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Vowel hyperarticulation and hyper affect are two characteristics of infant-directed speech (IDS), reported in several studies. Vowel hyperarticulation has been suggested to be a way in which adults subconsciously facilitate infants’ language acquisition, but it has also been argued to be the acoustic by-product of an affective speaking style. The present thesis describes the expression of vocal affect in Swedish IDS at 12 months and investigates the relationship between vocal affect and vowel hypo-/hyperarticulation (VHH) on a speaker level. Naïve listeners (n = 23) rated affect valence in filtered samples of parents’ IDS and adult-directed speech (ADS). VHH was quantified by vowelspace area (VSA) for the same parents. In line with previous studies, IDS contained significantly more positive affect than ADS, illustrating that heightened positive affect is a distinct feature of Swedish IDS. Furthermore, no relationship was found between vocal affect and degree of VHH. However, a significant negative relationship was found between parents’ difference in VSA for IDS and ADS, and the difference in vocal affect for IDS and ADS. The results show that hyper affect was not associated with hyperarticulation of vowels. In general, parents that made affective adjustments in their IDS made smaller adjustments regarding VHH. The results support previous research suggesting that vowel hyperarticulation in IDS is not simply the result of an affective speaking style. / Vokalhyperartikulation och förhöjd positiv röstkänsla är två kännetecken för barnriktat tal (BRT) som har rapporterats i flera studier. Vokalhyperartikulation har föreslagits vara ett sätt vuxna omedvetet underlättar barns språkinlärning. Andra menar att det är en akustisk sidoeffekt av den positiva röstkänslan som används i interaktion med små barn. Den aktuella uppsatsen beskriver uttrycket av röstkänsla i svenskt BRT vid 12 månader och undersöker sambandet mellan röstkänsla och vokalhypo-/hyperartikulation (VHH) på talarnivå. Röstkänslan i föräldrars BRT och vuxenriktade tal (VRT) skattades av vuxna lyssnare (n = 23) och samma föräldrars vokalarea användes som mått på VHH. I linje med tidigare studier innehöll BRT signifikant mer positiv röstkänsla än VRT, vilket illustrerar att förhöjd positiv röstkänsla är ett utmärkande drag för svenskt BRT. Vidare fanns inget samband mellan röstkänsla och grad av VHH. Däremot fanns ett signifikant negativt samband mellan föräldrarnas skillnad i vokalarea för BRT och VRT, och föräldrars skillnad i röstkänsla för BRT och VRT. Resultaten visar att förhöjd positiv röstkänsla inte var associerad med hyperartikulation av vokaler. Generellt gjorde föräldrar som anpassade röstkänsla i hög grad mindre anpassningar gällande VHH. Resultaten stödjer tidigare studier som har visat att vokalhyperartikulation i BRT inte enbart är en effekt av ett positivt uttryckssätt.

After an intense period of concerts and projects that involved learning large quantities of new music I realized that I often got vocally tired when learning music. I have always been a quick learner but my method of learning has not always been beneficial for my vocal health. In this project I have explored new ways of learning music in which I prioritize vocal health. I have deepened my understanding of the vocal mechanism and experimented with vocal exercises as a part of learning repertoire. Making and listening to recordings of my repertoire and working sessions has helped me to hone my approach. I worked with two pieces of repertoire, spending three weeks on each piece, and focused on different parts of the learning process every week. After completing the work with each piece I chose a few of the recordings to show my singing teacher and a small group of my singing colleagues. This led to meaningful discussions that took my work further. This project has helped me to practice efficiently without becoming vocally tired, created a bridge between repertoire work and vocal technique, and increased the quality of my everyday work as a classical singer.

