Aspekte der Charakterisierung phonologischer Sprachstörungen vs. verzögerter Spracherwerb bei jordanischem Arabisch sprechenden Kindern

Bader S'da SI. Issues in the characterisation of phonological speech impairment vs. delayed acquisition in Jordanian Arabic-Speaking children. Bielefeld (Germany): Bielefeld University; 2010.Eine Studie des Spracherwerbs des jordanischen Arabisch bei jungen Muttersprachlern.A study with children speaking or acquiring Jordanian Arabic with or without phonological impairments

Language and Culture in Northeast India and Beyond: In Honor of Robbins Burling

This volume celebrates the life and work of Robbins Burling, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, giant in the fields of anthropological linguistics, language evolution, and language pedagogy, and pioneer in the ethnography and linguistics of Tibeto-Burmanspeaking groups in the Northeast Indian region. We offer it to Professor Burling – Rob – on the occasion of his 90th birthday, on the occasion of the 60th year of his extraordinary scholarly productivity, and on the occasion of yet another – yet another! – field trip to Northeast India, where his career in anthropology and linguistics effectively began so many decades ago, and where he has amassed so many devoted friends and colleagues – including ourselves. (First paragraph of Editor's Introduction)

Polish Borrowings in Wymysorys. A Formal Linguistic Analysis of Germano-Slavonic Language Contact in Wilamowice

The present dissertation concerns formal aspects of Polish borrowing in 21st-century Wymysorys – a minority Germanic language spoken by a few dozen people in the town of Wilamowice in Poland. By drawing on modern borrowing theories and his own empirical studies conducted in situ, the author documents, describes, and explains all cases and types of Polish borrowings that may currently be found across the Wymysorys sound system, lexicon, and grammar. The evidence demonstrates that Polish has influenced Wymysorys to a significant extent, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative impact surfaces in the high type frequency of linguistic elements that have been borrowed. The qualitative impact transpires in the wide range and diversity of the parts of the language being affected, whether in the sound system (Polish has affected phonetics, phonology, phonotactics, and prosody, in addition to consonants and vowels), lexicon (Polish has affected nearly all lexical classes, both content and functional, and most of their sub-types), and grammar (Polish has affected derivational and inflectional morphology, morpho-syntax, and syntax). The extent of the Polish influence is such that the original typological profile of Wymysorys and its Germanic essence could be viewed as compromised: the Wymysorys language shifts towards a blended Germanic-Slavonic profile.Þessi ritgerð fjallar um formlega lántöku úr pólsku í nútíma vymysorysku – germönsku minnihlutatungumáli sem talað er af nokkrum tugum manna í bænum Wilamowice í Póllandi. Verkið, sem byggir á nútímalegum kenningum um lántöku og rannsóknum sem gerðar voru á staðnum, skjalfestir, lýsir og útskýrir öll tilvik og gerðir pólskrar lántöku sem er að finna í málfræði og orðasafni vymysorysku 21. aldar. Gögnin sýna að pólska hefur haft mikil áhrif á vymysorysku, bæði megindlega og eigindlega. Megindleg áhrif koma fram í hárri tíðni tungumálaþátta sem hafa verið fengnir að láni. Eigindleg áhrif sjást á fjölbreytileika þeirra hluta tungumálsins sem hafa orðið fyrir áhrifum, hvort sem það er hljóðkerfi (pólska hefur haft áhrif á hljóð (bæði samhljóð og sérhljóð), hljóðkerfi, hljóðskipun og hljómfall), orðmyndunar- or beygingarkerfi (pólska hefur haft áhrif á formgerð orða, bæði afleiðslu og beygingar), orðskipun (pólska hefur haft áhrif á setningagerð) eða orðasafn (pólska hefur haft áhrif á næstum alla orðflokka og flestar tegundir þeirra). Umfang pólskra áhrifa eru slík, að telja verður að upprunaleg gerð vymysorysku og germanskur kjarni hennar eigi á hættu að hverfa, þar sem tungumálið færist í átt að blönduðu germansk-slavnesku sniði

Sex Dialect in Tlemcen: An Algerian Urban Community.

This thesis is a study of the correlation between the social differentiation caused by sexual discriminations, and the linguistic differences between means and women's speech in Tlemcenian Arabic and Tlemcenian French, with special emphasis on the former. It includes a chapter concerned with a brief treatment of the place of sex-dialect in modern linguistic theory, an analysis of the possible realisations and explanations of sex-dialect, and a review of some broad concepts such as bilingualism, diglossia and code-switching, in the light of male-female linguistic differentiation. The three remaining chapters furnish proof and exemplification of the linguistic manifestation of the social division caused by sexual divisions. Within these chapters, the concept of context of situation is emphasised as being a very important parameter in language study. The second chapter is concerned with phonological differences between males and females, and starts with the correlation between formant frequency and social conditioning, and proceeds to consider the use of vowels and consonants as well as certain prosodic features in the speech of males and females. Certain sociolinguistic parameters such as age, status, and so forth, are shown here and elsewhere to have important impact on language use. The third chapter is a study of the grammatical manifestations of sex-dialect, the majority of which are mostly accounted for in terms of probability of occurrence. Finally, the last chapter is concerned with lexical differences in male and female speech in both address and reference. At every point during this discussion, there is a strong reminder of the interrelationship between social behaviour, culture, and language use

