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21,313
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"Vowels"
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What good is an E?
\"Beginning readers are introduced to the vowel E and its sounds and uses, including the silent E\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Phonological and acoustic properties of ATR in the vowel system of Akebu (Kwa)
This study examines phonological and phonetic properties of ATR contrasts in the vowel system of Akebu (Kwa). The sum of descriptive evidence, including vowel harmony, vowel distribution in non-harmonising contexts, vowel reduction and typological and etymological considerations, indicates a rare vowel inventory with an ATR contrast in front/back vowels but a height contrast in the three redundantly [−ATR] central vowels /ᵻ, ə, a/. This analysis was checked against four common acoustic metrics of ATR: F1 and F2 frequencies, spectral slope and F1 bandwidth size (B1). As expected, the results for the last three metrics were variable across speakers and vowel types, and are therefore inconclusive. The results for F1 were consistent but do not distinguish between ATR and vowel height. Two results nonetheless suggest the [−ATR] status of central vowels: they occupy the same belt of F1 frequencies and show the same position of observed-over-predicted B1 values as front and back [−ATR] vowels.
Journal Article
What good is an I?
\"Beginning readers are introduced to the vowel I and its sounds and uses\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Vowel harmony in Yeyi
Yeyi (Bantu, R41) is an endangered language spoken in northwestern Botswana and northeastern Namibia. Yeyi exhibits two peculiar processes of regressive vowel harmony. The first changes a high front vowel /i/ to a back vowel /u/ when followed by a syllable containing a back vowel /u/, as in ʃi-púndi > [ʃùpúndì] ‘brat’, or /o/, as in ʃi-bowuma > [ʃu-bowuma] ‘kind of snake’, or the glide /w/, as in ʃi-hweta > [ʃuhweta] ‘conversation’. This paper analyzes these two vowel harmony processes in Yeyi, using data from a wide variety of published sources on different Yeyi regiolects. I will show that the use of vowel harmony differs between regional varieties of Yeyi, with certain varieties using vowel harmony in more phonological contexts than others. The diachronic functioning of vowel harmony is also discussed, comparing vowel harmony involving affixes to vowel harmony involving only lexical roots. Finally, a comparative perspective is taken, showing that regressive vowel harmony as used in Yeyi is rarely seen in Bantu languages of Southern Africa, but occurs sporadically in Khoe languages, suggesting that regressive vowel harmony in Botswana may be an areal phenomenon.
Journal Article
What good is a U?
\"Beginning readers are introduced to the vowel U and its sounds and uses\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
What good is an O?
\"Beginning readers are introduced to the vowel O and its sounds and uses, including the double oo sound\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Vowel normalization as perceptual constancy
This study investigates how listeners associate acoustically different vowels with a single linguistic vowel quality. Listeners were asked to identify vowel sounds as /æ/ or /Ʌ/ and to indicate the size of the speaker that produced them. Results indicate that perceived vowel quality trades off with the perception of speaker size: different vowels can sound the same, and the same vowel can sound different when a different speaker is perceived. These findings suggest that vowel normalization is broadly similar to perceptual constancy in other domains, and that social, indexical, and linguistic information play an important role in determining even the most fundamental units of linguistic representation.
Journal Article
What good is a Y?
\"Beginning readers are introduced to the vowel Y and its sounds and uses, including the OI sound and its use as a consonant\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Vowel devoicing as prosodic augmentation in Mẽbêngôkre
This paper explores an instance of prosodic augmentation (Lovick 2023: 382) via devoicing in Mẽbêngôkre, a Jê language spoken in Brazilian Amazonia. While segment lengthening is usually associated with prosodic augmentation, in Mẽbêngôkre high vowels can be devoiced, besides also lengthened, to express intensity. While all vowel segments in Mẽbêngôkre can be lengthened for expressive means, only high vowels /i ɨ u/ can be both lengthened and devoiced. This talk contributes to studies on expressiveness and iconicity in language by showing that vowel devoicing can also be targeted by prosodic augmentation.
Journal Article