Інформативні можливості церковної періодики щодо вивчення групи "Малоросійських козаків" ХІХ ст. (на матеріалах "Черниговских епархиальных известий" та "Полтавских епархиальных ведомостей"

В статье рассматривается вопрос об информативных возможностях исследования социальной и бытовой истории, экономики, воспитания и образования группы “малороссийских казаков” в ХІХ ст., изучения их особенностей в сравнении с другими категориями населения Левобережной Украины по материалам “Черниговских епархиальных известий” и “Полтавских епархиальных ведомостей”.This article at the fi st time in historiography recognized information possibilities of Chernigiv’s and Poltava’s “Eparhialnye Vedomosti” in the theme of history, ethnography of the social group named “malorosian cosacks” in XIX century

Звіт президії АЕН України на щорічних зборах 14–15 травня 2010 р.

This dissertation is a sociophonetic study on sound change in progress. It addresses the actuation problem, i.e. the question as to why a particular change takes place in a particular language at a given time. The study is implemented in the framework of exemplar-based theories, which incorporates individual variation and the influence of the ambient language on individuals. Two sound changes in progress in the Dutch language are selected: the devoicing of initial labiodental fricatives (/v/ changing to [f]) and of initial bilabial stops (/b/ changing to [p]). The study is articulated around a series of experiments, which provide insight into the role of four aspects of linguistic competence involved in sound change: speech perception, speech production, phonetic imitation and language attitudes. These aspects were tested on the same pool of participants, and subsequently linked together both at the group and the individual level. Hundred participants were recruited from five regions of the Dutch-speaking language area, representing different stages of sound change: Groningen, South-Holland, Limburg, Flemish-Brabant and West-Flanders. The 20 participants born and raised in each region were 10 males and 10 females aged between 18 and 28 years old. Regional and individual differences appeared both in the production and the perception systems. Individual speakers differed not only in their realizations, but also in their perception of the concerned variables. Moreover, we found clear evidence for a link between the perception and production systems, even if these systems are thought to be separate entities. Furthermore, our results pointed towards the fact that change in speech perception precedes change in production. However, speech perception appeared to lag behind speech production when the sound change is reaching completion. Listeners can still hear the difference between sounds they cannot produce themselves any longer. We showed that language attitudes towards a variable undergoing change do not seem to be present from the beginning of the sound change onwards. The positive evaluation of a change seems to arise when the system of speech production is already undergoing the change. Language attitudes thus develop during the process of sound change and seem to be reinforcing this process. Phonetic imitation capacities were related to individual states of production. It was demonstrated that the best imitators are at the beginning of the change and show conservative production patterns. The further advanced in the change, the worse the imitation capacities. Bad imitators seemed to lead the change, because of their weak link between perception and production. It is argued that sound change is an iterative process in which an individual's production changes incrementally. The actuation of change happens within the individual every time speech perception and speech production make an attempt to align with each other. Actuation is directly linked to individual differences in exemplars stored in the perception and production systems and to differences in the strength of the link between these systems. Individuals use their phonetic imitation ability to convert the details of segments they perceive into production. Positive language attitudes associated with specific linguistic features reinforce this process

Regional variation in the pronunciation of /s/ in the Dutch language area.

This paper reports on an explorative sociophonetic study of the phoneme /s/ in the Dutch language area. Our aim is to investigate the regional variation in the realisation of this phoneme, and to test experimentally the observation of Collins & Mees (2003) that /s/ is sometimes pronounced more like [ʃ], especially in the Randstad area (called s-retraction). One hundred native speakers of Dutch produced nineteen monosyllabic words containing /s/ in different syllabic contexts. The speakers were born and raised in one of five regions of the Dutch language area (West Flanders, Flemish Brabant, Netherlands Limburg, South Holland and Groningen). Spectral centre of gravity (CoG) and duration were used to measure the degree of s-retraction. CoG values turned out to be significantly lower (consistent with more retraction) in the regions in The Netherlands than in the Flemish regions. Speakers from South Holland produced significantly shorter /s/ than the other speakers. In conclusion, /s/ shows patterns of regional variation that are not fully in line with the observation forwarded by Collins & Mees (2003). The difference between the Flemish and Dutch regions shows that s-retraction is found in an area larger than the Randstad, possibly pointing towards a North-South pattern of variation

