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The Vocal Story: Forming Sounds into Words

Lorraine McCune

in How Children Learn to Learn Language

This chapter discusses the phonetic skills that serve the child in the construction of form/meaning correspondences: first the production of a repertoire of well-practiced consonant sounds, and ... More

This chapter discusses the phonetic skills that serve the child in the construction of form/meaning correspondences: first the production of a repertoire of well-practiced consonant sounds, and second the development of individual and systematic phonological motor patterns. Topics covered include phonetic skill at the transition to speech, vocal motor schemes (VMSs), VMS consonant repertoires and production of words, VMS repertoire as a measure of specific consonant skills related to language, and the use of VMS during the transition to reference. It is shown that both VMS development and template-based organization of the early lexicon exemplify the mutual regulation between sound and meaning. Once a greater capacity for mental representation has developed, this capacity prompts integrative application of phonetic capacities to potential word meanings experienced in the environment.Less

Standard Chinese

San Duanmu

in Syllable Structure: The Limits of Variation

This chapter offers an analysis of distribution patterns of sounds and syllables in Standard Chinese, including sound frequencies and onset, rhyme, syllable, and tonal frequencies. It also discusses ... More

This chapter offers an analysis of distribution patterns of sounds and syllables in Standard Chinese, including sound frequencies and onset, rhyme, syllable, and tonal frequencies. It also discusses reasons for the many non‐occurring syllables, the [ɚ]‐suffix, syllabic consonants, homophone density, and syllable loss.Less

Shanghai Chinese

San Duanmu

in Syllable Structure: The Limits of Variation

This chapter offers an analysis of distribution patterns of sounds and syllables in Shanghai Chinese. Of interest is the fact that Shanghai has no diphthongs or contrastive codas. In addition, the ... More

This chapter offers an analysis of distribution patterns of sounds and syllables in Shanghai Chinese. Of interest is the fact that Shanghai has no diphthongs or contrastive codas. In addition, the rhyme inventory of Shanghai has shrunk drastically in the past 100 years.Less

Consonant Epenthesis: Natural and Unnatural Histories

Juliette Blevins

in Linguistic Universals and Language Change

This chapter argues that there are clear natural and unnatural histories for patterns of consonant insertion which make no reference to syllable onset or segmental markedness. It offers new ways of ... More

This chapter argues that there are clear natural and unnatural histories for patterns of consonant insertion which make no reference to syllable onset or segmental markedness. It offers new ways of understanding the typology of C-epenthesis. Within the realm of natural history, glide epenthesis and laryngeal epenthesis are two distinct subtypes with different phonetic and phonological profiles. In the domain of unnatural histories, significant correlations are observed between consonants subject to coda weakening and those involved in epenthesis. This finding follows from our understanding of rule inversion as part of phonological acquisition. Finally, a mix of natural and unnatural history characterizes the analysis of Oceanic j-accretion and Ritwan l-sandhi.Less

Spelling and Typos

Steve Hart

in English Exposed: Common Mistakes Made by Chinese Speakers

This chapter presents spelling errors that are caused by confusing certain terms, picking up bad habits, and simply mistyping.

Lexicalization of Sound Change and Alternating Environments

Joan Bybee

in Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language

This chapter examines sound changes that occur at the boundaries between two words, setting up more than one variant for a word. What happens in such cases is interesting, because it is common for ... More

This chapter examines sound changes that occur at the boundaries between two words, setting up more than one variant for a word. What happens in such cases is interesting, because it is common for bound morphemes to have multiple variants but not so common for words to have variant forms. Based on final [s] reduction in Spanish dialects, the chapter argues that the spread of the reduced variant from pre-consonantal position (the original phonetic environment) to pre-vocalic position is the generalization of the more frequent variant—that which occurs before consonants. This chapter shows the power of the usage-based approach in explaining linguistic phenomena: the effect of frequency can explain why a word boundary so often behaves like a consonant. The reason is that word boundaries are most often followed by consonants and the more frequent variant eventually takes over. A second point is that the data show that individual words tend to resolve a large range of variation toward having a single variant.Less

The alphabet *

Gerjan van Schaaik

in The Oxford Turkish Grammar

This chapter presents the Latin-based alphabet of Turkish, which differs from that of English in the extra letters ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, and ü, whereas it lacks q, w, and x. A detailed account is given of ... More

This chapter presents the Latin-based alphabet of Turkish, which differs from that of English in the extra letters ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, and ü, whereas it lacks q, w, and x. A detailed account is given of vowels, of consonants not present in the English alphabet, and of consonants shared by both languages. The notions front and back for vowels are introduced, as well as the notions voiced versus voiceless for consonants. Next, attention is given to aspiration of voiceless plosives. The most conspicuous letters for which the phonological environment determines their sound value are r and ğ; the former being pronounced with a kind of rustling at the end of a word, and the latter functioning either as a lengthening marker or as a symbol representing the y-sound. This chapter ends with the Turkish telephone alphabet.Less

Morphological Classes as Natural Categories

CAROL LYNN MODER

in Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language

One particular class of irregular verbs in English, exemplified by string/strung, shows some productivity, offering an opportunity to understand further the factors that govern productivity. This ... More

