Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The concern of the study of phonetics and phonology is the speech sounds of languages. Phonetics is concerned with the description and the classification of speech sounds. Phonology, on the other hand is responsible for the sound patterns of speech sounds in a given language namely, the sound inventory, permissible sequences and how the sounds change in different circumstances. This study examines and evaluates the manner in which phonetic-phonological information is applied in South African dictionaries with particular reference to Nguni dictionaries. Dictionaries are regarded as authoritative linguistic tools, therefore, the phonetic-phonological aspects of the language is one of the important information categories that is included in dictionaries. A word as the linguistic unit consists of speech sounds which are in turn regarded as phonological units as well as phonetic entities. The phonetic-phonological signification of the lexical unit in the dictionary entry plays a role in access to facilitating the spoken form of the language recorded. This critical analysis and evaluation of Nguni dictionaries reflects on the current approaches pertaining to the presentation of both segmental and suprasegmental features of speech sound. Secondly, it also demonstrates the types of pronunciation information that is lexicographically relevant for the thorough treatment of the lemma. Although phonetic-phonological information is almost the prevalent feature of all dictionary types, there are problems encountered during its presentation. In the evaluation of Nguni dictionaries the treatment of pronunciation information is coupled with inadequacies and inconsistencies. This is due to the lack of lexicographic planning and the sound application of lexicographic principles. It is evident from the investigation that pronunciation information remains the essential component of the dictionary entry. The inclusion of phonetic-phonological information requires lexicographic planning that is actually based on linguistic theories that are primarily aimed at practical lexicography. The general guidelines that are presented in this study compel lexicographers to introduce innovative methods when handling pronunciation. The proposed approaches in future dictionaries will enhance the accessibility of information when harmonised. It is concluded that lexicographical products in the multilingual South Africa should begin to document the spoken form of various languages for the general record of the sounds of the language and also for pedagogic purposes. A good phonological and phonetic description of the official languages is also pertinent especially in the design stage of the dictionary. The lexicographic approaches followed in the treatment of any linguistic information should based on the (a) functional criteria of the dictionary compiled and (b) also on the prospective user's skills. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Fonetiek en fonologie is die studie van die spraakklanke van tale. Fonetiek sien om na die beskrywing en klassifikasie van spraakklanke. Fonologie daarenteen is verantwoordelik vir die klankpatrone van spraakklanke in 'n gegewe taal nl. die klankinventaris, die toelaatbare sekwensies en hoe die klanke omvorm word in wisselende omstandighede, dit wil se die fonologiese proses. Hierdie studie ondersoek die manier waarop foneties-fonologiese inligting in Suid-Afrikaanse woordeboeke, veral die van die Nguni-tale, vergestalt word. Woordeboeke word gesien as gesaghebbende linguistiese werktuie en die foneties-fonologiese aspekte van taal kom as 'n vername informasiekategorie daarin voor. Die woord as linguistiese eenheid bestaan uit spraakklanke wat op hul beurt beide as fonologiese eenhede sowel as fonetiese entiteite beskou word. Die foneties-fonologiese komponent van die leksikale eenheid speel 'n betekenisvolle rol in die toegang tot die gesproke vorm van die opgetekende taal. Die kritiese analise en evaluasie van Nguni-woordeboeke oorweeg die huidige benaderings wat betrekking het op die aanbieding van beide segmentele en suprasegmentele kenmerke van spraakklanke. Tweedens toon dit ook die tipes uitspraakinformasie wat leksikografies relevant is vir die deeglike uiteensetting van die inligting. Alhoewel foneties-fonologiese inligting die mees algemene verskynsel in alle woordeboektipes is, is daar nietemin probleme met die aanbieding daarvan. Uit die evaluasie van Nguni woordeboeke blyk dit dat ontoereikendhede en inkonsekwensies voorkom. Dit is toe te skryf aan die gebrek aan leksikografiese beplanning en die tekort aan deeglike toepassing van leksikografiese beginsels. Dit blyk uit die ondersoek dat uitspraakinformasie 'n essensiele komponent van die woordeboekinskrywing bly. Die insluiting van foneties-fonologiese inligting verg leksikografiese beplanning wat gebaseer is op 'n linguistiese teorie primer gefokus op praktiese leksikografie. Die algemene riglyne wat in hierdie studie aangebied word dwing leksikograwe om innoverende maatreels toe te pas by die hantering van uitspraak. Die voorgestelde benaderings vir woordeboeke van die toekoms sal die toeganklikheid tot hul inhoud verhoog indien die benaderings harmonieer word. Die slotsom is dat leksikografiese produkte in die veeltalige Suid-Afrika die gesproke vorm van die verskillende tale moet dokumenteer beide as 'n algemene rekord en ook vir pedagogiese doeleindes. 'n Goeie fonologiese en fonetiese beskrywing van die amptelike tale is ook van belang veral in die ontwerpstadium van die woordeboek. Die leksikogafiese benaderings wat gevolg word in die behandeling van enige linguistiese informasie moet gegrond wees op (a) funksionele kriteria van die saamgestelde woordeboek en (b) ook op die vaardighede van die voorgestelde gebruiker.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

