Academic literature on the topic 'Word-final unstressed vowel /e/'

Does bilingual language influence in the domain of phonetics impact the morphosyntactic domain? Spanish gender is encoded by word-final, unstressed vowels (/a e o/), which may diphthongize in word-boundary vowel sequences. English neutralizes unstressed final vowels and separates across-word vocalic sequences. The realization of gender vowels as schwa, due to cross-linguistic influence, may remain undetected if not directly analyzed. To explore the potential over-reporting of gender accuracy, we conducted parallel phonetic and morphosyntactic analyses of read and semi-spontaneous speech produced by 11 Monolingual speakers and 13 Early and 13 Late Spanish-English bilinguals. F1 and F2 values were extracted at five points for all word-final unstressed vowels and vowel sequences. All determiner phrases (DPs) from narratives were coded for morphological and contextual parameters. Early bilinguals exhibited clear patterns of vowel centralization and higher rates of hiatuses than the other groups. However, the morphological analysis yielded very few errors. A follow-up integrated analysis revealed that /a and o/ were realized as centralized vowels, particularly with [+Animate] nouns. We propose that bilinguals’ schwa-like realizations can be over-interpreted as target Spanish vowels. Such variable vowel realization may be a factor in the vulnerability to attrition in gender marking in Spanish as a heritage language.

ABSTRACTTo verify anecdotal claims regarding the nature of unstressed vowel deletion in Azorean (European) Portuguese, conversational data from a native speaker of the island of Faial have been analyzed to determine the segmental and prosodic contexts favoring elision. Results of a quantitative analysis indicate that unstressed [u] and schwa are the most likely vowels to be deleted; moreover, deletion is highly favored when the unstressed vowel occurs in word-final position at the end of an utterance. Factors such as rhythmic preservation, syllable structure, and functional load are discounted in the analysis, suggesting that vowel deletion is essentially a word-based variable process in the language.

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the constraints on variable deletion of short vowels in word-final unstressed syllables found in the variety of Latvian spoken in Riga. The affected vowels are almost always inflectional endings. Results from a variable rule analysis of 8 native speakers from Riga indicate that internal phonological and prosodic factors (especially distance from the main word stress) act as the strongest constraints on vowel deletion, along with the educational level of the speaker. The functional constraint of the recoverability of the deleted vowel is not significant.

It has been generally accepted that greater vowel/syllable duration is a reliable correlate of stress and that absolute durational differences between vowels underlie phonemic length contrasts. In this paper we shall demonstrate that duration is not an independent stress correlate, but rather it is derivative of another stress correlate, namely pitch. Phonemic contrast, on the other hand, is qualitative rather than quantitative. These findings are based on the results of an experiment in which four speakers of SBrE read 162 mono-, di- and trisyllabic target items (made of CV sequences) both in isolation and in carrier phrases. In the stressed syllables all Southern British English vowels and diphthongs were represented and each vowel was placed in 3 consonantal contexts: (a) followed by a voiced obstruent, (b) voiceless obstruent and (c) a sonorant. Then, all vowels (both stressed and unstressed) were extracted from target items and measured with PRAAT. The results indicate that stressed vowels may be longer than unstressed ones. Their durational superiority, however, is not stress-related, but follows mainly from vowelintrinsic durational characteristics and, to some extent, from the prosodic context (i.e. the number of following unstressed vowels) in which it is placed. In CV1CV2 disyllables, when V1 is phonemically short, the following word-final unstressed vowel is almost always longer. It is only when V1 is a phonemically long vowel that V2 may be shorter. As far as diphthongal V1 is concerned, the durational V1~V2 relation is variable. Interestingly, the V1~V3 relation in trisyllables follows the same durational pattern. In both types of items the rare cases when a phonemically short V1 is indeed longer than the word-final vowel involve a stressed vowel which is open, e.g. [æ,o], and whose minimal execution time is longer due to a more extensive jaw movement. These observations imply that both in acoustic and perceptual terms the realisation of word stress is not based on the durational superiority of stressed vowels over unstressed ones. When it is, it is only an epiphenomenon of intrinsic duration of the stressed vowel and extra shortness of nonfinal unstressed vowel. As far as phonemic length contrast is concerned, we observe a high degree of durational overlap between phonemically long and short vowels in monosyllabic CVC words (which is enforced by a greater pitch excursion), whereas in polysyllables the differences seem to be perceptually non-salient (>40 ms, cf. Lehiste 1970). This suggests that the differences in vowel duration are not significant enough to underlie phonological length contrasts.

