Variation in Loan phonology: Neutralization of Spanish Bilabials in Copala Triqui

This study focuses on the incorporation and distribution of two Spanish phonemes, voiced and voiceless bilabial obstruents, into a pre-existing allophonic distribution of dental and velar obstruent voicing in Copala Triqui, an Otomanguean language from Oaxaca, Mexico. While a more traditional approach may assume that these phonemes will follow native rules of voicing, there has also been a recent concern about the trend to make maximal generalizations. In this line of thinking, people should make just the specific generalizations for which they have evidence (Hale and Reiss, 2008). Using data collected from live radio broadcasts, an article on lexical assimilation (Hollenbach, 1973b), a Spanish-Triqui dictionary (Hollenbach, 2004b) and formal elicitations, I show that these bilabial obstruents do follow pre-existing rules of voicing but also do not follow native patterns of devoicing. While on the surface this may seem to support Hale and Reiss’ warning, a more detailed look at the linguistic factors and sociolinguistic patterns reveals that (1) Triqui rules of voicing can be generalized beyond dental and velar obstruents to include bilabial obstruents although there are linguistic factors and sociolinguistic patterns mitigating this process. (2) Linguistically, a closer look at patterns of voicing in Triqui obstruents reveals that only the voiceless bilabial is imported directly. The voiced bilabial, in turn, is actually adapted as the native bilabial glide, which has an obstruent-like realization. (3) Finally, we see that the borrowed phoneme is much less likely to follow native rules in contexts of higher formality such as elicitations even when they follow native rules in less formal contexts such as radio broadcasts. By paying attention to the sociolinguistic context it becomes apparent that both careful and free speech need to be taken into account in order to fully understand possible generalization of native rules as well as sociolinguistic factors that may impede or even expedite this process

Consonantal Variation of Spanish in Northern Morocco

In former Spanish Morocco, many educated speakers are able to draw upon various phonological systems such as French, Moroccan Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic in order to pronounce Spanish sounds. However, although the speakers of this study are highly proficient in Spanish, there are still some segmental features that set them apart from a native Spanish speaker. These features include the failure to produce the fricative allophones of bilabial, dental, and velar stops the failure to distinguish between the simple and multiple vibrant trill, and difficulties in producing the palatal nasal. While the Spanish of these Northern Moroccans seems to vary from standard Peninsular Spanish, their Spanish also tends to vary among themselves as well as within the speech of the individual speakers. Data for this paper was drawn from sociolinguistic interviews carried out in Tangier with speakers of Spanish. Results show that, on the whole, three factors determine the different levels of phonetic variation present in the case of educated Northern Moroccans who acquire Spanish without formal instruction: their knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic and French, their intense exposure to Spanish television, and their awareness of the sociolinguistic markers active in the Peninsula and exhibited through mass media

Phonetic adaptations of Spanish loanwords in Triqui

This study focuses on the results of increased language contact on Spanish loanword adaptation in Copala Triqui at the segmental and prosodic levels. Data from field notes and publications from the 1960s and 1970s were compared to modern 21st century loanword adaptations in 80+ hours of radio broadcasts and recorded elicitations in personal fieldwork in Mexico, Central California and Albany, NY. The overarching goal is to identify a wide range of possible phonetic adaptations at the segmental and prosodic levels and track the possible effects of increased bilingualism on these adaptations. From there it attempts to hypothesize what phonetic variation may indicate more generalized contact induced change in Copala Triqui. The results indicate that closed systems such as segmental and prosodic inventories are resistant to contact induced change. In this case study, even though bilinguals are able to produce foreign sounds in the context of loanwords, more consistent use of foreign sounds happens as a result of internal shifts in progress. In order to understand segmental shift it is useful to look at the phonetic system as a whole rather than at the possible importation of individual phonemes. In the case of Triqui, the obstruents and rhotics may be on their way to converging with the Spanish obstruent and rhotic systems. At the prosodic level it is clear that adaptation follows more stringent rules and shows much less variation. Four different patterns of stress in Spanish -ultimate, penultimate, antepenultimate and ultimate stress with sibilant coda- translate into four consistent tone patterns with no exceptions. The only confirmed shift is the reduction of historically complex loanwords with multiple lexically-linked tones to simple words with one word-final tone, a process that is relatively common in this language. Only recently do two innovations in adaptation occur: the first is a new tone pattern accompanied by a word-final aspirated laryngeal and the second is a possible maintenance of Spanish stress. The cause of these two innovative adaptation patterns has not yet been determined but it is likely that they are related