One particular class of irregular verbs in English, exemplified by string/strung, shows some productivity, offering an opportunity to understand further the factors that govern productivity. This class is examined in the present chapter, and is shown to be defined by the phonological shape of the verb, including not just the final consonants, but also the initial ones. This chapter argues for product-oriented schemas on the basis of the fact that the vowel of the base is the least important factor in predicting class membership. Synchronic, diachronic, and experimental data indicate that speakers of natural language form categorizations of linguistic objects in the same way that they form categorizations of natural and cultural objects. These verbs are not categorized by properties of their meaning or by properties that associate them with external reality; rather, they are categorized by their form, that is, their phonological properties.Less

The sounds of Amazonia

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald

in The Languages of the Amazon

Unlike their Andean neighbours, Amazonian languages tend to have just one liquid phoneme (frequently, a flap). Some have no liquids at all. There are usually more affricates than fricatives. A ... More

Unlike their Andean neighbours, Amazonian languages tend to have just one liquid phoneme (frequently, a flap). Some have no liquids at all. There are usually more affricates than fricatives. A typical Amazonian vowel system includes a high central ɨ, something not typical for the Andes. We start with a bird’s eye view of consonants in Amazonian languages, and move on to unusual and rare sounds and sound systems. We then turn to syllable structure. Some Amazonian languages have large systems of nasal vowels; in others, nasalization, and glottalization are phonological processes. Many Amazonian languages have stress systems. Tones tend to be found in areal clusters, to the north and to the south of the River Amazon. There are very few Amazonian languages with more than just two tones. Some languages lose their tones as they become obscolescent. In Appendix, ‘How Amazonian languages compare with their neighbours’, we discuss South American languages spoken in the vicinity of Amazonia.Less

Consonants

Laurence Labrune

in The Phonology of Japanese

This chapter examines in turn each consonant of the Japanese system, presenting its main allophones and phonotactic characteristics. Special attention is dedicated to the phonology of the consonant ... More

This chapter examines in turn each consonant of the Japanese system, presenting its main allophones and phonotactic characteristics. Special attention is dedicated to the phonology of the consonant /h/ which has developed out of*/p/, and to the issue of the velar nasal, through an enlightening comparison of two competing approaches of the problem, that of Kindaichi Haruhiko (1942) and that of Junko Itô and Armin Mester (1997). This chapter also offers new insights on the phonology of the Japanese /r/ and on newly introduced consonants.Less

Consonants

Warren Maguire

in Language and Dialect Contact in Ireland: The Phonological Origins of Mid-Ulster English

This chapter analyses the origins of a range of consonantal features in MUE. Starting with an overview of the consonant system and a comparison of it to the consonant systems of the input varieties ... More

This chapter analyses the origins of a range of consonantal features in MUE. Starting with an overview of the consonant system and a comparison of it to the consonant systems of the input varieties and to those of Ulster Scots and Southern Irish English, the chapter specifically concentrates on a number of key phonological patterns, several of them previously ascribed to Irish influence, which reveal crucial things about the history of the dialect. Features examined include Velar Palatalisation, Pre-R Dentalisation, survival of the dental fricatives, rhoticity, realisation of /l/, epenthesis in consonant clusters, and consonant deletions. It is shown that most consonantal patterns in the dialect derive from English and, to a lesser extent, Scots, possibly with some reinforcement from Irish.Less

The two languages and their historical relation

Kristján Árnason

in The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese

Chapter 1 describes the demography of the two languages and their historical relation, tracing them back to ‘Proto‐West‐Nordic’, the phonological characterization of which is based on evidence from ... More

Chapter 1 describes the demography of the two languages and their historical relation, tracing them back to ‘Proto‐West‐Nordic’, the phonological characterization of which is based on evidence from Old Icelandic texts and partly on reconstruction. The West Nordic obstruents are often assumed to have had an opposition based on voicing, different from the modern languages. The West Nordic vowel system was rich in having nine vowel qualities, which in principle could take part in a length correlation and a relation of nasality. Old West Nordic had a number of diphthongs, as combinations of full vowel colours and semi‐vowels. The prosodic structure was of the type characterized as ‘moraic trochee’.Less

Icelandic consonants

Kristján Árnason

in The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese

The chapter starts with an overview of places and manners of articulation. Among the special problems discussed is the relation between palatals and velars. Alternation between velars and palatals is ... More

The chapter starts with an overview of places and manners of articulation. Among the special problems discussed is the relation between palatals and velars. Alternation between velars and palatals is common in paradigms, raising the question of the phonological function of the distinction. The chapter also discusses the relation between fortis (aspirated) and lenis (unaspirated) stops in foot initial and foot internal position, and the distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ dialects defined on the basis of the function of aspiration in foot internal position. The relation between voiced and voiceless fricatives and sonorants is another interesting area; there being a tendency for voiced fricatives to be weakened and become approximants. The ubiquity of voiceless sonorants is another special characteristic of the phonological structure. The chapter ends with an enumeration of the classes of consonants and a proposed elemental analysis.Less

