Testing the storage of prosody-induced phonetic detail via auditory lexical decision

This article reports the results of an auditory lexical decision task, testing the processing of phonetic detail of English noun/verb conversion pairs. The article builds on recent findings showing that the frequent occurrence in certain prosodic environments may lead to the storage of prosody-induced phonetic detail as part of the lexical representation. To investigate this question with noun/verb conversion pairs, ambicategorical stimuli were used that exhibit systematic occurrence differences with regard to prosodic environment, as indicated by either a strong verb-bias, e.g., talk (N/V) or a strong noun-bias, e.g., voice (N/V). The auditory lexical decision task tests whether acoustic properties reflecting either the typical or the atypical prosodic environment impact the processing of recordings of the stimuli. In doing so assumptions about the storage of prosody-induced phonetic detail are tested that distinguish competing model architectures. The results are most straightforwardly accounted for within an abstractionist architecture, in which the acoustic signal is mapped onto a representation that is based on the canonical pronunciation of the word.

Categoricity, Variation, and Gradience in Sambla Balafon Segmental Encoding

This paper analyzes the musical surrogate encoding of Seenku (Mande, Burkina Faso) syllable structure on the balafon, a resonator xylophone used by the Sambla ethnicity. The elements of syllable structure that are encoded include vowel length, sesquisyllabicity, diphthongs, and nasal codas. Certain elements, like vowel length and sesquisyllabicity, involve categorical encoding through conscious rules of surrogate speech, while others, like diphthongs and nasal codas, vary between being treated as simple or complex. Beyond these categorical encodings, subtler aspects of rhythmic structure find their way into the speech surrogate through durational differences; these include duration differences from phonemic distinctions like vowel length in addition to subphonemic differences due to phrasal position. I argue that these subconscious durational differences arise from a “phonetic filter”, which mediates between the musician’s inner voice and their non-verbal behavior. Specifically, syllables encoded on the balafon may be timed according to the perceptual center (p-center) of natural spoken rhythm, pointing to a degree of phonetic detail in a musician’s inner speech.

Convergence Doesn't Show Lexically-Specific Phonetic Detail

Can phonetic convergence be lexically specific, providing evidence that representations include word-specific phonetic detail, or does it occur only at a phonological level? Some studies find more convergence in lower frequency words, which is interpreted as evidence for word-specific representations. However, this result has not been consistently replicated, and provides only indirect evidence for word-specific convergence. I more directly test the possibility of word-specific convergence in a shadowing task with different words manipulated in opposing directions; word-specific acoustic details are reflected in immediate repetition, but not in the post-task productions that would indicate shifts in the representation. I also examine a possible alternative source of apparent frequency-conditioned convergence. In a reading task with no exposure to other speakers, frequency was a predictor of speakers becoming more similar to each other in their second reading of a word; because effects of repetition are influenced by lexical frequency, apparent frequency-conditioned convergence can be produced as an artifact of the repetition inherent in shadowing tasks.

Visual foreign accent in an emerging sign language

In the study of sign language phonology, little attention has been paid to the phonetic detail that distinguishes one sign language from another. We approach this issue by studying the foreign accent of signers of a young sign language – Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) – which is in contact with another sign language in the region, Israeli Sign Language (ISL). By comparing ISL signs and sentences produced by ABSL signers with those of ISL signers, we uncover language particular features at a level of detail typically overlooked in sign language research. For example, within signs we find reduced occlusion (lack of contact), and across phrases there is frequent long distance spreading of the nondominant hand. This novel study of an emerging language in a language contact environment provides a model for comparative sign language phonology, and suggests that a community’s signature accent is part of the evolution of a phonological system.

