This thesis investigates phonetic and phonological variation in the bilingual repertoire of adolescent Welsh-English bilinguals living in North Wales. It contributes to linguistic research by, firstly, providing an account of language variation in an under-studied area (N. Wales) and context (regional minority language bilingualism) and, secondly, by examining cross-linguistic variation, and the constraints on this variation, in bilingual speech. The two variables under discussion differ in how they are realised in the two languages: /l/ is thought to be heavily velarised in both languages as a result of long-term contact and phonological convergence. Variation in the production of /r/ and realisation of coda /r/ has hitherto been reported as language-specific, though frequent transfer is said to occur from Welsh to English in predominantly Welsh-speaking areas (e.g. Penhallurick 2004: 110; Wells 1982: 390).The first aim of the study is therefore to quantify claims of phonological convergence and transfer in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals by using a variationist sociolinguistics methodology (e.g. Labov 1966), which also considers the influence of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors on variation. Particular attention is paid to differences between a majority Welsh-speaking town and a town where English is the main language. A further distinction is made between those from Welsh-speaking homes and those from English-speaking homes who have acquired Welsh through immersion education. The second aim is to make empirically-informed theoretical claims about the nature of phonological convergence and transfer, and conceptualise cross-linguistic interaction in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals in light of existing frameworks. Data (sociolinguistic interviews and wordlists) were collected in Welsh and English from 32 Welsh-English bilinguals aged 16-18. The sample was equally stratified in terms of speaker sex, home language, and area. The two towns compared in the study are Caernarfon (N.W. Wales, where c.88% of the population speak Welsh) and Mold (N.E. Wales, where c. 20% Welsh of the population speak Welsh). The results indicate that English [ɫ] tends to be lighter than Welsh [ɫ] in word-initial onset position for females, and in word-medial intervocalic position for both males and females. The data also show linguistic influences on the realisation of [ɫ] in both languages, and differences between males and females. The realisation of coda /r/ and production of [r] and [ɾ] in English are confined to the speech of those from Welsh-speaking homes in Caernarfon. In Welsh, use of [ɹ] is widespread and is constrained by a more complex interaction between area, home language, and sex. On the basis of these findings, I conclude that features which have undergone phonological convergence due to long-term language contact may be subject to language-specific constraints when implemented phonetically. In terms of transfer, I argue for a ternary distinction between interference, transfer, and transfer which is constrained by linguistic and/or extra-linguistic factors (cf. Grosjean 2012). Finally, I suggest that Mufwene’s (2001) notion of the ‘feature pool’ is the most succinct way of conceptualising Welsh-English transfer and differentiate between more focussed accents of English and a less-focussed variety of North Wales Welsh.

This thesis investigates two types of alternate languages: LUDLINGS (also known as language games, speech disguises, etc.), which involve primarily nonconcatenative morphological manipulation of their source languages, and SURROGATE LANGUAGES, which substitute alternative sound-producing mechanisms (whistling or a musical instrument) for the larynx. Chapter 2 explores the autonomy of surrogate systems in relation to both their own modalities and their source language phonologies. After presenting a formal analysis of Akan drum speech, I develop a complete model of the surrogate component. I argue that many properties which distinguish whistle surrogates from instrumental surrogates can only be attributed to the modular organization of this component. The last part of the chapter provides an inventory of the types of processes present in each module of the surrogate component. Chapter 3 presents theoretical treatments of representatives of each of the three major categories of ludlings (templatic, infixing, and reversing), beginning with the katajjait (throat games) of the Canadian Inuit. Although customarily regarded as a form of music, the katajjait are actually a well-developed form of templatic ludling. The implications of an infixing ludling in Tigrinya for tiered and planar geometry are then investigated. The chapter concludes with a detailed analysis of reversing ludlings, based on a parametrized version of the Crossing Constraint. In Chapter 4 I develop an integrated model of alternate linguistic systems, starting with an investigation of where in the grammar the ludling component is located. Drawing on data from more than fifty languages, I propose that there are three conversion modules in this component, each taking a well-defined level of representation as its input. In the last portion of the chapter I explore the possibility that one or more of these modules overlaps with the last module of the surrogate component. I conclude that the similarities exhibited by ludlings and surrogates are not due to a shared conversion module, but rather reflect the interaction of three factors: 1) the salience of certain levels of representation within the grammar; 2) general properties of the domains in which conversion takes place; and 3) membership in a common alternate linguistic component. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation explores the nature and ontogeny of infants' ability to match phonetic information in comparison to non-speech information in the face and voice. Previous research shows that infants' ability to match phonetic information in face and voice is robust at 4.5 months of age (e.g., Kuhl & Meltzoff, 1982; 1984; 1988; Patterson & Werker, 1999). These findings support claims that young infants can perceive structural correspondences between audio and visual aspects of phonetic input and that speech is represented amodally. It remains unclear, however, specifically what factors allow speech to be perceived amodally and whether the intermodal perception of other aspects of face and voice is like that of speech. Gender is another biologically significant cue that is available in both the face and voice. In this dissertation, nine experiments examine infants' ability to match phonetic and gender information with dynamic faces and voices. Infants were seated in front of two side-by-side video monitors which displayed filmed images of a female or male face, each articulating a vowel sound ( / a / or / i / ) in synchrony. The sound was played through a central speaker and corresponded with one of the displays but was synchronous with both. In Experiment 1,4.5-month-old infants did not look preferentially at the face that matched the gender of the heard voice when presented with the same stimuli that produced a robust phonetic matching effect. In Experiments 2 through 4, vowel and gender information were placed in conflict to determine the relative contribution of each in infants' ability to match bimodal information in the face and voice. The age at which infants do match gender information with my stimuli was determined in Experiments 5 and 6. In order to explore whether matching phonetic information in face and voice is based on featural or configural information, two experiments examined infants' ability to match phonetic information using inverted faces (Experiment 7) and upright faces with inverted mouths (Experiment 8). Finally, Experiment 9 extended the phonetic matching effect to 2-month-old infants. The experiments in this dissertation provide evidence that, at 4.5 months of age, infants are more likely to attend to phonetic information in the face and voice than to gender information. Phonetic information may have a special salience and/or unity that is not apparent in similar but non-phonetic events. The findings are discussed in relation to key theories of perceptual development. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation investigates articulatory characteristics of English /I/ in child speech. The study is primarily based on experimental data collected using ultrasound imaging techniques from eight English children ages 3;11 to 5;9. Replicating previous articulatory studies of syllable-based allophones of /I/ in adult speech production, the articulatory components of III in child speech production are analyzed for the static information and relative timing between tongue movements. Secondarily, the acoustic analysis of this data and its perception judgments by adults are presented.' One of the major findings of this study is that children at these ages produce /I/ using different spatial and temporal coordination than adult speech production, although some children produce /I/ more similar to adult /I/ in terms of articulatory organization. Further, the findings are addressed in relation to speech motor development, and hypotheses are tested to see which motor developmental process(es) (differentiation, integration, refinement) can describe the acquisition of /I/. The ultrasound results of the tongue movements in children's /I/ indicate that all general motor developmental processes are active in these children, and the spatial and temporal coordination of the articulatory gestures of /I/ is rather simplified or modified, and needs to be further refined. I argue that the tendency toward late acquisition of /I/ is due directly to the articulatory complexity of its spatial and temporal characteristics. This work contributes much-needeid empirical data of the articulatory characteristics of /I/ to both language acquisition and speech sciences and constitutes a novel application of ultrasound imaging to child speech research. Organization of this dissertation is as follows. Subsequent to the overall introduction of the study in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 presents the empirical background and hypotheses for the study. It reviews speech and developmental studies in production and perception conducted by other researchers, and proposes empirical questions. Chapter 3 provides the methodology for the study. It introduces ultrasound techniques and experiment design and procedure. Chapter 4 presents the results of the spatial characteristics of the children's /I/ in terms of number of gestures, tongue shape, constriction location, and allophonic variation with respect to different syllable positions. Chapter 5 discusses the results of the temporal characteristics of the children's /I/ gestures. Inter-gestural timing of allophones of /I/ is examined to determine whether timing distinguishes positional allophones in these children's speech. Chapter 6 provides post-experiment perception judgments made by adults, and acoustic analysis of samples of tokens used in the current study. Finally, Chapter 7 summarizes the results and discusses the implications of the dissertation. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

This study investigated the perception and production of L2 English and L1 Portuguese stops in initial position by analyzing the acquisition of voice onset time (VOT) categories. 