Subsidia: Tools and Resources for Speech Sciences

Este libro, resultado de la colaboración de investigadores expertos en sus respectivas áreas, pretende ser una ayuda a la comunidad científica en tanto en cuanto recopila y describe una serie de materiales de gran utilidad para seguir avanzando en la investigació

Interfaces de fala silenciosa multimodais para português europeu com base na articulação

Doutoramento conjunto MAPi em InformáticaThe concept of silent speech, when applied to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), describes a system which allows for speech communication in the absence of an acoustic signal. By analyzing data gathered during different parts of the human speech production process, Silent Speech Interfaces (SSI) allow users with speech impairments to communicate with a system. SSI can also be used in the presence of environmental noise, and in situations in which privacy, confidentiality, or non-disturbance are important. Nonetheless, despite recent advances, performance and usability of Silent Speech systems still have much room for improvement. A better performance of such systems would enable their application in relevant areas, such as Ambient Assisted Living. Therefore, it is necessary to extend our understanding of the capabilities and limitations of silent speech modalities and to enhance their joint exploration. Thus, in this thesis, we have established several goals: (1) SSI language expansion to support European Portuguese; (2) overcome identified limitations of current SSI techniques to detect EP nasality (3) develop a Multimodal HCI approach for SSI based on non-invasive modalities; and (4) explore more direct measures in the Multimodal SSI for EP acquired from more invasive/obtrusive modalities, to be used as ground truth in articulation processes, enhancing our comprehension of other modalities. In order to achieve these goals and to support our research in this area, we have created a multimodal SSI framework that fosters leveraging modalities and combining information, supporting research in multimodal SSI. The proposed framework goes beyond the data acquisition process itself, including methods for online and offline synchronization, multimodal data processing, feature extraction, feature selection, analysis, classification and prototyping. Examples of applicability are provided for each stage of the framework. These include articulatory studies for HCI, the development of a multimodal SSI based on less invasive modalities and the use of ground truth information coming from more invasive/obtrusive modalities to overcome the limitations of other modalities. In the work here presented, we also apply existing methods in the area of SSI to EP for the first time, noting that nasal sounds may cause an inferior performance in some modalities. In this context, we propose a non-invasive solution for the detection of nasality based on a single Surface Electromyography sensor, conceivable of being included in a multimodal SSI.O conceito de fala silenciosa, quando aplicado a interação humano-computador, permite a comunicação na ausência de um sinal acústico. Através da análise de dados, recolhidos no processo de produção de fala humana, uma interface de fala silenciosa (referida como SSI, do inglês Silent Speech Interface) permite a utilizadores com deficiências ao nível da fala comunicar com um sistema. As SSI podem também ser usadas na presença de ruído ambiente, e em situações em que privacidade, confidencialidade, ou não perturbar, é importante. Contudo, apesar da evolução verificada recentemente, o desempenho e usabilidade de sistemas de fala silenciosa tem ainda uma grande margem de progressão. O aumento de desempenho destes sistemas possibilitaria assim a sua aplicação a áreas como Ambientes Assistidos. É desta forma fundamental alargar o nosso conhecimento sobre as capacidades e limitações das modalidades utilizadas para fala silenciosa e fomentar a sua exploração conjunta. Assim, foram estabelecidos vários objetivos para esta tese: (1) Expansão das linguagens suportadas por SSI com o Português Europeu; (2) Superar as limitações de técnicas de SSI atuais na deteção de nasalidade; (3) Desenvolver uma abordagem SSI multimodal para interação humano-computador, com base em modalidades não invasivas; (4) Explorar o uso de medidas diretas e complementares, adquiridas através de modalidades mais invasivas/intrusivas em configurações multimodais, que fornecem informação exata da articulação e permitem aumentar a nosso entendimento de outras modalidades. Para atingir os objetivos supramencionados e suportar a investigação nesta área procedeu-se à criação de uma plataforma SSI multimodal que potencia os meios para a exploração conjunta de modalidades. A plataforma proposta vai muito para além da simples aquisição de dados, incluindo também métodos para sincronização de modalidades, processamento de dados multimodais, extração e seleção de características, análise, classificação e prototipagem. Exemplos de aplicação para cada fase da plataforma incluem: estudos articulatórios para interação humano-computador, desenvolvimento de uma SSI multimodal com base em modalidades não invasivas, e o uso de informação exata com origem em modalidades invasivas/intrusivas para superar limitações de outras modalidades. No trabalho apresentado aplica-se ainda, pela primeira vez, métodos retirados do estado da arte ao Português Europeu, verificando-se que sons nasais podem causar um desempenho inferior de um sistema de fala silenciosa. Neste contexto, é proposta uma solução para a deteção de vogais nasais baseada num único sensor de eletromiografia, passível de ser integrada numa interface de fala silenciosa multimodal

