Comparative Analysis of Various Transformation Techniques for Voiceless Consonants Modeling

In this paper, a comparison of various transformation techniques, namely Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Discrete Walsh Hadamard Transform (DWHT) is performed in the context of their application to voiceless consonant modeling. Speech features based on these transformation techniques are extracted. These features are mean and derivative values of cepstrum coefficients, derived from each transformation. Fea-ture extraction is performed on the speech signal divided into short-time seg-ments. The kNN and Naive Bayes methods are used for phoneme classification. Experiments show that DFT and DCT give better classification accuracy than DWHT. The result of DFT was not significantly different from DCT, but it was for DWHT. The same tendency was revealed for DCT. It was checked with the usage of the ANOVA test that the difference between results obtained by DCT and DWHT is significant

Phonology in the Twentieth Century

The original (1985) edition of this work attempted to cover the main lines of development of phonological theory from the end of the 19th century through the early 1980s. Much work of importance, both theoretical and historiographic, has appeared in subsequent years, and the present edition tries to bring the story up to the end of the 20th century, as the title promised. This has involved an overall editing of the text, in the process correcting some errors of fact and interpretation, as well as the addition of new material and many new references

System PIE : The Primary Phoneme Inventory and Sound Law System for Proto-Indo-European

The Indo-European (IE) sound laws are the best known of all language families. Yet many laws remain incompletely formulated due to a failure in the interpretation of the Old Anatolian laryngeal. The postulation of multiple laryngeals (at least three in the mainstream laryngeal theory) has led to a detour in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). A single laryngeal PIE *ḫ ≡ Ḫi. ḫ was already discovered by Ladislav Zgusta, however, and subsequently it was confirmed by Johann Tischler. The dissertation studies unexplored properties of PIE *ḫ and demonstrates that it had a voiceless (PIE *h) and a voiced (PIE *ɦ) variant with glottal fricative articulation. PIE *ḫ appears with PIE *a in diphonemic PIE *ḫa and *aḫ. The solution to the laryngeal problem allows for a clarification of the relationship between PIE *h/ɦ and the rest of the phoneme inventory. This analysis results in the primary phoneme inventory for Proto-Indo-European consisting of PIE *a/ā? *e/ē *h/ɦ *i/y *k/g *l/L *m/M *n/N *o/ō *p/b *r/R *s/z *t/d *u/w. The inventory is minimal: it cannot be reduced and it is sufficient to generate attested IE forms. Accordingly, the import of System PIE for Indo-European linguistics is comparable to mastery of the building blocks of DNA. In addition, the dissertation modernizes the IE sound laws in terms of PIE *h/ɦ. Due to the advanced stage of IE linguistics, no entirely new sound laws are presented, because the yet remaining problems of the traditional sound laws reflect the absence of the comparative interpretation of the Old Anatolian laryngeal. The scientific framework is the comparative method of reconstruction, recognized as a branch of natural science already by August Schleicher. The dissertation contributes to the development of the field by explicating the method by means of predicate calculus, including a formulation of Schleicher s intuitive description of the decision method for IE etymology. As such, System PIE can be digitalized i.e. turned into a programming language that can generate IE data from reconstructions. The most reliable etymological and standard dictionaries are used as the material. While these sources present the data and etymological suggestions, no full comparative conclusions have yet been drawn. As a contribution to this area of the field, the dissertation presents hundreds of new etymologies, which serve as examples of the Proto-Indo-European Lexicon, a digital etymological dictionary of IE languages that will be published at http://pielexicon.hum.helsinki.fiLäpimurto protoindoeuroopan rekonstruktiossa Väitöskirja esittelee olennaisesti laajentuneeseen kieliaineistoon perustuvan päivitetyn äänne- ja äännelakijärjestelmän protoindoeuroopalle (PIE), indoeurooppalaisten kielten kantamuodolle. Luonnontieteelliseen metodiin perustuva tutkimus avautuu esittelemällä viimein ratkaisun vuosisadan kiistanalaisena pysyneeseen laryngaaliongelmaan. Väitöskirja vahvistaa Zgustan (1951) ja Tischlerin (1977ff.) alustavan väittämän jonka mukaan heetissä (ja yleisemmin protoindoeuroopassa) oli ainoastaan yksi laryngaali Ḫi. ḫ ≡ PIE *ḫ, ei kolmea tai useampaa (*h1 h2 h3, ) kuten valtavirtaa edustavassa laryngaaliteoriassa (LT) on tähän asti oletettu. Tästä lähtökohdasta väitöskirja määrittää laryngaalin PIE *ḫ ominaisuudet ja suhteet muuhun foneemijärjestelmään. PIE *ḫ oli äännearvoltaan glottaalinen frikatiivi, jolla oli soinnition (PIE *h) ja soinnillinen muunnos (PIE *ɦ). Laryngaali esiintyy yksinomaan vokaalin PIE *a yhteydessä muodostaen difoneemiset parit PIE *ḫa ja PIE *aḫ. Alan keskeisen ongelman ratkaiseminen mahdollistaa kokonaisselvityksen PIE *h/ɦ:n ja muun äännejärjestelmän yhteyksistä, jonka tuloksena protoindoeuroopan foneemijärjestelmä koostuu vain 14 äänteestä. Äännejärjestelmä on minimaalinen, ts. sitä ei voida supistaa, mutta se riittää indoeurooppalaisten kielten tuottamiseen. Tältä kannalta väitöskirjan merkitys indoeuropeistiikalle on verrannollinen DNA:n tuntemukseen. Anatolialaisten kielten laryngaalin ja sen korrektin tulkinnan (PIE *h/ɦ) puuttuminen aikaisemmista teorioista on aiheuttanut säännöllisiä ongelmia äännelakeihin ja tutkimus modernisoi indoeurooppalaisen äännelakijärjestelmän keskeiset osat. Tutkimuksen tieteellinen viitekehys on vertaileva menetelmä jonka tunnisti luonnontieteeksi jo August Schleicher 1800-luvun puolivälissä. Väitöskirja ajaa alan yleistä kehitystä muotoilemalla sekä komparatiivisen metodin että Schleicherin intuitiivisen ratkaisumenetelmän predikaattikalkyylissa. Tämän ansiosta rekonstruktioteoria System PIE on sellaisenaan käännettävissä digitaaliselle ohjelmointikielelle joka mahdollistaa indoeurooppalaisten kielten generoimisen kantakielen rekonstruktioista tarjoten lukemattomia käytännön sovelluksia. Väitöskirjan aineisto koostuu luotetuimmista sanakirjoista. Huolimatta siitä, että nämä esittelevät sekä aineiston että etymologioita, kaikkia komparatiivisia johtopäätöksiä ei ole kokonaisuudessaan vedetty. Näiden puutteiden korjaamiseksi väitöskirja esittelee satoja uusia vertailuita, jotka samalla toimivat näytteinä tulevasta käytännön sovelluksesta, indoeurooppalaisten kielten digitaalisesta sanakirjasta Proto-Indo-European Lexicon http://pielexicon.hum.helsinki.f

