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A great deal of scholarship has gone into examining monophthongization as a phonological phenomenon occurring within the different chronological stages of languages. Some studies have examined it as a sociolinguistic index of dialectal variation while some others have studied it as a purely idiosyncratic matter within the same language variety. Almost all of these studies have been purely descriptive in nature. This study used the derivational phonology approach to analyze monophthongization as a synchronic phenomenon in the Kom language within the framework of Autosegmental Phonology. Derivations were constructed by mapping underlying diphthongal forms to their surface monophthongal realizations. The results show that in natural, spontaneous speech, the diphthongs/ai/and/oi/lose their gliding part and become monophthongs when they occur in a syllable that shares boundary to the right with a vowel-initial word. This vowel loss is followed by a compensatory lengthening of the new monophthongized vowel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a synchronic phonological analysis of the Rera language, a Tangsa language of the Northern Naga subgroup of Tibeto-Burman. It is spoken by approximately 2,000 people in Northeast India. Based on the author's own fieldwork, the study describes Rera Tangsa segmental phonology, tones, and phonotactics.2 It differs from four previously described Tangsa languages in that it does not distinguish aspiration. Rera does not distinguish diphthongs like three other Tangsa varieties but has a relatively simple vowel inventory with eight monophtongs, similar to Hawa-Lak with five monophthongs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates - within the framework of usage-based phonology - the significance of lexical frequency effects in singing accent Americanisation. The accent of Joe Elliott of a British band, Def Leppard is analysed with regard to LOT unrounding and PRICE monophthongisation. Both auditory and acoustic methods are employed; PRAAT is used to provide acoustic verification of the auditory analysis whenever isolated vocal tracks are available. The statistical significance of the obtained results is verified by means of a chisquare test. In both analysed cases the percentage of frequent words undergoing the change is higher compared with infrequent ones and in the case of PRICE monphthongisation the result is statistically significant, which suggests that word frequency may affect singing style variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the phonological features of Pennsylvania Dutchified English (PDE), focusing on the vocalic features of consonant and vowel sounds. Topics of the article include phonological research on articulation variations such as monophthongization, voicing/devoicing, and centralization, dialectal shift, and the obsolescence of PDE.

The primary aim of the study is to present the duration, jormant patterns and acoustic space of Pahari Monophthongs. To achieve this aim, an experimental study is conducted. Ten Pahari native speakers participated in the study and were given a list of 12 Pahari monophthongs in CVC context for recordings where V is the target monophthong. The results show that the monophthongs are described as occurring in the form of long-short pairs that differ significantly quantitatively (vowel duration). Long vowels are over two times longer (e.g., /o:/ and /o/ are 221 ms and 88 ms, respectively) in terms of duration than that of their short-counterparts. Spectral differences show that Pahari has four close vowels, six mid vowels and two open vowels. Spectral differences also occur among long-short pairs i.e. all the short front vowels show low F2, while all the short back vowels show higher F2 than their corresponding long vowels. The study further shows that long vowels are peripheral in quadrilateral while short vowels are a bit centralised as compared to their corresponding long vowels. Long vowels enclose more vowel space than that of short vowels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a brief reply to some critical remarks raised by Mario Enrietti in a paper published in "Studi Slavistici", VI (2009), the Author tries to explain why Enrietti's theory of an exogenous, namely Romance origin of the Slavic open syllable structure should be rejected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this article is to provide further and systematic evidence for an idea suggested only in passing that the Old Japanese vowel i derives diachronically not only from *əy and *uy, as traditionally believed, but also from *oy. This solution proves to be a key to solving some puzzles in the phonological history of a number of common Old Japanese words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Welsh language has a complex vowel inventory with up to thirteen monophthongs and the same number of diphthongs. According to descriptive reports, systematic differences are found between the two main varieties of Welsh, Northern and Southern Welsh (Ball & Williams 2001, Jones 1984). However, few studies have attempted to verify these claims instrumentally, and little is known about the acoustic properties of Welsh vowels. The present study is the first systematic acoustic investigation of the monophthongs and diphthongs of Northern and Southern Welsh and includes measurements of formant trajectory length and spectral rate of change for the diphthongs (Fox & Jacewicz 2009).The results largely confirm claims about contrastive vowel categories in Northern and Southern Welsh. In contrast to auditory-based accounts, however, pairs of Northern Welsh vowels were found to differ, not only in terms of duration, but also vowel quality. The diphthongs, in turn, revealed interesting cross-dialectal differences in spectral dynamics across their trajectories. The results have implications for notions of contrastivity in languages with large vowel inventories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study on the phenomenon of monophthongization in falling diphthongs [aI, eI ,oI ,uI] within open and closed syllables in the speech of native speakers from Florianópolis as detected in interviews