INTERCAMBIO EDUCATIVO VIRTUAL: UNA CLASE VIRTUAL COMPARTIDA NORTE – SUD SOBRE DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE

Las competencias globales son, cada vez más, habilidades importantes que se deben adquirir desde pregrado. Un intercambio internacional representa un reto y es inviable para muchos estudiantes, por tanto, existe la necesidad de desarrollar e implementar medios alternativos para introducir experiencias internacionales e interculturales en las aulas de pregrado. En este trabajo se presenta un programa basado en intercambios virtuales, en el que se creó una materia virtual de un semestre, entre la Universidad Privada Boliviana en Bolivia y la Universidad de Siena en los Estados Unidos de Norte América, sobre desarrollo sostenible. La clase proveyó una experiencia multidisciplinaria e intercultural relevante tanto para los estudiantes de las carreras de ciencias puras e ingeniería como para los de ciencias sociales, sin la necesidad de viajar. Además, el proceso de aprendizaje, basado en la investigación y en la resolución de problemas, se fortaleció a través de la incorporación del servicio social que se realizó en colaboración con una organización rural boliviana, Unidad Académica Campesina Carmen Pampa. Los resultados de este emprendimiento muestran que los cursos virtuales compartidos pueden proveer experiencias internacionales a estudiantes de pregrado

A Virtual Educational Exchange: A North–South Virtually Shared Class on Sustainable Development

Increasingly, international competence is considered an important skill to be acquired from an undergraduate education. Because international exchange presents a challenge to many students, there is a need to develop and implement alternative means for incorporating international and cross-cultural experiences into the undergraduate classroom. We report on the implementation of a semester-long, virtually shared course offering between a U.S. and a Bolivian university. As STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors tend to be under-represented in study-abroad programs, this class sought to provide a multidisciplinary experience that could be relevant to both hard and social science majors. Furthermore, the relevance and learning impact of this class was enhanced through the incorporation of a service-learning component in conjunction with a rural Bolivian partner organization. The results of this experience show that virtually shared classroom experiences can successfully facilitate international experiences for undergraduate students

How European Research Projects Can Support Vaccination Strategies: The Case of the ORCHESTRA Project for SARS-CoV-2

ORCHESTRA (“Connecting European Cohorts to Increase Common and Effective Response To SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic”) is an EU-funded project which aims to help rapidly advance the knowledge related to the prevention of the SARS-CoV-2 infection and the management of COVID-19 and its long-term sequelae. Here, we describe the early results of this project, focusing on the strengths of multiple, international, historical and prospective cohort studies and highlighting those results which are of potential relevance for vaccination strategies, such as the necessity of a vaccine booster dose after a primary vaccination course in hematologic cancer patients and in solid organ transplant recipients to elicit a higher antibody titer, and the protective effect of vaccination on severe COVID-19 clinical manifestation and on the emergence of post-COVID-19 conditions. Valuable data regarding epidemiological variations, risk factors of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its sequelae, and vaccination efficacy in different subpopulations can support further defining public health vaccination policies

Challenges of data sharing in European Covid-19 projects : a learning opportunity for advancing pandemic preparedness and response

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a massive investment into collaborative research projects with a focus on producing data to support public health decisions. We relay our direct experience of four projects funded under the Horizon2020 programme, namely ReCoDID, ORCHESTRA, unCoVer and SYNCHROS. The projects provide insight into the complexities of sharing patient level data from observational cohorts. We focus on compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ethics approvals when sharing data across national borders. We discuss procedures for data mapping; submission of new international codes to standards organisation; federated approach; and centralised data curation. Finally, we put forward recommendations for the development of guidelines for the application of GDPR in case of major public health threats; mandatory standards for data collection in funding frameworks; training and capacity building for data owners; cataloguing of international use of metadata standards; and dedicated funding for identified critical areas