Consonant cluster phonotactics : a perceptual approach

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-345).This dissertation deals with deletion and epenthesis processes conditioned or constrained by the consonantal environment, essentially consonant deletion, vowel epenthesis and vowel deletion. It is argued that the standard generative approach to these processes, which relies on the syllable and the principle of prosodic licensing, is empirically inadequate, and an alternative sequential approach based on perceptual factors is developed. It is proposed that the likelihood that a consonant deletes, triggers epenthesis or blocks vowel deletion correlates with the quality and quantity of the auditory cues associated to it in a given context. The approach is implemented in Optimality Theory and adopts more specifically the 'Licensing by cue' framework developed by Steriade (1997, 1999). New empirical generalizations concerning deletion and epenthesis processes are uncovered, in particular 1) the fact that stops are more likely than other consonants to delete, trigger epenthesis or block deletion; 2) the role of syntagmatic contrast in deletion and epenthesis processes; 3) the role of the audibility of stop release bursts; 4) the existence of cumulative edge effects, whereby more and more phonotactic combinations are licensed at the edges of prosodic domains as we go up the prosodic hierarchy. These generalizations are elucidated in terms of internal and contextual cues, modulation in the acoustic signal, and cue enhancement processes at edges of prosodic domains. The proposed perceptual approach achieves a substantial simplification and unification of the conceptual apparatus necessary to analyze deletion and epenthesis processes. It subsumes under the more general notion of perceptual salience principles of syllable well-formedness and the Obligatory Contour Principle. Furthermore, it eliminates the need for exceptional mechanisms such as extra syllabicity at domain edges. The analysis is based on the study of deletion and epenthesis processes in a variety of languages. Detailed investigations of schwa in Parisian French, cluster simplification in Quebec French and stop deletion and vowel epenthesis in Ondarroa Basque are provided.by Marie-Hélène Côté.Ph.D

Highly complex syllable structure: A typological and diachronic study

The syllable is a natural unit of organization in spoken language whose strongest cross-linguistic patterns are often explained in terms of a universal preference for the CV structure. Syllable patterns involving long sequences of consonants are both typologically rare and theoretically marginalized, with few approaches treating these as natural or unproblematic structures. This book is an investigation of the properties of languages with highly complex syllable patterns. The two aims are (i) to establish whether these languages share other linguistic features in common such that they constitute a distinct linguistic type, and (ii) to identify possible diachronic paths and natural mechanisms by which these patterns come about in the history of a language. These issues are investigated in a diversified sample of 100 languages, 25 of which have highly complex syllable patterns. Languages with highly complex syllable structure are characterized by a number of phonetic, phonological, and morphological features which serve to set them apart from languages with simpler syllable patterns. These include specific segmental and suprasegmental properties, a higher prevalence of vowel reduction processes with extreme outcomes, and higher average morpheme/word ratios. The results suggest that highly complex syllable structure is a linguistic type distinct from but sharing some characteristics with other proposed holistic phonological types, including stress-timed and consonantal languages. The results point to word stress and specific patterns of gestural organization as playing important roles in the diachronic development of these patterns out of simpler syllable structures