Realization of the vowel /e/ in stressed and unstressed positions in the prosodic word in Macedonian. Preliminary studyAccording to the information in "Phonology of the contemporary standard Macedonian language" by I. Sawicka and L. Spasov (1991) realization of the Macedonian middle vowels /e/ and /o/ is higher, for example, than middle Polish or Serbian vowels. It is also believed that the Macedonian stressed vowels are higher than vowels in unstressed position.This article presents the preliminary results of the controls F1 and F2 of the vowel /e/ in various positions within the prosodic word. 120 words were analyzed in which /e/ occurred in the stressed position (40 words), or unstressed (in the first or second syllable before the stress - 40 words, and in the first or second syllable after the stress - 40 words).The results show that the value of F1 and F2 may depend on several factors. The most important among them is the position of the stressed or unstressed syllable. Realization of the stressed vowel /e/ is the highest. Articulation of the vowel /e/ in unstressed syllables is higher before the stress than after the stress. The realization of the vowel /e/ is also influenced by word-initial or final location. The beginning of the word is pronounced faster and stronger, whereas the end of the word - slower and weaker. The realization may depend on whether the syllable is open or closed. In the open syllable at the end of the word, the vowel /e/ is higher than in the closed syllable. Realizacja samogłoski /e/ w pozycji akcentowanej i nieakcentowanej w języku macedońskim. Badania preliminarneZgodnie z informacją zawartą w Fonologii współczesnego standardowego języka macedońskiego autorstwa I. Sawickiej i L. Spasova (1991) realizacja samogłosek średnich /e/ i /o/ jest wyższa od średnich samogłosek polskich czy serbskich. Uważa się również, że macedońskie samogłoski pod akcentem są wyższe od samogłosek w pozycji nieakcentowanej.Artykuł prezentuje sondażowe wyniki pomiarów F1 i F2 samogłoski /e/ w różnych pozycjach. Zanalizowano 120 wyrazów, w których /e/ wystąpiło pod akcentem (40 przykładów) oraz poza akcentem (40 przykładów z /e/ w I lub II sylabie przed akcentem oraz 40 przykładów z /e/ w I lub II sylabie po akcencie).Wyniki badania pokazują, że wysokość F1 i F2 samogłoski /e/ zależy od różnych czynników. Najważniejszy z nich to występowanie samogłoski w sylabie akcentowanej lub nieakcentowanej. Samogłoska /e/ jest wyższa pod akcentem niż poza akcentem. Badania wykazały, że realizacja samogłoski /e/ jest wyższa w sylabach przed akcentem niż po akcencie. Na wysokość samogłoski /e/ może również wpłynąć jej wystąpienie na początku lub na końcu wyrazu. Uważa się, że inicjalna część wyrazu jest wymawiana szybciej i silniej, natomiast część finalna wolniej i słabiej. Realizacja samogłoski może także zależeć od tego, czy występuje ona w sylabie zamkniętej czy otwartej. W wygłosowej sylabie otwartej samogłoska zwykle jest wyższa.

This paper examines the strategies for profiling the phonological word in Alemannic, applying the typology of syllable and word languages. The diagnostic criteria selected for assessing the relevance of the phonological word include syllable structure, phonotactic restrictions, and word-profiling processes. Following on from previous synchronic and diachronic analyses (Nübling/Schrambke 2004; Szczepaniak 2007), I will provide a detailed account of the phonological word in Old Alemannic and in modern Alemannic dialects, which include Upper-Rhine Alemannic, Swabian, and South Alemannic. It will be shown that the relevance of the phonological word gradually increased in Alemannic, as can be gleaned from processes such as unstressed vowel reduction, unstressed vowel deletion, and consonant epenthesis. While vowel reduction created strong asymmetries between stressed and unstressed syllables, unstressed vowel deletion and consonant epenthesis increased syllable complexity at word and morpheme boundaries. In addition, Swabian was found to contain more word-related features than Upper-Rhine Alemannic and South Alemannic. Thus, the typology of syllable and word languages contributes to a better understanding of language variation and change in Alemannic.

