No description available.

Spelling is a tool by which one records his thoughts and ideas; therefore it is a vital part of life. To fulfill its task successfully, spelling must be accurate. Spelling is that tool by which the happenings of the past are revealed to the present and are preserved for the future. For any individual who attempts to transfer his thoughts and words by symbols onto paper, correct spelling is a prime essential. It follows, then, that to develop perfect habits of spelling in order that perfect transcriptions of thoughts might be made is the duty of the teacher. This duty has been attempted by teachers for many generations. But it is an established fact that the goal has not been reached, for there is a stupendous number of misspellings in the written work of students in high schools. Many methods have been advanced for correcting this incompetence in spelling; when these were tried, they have failed to secure the coveted goal. In some instances the cure has aggravated the disease. Successful abolishment of this handicap baffles the teaching profession. In a course in American pronunciation recently conducted at North Texas State College, the teacher presented the fact that there are factors in the English language which tend to become stumbling-blocks to the attainment of perfect spelling. For the first time it became evident to this writer that certain elements within the language might be the cause of the spelling problem. Therefore, the readings for this thesis were undertaken for the purpose of finding the logical causes for poor spelling habits and with the hope of discovering a workable remedy.

No description available.

152f. / Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-05-17T12:39:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Andrea dos Santos.pdf: 3263833 bytes, checksum: b078012ad5051bc3605cc9a19161b7a4 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Alda Lima da Silva(sivalda@ufba.br) on 2013-05-27T21:27:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Andrea dos Santos.pdf: 3263833 bytes, checksum: b078012ad5051bc3605cc9a19161b7a4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-27T21:27:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Andrea dos Santos.pdf: 3263833 bytes, checksum: b078012ad5051bc3605cc9a19161b7a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Baseada na Teoria da Fonologia Natural (STAMPE, 1973) e nas propostas de Ingram (1976), Grunwell (1981/1982) e Teixeira (1985/1988b), este estudo tem como objetivo mapear o processo de Simplificação de Ditongos na aquisição do Português Brasileiro, traçando, assim, o seu percurso maturacional. Para isto, observou-se, durante 02 anos, a fala de 02 crianças soteropolitanas, pertencentes à classe sócio-escolar A que é formada por crianças cujos pais possuem (ou pelo menos um deles) o terceiro grau. Essas crianças tinham completado 01 ano de idade na época do início da coleta de dados que foi longitudinal. Após a coleta, os dados foram tratados, tabulados e analisados, obtendo-se como resultados: 1) a elisão parcial foi a estratégia mais recorrente; 2) a idade maturacional das crianças em relação aos ditongos varia de acordo com o tipo de ditongo; 3) os ditongos decrescentes são adquiridos mais cedo que os ditongos crescentes; 4) não há diferença aquisicional entre ditongos orais e nasais. Esses resultados corroboram os achados de Teixeira (1988b/1991), Lamprecht (1990) e Santos (2001) e contribuem para o avanço do Perfil do Desenvolvimento Fonológico em Português (PDFP). / Salvador

This study examined changes in speech production when distracting background audio is present. Forty typically speaking adults completed a repetitive sentence reading task in the presence of 5 different audio conditions (pink noise, movie dialogue, heated debate, classical music, and contemporary music) and a silent condition. Acoustic parameters measured during the study included vowel space area (VSA), vowel articulation index (VAI), formant transition extent, formant transition rate, and diphthong duration for /ɑɪ/ and /ɑʊ/. It was hypothesized that there would be significant increases in vowel space area and vowel articulation index as well as an increase in formant transition measures in the presence of background noise. There were statistically significant decreases in vowel space are and vowel articulation index in the presence of all noise conditions compared to the silent baseline condition. Results also demonstrated a significant decrease in F2 transition extent for both /ɑɪ/, and /ɑʊ/ diphthongs in all noise conditions except the pink noise condition when compared to the silent condition. These findings were contrary to what was originally hypothesized. It is possible that VAI and VSA decreased in the presence of background noise due to an increase in speaking rate. Formant transition measurements were consistent with the VAI and VSA results. More research is needed to accurately determine the acoustic changes a speaker makes in response to distracting background audio.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and quantify the effects of a nebulized saline treatment on speech production in eight females with Primary Sjögren's Syndrome (SS). The duration, formant frequency onset and offset, and slope were measured to determine the quality of participants' production of diphthongal American English vowels. Acoustic data were examined before treatment began, immediately following treatment, and during a one-week follow-up to determine the effects of a laryngeal hydration program that used nebulized saline to increase hydration of structures in the vocal tract. The vowels produced during the initial baseline condition were acoustically relatively similar to the productions of typical speakers not diagnosed with SS. Although some differences in mean vowel duration and formant frequency values were found in the recorded vowel productions, results indicated that the participants' vowel productions remained relatively stable across the different phases of treatment. The absence of large treatment effects, in terms of vowel acoustics, may be due to the possibility that although the dryness associated with SS is an irratant for speakers, it may not affect their ability to produce diphthongal vowels in a significant manner.

