The two glides w and j exist in both English and Korean. In English, these two glides form syllable-initial glide-vowel (GV) sequences with any of the following twelve vowels (i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, ʌ, ə, œ, u, ʊ, oʊ, ɔ, a). In Korean, assuming seven monophthongs (i, e, ə, ɨ, u, o, a), fourteen GV sequences are logically possible, but only nine occur; the following five GV sequences are absent: *ji, *jɨ, *wu, *wɨ, *wo. Researchers who have proposed phonological explanations for this gap unanimously point to the homorganicity between the two segments in these absent sequences. In English, however, homorganicity seems to be disregarded; five GV sequences--GV[HO] sequences--consist of homorganic segments: wu, ji, wʊ, jɪ, wo. This difference in phonotactics between the two languages constitutes the source of difficulty for Korean ESL learners in mastering the L2 glides and GV[HO] sequences. In this study, I first provide detailed phonological and phonetic characterizations of glides. I review phonological representations of glides, as well as corresponding high vowels. Then, I perform a series of acoustic analyses of a set of production data collected from Korean and English monolingual speakers. The acoustic parameters under analysis include the first three formants (F1-F3) and the duration of the glide steady state and the glide-to-vowel transition. These analyses reveal that the F2 of English [w] is consistently lower than that of any of the twelve vowels, while the F2 of Korean [w] depends significantly on the quality of the following vowel. Also, English glides exhibit considerably longer steady state durations compared to Korean glides. Next, I analyze the learners' production data, collected from twenty-two Korean ESL learners. The L2 data reveal that the learners resorted to a few major repair strategies for target GV[HO] sequences, while the vast majority of the non-homorganic GV sequences (GV[N-HO]) are produced target-appropriately. Among these repair strategies, 79% were glide deletion (wound → [und]/[ʔund]), 20% vowel shift (wound → [wənd]), and 1% glide shift (yip → [wɪp]). Interestingly, however, in their L2 glides, many of the learners showed a departure from monolingual Korean glides in the F2 of [w] and the duration of the steady state. Lastly, an Optimality Theoretic account is proposed for the learners' L2 data. Under the assumption that GV[HO] sequences are marked relative to GV[N-HO] sequences (Kawasaki 1982), I argue that learning English GV[HO] sequences by Korean ESL learners involves constraint reranking, crucially, demotion of a set of markedness constraints below a set of competing faithfulness constraints.

This dissertation focuses on vowel harmony in Maasai, an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Kenya and Tanzania. The main goal of this dissertation is to determine whether an adequate account of the Maasai pattern of Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) harmony can be formulated in Optimality Theory. Ultimately it is seen that it can, relying on directional Maximal Licensing constraints Walker (2011). Maasai is a language with dominant-recessive harmony. There are two sets of vowels--ATR and non-ATR. A word can only include members of one vowel set; if there is an AT R vowel anywhere in a word, all vowels will be ATR in the output. The only exception to this is the non-ATR low vowel, which lacks an ATR counterpart. It is opaque--it does not harmonize and it blocks the spread of harmony if it is followed by an ATR vowel, but it harmonizes to [o] when preceded by an ATR vowel. All earlier analyses have been based on mainly one source, Tucker and Mpaayei (1955). To avoid using inaccurate or inaccurate data, the data analyzed in this thesis were collected from native speakers in Arusha, Tanzania. Earlier accounts have been based on impressionistic transcriptions. Acoustic analysis of the data were performed to explore the properties of the vowels. The height of the first formant was found to be the most robust acoustical cue to differentiate ATR and non-ATR vowels, though the height of the second formant has some use as a secondary cue. Like many previous studies of languages with an ATR contrast, in this study, it was found that the ATR vowels in Maasai have lower F1s than their non-ATR counterparts (Ladefoged 1964, Lindau et al. 1972, Lindau 1976, Jacobson 1980, Hess 1992, Maddieson and Gordon 1996, Fulop et al. 1998, Anderson 1999, 2007, Przezdziecki 2005, Gick et al. 2006, Starwalk 2008, Kang and Ko 2012). Guion (2004)'s acoustic analysis of Maasai, which showed that ATR and non-ATR vowels in minimal pairs or near minimal pairs differ in F1 was confirmed. Unlike previous research, vowels that have undergone harmony were also investigated. It was observed that not only does Maasai show an ATR/ non-ATR distinction, but that the harmony process is neutralizing. An ATR suffix will force a non-ATR root to harmonize, and an ATR root will force a non-ATR prefix to harmonize. The vowel that has undergone harmony to become ATR is not distinguishable from one is always ATR. It was also found that distance from the trigger (the ATR vowel that causes harmony) does not affect the harmony process. Maasai has been described as having one lexically ATR prefix which causes only less peripheral prefixes to harmonize (Tucker and Mpaayei 1955, Mol 1995, 1996). This claim was investigated, but no acoustic evidence was found to support the claim that there is an ATR prefix. Instead, it is suggested that the perception of the prefix as ATR arises from coarticulatory effects that are the result of the unique environment of the prefix. Acoustic analysis of prefixes preceding the putative ATR prefix were found to be non-ATR. Although previous OT analyses of Maasai have been either unduly complex, incapable of accounting for all the data or have dismissed elements of the harmony as morphological, the harmony system can be accounted for rather simply with two directional harmony constraints. Walker (2011) suggests that languages which appear to demonstrate one bidirectional harmony process might actually be the result of two unidirectional harmony processes. The analysis of Maasai presented her supports this suggestion. There are two directional Maximal Licensing constraints which are high-ranked there is another constraint that must be ranked between them to account for the asymmetric behavior of the low vowel.

No description available.