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the reduction of unstressed vowels in Coratino, a language spoken in the Apulia region of Italy. Its vowel inventory includes seven vowels: /i, e, ε, a, ɔ, o, u/. All but /a/ are reduced to a schwa when they surface in unstressed positions. Furthermore, back and front vowels are not reduced in unstressed positions when they are adjacent to a labial consonant, or adjacent to a velar followed by a palatal. These vowels also remain non-reduced in word-initial position. Therefore, there are three contexts in which these vowels are not reduced (in stressed positions, adjacent to a consonant, and in word-initial positions). This article aims to reduce this disjunction.

We present three case studies of marginal contrasts in Tongan loans from English, working with data from three speakers. Although Tongan lacks contrasts in stress or in CC vs. CVC sequences, secondary stress in loans is contrastive, and is sensitive to whether a vowel has a correspondent in the English source word; vowel deletion is also sensitive to whether a vowel is epenthetic as compared to the English source; and final vowel length is sensitive to whether the penultimate vowel is epenthetic, and if not, whether it corresponds to a stressed or unstressed vowel in the English source. We provide an analysis in the multilevel model of Boersma (1998) and Boersma & Hamann (2009), and show that the loan patterns can be captured using only constraints that plausibly are needed for native-word phonology, including constraints that reflect perceptual strategies.

The assumption behind this pilot study is that metrical feet are not ‘groups of syllables’ or ‘interstress intervals’ but rather ‘groups of vowels’ extracted from the phonetic material contained between two stresses. We analysed the duration, pitch, intensity and acoustic energy of all vowels in isolated pronunciations of 72 initially stressed items (mono-, di- and trisyllables). The results reveal that pre-fortis clipping of the stressed vowel and final lengthening are interrelated, which suggests that stressed and unstressed final vowels are able to ‘negotiate’ their durations. Such ‘communication’ between the stressed vowels and the final unstressed ones is possible only if a mediating constituent (the foot) is postulated. Most importantly, we found no significant differences (p < .05) between the total acoustic energy and the total vowel duration in words having a different number of syllables, which supports the assumption of foot-level isochrony in English. It was also observed that the significant increase in vowel duration in stressed CVC monosyllables co-occurs with a significantly greater pitch slope, which we interpret to be a tonally driven implementation of minimal foot binarity requirement.