O objeto deste trabalho é investigar a realização dos ditongos orais no português vernacular de São Tomé e Príncipe (pvs). Esta variedade de português está em contato com outras línguas faladas no país e difere do sistema linguístico da variedade considerada padrão, o português europeu (pe) (FIGUEIREDO, 2010; GONÇALVES, 2010; CHRISTOFOLETTI, 2011; SANTOS & CHRISTOFOLETTI, 2011). A hipótese para as peculiaridades do comportamento do sistema fonético-fonológico do pvs é o aprendizado do português como L2 (por gerações passadas recentes) (HAGEMEIJER, 2009; GONÇALVES, 2010), e a influência do contato com as línguas crioulas faladas no país, como o santome (FERRAZ, 1979), o principense (MAURER, 2009), o angolar (MAURER, 1995) e o kabuverdianu, visto que as comunidades são, em geral, bilíngues ou convivem em espaços multilíngues. As mudanças linguísticas intergeracionais e o contato também justificariam o comportamento na realização dos ditongos que possuem variações em sua realização no pvs. O corpus deste trabalho é formado por gravações de fala espontânea de 18 informantes, coletados na capital de stp por meio da sociolinguística variacionista (LABOV, 1991 [1972]). A justificativa para o estudo das realizações dos ditongos, constatada a singularidade de suas realizações, é observar o comportamento de uma variante de português em um ambiente multilíngue; aumentar o nosso conhecimento sobre essa variante; confrontar um sistema em diglossia; possibilitar outros estudos sobre o pvs e comparações com outras variantes de português nos Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa. Em relação às variáveis sociais, há uma relação da aplicação do processo de monotongação com a quantidade de anos de escolaridade, sendo que as pessoas mais escolarizadas tendem evitar mais a monotongação do que as pessoas menos escolarizadas. Ademais, foi constatada a singularidade do sistema fonético-fonológico dessa variedade africana de português, pois, diferente da norma europeia (MATEUS & DANDRADE, 2000; MATEUS, 2002), considerada de prestígio no país, o pvs realiza a monotongação dos ditongos [eI ], como em dinheiro [di\"ñeKU], primeiro [pri\"meKU] e feijoada [feZu\"ad5], sugerindo uma aproximação ao comportamento do português brasileiro (pb) (cf. BISOL 1991, 1994; ARAÚJO 1999; LOPES 2002 e outros), todavia, a monotongação ocorre ainda em contextos nos quais tanto nas variantes do pb, como nas do pe, ela é bloqueada. Assim, ocorre a monotongação mesmo quando a consoante seguinte é uma oclusiva alveolar surda [t], como em feitiço [fe\"tisU], leitão [le\"tãU ] e direito [di\"KetU], fato não documentado no pb ou no pe. Com relação ao ditongo [oU ] no pvs, a monotongação é categórica, assim como nos estudos apresentados sobre variação nos ditongos de outras variedades de português. No que diz respeito ao ditongo [oI ], observamos que a variação na aplicação da monotongação ocorre apenas quando seguido pela consoante [S], responsável pelo espraiamento do nó vocálico criando o glide [I ] via processo fonético. O ditongo [aI ], por sua vez, sofreu variação no processo de monotongação fundamentalmente diante de consoante palatal, nos demais contextos sua ocorrência foi pouco produtiva. Do mesmo modo, o ditongo [eU ] teve baixo índice de ocorrência de monotongação, sendo mantido em quase todos os contextos. Os demais ditongos, [EI ], [EU ], [uI ] e [iU ], tiveram raras ocorrências, e foi impossível observar variações em suas realizações. / The purpose