The present dissertation aims at analyzing the interplay between initial acoustic biases and language exposure during acquisition of language in the first year of life. This is a critical period in development because it is when phonetic categories are attuned to the native language. This goal is addressed by integrating the results from two developmental studies. The first study explores the presence of asymmetries in vowel perception in infants from 4 to 12 months of age, as a function of the acoustic salience and distributional properties in the test language. The second study investigates the previous contrasting results on vowel perception in 8-month-old infants growing in bilingual environments, and in particular and their relationship with task demands and the properties of the bilingual input. The results emerging from these studies point to two developmental trends. On one hand, asymmetries in vowel perception are modulated by acoustic biases before and during perceptual reorganization, and by distributional cues after perceptual reorganization. On the other hand, discrimination abilities of 8-month-old bilinguals parallel those of monolinguals when tested with an Anticipatory Eye Movement procedure, highlighting the importance of task demands in determining infants' performance. / L'objectiu d'aquesta tesis és analitzar la dinàmica que s'estableix entre els biaixos acústics i l'experiència amb el llenguatge durant el primer any de vida. Aquest és un període decisiu durant el qual les categories fonètiques s'ajusten a les propietats de la llengua materna. Aquest objectiu s'assoleix integrant els resultats de dos estudis. En el primer estudi s'explora la presència d'asimetries en la percepció de les vocals en bebès de 4 a 12 mesos d'edat, en funció de la saliència acústica i les propietats distribucionals de la llengua. El segon estudi investiga els resultats contradictoris obtinguts amb bebès de 8 mesos d'edat bilingües, i la seva relació amb les demandes de la tasca i les propietats de l'input bilingüe. Els resultats d'aquests estudis indiquen dos tendències al desenvolupament. Per una banda, que les asimetries en la percepció de les vocals són modulades per biaixos acústics abans i durant la reorganització perceptiva i per les propietats distribucionals després de la reorganització perceptiva; per l'altra banda, els resultats mostren que les habilitats de discriminació dels bilingües de 8 mesos d'edat són corresponents a les dels monolingües quan es fa servir un procediment d'anticipació de la mirada, posant en rellevància la importància de les demandes de la tasca en determinar el rendiment dels bebès.

En los estudios sobre la percepción de los sonidos del habla es fácil encontrar diversos ejemplos que muestran que algunas características de la señal resultan más notorias que otras. En general estas diferencias no han sido incorporadas en los modelos de reconocimiento de palabras. En este trabajo se muestran evidencias de los sesgos en la percepción de vocales en adultos utilizando la técnica de los potenciales evocados. Independientemente de la lengua materna de los participantes, el fonema /i/ resulta mejor discriminado (i.e. respecto a /e/). Además se estudia el papel que la notoriedad de los estímulos juega en la representación y el acceso léxico. El juicio léxico realizado sobre no-palabras se ve acelerado cuando estas contienen como vocal crítica la /i/ (vs. /e/). / In speech perception literature, it is easy to find examples of some characteristics in the signal hich are more salient than others. However, such differences have generally not been incorporated in word recognition models. In this dissertation, evidence of adult vowel perception biases is shown by means of the event-related potentials (ERP) technique. We show that, regardless of the participants' native language, the /i/ phoneme is recognised more easily (relative to the /e/ phoneme). In addition the role that salience plays in lexica representation and access is studied. We find that lexical judgement in non-words is speeded when these contain /i/ as a critical vowel (vs. /e/).

本論文為以共振峰頻率資料來研究台灣華語母音音質之聲學研究。 本研究的受試者為六名生長在台灣台北市的男性華語母語使用者。本研究使用的測試字為70個包含所有韻母型態的單音節字。語音資料是利用KAY CSL 4100 (KAY Electronics)來錄製及分析。本研究所採用的資料為獨立發音且無聲母的測試字。 根據共振峰頻率資料本研究得到以下有關台灣華語母音音質的發現。首先研究的部分為音標所隱含的語音對比。在齒槽（alveolar）及後齒槽（post-alveolar）組的舌尖母音（apical vowels）間並沒有發現音質上的顯著差別，但統計及其它證據支持低母音裡的前後對比及中母音裡的半開（open-mid）及半閉（closed-mid）對比的存在。 其次，研究的結果也包括語音環境中的音段對於母音音質的影響。結果發現韻母中的元素，包含母音前介音、母音後介音、及韻尾鼻音，都對母音有不同的語音制約（conditioning）。另外，本研究發現順同化（progressive assimilation）比逆同化（regressive assimilation）對於低母音音質有較大的影響。 第三，本研究藉由與之前聲學研究的結果作比較來討論台灣母音音質的改變。結果發現硬顎及後硬顎組的舌尖母音間的音質差異隨著時間縮小終至於消失。此外，研究發現半閉母音及半開母音在母音高度及母音前後相對位置出現反轉。共振峰頻率的比較顯示這種反轉的原因為半閉母音[e]在音質上的改變。然而，我們需要進一步的研究才能對這些音質的改變有合理的解釋。 最後，本研究以共振峰頻率的形式描述及紀錄了當代台灣華語表層母音的音質。希望這些資料能對台灣華語母音的研究有所貢獻。 / This thesis is an acoustic study that investigates the vowel quality of Taiwan Mandarin vowels with formant frequency data. The subjects of this study included six male native Mandarin speakers born and raised in Taipei city, Taiwan. Testing items used in this study were 70 syllables that involve all combinations of segment in the syllable final. The speech data were recorded and analyzed with KAY CSL 4100 (KAY Electronics). The data discussed in this study were testing items produced in citation form without initial consonant. The vowel qualities of Taiwan Mandarin surface vowel were measured and analyzed. Several results concerning the vowel quality of Taiwan Mandarin surface vowel phones were reported based on the formant frequency data. Firstly, the distinction between vowel phones implied by their transcription was examined. The difference in vowel quality was not observed in the alveolar and post-alveolar groups of apical vowels, while the front-back distinction in low vowels and the open-mid and closed-mid distinction in mid vowels were found with statistic and other evidence. Secondly, the conditioning of segments in the neighboring environments on the vowel quality was investigated. It is found that elements in the syllable final, including pre-nuclear, post-nuclear glide and coda nasals, generally have different types of conditioning on the vowel. In addition, the progressive assimilation was found have greater influence on the vowel quality of low vowel phones than the regressive assimilation. Thirdly, the change in vowel quality was discussed through the comparison with results in previous acoustic studies. The difference in vowel backness between the alveolar and post-alveolar groups of apical vowels were found to be decreasing and eventually disappeared. Besides, the relative vowel height and backness of closed-mid and open-mid vowel were found to be in reverse compared with that in the literature. Comparison in formant frequencies showed that this reverse lay in the change of vowel quality in the close-mid [e]. However, further investigations were needed to offer reasonable explanations for the change. Finally, the vowel qualities of present Taiwan Mandarin surface vowel phones were described and recorded as the formant frequency data presented in this study. Hopefully, the data could contribute to the study of vowels in Taiwan Mandarin.