Linking Variation in Perception and Production in Sound Change: Evidence from Dutch Obstruent Devoicing

This study investigates the link between the perception and production in sound change in progress, both at the regional and the individual level. Two devoicing processes showing regional variation in Dutch are studied: the devoicing of initial labiodental fricatives and of initial bilabial stops. Five regions were selected, to represent different stages of change in progress. For each region, 20 participants took part in production (Study 1) and perception (Study 2) experiments. First, the results of the production tasks give additional insight in the regional and individual patterns of sound change. Second, the regional perceptual patterns in fricatives match the differences in production: perception is the most categorical in regions where the devoicing process is starting, and the least categorical in regions where the process of devoicing is almost completed. Finally, a clear link is observed between the production and perception systems undergoing sound change at the individual level. Changes in the perceptual system seem to precede changes in production. However, at the sound change completion, perception lags behind: individuals still perceive a contrast they no longer produce

Regional differences in the perception of a consonantal change in progress

This study aims at testing whether there are regional differences in the perception of the labiodental fricative contrast in Dutch. Previous production studies have shown that the devoicing of initial labiodental fricatives is a change in progress in the Dutch language area. We present the results of a speeded identification task in which fricative stimuli were systematically varied for two phonetic cues, voicing and duration. Listeners (n=100) were regionally stratified, and the regions (k=5) reflect different stages of this sound change in progress. Voicing turned out to be the strongest categorization cue in all regions; duration only played a minor role. Regional differences showed up in the perception of the consonantal contrast that matched regional differences in production reported in previous studies. The addition of random slopes in the mixed model regression showed the importance of within-regional variation

Native Speakers’ Perceptions of Fluency and Accent in L2 Speech

Oral fluency and foreign accent distinguish L2 from L1 speech production. In language testing practices, both fluency and accent are usually assessed by raters. This study investigates what exactly native raters of fluency and accent take into account when judging L2. Our aim is to explore the relationship between objectively measured temporal, segmental and suprasegmental properties of speech on the one hand, and fluency and accent as rated by native raters on the other hand. For 90 speech fragments from Turkish and English L2 learners of Dutch, several acoustic measures of fluency and accent were calculated. In Experiment 1, 20 native speakers of Dutch rated the L2 Dutch samples on fluency. In Experiment 2, 20 different untrained native speakers of Dutch judged the L2 Dutch samples on accentedness. Regression analyses revealed, first, that acoustic measures of fluency were good predictors of fluency ratings. Second, segmental and suprasegmental measures of accent could predict some variance of accent ratings. Third, perceived fluency and perceived accent were only weakly related. In conclusion, this study shows that fluency and perceived foreign accent can be judged as separate constructs

Linking Variation in Perception and Production in Sound Change: Evidence from Dutch Obstruent Devoicing

This study investigates the link between the perception and production in sound change in progress, both at the regional and the individual level. Two devoicing processes showing regional variation in Dutch are studied: the devoicing of initial labiodental fricatives and of initial bilabial stops. Five regions were selected, to represent different stages of change in progress. For each region, 20 participants took part in production (Study 1) and perception (Study 2) experiments. First, the results of the production tasks give additional insight in the regional and individual patterns of sound change. Second, the regional perceptual patterns in fricatives match the differences in production: perception is the most categorical in regions where the devoicing process is starting, and the least categorical in regions where the process of devoicing is almost completed. Finally, a clear link is observed between the production and perception systems undergoing sound change at the individual level. Changes in the perceptual system seem to precede changes in production. However, at the sound change completion, perception lags behind: individuals still perceive a contrast they no longer produce