of this work is to investigate the realization of oral diphthongs in vernacular portuguese of Sao Tome and Principe (pvs). This variety of portuguese is in contact with other languages spoken in the country and differs from the linguistic system of the considered standard variety, the european portuguese (pe) (FIGUEIREDO, 2010; GONÇALVES, 2010; CHRISTOFOLETTI, 2011; SANTOS & CHRISTOFOLETTI, 2011). The hypothesis for the behavior of the phonetic-phonological system of pvs is the learning of portuguese as L2 (from recent past generations) (HAGEMEIJER, 2009; GONÇALVES, 2010), and the influence of contact with the creole languages spoken in the country, as the santome (FERRAZ, 1979), the principense (MAURER, 2009), angolar (MAURER, 1995) and kabuverdianu, since the communities are usually bilingual or living in multilingual environment. The intergenerational linguistic changes and the linguistic contact also justify the behavior in the realization of diphthongs that have variations in their realization in pvs. The corpus of this study consists of recordings of spontaneous speech of 18 informants, collected in the capital of stp through the assumptions of sociolinguistic theory and method (LABOV, 1991 [1972]). The reason to study the achievements of diphthongs, noted the uniqueness of its accomplishments, is to observe the behavior of a variant from portuguese in a multilingual environment; increase our knowledge of this variant; confront a system in diglossia; enable further studies on the pvs and compare it with other variants in the African countries witch have portuguese as official language. Regarding social variables, there is a link to the application of the process of monophthongization with the number of years of schooling, once that people with more time of school education tend to avoid monophthongization than people with less time of school education. Moreover, it was found the uniqueness of the phonetic-phonological system of pvs, because, unlike the pe (MATEUS & DANDRADE, 2000; MATEUS, 2002), considered prestigious in the country, pvs performs the monophthongization of diphthongs [eI ], as seeing in dinheiro [di\"ñeKU], primeiro [pri\"meKU] and feijoada [feZu\"ad5], it suggests an approach to behavior of Brazilian portuguese (pb) (cf. BISOL 1991, 1994; ARAÚJO 1999; LOPES 2002 e outros), however, monophthongization still occurs in contexts in both the variants whrer it is blocked as pb, as in the pe. So monophthongization occurs even when the following consonant is an voiceless alveolar occlusive [t], as in feitiço [fe\"tisU], leitão [le\"tãU ] e direito [di\"KetU], nons-documented fact in pb or pe. Regarding the diphthong [oU ] in pvs the monophthongization is categorical, as shown in studies on diphthongs variation in other varieties of portuguese. With respect to the diphthong [oI ] we observed that the variation in the application of monophthongization occurs only when it followed by the consonant [S], responsible for spreading the vocalic feature creating the glide [I ] through phonetic process. The diphthong [aI ] suffered variation in the monophthongization process, mainly before palatal consonant, in other contexts its occurrence was not very productive. Similarly, the diphthong [eU ] had a low rate of occurrence of monophthongization, and was kept in almost all contexts. The other diphthongs, [EI ], [EU ], [uI ] and [iU ], had rare occurrences, and it was impossible to observe variations in their realizations.