La formation des noms qui dèrivent d'un verbe n'est pas une chose simple. Ce qui rend la complexité de ce type de dérivation apparente, la mise en œuvre de plusieurs stratégies morphologiques. Notre travail sera consacré à l'étude de la structure des noms verbaux du berbère de ksar Tit n'Ali au sein du cadre théorique de la phonologie autosegmentale, et plus particulièrement du modèle CVCV (Lowenstam 1996). / This thesis contributes to the study about nouns related to verbs of the berber language spoken in Ksar Tit n’Ali (a region located on the Valley of High Guir in southern Morocco). This work aims to show, firstly, the nouns derived from verbs considered “common”or “normal” which refer to an action, in this case: action nouns, agent nouns and instrument nouns. Secondly, the verbs derived from stative verbs, especially: quality nouns and nouns we called unofficially stative nouns. As we analysed the collected informations, we found out that the existence of plenty of verbal roots and the implementation of several strategies makes this derivational operation very far from being clear. Our goal is to demonstrate the various mechanisms operated to reconcile between a - concatenative- external morphology and internal morphology -non concatenative- in order to achieve a pattern. We aim to clear the final templatic scheme that is subject to major constraints on the lexicon or the result of a morphological process. In addition, given the importance of the left site in the derivation of nominal units, we devoted a chapter to the question of the initial vowel equipment and its relationship with the passage from free status of an item to its status of annexation. Starting from the findings of predecessors and analyzing the elements of the spoken language, which is the object of our research, we realize fertility of linguistic literature in this case has not resolved our problematic completely.

La formation des noms qui dèrivent d'un verbe n'est pas une chose simple. Ce qui rend la complexité de ce type de dérivation apparente, la mise en œuvre de plusieurs stratégies morphologiques. Notre travail sera consacré à l'étude de la structure des noms verbaux du berbère de ksar Tit n'Ali au sein du cadre théorique de la phonologie autosegmentale, et plus particulièrement du modèle CVCV (Lowenstam 1996). / This thesis contributes to the study about nouns related to verbs of the berber language spoken in Ksar Tit n’Ali (a region located on the Valley of High Guir in southern Morocco). This work aims to show, firstly, the nouns derived from verbs considered “common”or “normal” which refer to an action, in this case: action nouns, agent nouns and instrument nouns. Secondly, the verbs derived from stative verbs, especially: quality nouns and nouns we called unofficially stative nouns. As we analysed the collected informations, we found out that the existence of plenty of verbal roots and the implementation of several strategies makes this derivational operation very far from being clear. Our goal is to demonstrate the various mechanisms operated to reconcile between a - concatenative- external morphology and internal morphology -non concatenative- in order to achieve a pattern. We aim to clear the final templatic scheme that is subject to major constraints on the lexicon or the result of a morphological process. In addition, given the importance of the left site in the derivation of nominal units, we devoted a chapter to the question of the initial vowel equipment and its relationship with the passage from free status of an item to its status of annexation. Starting from the findings of predecessors and analyzing the elements of the spoken language, which is the object of our research, we realize fertility of linguistic literature in this case has not resolved our problematic completely.