36 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) learners of English and 36 monolingual BP speakers, all of them living in Brazil, participated in this study. There were two language sessions, English and Portuguese (monolinguals took part in the Portuguese session only). In each language session, participants took part in a production and a perception task in the respective language (the tasks were mirror-images of each other). To elicit the production data, participants took part in a delayed repetition task. To elicit the perception data, participants took part in a two-alternative forced-choice identification test. The analysis of the data showed that improvement in L2 may entail improvement in L2 perception of stops. On the other hand, the lack of effects of proficiency in L2 production of stops may suggest occurrence of learning stabilization of L2 VOT categories. L1 phonetic drift was observed in the production of the Portuguese /b/, /k/, and /g/ (but not for /p/). However, no effects of L2 learning on L1 was observed for the perception of Portuguese /b/-/p/. L2 learners who had learned English in their L1 country and in formal settings demonstrated that they were able to form new phonetic categories for the production of /p/, /b/, and /g/. The higher-proficiency group (but not the lower-proficiency group) demonstrated that they developed language-specific phonetic strategies for /p/-/b/ since they were able to process the same set of sounds on a continuum from /b/ to /p/ as either L1 or L2 stops as a function of language mode. The perception study showed that language-specific phonetic strategies, which had been observed among highly fluent bilinguals, could also be possible for this population.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:24:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_luciana_virginia.pdf: 7741794 bytes, checksum: f8b55b78388efdb6d313b4e14b4369cf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-04 / For some peoples, the act of reading is seem easy and pleasant for others is a sacrifice without favorable prospects. School practices often do not prepare the student to be a proficient reader, but to perform a ritual of the curriculum of Portuguese Language. The read result of organized thought, prior knowledge and shared in the interactive action to which they add the linguistic-prosodic features (stretches, tones, change the pace and the time of the voice) and (repetition, pausing, hesitation and interruption). This research is a qualitative analysis of reading shared between teacher and student. It is based on discourse analysis, taking as its starting point the Interactional Theory of Intonation (TIE) of Brazil (1985), who realizes that the clues provided by the reader / listener / author / text are constitutive of meaning and tone choices made by persons, aid in the construction of meaning in spoken language and this sense is directly linked to the understanding of written text. When there is constructionof meaning in oral language, has been a reflection of deconstruction in the writing process. The corpus for this research consists of reading from two different text types: a chronic Discovery (1991), written by Luis Fernando Verissimo, and the poem Sobradinho, of the authors Sa e Guarabira (1973). Two criteria were established for the choice of texts. First, because the chronic and the poem are the object of study covered in the syllabus of classes of the 7th year of fundamental education. Second, because the chronic kind, has a captivating episode, the plot involves a series of actions, with brief and reflective approach, with digressions, comments or notes essay. And the poem, because it has characteristics like melody, rhythm and rhyme, producing harmony, moving between the syllables and unstressed syllables. It was also evidenced the distinct choices of standard intonation, as well as words prominence and impact of those choices in the comprehensive analysis of text. It was noticed that the pause, repetition, hesitation, stretching, exchanges and deletions of words change the meaning of understanding, and concluded that the language resources and para play an essential role in the construction of meaning of text. And when the teacher does not make use of these prosodic strategies as tools in the interactive process, makes the construction of meaning of text. / O ato de ler, para alguns, parece fácil e agradável, para outros representa um sacrifício sem perspectivas favoráveis. Nas práticas escolares, muitas vezes, não se prepara o aluno para ser um leitor proficiente, mas para cumprir um ritual da grade curricular de Língua Portuguesa. A leitura resulta do pensamento organizado, conhecimento prévio e partilhado na ação interativa ao qual se somam os recursos lingüísticos - prosódicos (alongamentos, entonações, alteração no ritmo e na altura da voz) e paralinguísticos (a repetição, a pausa, a hesitação e a interrupção). Esta pesquisa é uma análise qualitativa de leitura partilhada entre professor e aluno. Fundamenta-se na Análise do Discurso, tendo como ponto de partida a Teoria Interacional da Entonação (TIE) de Brazil (1985), que compreende que as pistas fornecidas pelo leitor/ ouvinte/ autor/ texto são constitutivas de sentido e que as escolhas tonais, feitas pelos interactantes, auxiliam na construção de sentido de texto oral, e este sentido está diretamente ligado à compreensão de texto escrito. Quando não há construção de sentido na oralidade, tem-se o reflexo da desconstrução no processo da escrita, o aluno lê, formando hipóteses de palavras que não estão no texto, estas hipóteses, por sua vez, interferem na resposta da análise compreensiva de texto escrito. O corpus para esta pesquisa é constituído a partir da leitura de dois gêneros textuais diferentes: a crônica A Descoberta (1991), escrita por Luis Fernando Veríssimo, e o poema Sobradinho, dos autores Sá e Guarabira (1973). Dois critérios foram estabelecidos para a escolha dos textos. Primeiro, porque a crônica e o poema são objeto de estudo contemplados no conteúdo programático de turmas do 7º ano do Ensino Fundamental. Segundo, porque o gênero crônica conta um episódio cativante, cuja trama envolve uma sucessão de ações, com abordagem breve e reflexiva, havendo digressões, comentários ou apontamentos dissertativos. Enquanto o poema apresenta características melódicas, ritmo e rima, produzindo harmonia, movimentação entre as sílabas átonas e tônicas. Foram verificadas escolhas distintas do padrão entoacional, bem como palavras com proeminência, e a repercussão dessas escolhas na análise compreensiva de texto. Percebeu-se que a pausa, a repetição, a hesitação, o alongamento, as trocas e supressões de palavras alteram o sentido da compreensão, e concluiu-se que os recursos linguísticos e paralinguísticos desempenham papel essencial na construção de sentido de texto. E quando o professor não faz uso destas estratégias prosódicas como ferramentas no processo interativo, dificulta a construção de sentido de texto.