Através desta pesquisa, investigamos efeitos de atrito linguístico (influência da L2 sobre a L1), a partir da produção da vogal átona final /e/ por porto-alegrenses (RS, Brasil), aprendizes de Espanhol como Segunda Língua (L2). Com este propósito, analisamos a produção desta vogal em ambas as línguas dos aprendizes, verificando, mais especificamente, seus padrões acústicos (os valores de F1 e F2, que dizem respeito à altura e à anterioridade da língua, respectivamente, bem como os valores de duração absoluta e relativa) em comparação à produção de monolíngues de Espanhol (variedade de Montevidéu/Uruguai) e de Português Brasileiro (variedade de Porto Alegre – RS/Brasil). Portanto, contamos com três grupos distintos de participantes: (a) um grupo de monolíngues falantes de Espanhol (Grupo Controle 1); (b) um grupo de monolíngues do Português Brasileiro, nativos da grande Porto Alegre/RS (Grupo Controle 2); e (c) um grupo de aprendizes avançados de Espanhol como L2 (Grupo Experimental). Levantamos as seguintes hipóteses de pesquisa: (i) haverá diferença significativa nos valores das frequências formânticas (F1 e F2) e no padrão duracional das produções vocálicas entre as línguas dos bilíngues (Português/L1 e Espanhol/L2), sendo que a vogal /e/ em Espanhol/L2 será mais baixa (menor F1 – em Bark), mais anterior (menor F2 – em Bark) e mais longa (duração absoluta e relativa) do que em Português/L1 (CÂMARA Jr., 1970; CALLOU, MORAES, LEITE, 1996, 2002; VIEIRA, 2002; BISOL, 2003; BATTISTI & VIEIRA, 2005; REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA, 2011; SILVA, 2012; SANTOS, RAUBER, 2016; PEREYRON, 2017); (ii) não haverá diferença significativa, no que diz respeito aos padrões acústicos de F1, F2 e duração (absoluta e relativa), entre a vogal átona final /e/ do Espanhol, produzida pelos bilíngues de nível avançado na L2, e a produzida pelos monolíngues de Espanhol; e (iii) haverá diferença significativa entre os valores de F1, de F2, de duração absoluta e de duração relativa entre a vogal átona final /e/ do PB produzida pelos bilíngues e a sua contraparte produzida pelos monolíngues de PB, pois a vogal átona final /e/ dos bilíngues será mais baixa (menor F1), mais anterior (menor F2) e mais longa do que a dos monolíngues de PB (CALLOU, MORAES, LEITE, 1996, 2002; SILVA, 2012; SANTOS, RAUBER, 2016; PEREYRON, 2017; SCHERECHEWSKY, ALVES, KUPSKE, no prelo). Os dados foram obtidos através de Tarefas de Leitura, nas quais foi solicitado que o participante lesse, em voz alta, 24 frases-veículo que continham os estímulos a serem analisados. Os grupos de monolíngues realizaram apenas a Tarefa de Leitura correspondente à sua Língua Materna (L1), e o grupo de aprendizes realizou uma Tarefa de Leitura em cada língua (Português e Espanhol). Os resultados indicaram que os bilíngues distinguem, em suas produções, a vogal átona final /e/ entre a L1 (Português) e a L2 (Espanhol), embora não tenham desenvolvido o padrão acústico de altura e anterioridade/posterioridade na L2. Além disso, em relação à L1, as produções vocálicas dos bilíngues, estatisticamente, não se diferenciam das dos monolíngues de PB. Entretanto, individualmente, alguns bilíngues apontam sinais de atrito linguístico em altura e anterioridade/posterioridade vocálica. Portanto, a partir das análises dos sistemas de Língua Materna (L1) e Segunda Língua (L2) do grupo de aprendizes, discutimos o que nossos resultados podem sugerir sobre a dinamicidade nas produções dos bilíngues e a possibilidade de atrito linguístico em ambiente de L2 não-dominante, partindo da concepção de Língua como um Sistema Adaptativo Complexo (cf. GONÇALVES et al., 1995; BECKNER et al., 2009; ALBANO, 2012).
In this study, we investigate the occurrence of language attrition (L2-L1 influence) in the production of the word-final unstressed vowel /e/ by speakers from the city of Porto Alegre (RS, Brazil), learners of Spanish as a Second Language (L2). Departing from this goal, we analyze this vowel in the two language systems produced by these learners. We verify their acoustic patterns (F1 and F2, as well as absolute and relative durations) in comparison to the vowels produced by Brazilian Portuguese monolinguals (from the city of Porto Alegre - Brazil) and Spanish monolinguals (from the city of Montevideo – Uruguay). Therefore, three groups of participants took part in this study: (a) Spanish monolinguals (Control Group 1); (b) Brazilian Portuguese monolinguals (Control Group 2); and (c) a group of Brazilian learners of Spanish showing an advanced level of proficiency (Experimental Group). We hypothesize that (i) there will be significant differences in F1, F2 and (absolute and relative) durational values between the two languages of the bilingual participants (L1: Portuguese, L2: Spanish), as the final vowel /e/ in L2 Spanish will be lower (lower F1 Bark value), more fronted (lower F2 Bark value) and longer (both in absolute and relative values) than in L1 Portuguese (CÂMARA Jr., 1970; CALLOU, MORAES, LEITE, 1996, 2002; VIEIRA, 2002; BISOL, 2003; BATTISTI & VIEIRA, 2005; REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA, 2011; SILVA, 2012; SANTOS, RAUBER, 2016; PEREYRON, 2017); (ii) there will not be significant differences in the production of word-final unstressed /e/ in Spanish, in terms of formant frequencies (F1 and F2 values) and duration (absolute and relative values), between the productions by the L2 leaners and the native speakers of Spanish; (iii) there will be significant differences, in terms of formant frequencies (F1 and F2 values) and duration (absolute and relative values), in the productions in Brazilian Portuguese by monolinguals and L2 leaners of Spanish, as the vowels produced by the latter will be lower (lower F1 value), more fronted (lower F2 value) and longer than those produced by the monolinguals (CALLOU, MORAES, LEITE, 1996, 2002; SILVA, 2012; PEREYRON, 2017; SANTOS, RAUBER, 2016; SCHERECHEWSKY, ALVES, KUPSKE, in press). The data were collected through a reading task, in which participants were asked to read 24 carrier sentences with the target words. The two Control Groups sat for one of the tasks only, while the L2 learners took part in both tasks (Portuguese and Spanish). Our results show that the L2 leaners are able to produce a difference between Brazilian Portuguese (L1) /e/ and Spanish (L2) /e/, even though the target L2 pattern has not been fully developed. As for the L1 productions, significant differences between monolinguals and bilinguals have not been found. However, when analyzed individually, some learners show some signs of language attrition in their F1 and F2 values. This considered, by analyzing these participants’ L1 and L2 systems individually, we discuss the possibility of language attrition in an L2 non-dominant environment, as we provide support to a view of language as a Complex, Adaptive System.