Dans cette étude, nous analysons dans quelle mesure l’exploitation d’un chant populaire, pourrait aider les élèves francophones dans la lecture de textes en allemand. L’exercice musical peut-il contribuer à faciliter la prononciation des voyelles de la langue allemande et ainsi permettre de remédier aux nombreuses difficultés mentionnées dans la littérature et repérées en classe ? L’expérimentation décrite ici a été menée dans une classe bilingue de Strasbourg. Vingt élèves d’une même classe ont été répartis en deux groupes. Le premier groupe avait pour objectif l’apprentissage de la chanson « La Belle au Bois Dormant » tandis que le deuxième s’est focalisé sur la lecture et la compréhension du même texte, sans usage du chant. Les sujets ont été enregistrés pendant la lecture du texte en amont (test T1) et en aval (test T2) de l’expérimentation. Nous avons également examiné l’impact d’un support multimédia élaboré en 2008. Cet outil est supposé pouvoir constituer une aide à l’apprentissage de la lecture par le biais d’exercices adaptés et d’une version chantée dite « karaoké ». La spécificité des résultats des tests T1 et T2 dans chacun des groupes (éléments musicaux, accents d’intensité, premiers et seconds formants) ainsi que la comparaison de deux séquences incluant /a/ d’une part et /a:/ d’autre part, confortent les hypothèses issues de la psycholinguistique, des neurosciences, de la sociolinguistique et de la pédagogie ainsi que d’expériences antérieures : la musique a effectivement un impact sur la qualité vocalique d’une langue accentuelle comme l’allemand. / In this research, we try to analyse how a popular lullaby could be helpful for 7 years-old French pupils while reading German texts. Could musical entertainment enhance the abilities to pronounce more successfully the vowels of German and also to avoid many of current difficulties described by many authors and observed at school?The experimentation we describe here was achieved in a bilingual class in Strasbourg. Twenty learners were divided into 2 groups. The 1st group had to learn the song about the story of “The Sleeping Beauty”, whereas the other group had to understand and read the same text, but without singing it. The subjects were recorded while reading the text of the song before the experimentation (test T1) and a few days after the end of the experimentation (test T2). We also examined the role of multimedia material developed in 2008 and containing a karaoke version of the song and exercises meant to facilitate learning to read. The specificity of T1 and T2 in each group (musical features, accentuation, formant frequencies) and the comparison of two similar sequences containing /a/ on the one hand and /a:/ on the other hand, lead us to the conclusion that, as predicted from theories in psycholinguistics, neurosciences, sociolinguistics, pedagogy and previous experiences, music definitely has an effect upon the quality of vowel pronunciation of a specific stress-timed language like German (L2).

Αντικείμενο μελέτης της εργασίας είναι η διαχρονία της ανύψωσης φωνηέντων στη Νεότερη Ελληνική. Αρχικά, παρουσιάζεται η ιστορική πορεία του φαινομένου και διατυπώνεται μια πρόταση για τη χρονολόγησή του. Κατόπιν, εξετάζονται συγχρονικά οι όροι εφαρμογής και η γεωγραφική κατανομή του φαινομένου στη Νέα Ελληνική και επιχειρείται μια σύγκριση των ελληνικών δεδομένων με δεδομένα άλλων γλωσσών. Επίσης, υιοθετείται μια ανάλυση στο πλαίσιο της Θεωρίας του Βέλτιστου και συζητώνται τα μειονεκτήματά της. Τέλος, με αφετηρία την ανύψωση φωνηέντων της Ελληνικής, θίγονται ορισμένα θεωρητικά θέματα σε σχέση με τη φωνολογική μεταβολή και τους τρόπους με τους οποίους αυτή εξαπλώνεται. / This study examines the diachrony of vowel raising in Greek. First, it presents the historical evolution of this phenomenon and deals with its dating. Then, it describes the conditioning environment of raising and its geographical distribution in Modern Greek. Moreover, Greek data is compared to relevant cross-linguistic data. An Optimality theoretic analysis is presented and its drawbacks are discussed. Last but not least, it is argued that the Greek phenomenon under scrutiny can contribute to a better understanding of sound change and how it spreads.