It is the purpose of this thesis to contribute a small part to the large picture of Texas dialect by describing the use of certain stressed sounds in one locality, Parker County, Texas, which lies in the General American speech division of the United States.

Wong, Wing Sze. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 391-447). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendixes includes Chinese.

Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-198). / Electronic reproduction. / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xvi, 198 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

In this report, the phenomenon of vowel lengthening in Standard Italian and two Northern Italian dialects, Friulian and Milanese, is discussed. For each language, the facts of vowel lengthening are presented and analyzed in the framework of several theories previously proposed to account for the data. These include primarily derivational theory, moraic theory, and optimality theory. Vowel lengthening is analyzed predominantly from a synchronic perspective for Standard Italian, but for Friulian and Milanese, both diachronic and synchronic accounts are presented. Vowel length in Italian and Milanese is seen to result from bimoraic enforcement, a principle requiring that all stressed syllables be bimoraic. A constraint prohibiting long vowels in word-final position interacts with the principle of bimoraic enforcement in Italian. In Milanese, bimoraic enforcement responds to a lexical contrast in moraic and non-moraic codas. Vowels before non-moraic codas lengthen to create a bimoraic syllable, while those before moraic codas do not since those syllables are already bimoraic. In Friulian, on the other hand, historical vowel lengthening which resulted from compensatory lengthening following the apocope of final vowels has been reanalyzed as a synchronic process of compensatory lengthening resulting from loss of consonant voice following word-final devoicing. / text

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.