The phonetics of metrical prominence and its consequences on segmental phonology

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-199).Only very few phonological processes are reported to be conditioned by stress. There are two major patterns of stress-sensitive processes: segments are lengthened under stress, and vowels become louder. Two other phonological patterns are reported in the presence of stress, although they don't seem to enhance prominence of the stressed position: the preservation of segmental contrast and the enhancement of acoustic properties of the releases in stress-adjacent consonants. The main question of this dissertation is why there are so few segmental processes that show sensitivity to stress. Why are the major segmental processes affecting consonants (e.g. place assimilation, nasalization and voice neutralization) not sensitive about whether their trigger or target is in a stressed position? The analysis of prosodic conditioning presented here has three components: First every stress-conditioned process is enforced by a markedness constraint requiring the perceptual prominence of a metrically strong position. Languages use two strategies to implement this prominence: increasing the duration of the stressed position, or increasing the perceptual energy of the stressed vowel. Second, increasing the loudness of the stressed vowel has side-effects on the realization of stress adjacent stop releases, which result from the subglottal mechanisms used to produce the increase in loudness. These side-effects constitute the small class of stress-conditioned segmental alternations which are not directly enhancing the prominence of the stressed position. Third, both the effects of prominence requirements and the side-effects of prominence enhancement on the phonetic realization of segments in stressed positions may affect the perceptual distinctiveness between contrasting sounds in stressed positions: if the perceptual distinctiveness between contrasting sounds is decreased in a stressed position, contrast neutralization might arise. If the perceptual distinctiveness between contrasting sounds is increased in a stressed position, stress-conditioned contrast preservation might arise. Contrast preservation in stressed positions is therefore not an effect of Positional faithfulness; it emerges as the indirect consequence of prominence enhancement. The set of segmental features which may be targeted by stress-sensitive processes is extremely limited since it is restricted to those features which can be affected by one of three processes: duration, loudness and effects of raised subglottal pressure on stop releases.by Maria Giavazzi.Ph.D

The Classification of Arabic Dialects: Traditional Approaches, New Proposals, and Methodological Problems

The question of how to classify the different varieties of spoken Arabic is a long-standing problem in the fields of Arabic and Semitic linguistics, and it has been addressed by several authors and from a number of different perspectives. This collection of articles represents a further contribution to the vast collective effort of attempting to more effectively assess, organize, and understand the varieties of spoken Arabic, applying a classification of Arabic dialects in the broadest possible sense. The authors who contribute to this volume tackle this issue by examining varieties spoken from the Maghreb to the Mashreq and employing various approaches and perspectives, e.g., diatopic and diachronic, syntactical, and typological

The building blocks of sound symbolism

Languages contain thousands of words each and are made up by a seemingly endless collection of sound combinations. Yet a subsection of these show clear signs of corresponding word shapes for the same meanings which is generally known as vocal iconicity and sound symbolism. This dissertation explores the boundaries of sound symbolism in the lexicon from typological, functional and evolutionary perspectives in an attempt to provide a deeper understanding of the role sound symbolism plays in human language. In order to achieve this, the subject in question was triangulated by investigating different methodologies which included lexical data from a large number of language families, experiment participants and robust statistical tests.Study I investigates basic vocabulary items in a large number of language families in order to establish the extent of sound symbolic items in the core of the lexicon, as well as how the sound-meaning associations are mapped and interconnected. This study shows that by expanding the lexical dataset compared to previous studies and completely controlling for genetic bias, a larger number of sound-meaning associations can be established. In addition, by placing focus on the phonetic and semantic features of sounds and meanings, two new types of sounds symbolism could be established, along with 20 semantically and phonetically superordinate concepts which could be linked to the semantic development of the lexicon.Study II explores how sound symbolic associations emerge in arbitrary words through sequential transmission over language users. This study demonstrates that transmission of signals is sufficient for iconic effects to emerge and does not require interactional communication. Furthermore, it also shows that more semantically marked meanings produce stronger effects and that iconicity in the size and shape domains seems to be dictated by similarities between the internal semantic relationships of each oppositional word pair and its respective associated sounds.Studies III and IV use color words to investigate differences and similarities between low-level cross-modal associations and sound symbolism in lexemes. Study III explores the driving factors of cross-modal associations between colors and sounds by experimentally testing implicit preferences between several different acoustic and visual parameters. The most crucial finding was that neither specific hues nor specific vowels produced any notable effects and it is therefore possible that previously reported associations between vowels and colors are actually dependent on underlying visual and acoustic parameters.Study IV investigates sound symbolic associations in words for colors in a large number of language families by correlating acoustically described segments with luminance and saturation values obtained from cross-linguistic color-naming data. In accordance with Study III, this study showed that luminance produced the strongest results and was primarily associated with vowels, while saturation was primarily associated with consonants. This could then be linked to cross-linguistic lexicalization order of color words.To summarize, this dissertation shows the importance of studying the underlying parameters of sound symbolism semantically and phonetically in both language users and cross-linguistic language data. In addition, it also shows the applicability of non-arbitrary sound-meaning associations for gaining a deeper understanding of how linguistic categories have developed evolutionarily and historically