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.
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Esta pesquisa focaliza a ocorrência de um erro de pronúncia - a epêntese vocálica em consoantes em final de palavras no inglês de estudantes brasileiros. A relação entre produção e percepção foi estabelecida a partir da investigação sobre as habilidades de produzir consoantes em final de palavra e de discriminar seqüências ##CVC## e ##CVCV## onde a vogal final é /i/. Vinte estudantes do primeiro e segundo semestres de cursos de graduação em três universidades participaram do estudo. Seguindo-se a linha de pesquisa de Baptista e Silva Filho (1997), a produção da epêntese foi examinada através de três variáveis de marcação da consoante-alvo e duas variáveis de contexto fonológico: (a) vozeamento, (b) marcação relativa na classe de obstruintes, (c) marcação relativa das plosivas vozeadas por ponto de articulação, (d) silêncio, consoante ou vogal como contexto fonólogico, e (e) relações de sonoridade entre as sílabas. A relação entre produção e percepção foi examinada em termos das variáveis (a) e (e) acima e em termos gerais, estabelecendo-se o grau de associação entre as habilidades. Os dados de produção foram obtidos através da leitura de sentenças contendo seqüências ##CVC## em contexto de seqüências ##CVC(C)##, ##VC(C)##, e silêncio. Os dados de percepção foram obtidos através de um teste de discriminação do item estranho (Flege, MacKay e Meador, 1999). Em geral, as análises estatísticas não revelaram efeito significativo da marcação da consoante final ou do contexto fonológico na produção e percepção, entretanto, tendências foram identificadas ao se estabelecer comparação entre os resultados de produção e resultados de pesquisas anteriores, e entre os dados de produção e percepção investigando estas variáveis. A análise estatística dos dados, estabelecendo relação entre percepção e produção, mostrou resultados significativos indicando associação entre as habilidades. Propõe-se que tais resultados argumentam em favor da sílaba como unidade de representação mental guiando a percepção e produção de consoantes em final de palavras em L2.

Este trabalho buscou investigar o fenômeno de elevação das vogais médias átonas finais no português brasileiro do século XIX a partir de dois tipos de dados empíricos: a evidência direta e a evidência indireta. Entendem-se como evidência direta as declarações de gramáticos, ortoepistas e elocucionistas por fornecerem evidências diretas sobre o estado linguístico de uma língua (BEAL, 2012). Consideram-se evidência indireta os textos, de qualquer tipo, produzidos por falantes/escritores por estes fornecerem indícios sobre o estado linguístico de uma língua (BEAL, 2012). A presente pesquisa utilizou obras metalinguísticas e didáticas como fontes de evidência direta e correspondências redigidas no século XIX como fontes de evidência indireta. Os resultados da análise de evidência indireta (registros escritos) não permitiram verificar se o fenômeno de elevação das vogais médias átonas finais atuava no português brasileiro oitocentista em virtude de não haver dados suficientes para esboçar algum julgamento. No entanto, com relação aos resultados da análise das fontes de evidência direta (obras metalinguísticas e didáticas), estes permitiram constatar que o referido fenômeno atua no português europeu desde o século XVIII, e no português brasileiro, desde o século XIX. A partir dos resultados da presente pesquisa, pode-se afirmar que o processo de elevação das vogais /e/ e /o/ não é um fenômeno exclusivo do português brasileiro atual.
This paper investigated the Brazilian Portuguese final unstressed mid-vowels heightening through two kinds of empirical data: direct evidence and indirect evidence. Direct evidence consists of the statements of grammarians, orthoepists and elocutionists because they provide intentionally evidence about the state of the language (BEAL, 2012). Indirect evidence is the texts of various kinds produced by the speaker/writer who provides unconsciously evidence on the state of the language (BEAL, 2012). This research collected metalinguistic and didactic books published from 16th century to 19th as direct evidence sources and letters written during the 19th century as indirect evidence sources. The results of the analysis of indirect evidence (written texts) did not allow to verify if the heightening of the unstressed final mid-vowels occurred in Brazilian Portuguese of the 19th century on account of not having sufficient data to outline a judgement. However, in relation to the results of the analysis of direct evidence (metalinguistic and didactic books), they allowed to prove that the heightening has happened in European Portuguese since 18th century and in Brazilian Portuguese since 19th century. From the results of this paper, it is possible to state that the heightening of the final unstressed vowels /e/ and /o/ are not an exclusive phenomenon of the Brazilian Portuguese nowadays.