Esta tese tem por objeto a neutralização das vogais átonas no Português Brasileiro. Um dos objetivos principais é desenvolver uma proposta que consiga, além de capturar a neutralização das vogais médias a favor das médias-altas, como observado em dialetos do sul/sudeste (WETZELS, 1992), também capturar os fatos acerca dos dialetos do norte/nordeste, nos quais o contraste das vogais médias é perdido a favor das médias-baixas (SILVA, 2009). Para tanto, primeiramente argumenta-se que uma proposta desenvolvida por meio da Teoria da Otimalidade (PRINCE & SMOLESNKY, 1993) é capaz de não só formalizar o modo pelo qual a neutralização se dá, mas também explicar o porquê de isso acontecer. Em TO, argumenta-se que a neutralização pode ter duas motivações distintas, i.e., que há dois tipos de neutralização, a neutralização como um mecanismo de aprimoramento de contrastes (FLEMMING, 1995, 2004; PADGETT, 1997), e a neutralização como alinhamento de proeminências (CROSSWHITE, 1999, 2004). Nesta tese, argumenta-se que o Português Brasileiro é uma língua que possui ambos os tipos de neutralização e que por meio da interação entre as restrições que as motivam, é possível capturar os fatos observados tanto em dialetos do sul/sudeste, quanto é dialetos do norte/nordeste. A fim de testar a hipótese de neutralização via relaxamento (i.e., de que a neutralização das vogais médias favorece as médias-baixas), elaborou-se um experimento de leitura de palavras trissílabas paroxítonas inseridas em uma frase veículo, que foram produzidas por 20 indivíduos, nascidos e criados em São Luís-MA, ou seja, falantes de uma dialeto representativo dos dialetos do norte/nordeste. Os resultados obtidos pela análise estatística do corpus constituído por 4800 dados corroboraram a hipótese de neutralização via relaxamento enquanto as vogais médias-baixas e altas em sílabas pretônicas em início absoluto de palavras são previsíveis por serem restritas a contextos mais específicos, a produção de vogais médias-baixas nesse contexto não é completamente previsível, o que evidencia que sua produção deve resultar da própria neutralização, e não de outros processos fonológicos. Argumenta-se, ainda, que propostas anteriores como a de Wetzels (1992) consegue capturar a totalidade dos fatos acerca dos dialetos do sul/sudeste, mas não pode ser estendida a fim de prever o que ocorre em dialetos do norte/nordeste. Por sua vez, a análise de Nevins (2012) consegue formalizar os fatos acerca da produção de vogais médias-baixas em sílabas pretônicas, mas faz previsões incorretas acerca da produção de vogais médias-baixas em sílabas postônicas não-finais, contexto no qual não há indícios de que a neutralização via relaxamento ocorra (SILVA, 2010; SANTANA, 2014). Desse modo, é crucial que a proposta de neutralização para o Português Brasileiro consiga capturar que a neutralização via relaxamento ocorre em sílabas pretônicas iniciais, mas não em sílabas postônicas não-finais. Argumenta-se que essa distinção se dá pelas diferenças de proeminência contextual em dialetos do norte/nordeste, a neutralização das vogais médias favorece médias-baixas (vogais mais proeminentes dentre as vogais médias) em contextos átonos proeminentes (sílabas em início absoluto de palavra), e que as vogais médias-altas (formas menos proeminentes dentre as vogais médias) são favorecidas em contextos com baixa proeminência relativa (sílaba postônica não-final). Por meio da formalização via ranqueamento de restrições, mostra-se que as restrições que motivam o aprimoramento de contrastes são responsáveis por eliminar o contraste entre as vogais médias e que as restrições acerca do alinhamento de proeminências é responsável pela seleção de qual das vogais deve ocupar a pauta medial: médias-baixas em contextos átonos mais proeminentes e médias-altas em contextos átonos menos proeminentes. A fim de estender essa análise para outros contextos pretônicos, que não somente as sílabas pretônicas em início absoluto de palavra, elaborou-se um segundo experimento que buscou observar a produção de vogais médias em sílabas pretônicas não-inicias portadoras ou não de acento secundário. O corpus de 2400 dados, provenientes das produções de 20 indivíduos, nascidos e criados em São Luís, mostram que vogais médias-baixas em contextos nãoharmônicos foram produzidas em sílabas pretônicas que poderiam portar acento secundário, mas evitadas em contextos em que o acento secundário não poderia ser produzido. Desse modo, é possível estender a propostas desenvolvida também para outros contextos pretônicos para além das sílabas em início absoluto de palavra, de modo que a previsão feita para os dialetos do norte/nordeste é a de que a neutralização favorece vogais médias-baixas em contextos átonos proeminentes (sílabas pretônicas em início absoluto de palavras e portadoras de acento secundário) e favorece médias-altas em contextos átonos nãoproeminentes (sílabas postônicas não-finais e sílabas pretônicas não-iniciais e não portadoras de acento secundário). Os fatos acerca dos dialetos do sul/sudeste, na qual a neutralização sempre favorece as vogais médias-altas em contextos átonos, independente de suas proeminências relativas, são capturadas por meio de um ranqueamento diferente das mesmas restrições utilizadas para formalizar o padrão observado em dialetos do norte/nordeste. / This dissertation focuses on unstressed vowel neutralization in Brazilian Portuguese. One of its main goals is to develop an analysis that is able to capture besides the pattern of mid vowel neutralization that favors high-mid vowels, as observed in southern dialects (WETZLES, 1992) what is observed in northern dialects, in which the contrast of mid vowels is lost in favor of low-mid vowels (SILVA, 2009). For this, it is firstly argued that a proposal developed through Optimality Theory (PRINCE & SMOLENSKY, 1993) is not only able to formalize how neutralization occurs, but also accounts for its motivation. It has been argued in OT that neutralization has two distinct motivations, the enhancement of contrast (FLEMMING, 1995, 2004; PADGETT, 1997) and the alignment of prominences (CROSSWHITE, 1999, 2004). In this dissertation, it is argued that Brazilian Portuguese is a language that presents both types of neutralization and that through the interaction of the restrictions that motivate them, it is possible to capture the facts that are observed in both southern and northern dialects. In order to test the hypothesis of neutralization via laxing (i.e., that mid vowel neutralization favors low-mid vowels), a reading experiment of trisyllabic words with pre-final stress in carrier sentences was designed. 20 participants, born and raised in São Luís-MA, a Brazilian capital in the northeast area of the country, participated in the experiment which resulted in a corpus of 4800 tokens. Statistical results corroborated the hypothesis of neutralization via laxing in northern dialects in word-initial pretonic syllables, high-mid vowels are predictable, restricted to specific contexts, while lowmid vowels are not, which serves as evidence that the production of low-mid vowels must result from neutralization, and not from other phonological processes, given that the contrast between high-mid and low-mid vowels is lost outside primary stress context. It is also argued that previous proposals, such as Wetzels (1992), formalize the patterns of neutralization observed in southern dialects, but cannot be extended to capture what occurs in northern dialects. By its turn, the account proposed by Nevins (2012) formalizes the facts regarding the production of low-mid vowels in pretonic syllables, but make incorrect predictions regarding mid vowels distribution in non-final post-tonic context, in which there is no evidence that neutralization via laxing occurs (SILVA, 2010; SANTANA,2014). Thus, an account for vowel neutralization in Brazilian Portuguese must formalize that neutralization via laxing occurs in word-initial pretonic syllables, but not in non-final post-tonic context. It is argued that this distinction is due to contextual prominence in northern dialects, mid vowel neutralization favors low-mid vowels (more prominent if compared to high-mid vowels) in unstressed contexts that have relative high prominence (such as wordinitial syllables), and that high-mid vowel (less prominent when compared to low-mid vowel) are favored in unstressed context with low relative prominence (such as non-final post-tonic syllables). Through constraints ranking, it is shown that the constraints that motivate contrast enhancement are the ones that trigger mid vowel neutralization, but the constraints on prominence alignment are the ones that select which of the mid vowels will get to be produced: high-mid vowel in less prominent contexts and low-mid vowels in more prominent contexts. In order to extend this analysis to formalize the pattern in other pretonic contexts besides word-initial syllables, a second experiment was designed. Results from a corpus of 2400 tokens, obtained from an experiment with 20 participants born and raised in São Luís-MA, showed that low-mid vowels in non-harmonic contexts were produced in pretonic syllables that could bear secondary stress, but were avoided in context where secondary stress could not be produced. Therefore, the analysis can be extended in a way that the predictions will be the same to all unstressed prominent and all the unstressed non-prominent contexts: in northern dialects, neutralization favors low-mid vowels in prominent contexts (pretonic word-initial and that bear secondary stress) while neutralization favor high mid-vowels in non-prominent contexts (non-final post-tonic syllables and pretonic syllables that are not in word-initial context and that cannot bear secondary stress). The facts regarding southern dialects, in which mid-vowel neutralization always favors high-mid vowels regardless of context prominence, are formalized through a different ranking of the same constraints that are used to formalize the pattern of mid vowel neutralization in northern dialects.

