Quantifying lexical and pronunciation variation between three Arabic varieties*

2016 ◽  
pp. 187-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Abunasser ◽  
Elabbas Benmamoun
Keyword(s):  
Pronunciation Variation

Context and paradigms

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Current Work ◽  
Yield Reduction ◽  
Exemplar Model ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Pronunciation Variation ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Verbal Agreement

A small but growing body of research on English and Dutch has found that pronunciation of affixes in a word form is sensitive to paradigmatic probability – i.e., the probability of using that form over other words in the same morphological paradigm. Yet it remains unclear (a) how paradigmatic probability is best measured; (b) whether an increase in paradigmatic probability leads to phonetic enhancement or reduction; and (c) by what mechanism paradigmatic probability can affect pronunciation. The current work examines pronunciation variation of Russian verbal agreement suffixes. I show that there are two distinct patterns of variation, corresponding to two different measures of paradigmatic probability. One measure, pairwise paradigmatic probability, is associated with a pronunciation pattern that resembles phonetic enhancement. The second measure, lexeme paradigmatic probability, can show enhancement effects, but can also yield reduction effects more similar to those of contextual probability. I propose that these two patterns can be explained in an exemplar model of lexical storage. Reduction effects are the consequence of faster retrieval and encoding of an articulatory target, while effects that resemble enhancement result when the pronunciation target of both members of a pair of competing word forms is shifted towards the more frequent of two.

Phonetic variation in consonants in infant-directed and adult-directed speech: the case of regressive place assimilation in word-final alveolar stops

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA C. DILLEY ◽  
AMANDA L. MILLETT ◽  
J. DEVIN MCAULEY ◽  
TONYA R. BERGESON
Keyword(s):  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Statistical Distributions ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Pronunciation Variation ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Place Assimilation ◽  
Perceptual Evidence

ABSTRACTPronunciation variation is under-studied in infant-directed speech, particularly for consonants. Regressive place assimilation involves a word-final alveolar stop taking the place of articulation of a following word-initial consonant. We investigated pronunciation variation in word-final alveolar stop consonants in storybooks read by forty-eight mothers in adult-directed or infant-directed style to infants aged approximately 0;3, 0;9, 1;1, or 1;8. We focused on phonological environments where regressive place assimilation could occur, i.e., when the stop preceded a word-initial labial or velar consonant. Spectrogram, waveform, and perceptual evidence was used to classify tokens into four pronunciation categories: canonical, assimilated, glottalized, or deleted. Results showed a reliable tendency for canonical variants to occur in infant-directed speech more often than in adult-directed speech. However, the otherwise very similar distributions of variants across addressee and age group suggested that infants largely experience statistical distributions of non-canonical consonantal pronunciation variants that mirror those experienced by adults.

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