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES
Este estudo tem por objetivo analisar o processo variável de apagamento das vogais átonas [a, i, u] em posição final na fala de indivíduos da cidade de Pelotas (RS), conforme verificado em tarif[a] ~ tarif∅, equip[e] ~ equip∅, serviço ~ serviç∅, por exemplo. Para isso, partiu-se dos pressupostos da Fonologia de Uso (BYBEE, 2001, 2006, 2010), da Teoria de Exemplares (PIERREHUMBERT, 2001, 2003) e da Sociofonética (THOMAS, 2011; FOULKES; SCOBBIE; WATT, 2010). A amostra sob análise é constituída por oito informantes (quatro homens e quatro mulheres) entre 18 e 50 anos de idade e de dois níveis de escolaridade – sujeitos com até seis anos de escolaridade e sujeitos com, no mínimo, nove anos de escolaridade. A taxa de aplicação do apagamento na amostra analisada foi de 53% (N = 242) para a vogal [i], de 41% (N = 196) para a vogal [u] e de 0,8% (N = 4) para a vogal [a]. Os resultados indicaram que fatores como tipo de vogal, contexto precedente, ordem de produção e frequência lexical favorecem o apagamento, revelando a natureza predominantemente linguística do fenômeno. A única variável extralinguística que teve influência no apagamento foi a variável indivíduo. A análise acústica revelou que as vogais postônicas [i] e [u] produzidas pelos pelotenses tendem a abaixar enquanto a vogal [a] tende a elevar-se. Além disso, percebe-se uma centralização de [u], que ocupa, entre os homens, quase o mesmo espaço acústico que a vogal [a]. [ɐ], [ɪ] e [ʊ] são as vogais que representam o sistema encontrado na amostra. Com relação à duração, comparando-se os valores encontrados com os dados de Quintanilha-Azevedo (2016), percebe-se que tanto homens quanto mulheres produziram vogais mais curtas. Por fim, conclui-se que o apagamento representa o ponto final de uma trajetória que se inicia com a realização plena da vogal, passa pela redução de sua duração e pelo seu desvozeamento.
This thesis aims to analyze the variable process of deletion of the final unstressed vowels [a, i, u] by Brazilian Portuguese native speakers from the city of Pelotas, in the Southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, as noticed in words such as tarif[a] ~ tarif∅, equip[e] ~ equip∅, serviço ~ serviç∅, for instance. In order to achieve said aim, the concepts addressed by Usage-Based Phonology (BYBEE, 2001, 2006, 2010), the Exemplar Theory (PIERREHUMBERT, 2001, 2003) and Sociophonetics (THOMAS, 2011; FOULKES; SCOBBIE; WATT, 2010) were used as this research project's theoretical bases. The sample analyzed in this study consists of 8 informants (4 men and 4 women) from two different educational backgrounds (one group including subjects with up to 6 years of formal learning and the other including subjects with 9+ years of formal learning) with ages ranging from eighteen to fifty. The rate of deletion in the sample was of 53% (N = 242) for the vowel [i], of 41% (N = 196) for the vowel [u], and of 0,8% (N = 4) for the vowel [a]. The results indicate that such factors as type of vowel, preceding context, vowel production order and lexical frequency favor deletion, revealing the predominantly linguistic nature of the phenomenon. The variable "subject" was the only extralinguistic variable to influence deletion. Acoustic analysis showed that the posttonic vowels [i] and [u] produced by the subjects tend to lower as the vowel [a] tends to rise. In addition, the study also revealed a centralization of [u], which occupies among men almost the same acoustic vowel space as does the vowel [a]. Vowels [ɐ], [ɪ] and [ʊ] are representative of the system found in the sample. Regarding duration, when comparing the values included in this research project with those presented by Quintanilha-Azevedo (2016), it can be noticed that both men and women produced shorter vowels. Lastly, it was found that deletion represents the final stage of a process that begins with the production of a full-quality vowel, moves on to its reduction, and ultimately reaches the devoicing of said vowel.