Thesis. 1975. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. / Bibliography: leaves 221-224. / M.S.

This dissertation provides the first comprehensive analysis of the phonology of vowels in SENĆOŦEN (Salish). Evidence from various phonological and phonetic phenomena are brought together to support a proposal that there are two types of phonological vowels in SENĆOŦEN (full vowels versus schwa). Understanding the phonological representations and distributions of these two types of vowels contributes a unique perspective on how words are built in the language. The study contributes to linguistic theory by showing how the interplay between faithfulness to morphological form and markedness conditions on ideal surface prosodic shape triggers a series of vowel processes, such as deletion, epenthesis, harmony and reduction, which make it difficult to trace back to the original morphological form. In taking steps towards unraveling the complicated interaction between morphology and phonology in the language and providing insights crucial to an understanding of the underlying forms of roots and suffixes, the dissertation contributes to pedagogy by making it easier for language learners to figure out for themselves how words are related to one another. The dissertation is organized into seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the language situating it within the context of research on other Salish languages. Chapter 2 lays out the theoretical assumptions about SENĆOŦEN that are adopted in this dissertation. Chapter 3 argues for a phonological contrast between two types of vowels in SENĆOŦEN and argues against the notion that consonants bear phonological weight in SENĆOŦEN. Chapter 4 presents a preliminary acoustic analysis of vowel length and quality. Chapter 5 argues that syllables in SENĆOŦEN are basically simple and that the phonological environments when they are not simple are highly constrained and predictable. Chapter 6 argues that patterns of zero-schwa alternations found in complex morphological structures are accounted for by wellformed foot structure. Chapter 7 is a conclusion. / Graduate

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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.