ANALISIS GANGGUAN FONOLOGI DAN VARIASI PELAFALAN FONEM /R/ PADA PENDERITA CADEL

ABSTRAK: Fonologi sebagai kajian bunyi mentanskripsikan bunyi secara detail secara fonetik dari yang dihasilkan artikulator pembicara. Penelitian sebelumnya berkaitan dengan cadel cenderung memulul rata karena hanya menggunakan transkripsi ortografis dan fonemis namun tidak sampai melakukan transkripsi fonetik. Untuk penyebab dari cadel itu sendiri sudah banyak dibahas oleh peneliti lain sehingga penulis hanya melihat tanpa meneliti lebih dalam penyebab dari cadel. Gangguan cadel yang dialami oleh Aden Eka Pradana dan Ilham Maulana Irsyad yang akan dilihat perbedaan dan variasi pengucapan fonem /r/ yang mereka ucapkan untuk membedakan pendapat umum tentang cadel yang hanya merubah fonem /r/ menjadi /l/. Penelitian ini megunakan metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus dengan proses pencarian data menggunakan wawancara terbuka untuk mendalami kasus cadel dan wawancara tertutup utuk menguji pengucapan fonem /r/ dengan posisinya dalam kata. Data tersebut kemudian diolah menggunakan teknik Miles dan Huberman. Hasil penelitian menunjukan posisi /r/ dan konsisi individu membedakan pelafalan /r/ sehingga pada tes menggunakan fonem konsonan partisipan pertama menimbukan bunyi aspirasi dan partisipan kedua menimbulkan retopleks. Tes kedua dengan menggunakan kluster kembali memiliki perbedaan dimana partisipan pertama menyebutkan dengan sempurna sementara partisipan kedua masih memiliki gangguan yaitu lateral release. Hal ini membuktikan bahwa posisi dan jenis fonem /r/ mempengaruhi pengucapan pada penderita cadel.KATA KUNCI: cadel; fonologi; gangguan fonologi; trill apikoalveolar;�ANALYSIS OF PHONOLOGICAL DISORDERS AND VARIATIONS OF FONEM /R/ IN CADEL PATIENTS�ABSTRACT: Phonology as the study of sound describes sounds in phonetic detail from the speaker articulator. Previous research related to slurred tended to flatten because it only used orthographic and phonemic transcription but did not make phonetic transcription. For the cause of lisp itself has been widely discussed by other researchers so that the authors only look without examining deeper the causes of lisp. Slurred disorder experienced by Aden Eka Pradana and Ilham Maulana Irshad that will be seen differences and variations in pronunciation of the phonemes /r/ they say to distinguish general opinions about lisp which only changes the phoneme /r/ to /l/. This study uses a qualitative method with a case study approach with the process of finding data using open interviews to explore slurred cases and closed interviews to test phoneme /r/ pronunciation with its position in words. The data is then processed using Miles and Huberman techniques. The results showed that the position /r/ and individual conditions differentiate pronunciation /r/ so that in the test using the consonant phoneme the first participant raises the sound of aspiration and the second participant gives rise to retoplex. The second test using the cluster again has a difference where the first participant mentions perfectly while the second participant still has the disorder namely lateral release. This proves that the position and type of phoneme /r/ affect pronunciation in slurred sufferers.KEYWORDS: apicoalveolar trill; cadel; phonology; phonological disorders;

Acquiring allophonic structure and phonetic detail in a bilingual community: The production of laterals by Sylheti-English bilingual children

Aims and objectives: In this study, we consider the acquisition of allophonic contrast and phonetic detail in lateral consonants by second-generation Sylheti-English bilingual children in London, UK. Design/methodology/approach: Acoustic analysis was conducted on productions of /l/ by Sylheti bilingual children, Sylheti monolingual adults and English monolingual children. Data and analysis: Tokens of /l/ were elicited across initial, medial and final word positions from 14 bilingual Sylheti-English children, 10 monolingual English children, and 4 monolingual Sylheti adults. Acoustic measurements of F2–F1 were analysed using Bayesian linear mixed-effects modelling. Findings and conclusions: Our results show that bilingual children produce monolingual-like positional patterns in Sylheti, with very clear laterals in all positions. In contrast, bilinguals produce monolingual-like positional allophony in English, but they differ in phonetic detail, with bilinguals producing much clearer laterals than monolingual children across all positions. Originality: This study is the first to examine the development of allophonic contrast and phonetic detail in both of a bilingual’s languages in a contact scenario. This provides new insights into how contact varieties adopt aspects of structure and detail from each language. We also report valuable data from Sylheti-English bilinguals, who are an understudied community. Significance/limitations: Our study highlights the value of considering structural and detailed aspects of cross-linguistic sound systems, whereby one aspect may show monolingual-like patterns and another aspect may show distinctive patterns. We propose that the results in this study represent the development of a new sound system out of language contact, with second-generation bilingual children producing a hybrid system that combines influences from both heritage and host languages.