Visual prosody supports reading aloud expressively for deaf readers

Type is a wonderful tool to represent speech visually. Therefore, it can provide deaf individuals the information that they miss auditorily. Still, type does not represent all the information available in speech: it misses an exact indication of prosody. Prosody is the motor of expressive speech through speech variations in loudness, duration, and pitch. The speech of deaf readersis often less expressive because deafness impedes the perception and production of prosody. Support can be provided by visual cues that provide information about prosody—visual prosody—supporting both the training of speech variations and expressive reading. We will describe the influence of visual prosody on the reading expressiveness of deaf readers between age 7 and 18 (in this study, ‘deaf readers’ means persons with any kind of hearing loss, with or without hearing devices, who still developed legible speech). A total of seven cues visualize speech variations: a thicker/thinner font corresponds with a louder/quieter voice; a wider/narrower font relates to a lower/faster speed; a font raised above/lowered below the baseline suggests a higher/lower pitch; wider spaces between words suggest longer pauses. We evaluated the seven cues with questionnaires and a reading aloud test. Deaf readers relate most cues to the intendedspeech variation and read most of them aloud correctly. Only the raised cue is di#cult to connect to the intended speech variation at first, and a faster speed and lower pitch prove challenging to vocalize. Despite those two difficulties, this approach to visual prosody is elective in supporting speech prosody. The applied materials can form an example for typographers, type designers, graphic designers, teachers, speech therapists, and researchers developing expressive reading materials.

SPEECH VARIATION OF BENTENG SOMBA OPU COMMUNITY

The research aims to describe the speech variation of the Benteng Somba Opu community. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. Data were gaining from the verbal speech of the Benteng Somba Opu community in the form of dialogue. Data collection techniques conducted by doing observation and recording techniques. The data analysis carried out through data identification, data classification, data interpretation, and description of the result based on the sociolinguistics theory. The results of the research show that the Benteng Somba Opu community speech variation marked by using suffix, prefix, particle, and code-mixing. The suffix form contains -mi, -ma, -mo, -na, -nu, -ni, -ka, -ki, -ko, -ku, -ji, -pi, -di, -i, and - e. The prefix form marked by na-, ku-, ta-, and -i. The particle seems to the words, iyo, tong, tomma (i), mako, mami, paeng, dih, and tawwa. Code mixing conveyed using the English language (off and reward), and Arabic (alhamdulillah). Those variations are adjusting with the level of social, position, age, and familiarity between the speaker and the addressee in the Benteng Somba Opu community, resulting in a good, respectful, and polite speech.

Driving Forces behind Language Change. Does Danish Theory Hold up in Lithuania?

The paper presents a large-scale investigation of attitudes towards standard and dialectal speech varieties in Lithuania. It aimed at, firstly, obtaining comparable data on assessments of speech variation under two methodologically different conditions: ‘unaware condition’ (the participants being unaware of the linguistic goals of the research) and ‘aware condition’. Secondly, it aimed at testing whether the two layers of consciousness yield two different systems of social values and how the evaluations accord with changes in language usage. The theory was developed by Danish scholars whose numerous experimental studies proved the driving force role of subconscious attitudes. The investigation closely followed the Danish methodology and was carried out in 23 secondary schools in 7 regions and the capital city of Lithuania, covering almost 1.5 thousand pupils in total. The regularity of the findings, i.e. the overall tendency to overtly valorise local dialects but subconsciously to downgrade dialect accented voices, confirmed that language awareness affects assignment of values to language and must be regarded as an important explanatory factor for the scenarios of language change.

When Two Basic Principles Clash: About the Validity of Written Chat Language as a Research Tool for Spoken Language Variation. Flemish Chatspeak as a Test Case

Written chatspeak is said to be marked by two basic principles: (1) write like you speak and (2) write as fast as possible. As for Flemish chat language, the first principle seems to result in a multilayered mixed code, in which dialectical, substandard Flemish and standard Dutch features interact in an eclectic way. In addition, most of the chatters insert English words in their chat discourse as well. This intensive code mixing is assumed to be – at least to a considerable extent – a reflection of the daily speech of these Flemish chatters. But what about the validity of this assumption? Can chatspeak function as an alternative dataset for the study of (spoken) language variation and change and thus as a research tool for e.g. the study of Flemish teenage talk and the representation of non-standard speech in spoken interaction? The dependent variables for the present test case are two substandard Flemish (or ‘tussentaal’) features that urge the chatters to violate the second principle, since their use implies an extension of the utterance. The central question is whether the second principle prevents the use of these substandard forms in Flemish chatspeak. In other words, do the analyses undermine the validity of using written chat corpora as a graduator for speech variation? We finish with a small excursion on the use of English by the Flemish chatters: can we separate English insertions that are triggered by the chat medium from English insertions that are not?