“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

The teaching of singing is fraught with psychological problems not met with in the other branches of applied music. The inordinate physical and mental concepts with which the singing teacher must deal result in the necessity that the singing teacher, to be highly efficient, must be a practicing psychologist. In the writer's experience, first as student and then as teacher and observer of the work of other teachers, it has become obvious that in the minds of the majority of pupils, diction problems are so paramount that they supercede the purely vocal aspects of singing. As the language sounds are rightly but a point of departure for the building of a beautiful and expressive singing tone, it seems absolutely essential that the way must be pointed whereby language in singing can find its proper place in the pupil's development, where it can assume the position of a help rather than a hindrance in vocal achievement.

Orientador: Larissa Cristina Berti / Resumo: Introdução: Apesar de as consoantes líquidas virem sendo descritas como segmentos complexos por envolverem a produção concomitante de duplos gestos articulatórios, ponta e dorso, e estarem comumente envolvidas nos processos fonológicos de simplificação, há argumentos contrários a esse respeito (Recasens, 2016), não havendo um consenso na literatura. Objetivo: descrever qualitativamente e quantitativamente a produção típica e os processos de simplificação (substituição de líquida não lateral para lateral, bem como substituição da líquida não lateral por uma semivogal) das consoantes líquidas alveolares do português brasileiro, em crianças de 4 a 9 anos, a partir da análise ultrassonográfica. Baseando-se em evidências advindas de estudos anteriores, as hipóteses assim se definem: as produções típicas de crianças se assemelhariam às dos adultos, caracterizando-se pela presença de duplos gestos; as produções atípicas, as quais envolvem os processos de substituição de líquida não lateral por uma lateral (/ɾ / [l]) e de semivocalização (/r/ [j]) tratam-se de modificações gestuais de redução da magnitude e/ou omissão de um dos gestos e uma fusão gestual, respectivamente. Método: Foram selecionadas de um banco de dados 60 produções (imagens US e áudios) advindas de 10 crianças com produção típica e de 20 crianças com distúrbios dos sons da fala (DSF) envolvendo os processos anteriormente mencionados. Dentre as produções típicas, 10 corresponderam à podução alvo de [l] e 10 correspo... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Introduction: Although liquid consonants have been described as complex segments involved in the concomitant production of double articulatory gestures, tip and dorsum, and are commonly involved in phonological simplification processes, there are opposite arguments to this respect (Recasens, 2016), without a consensus in the literature. Objective: to describe qualitatively and quantitatively the typical production and simplification processes (substitution of non-lateral to lateral liquid, as well as substitution of non-lateral liquid by a semivowel) of alveolar liquids consonants from Brazilian Portuguese in children aged 4 to 9 years, based on ultrasound analysis. Based on evidence from previous studies, the hypotheses defined are: children’s typical productions would resemble adults’ productions, characterized by the presence of double gestures; the atypical productions, such as those involving the substitution processes of non-lateral liquids for a lateral one (/ɾ/ [l]) and semivocalization (/ɾ/[j]) are gestural changes of magnitude reduction and/or omission of one of the gestures and a gestural fusion, respectively. Methods: Sixty productions (US images and audios) from 10 children with typical production and 20 children with speech sound disorders (SSD) involving the aforementioned processes were selected from a database. Among the typical productions, 10 corresponded to the target production of [l] and 10 corresponded to the target production of [ɾ]. Among the atypic... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Phonetic mergers in American English have been studied throughout the last half century. Previous research has contributed social and phonetic explanations to the understanding of front and back vowel mergers before /l/, front vowel mergers before nasals and phonetically unconditioned back vowel mergers. Using data from the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States (LAGS) and the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States (LAMSAS), this thesis examines the spread of the front vowel mergers in Mary and merry and the back vowel mergers in horse and hoarse. The two complementary sources of data allow for a social and phonetic approach to the examination of the merger.