This thesis studies the interactions of vowel tone with consonantal voice. Briefly, tone-voice interactions refer to: (i) voiced--not voiceless--onsets block high tone spreading; (ii) voiceless--not voiced--onsets block low tone spreading; (iii) sonorant onsets are transparent to both tonal processes. There are many variations to these archetypical patterns of tone-voice interactions. I argue that these variations as well as the archetypical patterns can receive a revealing account from the phonological theory. Specifically, this thesis explores the Prosodic Hypothesis of Tone-Voice, which claims: (i) tone must be represented prosodically (namely, tone is associated to mora); and (ii) tone-voice relations must be expressed by conditions (namely, path conditions, proposed in Archangeli and Pulleyblank (in prep)). By exploiting tonal representations and conditions on tone-voice, the Prosodic Hypothesis provides a principled account of tone-voice in Ngizim, Ewe, and Nupe. The result is a principled theory that unifies the known phonetic and phonological facts about tone-voice and that makes testable predictions about the nature and type of expected tone-voice interactions. In addition to tone-voice, this thesis investigates a range of theoretical issues from tonal representations, to onset representations, to the privative voicing theory to Grounded Phonology (Archangeli and Pulleyblank in prep.). I demonstrate that detailed formal analyses of tone-voice can not only uncover facts about tone-voice, but can also make important contributions to phonological theory.

Cette description grammaticale de l’afar s’appuie essentiellement sur des données recueillies sur le terrain auprès de très nombreux locuteurs afarophones, vivant à Djibouti, en Erythrée et en Ethiopie. La richesse des données a permis de prendre en compte les variantes dialectales tout au long de la description. Celle-ci s’organise autour de plusieurs parties : système phonologique et phonétique, système nominal, système verbal, et syntaxe de l’énoncé. Cette étude a permis de mieux évaluer l’originalité de certains traits connus mais aussi de mettre en valeur des traits peu connus voire ignorés jusqu’à présent. Citons entre autres : redéfinition du statut de la rétroflexe ; approfondissement des valeurs sémantiques et syntaxiques attachées aux différents procédés de dérivation nominale et verbale ; illustration du rôle primordial de la relative dans une langue où il n’y a pas de catégorie « adjectif » ; étude détaillée de la polarité de genre et de l’accord du verbe en genre non en nombre (accord au singulier avec un nom marqué comme pluriel) ; distinction entre noms adverbiaux et adverbes sur des critères syntaxiques; mise en valeur de la portée syntaxique et sémantique des quatre postpositions; meilleure définition de la catégorie des idéophones sur le plan morphophonologique, syntaxique et sémantique ; mise en lumière des procédés de topicalisation. En apportant un nouvel éclairage sur l’afar, à l’intérieur du couchitique et de la famille afro-asiatique, cette thèse se veut aussi une contribution à la typologie des langues. / This grammatical description of Afar is mostly based on fieldwork data collected from a great number of Afar speakers living in Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The wealth of data has allowed us to embrace dialectal variations in the description. This description has been built around several components: the phonological and phonetic system, the nominal system, the verbal system, and the syntax.This study leads us to better assess the originality of some features that are already known, and also to bring out other features that were not well known or unknown until now: redefinition of the status of retroflex consonants ; enhanced understanding of semantic and syntactic values of different processes of nominal and verbal derivation ; illustration of the crucial role of the relative clause in a language without adjectives ; detailed study of gender polarity and verb agreement in gender – and not in number – (agreement in the singular with a name marked in the plural) ; differentiation between adverbial names and adverbs on the basis of syntactic criteria ; highlight of the syntactic and semantic significance of four postpositions ; better definition of ideophones from the morphophonological, syntactic and semantic aspects ; highlight of topicalization processes. By shedding new light on Afar within the Cushitic and Afro-Asian family, this thesis aims also to contribute to language typolog*y.

