners of English in three contexts: in word-medial position before (1) /t/ or (2) /n/ and (3) in word-final position. Because BP allows only /S r l N/ in these positions, learners tend to resort to a process of i-epenthesis (e.g., cha[pi]ter, te[ki]nique, magi[ki]). While /p k/ clearly syllabify as onsets after i-epenthesis, there is no consensus on their syllabic ailiation in the target contexts. Three views can be distinguished. According to orthodox phonology, /p k/ syllabify as codas in all three locations. From the Government Phonology view, however, /p k/ are codas only word-medially before /t/; in the other two contexts, they syllabify as onsets of empty nuclei. Finally, Strict CV proposes that /p k/ in all three cases are onsets of empty nuclei. In previous research, we established that /p k/ are acquired diferentially in medial position before /t/ and in final position, the latter being the more challenging context. This finding provides tentative support for the Government Phonology claim that /p k/ instantiate a diferent syllabification in these two contexts and hence constitute a distinct learning challenge. To explore the matter further, we include here the context of /p k/ in word-medial position before /n/. A set of non-word-learning tasks and pre/post production tests determine that this context patterns with word-final consonants, as the Government Phonology view predicts. Statistical results support the prediction.

Syllable Structure of Oromo (Harar dialect) Based on Moraic Approach

This concept focused on the syllable structure of Oromo (Harar dialect) based on moraic theory. Based on this concerned idea, it has attempted to describe the syllable types that occur in Harar Oromo. These are CV, CVC, CVV, and CVVC syllables. Therefore, based on the notion of the moraic theory, the language assigned CV and CVC syllables as light, whereas CVV and CVVC syllables as heavy. In connection with light and heavy syllables, it has revealed that mono-moraic syllable as light, while bi-moraic and tri-moraic syllables as heavy in Oromo (Harar dialect). In these types of syllables, in addition to vowels (short and long), consonant geminates and clusters bear only one mora in word-medial position. In Harar Oromo, word-initial and final consonant gemination and cluster are not allowed. In the language, each word has initial consonant in underlying representation. However, in surface representation onset-less words are presented due to the deletion of the voiceless glottal plosive sound /Ɂ /. Due to this fact, some words begin with the vowel /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/and /a/ in the language. However, because of the derivation of surface structure from the underlying representation, onset consonants are obligatory constituents. Keywords: Phonology, Syllable Structure, Moraic theory, Harar Oromo, light and heavy syllables, and gemination and cluster. DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/71-01 Publication date: August 31 st 2020

Initial weakening in Mixtecan languages

Prosodic boundaries influence patterns of consonantal strengthening and weakening across languages (Fougeron and Keating, 1997; Kakadelis, 2018; Katz and Fricke, 2018; Keating et al., 2003; White et al., 2020). Onset obstruents/nasals in prosodically prominent positions are lengthened and produced with greater contact between active and passive articulators (Fougeron and Keating, 1997; Fletcher, 2010; Keating et al., 2003; Lavoie, 2001). Typically, articulatory strengthening occurs in utterance-initial and word-initial position while weakening/reduction occurs in word-medial position (Katz and Fricke, 2018). We provide phonetic evidence that certain obstruents in word-medial, pre-tonic position are both lengthened and strengthened in Itunyoso Triqui, an indigenous language of Mexico, while word-initial obstruents are often shorter and reduced. We examined 67 min (8933 segments) from a spontaneous speech corpus produced by nine native speakers; and measured duration, voicing lenition, and spirantization. Onset consonants were lengthened slightly in stem-final (stressed) syllables but shortened elsewhere. For sonorant consonants, no utterance-initial lengthening was observed. These findings agree with previous work on a related Mixtecan language—Yoloxochitl Mixtec (DiCanio et al., submitted)—and pose unique challenges for views hypothesizing that consonantal strengthening is either (a) universal or (b) serves to enhance word-level parsing (Katz and Fricke, 2018; White et al., 2020).