945 research outputs found
Aerodynamic tool for phonology of voicing
International audienceThe paper addresses the question of the phonetic implementation of phonological voicing in French. It is investigated by means of aerodynamic measures made at the subglottal, glottal and supraglottal stages of the production of fricatives in modal voice and in soft and loud whisper for one speaker. The results show that the [±voice] feature is systematically associated only with the categorical constrictions of the glottis, even without vocal fold vibration
Tones in Zhangzhou: Pitch and Beyond
This study draws on various approachesâfield linguistics;
auditory and acoustic phonetics; and statisticsâto explore and
explain the nature of Zhangzhou tones, an under-described
Southern Min variety. Several original findings emerged from the
analyses of the data from 21 speakers. The realisations of
Zhangzhou tones are multidimensional. The single parameter of
pitch/F0 is not sufficient to characterise tonal contrasts in
either monosyllabic or polysyllabic settings in Zhangzhou.
Instead, various parameters, including pitch/F0, duration, vowel
quality, voice quality, and syllable coda type, interact in a
complicated but consistent way to code tonal distinctions.
Zhangzhou has eight tones rather than seven tones as proposed in
previous studies. This finding resulted from examining the
realisations of diverse parameters across three different
contextsâisolation, phrase-initial, and phrase-finalâ, rather
than classifying tones in citation and in terms of the
preservation of Middle Chinese tonal categories. Tonal contrasts
in Zhangzhou can be neutralised across different linguistic
contexts. Identifying the number of tonal contrasts based simply
on tonal realisations in the citation environment is not
sufficient. Instead, examining tonal realisations across
different linguistic contexts beyond monosyllables is imperative
for understanding the nature of tone.
Tone sandhi in Zhangzhou is syntactically relevant. The tone
sandhi domain is not phonologically determined but rather is
aligned with a syntactic phrase XP. Within a given XP, the
realisations of the tones at non-phrase-final positions undergo
alternation phonologically and phonetically. Nevertheless, the
alterations are sensitive only to the phrase boundaries and are
not affected by the internal structure of syntactic phrases.
Tone sandhi in Zhangzhou is phonologically inert but phonetically
sensitive. The realisations of Zhangzhou tones in disyllabic
phrases are not categorically affected by their surrounding tones
but are phonetically sensitive to surrounding environments. For
instance, the pitch/F0 onsets of phrase-final tones are largely
sensitive to pitch/F0 offsets of preceding tones and appear to
have diverse variants.
The mappings between Zhangzhou citation and disyllabic tones are
morphologically conditioned. Phrase-initial tones are largely not
related to the citation tones at either the phonological or the
phonetic level while phrase-final tones are categorically related
to the citation tones but phonetically are not quite the same
because of predictable sensitivity to surrounding environments.
Each tone in Zhangzhou can be regarded as a single morpheme
having two alternating allomorphs (tonemes), one for
non-phrase-final variants and one for variants in citation and
phrase-final contexts, both of which are listed in the mental
lexicon of native Zhangzhou speakers but are phonetically distant
on the surface.
In summary, the realisations of Zhangzhou tones are
multidimensional, involving a variety of segmental and
suprasegmental parameters. The interactions of Zhangzhou tones
are complicated, involving phonetics, phonology, syntax, and
morphology. Neutralisation of Zhangzhou tonal contrasts occurs
across different contexts, including citation, phrase-final, and
non-phrase-final. Thus, researchers must go beyond pitch to
understand tone thoroughly as a phenomenon in Southern Min
An analysis of Muak Sa-aak tone
Muak Sa-aak is a tonal Angkuic language spoken in Eastern Shan state of Myanmar,
belonging to the Austroasiatic family. It has three contrastive tones: a falling tone, a low
tone, and a constricted tone with two allotones. Syllable structure and tone are closely
linked, seen by restrictions on the occurrence of tones with certain syllable structures.