Cette description grammaticale de l’afar s’appuie essentiellement sur des données recueillies sur le terrain auprès de très nombreux locuteurs afarophones, vivant à Djibouti, en Erythrée et en Ethiopie. La richesse des données a permis de prendre en compte les variantes dialectales tout au long de la description. Celle-ci s’organise autour de plusieurs parties : système phonologique et phonétique, système nominal, système verbal, et syntaxe de l’énoncé. Cette étude a permis de mieux évaluer l’originalité de certains traits connus mais aussi de mettre en valeur des traits peu connus voire ignorés jusqu’à présent. Citons entre autres : redéfinition du statut de la rétroflexe ; approfondissement des valeurs sémantiques et syntaxiques attachées aux différents procédés de dérivation nominale et verbale ; illustration du rôle primordial de la relative dans une langue où il n’y a pas de catégorie « adjectif » ; étude détaillée de la polarité de genre et de l’accord du verbe en genre non en nombre (accord au singulier avec un nom marqué comme pluriel) ; distinction entre noms adverbiaux et adverbes sur des critères syntaxiques; mise en valeur de la portée syntaxique et sémantique des quatre postpositions; meilleure définition de la catégorie des idéophones sur le plan morphophonologique, syntaxique et sémantique ; mise en lumière des procédés de topicalisation. En apportant un nouvel éclairage sur l’afar, à l’intérieur du couchitique et de la famille afro-asiatique, cette thèse se veut aussi une contribution à la typologie des langues. / This grammatical description of Afar is mostly based on fieldwork data collected from a great number of Afar speakers living in Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The wealth of data has allowed us to embrace dialectal variations in the description. This description has been built around several components: the phonological and phonetic system, the nominal system, the verbal system, and the syntax.This study leads us to better assess the originality of some features that are already known, and also to bring out other features that were not well known or unknown until now: redefinition of the status of retroflex consonants ; enhanced understanding of semantic and syntactic values of different processes of nominal and verbal derivation ; illustration of the crucial role of the relative clause in a language without adjectives ; detailed study of gender polarity and verb agreement in gender – and not in number – (agreement in the singular with a name marked in the plural) ; differentiation between adverbial names and adverbs on the basis of syntactic criteria ; highlight of the syntactic and semantic significance of four postpositions ; better definition of ideophones from the morphophonological, syntactic and semantic aspects ; highlight of topicalization processes. By shedding new light on Afar within the Cushitic and Afro-Asian family, this thesis aims also to contribute to language typolog*y.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology has facilitated capturing the dynamics of speech production at fine temporal and spatial resolutions, thus generating substantial quantities of images to be analysed. Manual processing of large MRI databases is labour intensive and time consuming. Hence, to study articulation on large scale, techniques for automatic feature extraction are needed. This thesis investigates approaches for automatic information extraction from an MRI database of dynamic articulation. We first study the articulation by observing the pixel intensity variations in image sequences. The correspondence between acoustic segments and images is established by forced alignment of speech signals recorded during the articulation. We obtain speaker-specific typical phoneme articulations that represent general articulatory configurations in running speech. Articulation dynamics are parametrised by measuring the magnitude of change in intensities over time. We demonstrate a direct correlation between the dynamics of articulation thus measured and the energy of the generated acoustic signals. For more sophisticated applications, a parametric description of vocal tract shape is desired. We investigate different shape extraction techniques and present a framework that can automatically identify and extract the vocal tract shapes. The framework incorporates shape prior information and intensity features in recognising and delineating the shape. The new framework is a promising new tool for automatic identification of vocal tract boundaries in large MRI databases, as demonstrated through extensive assessments. The segmentation framework proposed in this thesis is, to the best of our knowledge, novel in the field of speech production. The methods investigated in this thesis facilitate automatic information extraction from images, either for studying the dynamics of articulation or for vocal tract shape modelling. This thesis advances the state-of-the-art by bringing new perspectives to studying articulation, and introducing a segmentation framework that is automatic, does not require extensive initialisation, and reports a minimum number of failures.