contained in VARSUL. Based on a Used- Based Model for Phonology and the Exemplar Theory, we analyze quantitatively the occurrence of monophthongization, in order to assess the effects of frequency of use of the phenomenon. Our results indicate two effects of token frequency: i) the processing effect, resulting in the deletion of the semi-vowel in very frequent words, even in unfavorable contexts; ii) the storage effect, which occurs in irregular grammatical forms with high frequency in order to preserve the diphthong. The linguistic factors such as stress and word length are linked to the word factor, confirming one of the principles of the Used-Based Model for Phonology, which gives to the word the status of locus of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the related concepts of parallel independent development and drift, highlighting in particular the challenge of quantifying isolation. I analyze the precisely synchronized spread of a sound change, the monophthongization of /aɪ/, across Pennsylvania German ‘speech islands’ in the American Midwest. A key finding is that the intensity and duration of interspeaker contact required to catalyze apparent parallel developments may have lower than expected thresholds. The significance of extensive yet low-intensity cross-migration patterns across these communities at particular points in their histories ultimately leads to an exploration of the minimal level of contact required for diffusion of a change and feeds into recent discussion on the social contexts for transmission and diffusion (e.g., Labov 2007). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alfa: Revista de Lingüística is the property of Alfa: Revista de Linguistica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present study quantified the amount of accent in English vowels produced by native adult Turkish speakers. Vowels that are present in both Turkish and English (close vowels) were compared with those that are present only in English (distant vowels). The first two formant frequencies (F1 and F2) were obtained from the 11 English monophthong vowels (/i, i, e, ε, æ, Λ, u, [image omitted], o, [image omitted], [image omitted]/) produced by 20 Turkish-accented English (TE) (10 males and 10 females) bilinguals and 20 native American English (AE) speakers. Euclidean distance (ED) was used to measure the separation between the corresponding TE and AE vowels. Perceptual experiment was also carried out to assess the amount of accent in the English produced by Turkish speakers as perceived by native monolingual English speakers. F1 and F2 values revealed that TE speakers generally were able to produce close and distant vowels comparably, with considerable amount of deviation from AE speakers. ED values for close and distant vowels were not significantly different. The amount of perceived accent indicated the precision of vowel production and was found to directly correlate with the acoustic findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a wide range of segment simplification patterns across African English accents, which depend on the phonological context. This paper examines, in turn, the patterns of simplification in the nucleus, in the onset, in the coda and in intervocalic clusters. Simplification in the nucleus involves the monophthongisation of diphthongs and of triphthongs, as well as the disyllabification of triphthongs; the monophthongisation of diphthongs either results in the retention of the first element of the diphthong or in the substitution of an altogether different monophthong; the simplification of triphthongs through monophthongisation consists in the retention of the first element of the sequence, but the general trend is disyllabification through the gliding of the medial element into [j] or [w]. The two patterns of simplification in the onset are the dropping of the initial consonant in some English-based pidgins and creoles and vowel insertion. Simplification in the coda sometimes involves the dropping of one of the consonants, which may be the first, second, or third; there is also a high prevalence in east and southern African Englishes of /ə/ and /i/ insertion. /ə/ and /i/ insertion is also the pattern of simplification of intervocalic clusters, similarly more common in east and southern African Englishes. The complex range of simplification patterns often follow neat phonological rules a comprehensive picture of which this paper tries to capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has two main aims: (1) to introduce instrumental acoustic techniques to the analysis of the WSAfE accent, and (2), to provide tentative evidence for a new prestige value in the Johannesburg (Northern Suburbs) variety of this accent, As such, focus fails on an acoustic analysis of the monophthongs of WSAfE, as produced by ten young South African women in citation-form. Half of the subjects are from the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg, the other half from East London. The results of the analysis provide some evidence for a new prestige value in the Johannesburg (Northern Suburbs) variety of WSAfE i.e. the lowering and retraction of the so-called TRAP vowel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presents an acoustic examination of the 18 stressed monophthongs and diphthongs of Standard Australian English, detailing the frequency and durational characteristics of these vowels produced in the hVd context by 60 male and 60 female adolescent talkers from Sydney. It entails a rigorous acoustic analysis using objective signal processing techniques to detail vowel structure in a strictly controlled fashion. The paper additionally provides the first large-scale published analysis of vowels produced by Australian females and compares vowel formant and durational characteristics across the sexes. The results provide a point of reference for those who require detailed acoustic information about Standard Australian English vowel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the perceptual structure of a large set of American English vowels including monophthongs and diphthongs. Determination of the perceptual distance; Use of multiple regression techniques; Perception of vowel quality.