Angkuic languages do not appear to develop tone through the loss of an initial consonant
voicing distinction, as they instead underwent a shift where proto-voiceless initial tenuis
stops became aspirated and proto-voiced consonants were devoiced (Svantesson 1988); it
instead is connected with vowel length contrast (Svantesson 1988, Diffloth 1991). None
the less, Muak Sa-aak preserves vowel length contrast despite the development of tone. It
is argued that Muak Sa-aak tonogenesis is motivated by both vowel length and final
consonants.Australian National Universit
Characterisation of voice quality of Parkinsonâs disease using differential phonological posterior features
Change in voice quality (VQ) is one of the first precursors of Parkinsonâs disease (PD). Specifically, impacted phonation and articulation causes the patient to have a breathy, husky-semiwhisper and hoarse voice. A goal of this paper is to characterise a VQ spectrum â the composition of non-modal phonations â of voice in PD. The paper relates non-modal healthy phonations: breathy, creaky, tense, falsetto and harsh, with disordered phonation in PD. First, statistics are learned to differentiate the modal and non-modal phonations. Statistics are computed using phonological posteriors, the probabilities of phonological features inferred from the speech signal using a deep learning approach. Second, statistics of disordered speech are learned from PD speech data comprising 50 patients and 50 healthy controls. Third, Euclidean distance is used to calculate similarity of non-modal and disordered statistics, and the inverse of the distances is used to obtain the composition of non-modal phonation in PD. Thus, pathological voice quality is characterised using healthy non-modal voice quality âbase/eigenspaceâ. The obtained results are interpreted as the voice of an average patient with PD and can be characterised by the voice quality spectrum composed of 30% breathy voice, 23% creaky voice, 20% tense voice, 15% falsetto voice and 12% harsh voice. In addition, the proposed features were applied for prediction of the dysarthria level according to the Frenchay assessment score related to the larynx, and significant improvement is obtained for reading speech task. The proposed characterisation of VQ might also be applied to other kinds of pathological speech
Transphonologization of voicing in Chru:Studies in production and perception
Chru, a Chamic language of south-central Vietnam, has been described as combining contrastive obstruent voicing with incipient registral properties (Fuller, 1977). A production study reveals that obstruent voicing has already become optional and that the voicing contrast has been transphonologized into a register contrast based primarily on vowel height (F1). An identification study shows that perception roughly matches production in that F1 is the main perceptual cue associated with the contrast. Structured variation in production suggests a sound change still in progress: While younger speakers largely rely on vowel height to produce the register contrast, older male speakers maintain a variety of secondary properties, including optional closure voicing. Our results shed light on the initial stages of register formation and challenge the claim that register languages must go through a stage in which breathiness or aspiration is the primary contrastive property (Haudricourt, 1965; Wayland & Jongman, 2002; Thurgood, 2002). This article also complements several recent studies about the transphonologization of voicing in typologically diverse languages (Svantesson & House, 2006; Howe, 2017; Coetzee, Beddor, Shedden, Styler, & Wissing, 2018)
The voice quality distinction in Dinka songs
The purpose of this work is to study the distinction of the voice quality in Dinka songs, in particular to determine whether and how the phonemic distinction between modal and breathy vowel is conveyed in singing.
The methodology adopted consists in the application of two acoustic measurements that have already yielded interesting results on Dinka speech data, namely formant tracking and spectral regression. The outcome of these measurements clearly points towards a neutralisation of the distinction of voice quality in songs. The results of a perception experiment performed on human listeners show more evidence to support the conclusion that no difference in voice quality is conveyed in songs.
