The Phonological Analysis of Russian Accent in the Way Back Movie by Peter Weir

Many speakers around the world have their own way in pronouncing English words as International language. The unique way in pronouncing English words is called accent. This research aims at analyzing the deviances on segmental vowel quality and quantity made by the Russian speaker in The Way Back movie by Peter Weir regarding to English short and long vowels in Russian accent. The research method was descriptive qualitative method. The research data was collected from converted audio of The Way Back Movie by Peter Weir. The data was then trimmed, selected and extracted by Praat software analysis. The results show that the Russian speaker makes deviances in pronouncing English vowel quality and vowel quantity. The total amount of deviances is 169 deviances which are divided into three classifications; those are segmental vowel quality, combinatorial quality and segmental vowel quantity deviances. The deviance that is mostly made by the Russian speaker is segmental vowel quality deviance, whereas the deviance that is rarely made by the Russian speaker is combinatorial vowel quality.

Notes on the Phonetics, Phonology and Prosody of the Čakavian Dialect of Susak

Summary The paper deals with synchrony and diachrony of phonetics, phonology and prosody of the Čakavian dialect of Susak (Croatia) based on the author’s fieldwork in 2018. The data is compared to previous studies of the Susak dialect. The local dialect exhibits a number of interesting phonological features – e. g. a complex (“Tsakavian”) opposition of postalveolars (/č, ž, š/) to dentals/alveolars (/c, z, s/), centralization of short /i/ and /o/ (in connection to vowel quantity opposition), complex allophonic realizations of the diphthong /i̯e/, etc. – which may be interesting from the perspective of wider phonological theory.

Vowels

This chapter examines the vowels of MUE from a historical perspective. Following an overview of the vowel system of the dialect compared to those of the input and neighbouring varieties, it concentrates on three topics which give a detailed insight into the history of the dialect: vowel quality; vowel quantity; the lexical distribution of vowel phonemes. It finds that although the lexical distribution of vowel phonemes is mostly of English origin, their quality and, especially, quantity show considerable evidence of input from Scots.

Middle English Open Syllable Lengthening (MEOSL) or Middle English Compensatory Lengthening (MECL)?

This study addresses a controversial aspect of the change traditionally known as Middle English Open Syllable Lengthening (MEOSL): the variable results of lengthening in disyllabic (C)V.CVC stems, the heaven–haven conundrum. It presents a full philological survey of the recoverable monomorphemic input items and their reflexes in Present-day English (PDE). A re-examination of the empirical data reveals a previously unnoticed correlation between lengthening and the sonority of the medial consonant in forms such as paper, rocket, gannet and baron, as well as interplay between that consonant and the σ2 coda. The alignment of disyllabic stems with a medial alveolar stop and a sonorant weak syllable coda (Latin, better, otter) with (C)V.RVR stems (baron, felon, moral) opens up a new perspective on the reconstruction of tapping in English. The results of lengthening in disyllabic forms, including those previously thought of as ‘exceptions’ to the change, are modeled in Classical OT and Maxent OT, prompting an account which reframes MEOSL as a stem-level compensatory process (MECL) for all inputs. We show that OT grammars with conventional constraints can correctly predict variation in the (C)V.TəR stems and categorical lengthening or non-lengthening in other disyllabic stems. Broadening the phonological factors beyond the open-syllable condition for potential stressed σ1 inputs in (C)V.CV(C) stems allows us to apply the same constraints to stems whose input structure does not involve an open syllable and to propose a uniform account of stressed vowel quantity in all late Middle English mono- and di-syllabic stems.

Vowel Quantity and Quality in Neo-Punic and Latin Inscriptions from Africa and Sardinia

The article by Robert Crellin and Lucia Tamponi elucidates the vowel quality and quantity of Neo-Punic and Latin from North Africa and Sardinia. An important innovation presented in the article is the investigation not only of the representation of vowels in Neo-Punic by means of matres lectionis, but also of zero-representation and its relation to representation by matres lectionis. This sheds light on the degree of sensitivity of writers of Neo-Punic inscriptions to vowel length in Latin. The examination of the representation of vowel length and vowel quality further reveals that in both North Africa and Sardinia the distinction between /i, eː/ and /u, oː/ was retained despite the merger of these phonemes in Common Romance. The authors convincingly suggest that this is due to ties between North Africa and Sardinia. The article thus adds to our understanding of the linguistic development of both Romance and Punic in North Africa and Sardinia and to the relations between those two communities.

Modeling Vowel Quantity Scales in Q Theory

A growing body of research suggests that vowels vary in degree of strength. These strength differences are borne out in the degree to which these segments undergo or trigger phonological processes such as stress assignment or harmony. Traditionally, this variability has been accounted for through binary differences in phonological representations, such as presence or absence of a segment in the underlying representation, presence or absence of a phonological feature, and moraicity or non-moraicity of the relevant segment. While distinctions in underlying status and moraic structure are an effective tool for capturing some of the observed differences in vowel strength, they do not capture all attested differences. In this paper, we offer evidence supporting a four-point strength scale to which faithfulness and markedness constraints can refer. This model allows for strength differences among underlying and inserted vowels, and within monomoraic and bimoraic vowels as well, subject to scalar implications. We argue that Q-Theoretic representations offer the necessary representational tool to capture the full range of vowel strength.

Difficulties in adjacent vowel length of L1 Russian speakers in Czech

The sound category of the vowel quantity is applied in the structure of languages in different ways, and its adaptation from one system to another is difficult. The subject of the paper is the difficulties Russian speakers have in the production of Czech texts with more long vowels in a row, i.e., in a situation that does not exist in Russian. Sample of Czech created for the purpose of the experiment and recorded by Russian and Czech native speakers serve as the basis. The success in the realization of quantity in Russian speakers as assessed by Czech native listeners was monitored, and the duration values of short and long vowels and their ratio in the speech of Russian and Czech speakers were compared.

Recent advances in Q Theory: Segment strength

Using Q Theory, in which canonical segments are represented as a sequence of three subsegments, this paper develops a scale of vowel quantity, ranging from ‘superlight’ single v subsegments to ‘heavy’ or geminate vowels consisting of four subsegments. An Optimality-Theoretic analysis of quantity-sensitive stress assignment is developed, in which stress is preferred on vowels with more subsegments. A case study of the Jê language Panãra demonstrates that a single language can draw a four-way vowel quantity contrast, to which the stress system is sensitive.