In search of cues discriminating West-african accents in French

International audienceThis study investigates to what extent West-African French accents can be distinguished, based on recordings made in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal. First, a perceptual experiment was conducted, suggesting that these accents are well identified by West-African listeners (especially the Senegal and Ivory Coast accents). Second, prosodic and segmental cues were studied by using speech processing methods such as automatic phoneme alignment. Results show that the Senegal accent (with a tendency toward word-initial stress followed by a falling pitch movement) and the Ivory Coast accent (with a tendency to delete/vocalise the /R/ consonant) are most distinct from standard French and among the West-African accents under investigation

Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian

Recent findings on phonetic detail have been taken as supporting exemplar-based approaches to prosody. Through four experiments on both production and perception of both melodic and temporal detail in Neapolitan Italian, we show that prosodic detail is not incompatible with abstractionist approaches either. Specifically, we suggest that the exploration of prosodic detail leads to a refined understanding of the relationships between the richly specified and continuous varying phonetic information on one side, and coarse phonologically structured contrasts on the other, thus offering insights on how pragmatic information is conveyed by prosody

Against Common Sense: Why Title VII Should. Protect Speakers Of Black English

The speech of many black Americans is marked by phrases such as \u27we be writin \u27 or we don\u27t have no problems. Because most listeners consider such Black English speech patterns incorrect, these speakers face significant disadvantages in the job market. But common sense suggests that there is nothing discriminatory about employers\u27 negative reactions to Black English because it makes sense to allow employers to insist that employees use correct grammar. This article argues against this common sense understanding of Black English as bad grammar. The author first analyzes the extent of the job market disadvantages faced by Black English speakers and discusses the failure of common sense solutions designed to eliminate Black English speech patterns. The author then provides linguistic evidence to show that Black English is actually a distinct but equally valid dialect of English, which for historical reasons is largely limited to the African American community. She argues that, given this scientifically accurate understanding of Black English, employers who reject Black English speakers because of their speech patterns are in fact violating Title VII\u27s prohibition against race discrimination. The author explains why discrimination against Black English speakers should fall under the existing Title VII disparate impact framework and suggests a possible extension of Title VII doctrine to protect those Black English speakers whose employment opportunities are limited by weak written language skills. Throughout the Article, the author challenges readers to consider the sources and effects of their own \u27common sense beliefs about language and urges them to accept responsibility for solving the problem of language discrimination

Universal and language-specific processing : the case of prosody

A key question in the science of language is how speech processing can be influenced by both language-universal and language-specific mechanisms (Cutler, Klein, & Levinson, 2005). My graduate research aimed to address this question by adopting a crosslanguage approach to compare languages with different phonological systems. Of all components of linguistic structure, prosody is often considered to be one of the most language-specific dimensions of speech. This can have significant implications for our understanding of language use, because much of speech processing is specifically tailored to the structure and requirements of the native language. However, it is still unclear whether prosody may also play a universal role across languages, and very little comparative attempts have been made to explore this possibility. In this thesis, I examined both the production and perception of prosodic cues to prominence and phrasing in native speakers of English and Mandarin Chinese. In focus production, our research revealed that English and Mandarin speakers were alike in how they used prosody to encode prominence, but there were also systematic language-specific differences in the exact degree to which they enhanced the different prosodic cues (Chapter 2). This, however, was not the case in focus perception, where English and Mandarin listeners were alike in the degree to which they used prosody to predict upcoming prominence, even though the precise cues in the preceding prosody could differ (Chapter 3). Further experiments examining prosodic focus prediction in the speech of different talkers have demonstrated functional cue equivalence in prosodic focus detection (Chapter 4). Likewise, our experiments have also revealed both crosslanguage similarities and differences in the production and perception of juncture cues (Chapter 5). Overall, prosodic processing is the result of a complex but subtle interplay of universal and language-specific structure

The ‘Forever Migrant:’ An Intersectional Analysis of L/A Workplace Discrimination on the Basis of Race, African Accent, and English Language Proficiency

Sociological literature has well documented patterns of workplace discrimination against racialized identities. This thesis analyzes a specific pattern of perceived workplace discrimination against those who are non-white, have African accents, and lack English language proficiency in the Lewiston-Auburn area (L/A). To understand this problem, a community-based research semi-structured interview about barriers to accessing the L/A workforce was conducted. I argue that utilizing Rosa’s and Flores’ raciolinguistic perspective, workers perceived to have African accents and English language barriers face workplace discrimination within the intersection of their race and linguistic identity. Those with perceived African accents are seen to be a L/A area archetype of African refugees and migrants which I call ‘a forever migrant,’ being assumed to have little education, job skills, intelligence, and trustworthiness within the workplace. Meanwhile, non-white individuals perceived to have English language barriers are believed to be unemployable no matter the importance of English language skills in the job they are applying for, being sometimes seen as a burden to employers. These patterns of linguistic discrimination are found to proliferate in part because those with perceived African accents and English language barriers assume responsibility to be a ‘good neoliberal citizen,’ through personally attempting to rid of their accent or language barrier. This allows white supremacy to proliferate in the L/A workplace, giving those perceived to have African accents and English language barriers an ultimatum to either assimilate to whiteness by ridding of their accent and native language or be subjected to linguistic discrimination by their employer