In the absence of any acoustic cue that could be used by the listeners to detect voice quality, further research is suggested. In particular, the presentation of the same perception experiment to Dinka native speakers could give crucial evidence on the nature of the acoustic cues that may or may not still be present in songs
Negation in Low Katu
In Low Katu (or Western Katu; ISO 639-3: kuf) there are five common words used to mark negation: kah, mÉÊ, jÉšÉÊ, ËÉh and ËÉËÊ. This variety in negators hints at differential syntactic or semantic uses. In this paper I illustrate the syntactic properties of these negators and, where possible, describe what semantic or pragmatic backgrounds they might have. I do this by comparing negative sentences from Katu folk tales and stories and investigating how they behave with respect to the typology of negation. Understanding the negation of Low Katu can unveil aspects on the scarcely researched syntactic behavior of this language, for instance on the position of verbs. This paper is intended to be the groundwork for further, more corpus-based research on negation or other grammatical aspects of Low Katu
A Biopsychological Foundation for Linguistics
In this dissertation, I defend the view that natural languages are concrete biopsychological phenomena to be studied empirically. In Section One, I begin with an historical explanation. Some analytic philosophers, I argue, misapply formal logic as an analysis of natural language, when it was in fact originally developed as an alternative to natural language, employed for scientific purposes. Abstract, quasi-mathematical philosophies of language, I argue, are partially a result of this misunderstanding. I respond to Jerrold Katzâ argument that a proper understanding of analytic truth requires this quasi-mathematical philosophy of language through a model-theoretical analysis of analytic truth in modal and intuitionist logics.
In Section Two, I offer a positive argument for a biopsychological philosophy of language. While Chomsky and others have emphasized the metaphysical basis of natural languages in psychological representations, I further contribute to understanding by emphasizing the basis of natural language in psychological representations of relevant properties of a specifically constrained biological implementation base. I defend this ontological perspective through a thorough engagement with the subfield of linguistic phonology and its important relations to physiological articulation and perception, along with an analysis of crucial interface relations among phonology, morphology and syntax.
In the final section, I engage with the objections to this biopsychological philosophy of language stemming from concerns related to linguistic normativity and communication. If natural language is based metaphysically in the biopsychological representations of individuals, there are apparent paradoxes in the notion of public rules for language use, and in the notion of shared content for the purpose of communication. Drawing on David Forrest Wallaceâs pragmatic conception of linguistic prescription, together with analogies from anti-realist metaethical systems, I defend the intelligibility of public linguistics norms without the need for abstract ontological commitment. Drawing on Ray Jackendoffâs internalist semantic and metasemantic analysese, together with Burtrand Russellâs analogy argument on other minds, I also defend intelligibility of linguistic communication equally without need for abstract ontological commitment
Voice quality features in the production of pharyngeal consonants by Iraqi Arabic speakers
PhD ThesisThis study investigates nasalisation and laryngealisation in the production of pharyngeal
consonants in Iraqi Arabic (IA) and as potential voice quality (VQ) settings of IA speakers in
general. Pharyngeal consonants have been the subject of investigation in many studies on Arabic,
primarily due to the wide range of variation in their realisation across dialects, including
approximant, fricative, and stop variants. This is the first quantitative study of its kind to extend
these findings to IA and to investigate whether any of the variants and/or VQ features are dialect-
specific.
The study offers a detailed auditory and acoustic account of the realisations of pharyngeal
consonants as produced by nine male speakers of three Iraqi dialects: Baghdad (representing
Central gelet), Basra (representing Southern gelet) and Mosul (representing Northern qeltu)
(Blanc, 1964; Ingham, 1997). Acoustic cues of nasalisation and phonation types are investigated
in isolated vowels, oral, nasal, and pharyngeal environments in order to unravel the source of the
nasalised and laryngealised VQ percept and to establish whether their manifestations are
categorical or particular to certain contexts.
Results suggest a range of realisations for the pharyngeals that are conditioned by word position
and dialect. Regardless of realisation, VQ measurements suggest that: 1- nasalisation increases
when pharyngeals are adjacent to nasals, beyond what is expected of a nasal environment; 2-
vowels neighbouring pharyngeals show more nasalisation than in oral environments; 3- vowels in
pharyngeal contexts and isolation show more laryngealisation compared with nasal and oral
contexts; 4- both nasals and pharyngeals show progressive effect of nasalisation, and pharyngeals
show a progressive effect of laryngealisation; 5- /ħ/ shows more nasalisation but less
laryngealisation effect on neighbouring vowels than /Ê/; and 6- Baghdad speech is the most
nasalised and laryngealised and Basra speech the least. These results coincide with observations
on Muslim Baghdadi gelet having a guttural quality (Bellem, 2007). The study reveals that the
overall percept of a nasalised and laryngealised VQ in IA is a local feature rather than a general
vocal setting
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