Faroese consonant segments

Kristján Árnason

in The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese

This chapter describes the Faroese consonant system, giving an overview, and discussing parallel problems to those in Icelandic, such things as the relation between the fortis and lenis consonant ... More

This chapter describes the Faroese consonant system, giving an overview, and discussing parallel problems to those in Icelandic, such things as the relation between the fortis and lenis consonant series, both initially and word internally. There are similarities in that both Icelandic and Faroese have ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ dialects, and the number of oppositions allowed differs between positions, initially or internally in feet and words. Palatalization has reached its ‘logical’ conclusion in Faroese, creating palato‐alveolar affricates. Fricatives and glides also raise issues regarding positional restrictions on opposition, historical fricatives having been deleted, but new glides inserted in hiatus. The sonorant system shows similarities and differences vis à vis the Icelandic one. The chapter ends with a proposed elemental analysis of the Faroese consonant system.Less

The Evolution of a Morphome in Catalan Verb Inflection 1

Max W. Wheeler

in Morphological Autonomy: Perspectives From Romance Inflectional Morphology

Catalan verb morphology displays a curious and complex morphome that is not morpho‐syntactically motivated. The set of categories represented consists of (a) and (b): (a) 1st singular present ... More

Catalan verb morphology displays a curious and complex morphome that is not morpho‐syntactically motivated. The set of categories represented consists of (a) and (b): (a) 1st singular present indicative, present subjunctive; (b) Past perfective indicative (synthetic), past subjunctive, past participle. The morphome is generally marked by a velar consonant: /k/ after a sibilant, /g/ elsewhere. I explore the spread in individual verbs of the velar marker from submorphome (a) to sub‐morphome (b) or from (b) to (a), and from the original verbs to others, in a corpus of inflections from 1200–1550. I attempt to identify morphological, phonological, and possibly semantic, motivations for the observed spread of the morphome from 22% of e‐conjugation verb roots showing any stem alternation in 1300 to 78% in the present day.Less

A law unto themselves? An acoustic phonetic study of ‘tonal’ consonants in British Panjabi

Jane Stuart‐Smith and Mario Cortina‐Borja

in Laws and Rules in Indo‐European

Despite the interesting position of Panjabi as one of the few Modern Indo-Aryan languages to show lexical tone, there has been little phonetic investigation into the phenomenon, or consideration of ... More

Despite the interesting position of Panjabi as one of the few Modern Indo-Aryan languages to show lexical tone, there has been little phonetic investigation into the phenomenon, or consideration of the synchronic phonological contrasts resulting from mergers of the PIE voiced aspirates with voiceless or voiced plosives, with tonal developments on adjacent vowels. At the same time, lexical tone in British varieties of Panjabi is informally reported to be undergoing further change and even loss. This chapter presents an acoustic phonetic study of lexical tone and stop contrasts in British Panjabi. Our results confirm the presence of tone in terms of pitch movement as expected, and suggest some attrition. They also indicate some fine differences in plosives which phonologically are assumed to be ‘the same’. This suggests that we may need to re-evaluate this Indo-European sound law as an instance of ‘the new principle of ‘near merger’’ (Labov 1994: 20).Less

Consonants

Tomas Riad

in The Phonology of Swedish

There are eighteen consonant phonemes in Swedish. Sixteen of these occur in both a short and a long variant, and that distinction is phonemic. This is to say that consonants may be lexically ... More

There are eighteen consonant phonemes in Swedish. Sixteen of these occur in both a short and a long variant, and that distinction is phonemic. This is to say that consonants may be lexically specified with a mora. Among the most interesting properties of the consonant system is the double specification of aspiration and voicing in the obstruents, an instance of overspecification. Swedish also has crowd of palatal and velar voiceless fricatives: /s/, /ʂ/ and /ɕ/. The phoneme /ʂ/ exhibits a lot of allophonic variation, where the typical prevocalic realization is [ɧ] and the postvocalic is [ʂ].Less

Phonetics and phonology

Robert McColl Millar

in Northern and Insular Scots

This chapter discusses the phonological variation in the area covering the vowel systems, consonant phonology and prosody. It shows that the Scots dialects of northern Scotland and the Northern Isles ... More

This chapter discusses the phonological variation in the area covering the vowel systems, consonant phonology and prosody. It shows that the Scots dialects of northern Scotland and the Northern Isles exhibit considerable variation in pronunciation both between themselves and in relation to the patterns found for Central Scots. Yet this distinctiveness masks an underlying similarity: these dialects represent more conservative patterns which are associated with a greater range of words than would be the case in less traditional dialects.Less

Phonetics and Phonology

David Deterding

in Singapore English

This chapter first discusses the consonants and then the vowels of Singapore English. It then considers suprasegmental features such as rhythm, intonation and stress placement. It also compares the ... More

This chapter first discusses the consonants and then the vowels of Singapore English. It then considers suprasegmental features such as rhythm, intonation and stress placement. It also compares the sounds of Singapore English with the English found in other countries in the region.Less