碩士
國立彰化師範大學
英語學系
87
Lots of previous studies have suggested that preceding vowel duration can be used as a cue to the voicing of word-final stops or fricatives (Chen, 1970; Soli, 1982; Chang, 1993, 1995a). However, most studies put their emphasis on word-final stops while some studies lay their focus on fricatives only. The consonants that can occur word-finally may be of various manners of articulation such as stops, fricatives, affricates, and nasals. Besides, in English phonetic forms, there are open syllables. That is, the coda position of the syllable may be empty. However, studies have rarely been conducted to compare the vowel duration of closed syllables with that of open syllables. In addition, since previous studies include only words in isolation, minimal pair words in this study are also put into sentences to see the possible environmental effect of word-final consonants on preceding vowel duration. Finally, the intrinsic duration of various vowel types is also investigated to attain a better understanding of its variations. The results show that syllable types, word-final consonants and intrinsic vowel types all together account for the vowel duration variations found in English.

This chapter describes the phonetics, phonology, and the orthographic practices of Old Spanish. It first identifies the vocalic and consonantal phonemes of the medieval language. The following sections describe specific phonetic and phonological issues such as possible allophonic variation between stressed and unstressed vowels, apocope of word-final /-e/, the formation and evolution of new and unfamiliar consonant clusters in the medieval language through vowel syncope, word-final consonant groups resulting from vowel apocope, the phonetic nature of word-initial /f-/, the nature of affricate consonants, and the possible first manifestations in the late medieval language of seseo and yeísmo. The chapter concludes with an overview of the wide orthographic variation in the earliest texts and the attempt to regularize to some degree spelling practices starting in the mid-thirteenth century.

‘Word’ is a cornerstone for the understanding of every language. It is a pronounceable phonological unit. It will also have a meaning, and a grammatical characterization-a morphological structure and a syntactic function. And it will be an entry in a dictionary and an orthographic item. ‘Word’ has ‘psychological reality’ for speakers, enabling them to talk about the meaning of a word, its appropriateness for use in a certain social context, and so on. This volume investigates ‘word’ in its phonological and grammatical guises, and how this concept can be applied to languages of distinct typological make-up-from highly synthetic to highly analytic. Criteria for phonological word often include stress, tone, and vowel harmony. Grammatical word is recognized based on its conventionalized coherence and meaning, and consists of a root to which morphological processes will apply. In most instances, ‘grammatical word’ and ‘phonological word’ coincide. In some instances, a phonological word may consist of more than one grammatical word. Or a grammatical word can consist of more than one phonological word, or there may be more complex relationships. The volume starts with a typological introduction summarizing the main issues. It is followed by eight chapters each dealing with ‘word’ in an individual language—Yidiñ from Australia, Fijian from the Fiji Islands, Jarawara from southern Amazonia, Japanese, Chamacoco from Paraguay, Murui from Colombia, Yalaku from New Guinea, Hmong from Laos and a number of diasporic communities, Lao, and Makary Kotoko from Cameroon. The final chapter contains a summary of our findings.

In this chapter and the following one, I turn to omission errors. These are errors in which children fail to represent a phoneme in their spelling. I ask which phonemes children tend to omit and why. This chapter focuses on omissions of vowels, while Chapter 8 considers omission errors on consonants. Also included in Chapter 8 is a comparison of vowel omission errors and consonant omission errors. The study of vowel omissions takes on particular importance in light of the claim that beginning spellers are particularly likely to omit vowels (Ehri, 1986; Morris & Perney, 1984). For example, Morris and Perney (1984) state that semiphonetic spellers often produce spellings like M or ML for mail, omitting the middle vowels of one-syllable words. Not until the phonetic stage, they say, do vowels begin to appear in children’s spellings of such words. Do children omit the vowel of mail because the phoneme is in the middle of the word or do they omit it specifically because it is a vowel? To find out, it is necessary to examine words whose phonemic structure is more complex than consonant-vowel-consonant. Only then will we be able to determine whether all phonemes in the middles of words are susceptible to omission, or just vowels. Consider the child who spelled rainy as RNIE. The spoken form of this word contains four phonemes—/r/, /e/, /n/, and /i/. The child who produced RNIE symbolized /r/ with r, /n/ with n, and /i/ with ie. The child failed to represent /e/ altogether, a vowel omission error. Other spellings that contain vowel omissions are HLP for help, in which /ɛ/ is deleted, and BLUN for balloon, in which the unstressed /ə/ of the first syllable is deleted. In this study, omission errors are defined by reference to the spoken form of the word, not by reference to its conventional spelling. Thus, the child who spelled said as SID is not considered to have made an omission error. This child did symbolize the vowel, albeit with i instead of with the correct ai.