Young infants can discriminate a great variety of speech sounds both native and nonnative in their language environment. The focus of the perceptual reorganisation research to date has been on infants’ discrimination of nonnative segments, in particular, consonants and vowels. In tone languages (eg. Cantonese, Mandarin, and Thai) phonemic distinctions are signalled not only by consonants and vowels, but also by lexical tone – consisting of variations in fundamental frequency (pitch) and related features. Although such languages are spoken by over half the world’s population, the development of lexical tone perception has been relatively neglected. This thesis addresses whether perceptual reorganisation occurs for tone in infancy. Overall, the results of experiments conducted support the hypotheses and the existence of perceptual reorganisation for tone in infancy, similar to that for consonants and vowels. Implications of the results for speech perception development theories, “tone space”, tone acquisition, and early word learning are discussed, and future studies relating to these issues suggested. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 63-70). Also available in print.

<p><p><p>This study aimed to identify some of the strategies students used when pronouncing unfamiliar words. Questionnaires were handed out to 94 students in the 9th grade in a medium-sized Swedish town. In addition, two teachers and 13 students were interviewed. The results indicate that the students had acquired some basic knowledge about the English sound system from phonetic training in their past education. However, there seemed to be a tendency among the students to use the trial-and-error strategy to a larger extent than using tools such as phonetic transcription in order to figure out the pronunciation of a word. The results also show that the teachers did not teach planned lessons on pronunciation, but instead it was more common that they responded to errors made by students. In conclusion, the results show that the students' knowledge in pronunciation in general was limited. In addition, there seemed to be a connection between the way the students and the teachers approached pronunciation and the student's ability to solve pronunciation issues.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p></p></p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 1982. / Abstracted in DAI-A 43/08, p. 2650, Feb 1983. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 389-398).

While much research has been dedicated to studying the speech of French immersion students, relatively little is known about their sociolinguistic competence, particularly in the area of phonetics. This study aims to determine the extent to which a group of French immersion students in Ontario, Canada display the native Canadian French phenomenon of lowering the high vowel /i/ to its lax allophone // in the obligatory context of a stressed syllable closed by any consonant other than /v, z, / or //. Results indicate that the majority of the students do not employ the lax vowel, and those students who demonstrate some degree of vowel lowering apply the rule inconsistently. No strong correlation between social or linguistic factors is apparent in the application of the rule, suggesting that more explicit teaching of this phenomenon is necessary in order to make students aware of these kinds of native Canadian French speaker variations.

The study involves tests on the perception by speakers of Finnish of vowel sounds in natural speech in four important varieties of standard Swedish and as produced by an OVE III synthesizer.The contrastive analysis takes the form of experiments to reveal the divisions of the vowel space in Swedish and Finnish. Perceptually optimal areas and the diffuse zones in the vowel space are contrasted. On the basis of these tests predictions are made concerning second language perceptual problems.The contrastive relations of the vowel sounds in Swedish and Finnish are further illuminated by perceptual tests to study the inherent tendency of speakers of Finnish to confuse certain Swedish vowels. The distribution of the phonemic reactions of speakers of Finnish not knowing Swedish are taken as material for an error analysis relevant to the time of starting to learn Swedish. A number of phonemically long vowel sounds were discovered to cause problems of identification for Finnish listeners. These are / y:/, /in:/, /e:/, / e :/, /#:/, and /o:/. A comparison of the predictions and actual confusions shows a high degree of correlation.Finnish vowel harmony was found to be a factor influencing the responses of Finns to Swedish vowels. The responses to combinations of vowels not complying with the vowel harmony rules contained an increased proportion of confusions leading to harmony-compatible or neutral vowels. Also the vowel qualities which were in an intermediate position in the vowel space in relation to the Finnish vowels tended to be influenced by assimilation or sequential contrast.The perceptual interference properties of the mother tongue in the perception of the vowel qualities as illuminated by the results of the perceptual test are discussed.Certain didactic conclusions are drawn concerning the problems experienced by speakers of Finnish in the identification and also the production of the Swedish vowels. Gestures of lip position and its contrastive perceptual effects are noted to be of especial importance in the learning of the vowel qualities of Swedish by Finns. / digitalisering@umu

The alternation between labial and velar fricatives (e.g. [x]uego fuego ‘fire’) and labial and velar approximants (e.g. a[ɣ]uelo abuelo ‘grandfather’) frequently co-occur in disparate Spanish dialects (Colombia, New Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Chile, among others). I hypothesize that these alternations are triggered by the perceptual similarity between such variants in the context of [u] and [w]. I further hypothesize that the spread of these variables to the upper layers of society is prevented by formal education, since orthography can block sound change. Although the labio-velar alternations have been observed before, there are few experimental studies addressing their acoustic and perceptual motivations. Yet, the only way to understand the mechanisms of sound variation and change is to analyze the physical, acoustic and perceptual characteristics of the sounds involved. This dissertation uniquely combines three methodologies of data elicitation in order to achieve a better understanding of the alternations. Vernacular speech was collected through sociolinguistic interviews. Contextually controlled target words were elicited via a picture naming task. Finally, the hypothesis that the alternations were driven by the perceptual similarity between the sounds was tested via an AX discrimination test. The sociolinguistic data was correlated with the results from the perception experiment to determine whether more variation in speech correlates with higher rates of confusion in perception. The results reveal that Education and Following Context are two of the most powerful factor groups that influence the alternations. The alternation is almost exclusively found before the diphthongs [we, wi], and in stressed syllables. Knowing the orthography plays an important role in blocking the diffusion of this perceptually driven variation. The same factors affecting the variation in sociolinguistics interviews were found to be significant in increasing the confusion between [f] ~ [x] and [β] ~ [ɣ] in the perception experiment. The acoustic analysis (centre of gravity and F2 at vowel onset), however, did not support the hypothesis regarding the similarity of labial and velar fricatives and approximants.