Ejectives in Scottish English: a social perspective

This paper presents the results of an analysis of the realization of word-final /k/ in a sample of read and casual speech by 28 female pupils from a single-sex Glaswegian high school. Girls differed in age, socioeconomic background, and ethnicity. Ejectives were the most usual variant for /k/ in both speech styles, occurring in the speech of every pupil in our sample. Our narrow auditory analysis revealed a continuum of ejective production, from weak to intense stops. Results from multinomial logistic regression show that ejective production is promoted by phonetic, linguistic and interactional factors: ejectives were used more in read speech, when /k/ occurred in the /-ŋk/ cluster (e.g. tank), and when the relevant word was either at the end of a clause or sentence, or in turn-final position. At the same time, significant interactions between style, and position in turn, and the social factors of age and ethnicity, show that the use of ejectives by these girls is subject to a fine degree of sociolinguistic control, alongside interactional factors. Finally, cautious comparison of these data with recordings made in 1997 suggests that these results may also reflect a sound change in progress, given the very substantial real-time increase in ejective realizations of /k/ in Glasgow over the past fourteen years

Identity and ethnicity in /t/ in Glasgow-Pakistani high-school girls

This paper presents an acoustic phonetic analysis of Glasgow Asian syllable-initial /t/, in speech data collected from Pakistani-Muslim girls in a Glasgow high school after a long-term participant observation into their shared and differing social practices. The results show differences in spectral energy and shape according to following phonetic segment, and to membership in two contrasting Communities of Practice, more conservative girls maintaining traditional cultural practices, and more rebellious girls whose behaviour challenges such norms. The findings demonstrate that ethnicity is integrally linked with locally-salient identity, and hence that fine phonetic variation which indexes ethnicity is in fact indexical of local ethnic identity

An Experiment in Model Driven Architecture for e-Enterprise Systems

OMG's Model Driven Architecture demonstrates how a system's specification model can be used within the process of creating supporting software implementations. This article documents the findings of an experiment aimed at determining the extent to which this method of software engineering can be used within the domain of e-Enterprise systems

Methodological Issues in a Real-Time Study of Glaswegian Vowels: Automation and Comparability

No abstract available

Taxation and bond market investment strategies: Evidence from the market for Government of Canada bonds

This paper shows that, contrary to the suggestion of some investment advisors, for an individual Canadian investor subject to personal income taxation, the after-tax yield on a discount bond is always higher (or, at worse, equal) to the yield on a premium bond. This follows because the tax rate on capital gains is lower than the tax rate on coupon income in Canada. It is also shown that a decline in the capital gains tax rate raises the after-tax yield on discount bonds, but reduces the after-tax yield on premium bonds, and may even cause the yield on premium bonds to become negative. Further, a cut in the tax rate on interest income raises the after-tax yield on all bonds, but raises the yield on premium bonds relative to discount bonds. While the lower after-tax yields on higher coupon bonds might be expected to cause the pre-tax yields on these bonds to rise, no evidence of such tax capitalization is found using a large dataset of matched pairs of Government of Canada bonds for the period 1986-2006. The observed near equality of pre-tax yields since 1995 for bonds with different coupons implies that individuals in Canada earn a significantly smaller after-tax yield from holding premium bonds than discount bonds.taxation; bonds; after tax returns

Government Revenue Volatility in Alberta

The Alberta government is heavily exposed to energy price volatility as it relies to a great extent on revenue derived from the production of oil and natural gas. Energy prices change substantially and unpredictably, causing large and uncertain movements in revenues. Adjusting to these movements typically involves economic, social and political costs. Alberta government revenues are considerably more volatile than the revenues of other provinces, but Alberta’s own-source revenues less royalty payments are of similar size and volatility as those of other provinces. Several methods to reduce the volatility of revenues are assessed. An often-suggested method, tax base diversification (for example, use of a retail sales tax), is shown to have a minor effect on overall revenue volatility since Alberta’s royalty revenues are such a large share of total own-source revenues. Revenue smoothing using futures and options markets can be expensive, is associated with significant political risks, and cannot eliminate all revenue volatility. The Canadian dollar tends to appreciate (depreciate) when energy prices rise (fall), so exchange rate movements have smoothed Alberta government revenues, although not by a large amount. A simulation using Alberta data shows that a revenue savings fund could significantly reduce revenue volatility. This type of fund leads to greater revenue stability because the revenue it contributes to the budget in any particular year is based on revenues averaged over prior years. Revenue uncertainty is also reduced with a savings fund since future revenue depends on known past contributions.government revenue volatility; energy prices; tax base diversification; government savings fund

Investment and the exchange rate: Short run and long run aggregate and sector-level estimates

Aggregate and sector-level investment equations that incorporate the exchange rate are estimated for a panel of 17 OECD countries using an error correction methodology. A real currency depreciation is found to have a significant negative effect on aggregate investment in both the short run and the long run. This effect is negative in all sectors in the short run, is significant in six of nine sectors, and is particularly persistent in service sectors, sectors that do not generally benefit directly from an expansion of demand following a currency depreciation. Movements in another explanatory variable, the real wage, have an insignificant impact on investment in the short run in most sectors, but a rise in the real wage has a significant negative long run effect on aggregate investment and on investment in six of nine sectors. A simulation shows that movements in the real exchange rate and the real wage can explain a large proportion of cross-country differences in investment.investment; exchange rate

Energy Prices and Alberta Government Revenue Volatility

Alberta government needs a revamped resource revenue stabilization fund to overcome the effects of wild swings in resource revenue and spending.Energy prices change substantially and unpredictably, causing revenue planning trouble for the Alberta government. Adjusting to these movements typically involves economic, social, and political costs that need to be factored into the government’s fiscal outlook. The best option for handling this is a resource revenue stabilization fund that collects a fixed proportion of resource revenue each year, and funds the provincial budget each year with a fixed share of the fund’s assets.Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness, Alberta, revenue volatility, resource revenue stabilization fund