This chapter describes and analyses the ‘word’ in Lao, a Southwestern Tai language spoken in Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, focusing on the concepts of grammatical versus phonological word and the relations between them. All morphemes in Lao consist of at least one syllable. In turn, syllables can be grouped into feet. A foot must include one stressed syllable, which bears contrastive tone, and consists of one or more unstressed, phonologically dependent syllables, including independent yet phonologically-bound morphemes such as class term prefixes. Above the level of the foot is the phonological word, in which two or more feet may be grouped together, with primary stress on the final foot. The boundaries of the grammatical word in Lao do not always align directly with the boundaries of the phonological word. Some grammatical words occur as clitics, incorporated into phonological words and dependent on adjacent stressed syllables.

Corpora of prepared speech were compared between two Romance languages: French and Spanish. Results of this comparison show that owing to its presence of lexical stress—itself involving acoustic strengthening—Spanish, in contrast to French, reveals acoustic strengthening with word-final lengthening. However, acoustic variations due to other factors such as vowel duration, speech rate, and presence of pause are similar in both languages, contradicting some findings of previous studies in this domain. Spanish Prosodic Words and French Accentual Phrases are closely analyzed, with data normalized by speaker. The major result of this study is that, while for both languages an overall strengthening of the vowels with a longer duration and a slower speech rate is observed, vowel strengthening due to syllable position within the word reveals significant differences between French and Spanish.

The principles of twofold vowel harmony and fourfold vowel harmony form, together with a number of consonant assimilations, the core of what at first sight looks like an enormous variation in suffixes. Since this apparent proliferation is largely predictable, it can neatly be reduced by adopting archetypical notations: –(y)E can be rewritten as four variants of the dative suffix: –ye, –ya, –e, and –a, and similarly, using –TE for the locative is more economical than spelling out –te, –ta, –de, and –da all the time. Another important issue is the question of how to deal with variable word stems. Only five noun classes exhibit stem variation: a dictionary form and an alternative stem; the latter being employed when a vowel follows via suffixation. The underlying mechanism is the process of re-syllabification, as set forth in the final section.

In this chapter, I turn from vowel omission errors to consonant omission errors. Consider the child who spelled blow as BOW. This child did not include any letter for /l/. Similarly, the child who spelled tumble as TUBOL failed to represent /m/. In this chapter, I ask when children omit consonant phonemes from their spelling and why they do so. As in Chapter 7, omission errors are defined phonologically rather than orthographically. Thus, the child who spelled thin as TIN symbolized each phoneme in the word’s spoken form, although he did not spell /θ/ in the conventional manner. From a phonological point of view, this child did not make an omission error. The study of consonant omissions is particularly important in light of the claim that beginning spellers often omit the final consonants of monosyllabic words (Morris & Perney, 1984). For example, children may misspell back as B or BA. Why do they do this? Is it because /k/ is the last consonant in the word, because /k/ is the last consonant in the syllable, or for both reasons? To address these questions, it is necessary to look beyond the simple consonant-vowel-consonant monosyllables that have been analyzed in much of the previous research. An examination of more complex words can also shed light on children’s omissions of consonants in clusters, as in BOW for blow. In the present study, consonant omission errors were not as common as consonant substitution errors. Of the children’s spellings of consonants, 7.4% or 800 out of 10,831 were omission errors. In contrast, 13.3% of all consonant spellings were substitution errors. Although the percentage of consonant omission errors was relatively low overall, omissions were quite common for certain consonants. For example, omissions were relatively common for the /l/ of blow and the /m/ of tumble; they were rare for the /l/ of love and the /m/ of milk. When interpreting the omission rates reported in this chapter, remember that the percentages are out of all the children’s spellings—correctly spelled words as well as incorrectly spelled words.