While handling the task of speaker identification, forensic phoneticians use a combination of various parameters contained in different levels of speech signal. The main aim of the present thesis is to explore whether glottalization in Czech may be considered as a potentially useful parameter in this sense. In our research, we focus on the rate of prevocalic glottalization at word boundaries and we distinguish between different realisations of glottalization: canonical glottal stop and its hypoarticulated form - creaky voice. The studied material consists of repeated recordings of three male and four female speakers and contains both read text and spontaneous speech. The results do not indicate that the same speaker would use glottalization differently in the first and second recording, but a difference in glottalization is found between speakers. From the forensic phonetics point of view, this finding seems to be useful. Marginally, some other factors which are not directly connected with the speaker (height of following vowel, lexical factors and speech rate) were examined, but no influence on glottalization was found. Keywords: glottal stop, glottalization, forensic phonetics, speaker identification

TITLE: Distinctive Features of Irish Accent AUTOR: Tomáš Uher DEPARTMENT: Department of English Language and Literature SUPERVISOR: Mgr. Kristýna Poesová ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to examine the distinctive phonetic and phonological aspects of Irish English. The theoretical part provides a comprehensive description of the segmental and suprasegmental features of the Irish accent in contrast with the Received Pronunciation. The first section of the practical part analyses the speech of three Irish actors in Irish films and TV shows in order to examine the use of the distinctive features described in the theoretical part. The second section of the practical part presents a 45 minute long lesson plan on the Irish accent with suggested exercises for intermediate (B2) learners. KEY WORDS: accent, Irish, pronunciation, phonetics, phonology, lesson plan

(in English): Voice disguise can potentially occur in every utterance that is associated with any criminal case. In order to identify the perpetrator it is necessary to analyze the speech and understand how the different types of voice disguise can affect the speaker's voice qualities. This thesis focuses on the ability of voice disguise, portraying three groups of speakers in relation to their educational background. The aim of this work is to determine the strategies adopted by the speaker to conceal his/her identity and furthermore it poses the question whether differences among the three groups of speakers, their choice of strategy and its inherent success can be found. The basis for this research stems from 86 recordings which were undertaken in Pilsen and Prague with 43 young people aged 20 to 31. Two read utterances, one undisguised and the other freely disguised, were obtained from each of the participants and were compared with each other. The results show that the preferred forms of voice disguise appeared to involve changes in phonation - especially decrease or increase of fundamental frequency of the speaker's voice. Among the three groups of speakers, their choice and the success of the chosen strategy only minor differences could be found, yet for a final confirmation of this...

The present study aims to address the question of how vowel quality varies between rural and town-dwelling male speakers of Irish-English in South Roscommon, Ireland. Previous studies have identified four distinct varieties of Irish-English in Ireland: the Eastern, South &Western, Midland, and Northern varieties, loosely based on the political provinces of Munster, Connaught, Leinster, and Ulster. County Roscommon straddles the provinces of Connaught and Leinster, complicating the presence of phonological features associated with one of two different ‘accent regions’. The last phonological study carried out in Roscommon was by Patrick Leo Henry in 1957. While this was a promising start in assessing regional distinctions, rural ones in particular, the lack of recent studies leaves a sizeable gap that does not address modern changes in the linguistic landscape of Ireland, nor the availability of modern methods of acoustic analysis. In particular, the present study investigates the pre-nasal merging of front unrounded vowels /ɛ/ and /ɪ/, vowel centralization, and a lower /æ/, associated with the Western variety of Irish English. Factors such as supraregionalization lead to my hypothesis that rural speakers will demonstrate higher frequency of the vowel features associated with the Western variety. To assess the frequency of certain vowel sounds, twenty participants were recorded and formant data was extracted for F1 and F2 values of the tokens. It was found that the rural speakers in Roscommon demonstrated a more prominent merger between /ɛ/ and /ɪ/, a lower [æ], and the rural speakers demonstrated an overall trend toward centralization.