O objeto deste trabalho é investigar a realização dos ditongos orais no português vernacular de São Tomé e Príncipe (pvs). Esta variedade de português está em contato com outras línguas faladas no país e difere do sistema linguístico da variedade considerada padrão, o português europeu (pe) (FIGUEIREDO, 2010; GONÇALVES, 2010; CHRISTOFOLETTI, 2011; SANTOS & CHRISTOFOLETTI, 2011). A hipótese para as peculiaridades do comportamento do sistema fonético-fonológico do pvs é o aprendizado do português como L2 (por gerações passadas recentes) (HAGEMEIJER, 2009; GONÇALVES, 2010), e a influência do contato com as línguas crioulas faladas no país, como o santome (FERRAZ, 1979), o principense (MAURER, 2009), o angolar (MAURER, 1995) e o kabuverdianu, visto que as comunidades são, em geral, bilíngues ou convivem em espaços multilíngues. As mudanças linguísticas intergeracionais e o contato também justificariam o comportamento na realização dos ditongos que possuem variações em sua realização no pvs. O corpus deste trabalho é formado por gravações de fala espontânea de 18 informantes, coletados na capital de stp por meio da sociolinguística variacionista (LABOV, 1991 [1972]). A justificativa para o estudo das realizações dos ditongos, constatada a singularidade de suas realizações, é observar o comportamento de uma variante de português em um ambiente multilíngue; aumentar o nosso conhecimento sobre essa variante; confrontar um sistema em diglossia; possibilitar outros estudos sobre o pvs e comparações com outras variantes de português nos Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa. Em relação às variáveis sociais, há uma relação da aplicação do processo de monotongação com a quantidade de anos de escolaridade, sendo que as pessoas mais escolarizadas tendem evitar mais a monotongação do que as pessoas menos escolarizadas. Ademais, foi constatada a singularidade do sistema fonético-fonológico dessa variedade africana de português, pois, diferente da norma europeia (MATEUS & DANDRADE, 2000; MATEUS, 2002), considerada de prestígio no país, o pvs realiza a monotongação dos ditongos [eI ], como em dinheiro [di\"ñeKU], primeiro [pri\"meKU] e feijoada [feZu\"ad5], sugerindo uma aproximação ao comportamento do português brasileiro (pb) (cf. BISOL 1991, 1994; ARAÚJO 1999; LOPES 2002 e outros), todavia, a monotongação ocorre ainda em contextos nos quais tanto nas variantes do pb, como nas do pe, ela é bloqueada. Assim, ocorre a monotongação mesmo quando a consoante seguinte é uma oclusiva alveolar surda [t], como em feitiço [fe\"tisU], leitão [le\"tãU ] e direito [di\"KetU], fato não documentado no pb ou no pe. Com relação ao ditongo [oU ] no pvs, a monotongação é categórica, assim como nos estudos apresentados sobre variação nos ditongos de outras variedades de português. No que diz respeito ao ditongo [oI ], observamos que a variação na aplicação da monotongação ocorre apenas quando seguido pela consoante [S], responsável pelo espraiamento do nó vocálico criando o glide [I ] via processo fonético. O ditongo [aI ], por sua vez, sofreu variação no processo de monotongação fundamentalmente diante de consoante palatal, nos demais contextos sua ocorrência foi pouco produtiva. Do mesmo modo, o ditongo [eU ] teve baixo índice de ocorrência de monotongação, sendo mantido em quase todos os contextos. Os demais ditongos, [EI ], [EU ], [uI ] e [iU ], tiveram raras ocorrências, e foi impossível observar variações em suas realizações. / The purpose of this work is to investigate the realization of oral diphthongs in vernacular portuguese of Sao Tome and Principe (pvs). This variety of portuguese is in contact with other languages spoken in the country and differs from the linguistic system of the considered standard variety, the european portuguese (pe) (FIGUEIREDO, 2010; GONÇALVES, 2010; CHRISTOFOLETTI, 2011; SANTOS & CHRISTOFOLETTI, 2011). The hypothesis for the behavior of the phonetic-phonological system of pvs is the learning of portuguese as L2 (from recent past generations) (HAGEMEIJER, 2009; GONÇALVES, 2010), and the influence of contact with the creole languages spoken in the country, as the santome (FERRAZ, 1979), the principense (MAURER, 2009), angolar (MAURER, 1995) and kabuverdianu, since the communities are usually bilingual or living in multilingual environment. The intergenerational linguistic changes and the linguistic contact also justify the behavior in the realization of diphthongs that have variations in their realization in pvs. The corpus of this study consists of recordings of spontaneous speech of 18 informants, collected in the capital of stp through the assumptions of sociolinguistic theory and method (LABOV, 1991 [1972]). The reason to study