Highly complex syllable structure: A typological and diachronic study

The syllable is a natural unit of organization in spoken language whose strongest cross-linguistic patterns are often explained in terms of a universal preference for the CV structure. Syllable patterns involving long sequences of consonants are both typologically rare and theoretically marginalized, with few approaches treating these as natural or unproblematic structures. This book is an investigation of the properties of languages with highly complex syllable patterns. The two aims are (i) to establish whether these languages share other linguistic features in common such that they constitute a distinct linguistic type, and (ii) to identify possible diachronic paths and natural mechanisms by which these patterns come about in the history of a language. These issues are investigated in a diversified sample of 100 languages, 25 of which have highly complex syllable patterns. Languages with highly complex syllable structure are characterized by a number of phonetic, phonological, and morphological features which serve to set them apart from languages with simpler syllable patterns. These include specific segmental and suprasegmental properties, a higher prevalence of vowel reduction processes with extreme outcomes, and higher average morpheme/word ratios. The results suggest that highly complex syllable structure is a linguistic type distinct from but sharing some characteristics with other proposed holistic phonological types, including stress-timed and consonantal languages. The results point to word stress and specific patterns of gestural organization as playing important roles in the diachronic development of these patterns out of simpler syllable structures

Highly complex syllable structure: A typological and diachronic study

The syllable is a natural unit of organization in spoken language whose strongest cross-linguistic patterns are often explained in terms of a universal preference for the CV structure. Syllable patterns involving long sequences of consonants are both typologically rare and theoretically marginalized, with few approaches treating these as natural or unproblematic structures. This book is an investigation of the properties of languages with highly complex syllable patterns. The two aims are (i) to establish whether these languages share other linguistic features in common such that they constitute a distinct linguistic type, and (ii) to identify possible diachronic paths and natural mechanisms by which these patterns come about in the history of a language. These issues are investigated in a diversified sample of 100 languages, 25 of which have highly complex syllable patterns. Languages with highly complex syllable structure are characterized by a number of phonetic, phonological, and morphological features which serve to set them apart from languages with simpler syllable patterns. These include specific segmental and suprasegmental properties, a higher prevalence of vowel reduction processes with extreme outcomes, and higher average morpheme/word ratios. The results suggest that highly complex syllable structure is a linguistic type distinct from but sharing some characteristics with other proposed holistic phonological types, including stress-timed and consonantal languages. The results point to word stress and specific patterns of gestural organization as playing important roles in the diachronic development of these patterns out of simpler syllable structures

Highly complex syllable structure: A typological and diachronic study

The syllable is a natural unit of organization in spoken language whose strongest cross-linguistic patterns are often explained in terms of a universal preference for the CV structure. Syllable patterns involving long sequences of consonants are both typologically rare and theoretically marginalized, with few approaches treating these as natural or unproblematic structures. This book is an investigation of the properties of languages with highly complex syllable patterns. The two aims are (i) to establish whether these languages share other linguistic features in common such that they constitute a distinct linguistic type, and (ii) to identify possible diachronic paths and natural mechanisms by which these patterns come about in the history of a language. These issues are investigated in a diversified sample of 100 languages, 25 of which have highly complex syllable patterns. Languages with highly complex syllable structure are characterized by a number of phonetic, phonological, and morphological features which serve to set them apart from languages with simpler syllable patterns. These include specific segmental and suprasegmental properties, a higher prevalence of vowel reduction processes with extreme outcomes, and higher average morpheme/word ratios. The results suggest that highly complex syllable structure is a linguistic type distinct from but sharing some characteristics with other proposed holistic phonological types, including stress-timed and consonantal languages. The results point to word stress and specific patterns of gestural organization as playing important roles in the diachronic development of these patterns out of simpler syllable structures

Highly complex syllable structure: A typological and diachronic study

The syllable is a natural unit of organization in spoken language whose strongest cross-linguistic patterns are often explained in terms of a universal preference for the CV structure. Syllable patterns involving long sequences of consonants are both typologically rare and theoretically marginalized, with few approaches treating these as natural or unproblematic structures. This book is an investigation of the properties of languages with highly complex syllable patterns. The two aims are (i) to establish whether these languages share other linguistic features in common such that they constitute a distinct linguistic type, and (ii) to identify possible diachronic paths and natural mechanisms by which these patterns come about in the history of a language. These issues are investigated in a diversified sample of 100 languages, 25 of which have highly complex syllable patterns. Languages with highly complex syllable structure are characterized by a number of phonetic, phonological, and morphological features which serve to set them apart from languages with simpler syllable patterns. These include specific segmental and suprasegmental properties, a higher prevalence of vowel reduction processes with extreme outcomes, and higher average morpheme/word ratios. The results suggest that highly complex syllable structure is a linguistic type distinct from but sharing some characteristics with other proposed holistic phonological types, including stress-timed and consonantal languages. The results point to word stress and specific patterns of gestural organization as playing important roles in the diachronic development of these patterns out of simpler syllable structures