the achievements of diphthongs, noted the uniqueness of its accomplishments, is to observe the behavior of a variant from portuguese in a multilingual environment; increase our knowledge of this variant; confront a system in diglossia; enable further studies on the pvs and compare it with other variants in the African countries witch have portuguese as official language. Regarding social variables, there is a link to the application of the process of monophthongization with the number of years of schooling, once that people with more time of school education tend to avoid monophthongization than people with less time of school education. Moreover, it was found the uniqueness of the phonetic-phonological system of pvs, because, unlike the pe (MATEUS & DANDRADE, 2000; MATEUS, 2002), considered prestigious in the country, pvs performs the monophthongization of diphthongs [eI ], as seeing in dinheiro [di\"ñeKU], primeiro [pri\"meKU] and feijoada [feZu\"ad5], it suggests an approach to behavior of Brazilian portuguese (pb) (cf. BISOL 1991, 1994; ARAÚJO 1999; LOPES 2002 e outros), however, monophthongization still occurs in contexts in both the variants whrer it is blocked as pb, as in the pe. So monophthongization occurs even when the following consonant is an voiceless alveolar occlusive [t], as in feitiço [fe\"tisU], leitão [le\"tãU ] e direito [di\"KetU], nons-documented fact in pb or pe. Regarding the diphthong [oU ] in pvs the monophthongization is categorical, as shown in studies on diphthongs variation in other varieties of portuguese. With respect to the diphthong [oI ] we observed that the variation in the application of monophthongization occurs only when it followed by the consonant [S], responsible for spreading the vocalic feature creating the glide [I ] through phonetic process. The diphthong [aI ] suffered variation in the monophthongization process, mainly before palatal consonant, in other contexts its occurrence was not very productive. Similarly, the diphthong [eU ] had a low rate of occurrence of monophthongization, and was kept in almost all contexts. The other diphthongs, [EI ], [EU ], [uI ] and [iU ], had rare occurrences, and it was impossible to observe variations in their realizations.

No description available.

“Canadian Raising” (CR) is a phonological process typical of Canadian English, defined as the production of /aj, aw/ with raised nuclei before voiceless codas, e.g. in about. This dissertation investigates the relationship between CR and another process which abbreviates vowels in the same phonological context in most English dialects: pre-voiceless vowel abbreviation (PVVA). This study sampled three North American dialects: Canada, and the American West and North. Comparisons of vowel duration and formant trajectories revealed common patterns and specific differences between these dialects related to both CR and PVVA. Comparisons of vowel formant trajectories were conducted using statistical techniques for comparing curvilinear datasets, employed in novel methodology which utilizes multiple models of time-scaling. Results indicate that the allophonic production of /aw/ differs in Canadian English in relation to the other dialects, while /aj/ follows a common pattern in all three. I argue that PVVA is achieved through the gestural reorganization of vowels preceding voiceless coda, with the dynamic nature of diphthongs making possible several patterns of abbreviation, two of which are attested in these data: truncation of the onset i.e. the diphthongal nucleus, and compression of the overall trajectory; truncation of the offset is also attested for some monophthongs. Differences in selection of which of these abbrevatory patterns applies to /aw/ in Canadian English versus other dialects accounts for the observed differences in phonetic output. These results indicate that it is worth reconsidering several aspects of the current conception of CR, as follows. First, diphthong-raising processes can be directly linked to the more common process of vowel abbreviation, with consideration of how diphthongal gestures are organized, and reorganized in relation to post-vocalic voicing gestures. Second, that /aw/-raising appears to be distinctly Canadian. And third, that /aj/-raising is not specifically Canadian, suggesting that the two terms be described and named distinctly. This dissertation contributes to the literature on sociophonetics in two major ways: by indicating how CR is directly connected to PVVA in contemporary speech, beyond their surmised historical connections; and, by developing novel methodology for the analysis of dynamic formant trajectories, involving comparison of different time-scaling methods. / Graduate