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This study examines the acoustic features of the monophthongs of Penang Malay (PM) based on the frequencies of the first (F1) and second (F2) formants as produced by five selected female speakers who are of the Jawi Peranakan (JP) community in Penang, Malaysia. This study is significant as it describes the monophthongs of PM because previous studies have focused on the acoustic analysis of Standard Malay (SM) and analyzed PM from impressionistic and phonological aspects. The target vowels are [a], [i], [u], [ε], [ɔ], [ə], [e], and [o]. A series of words were used to elicit data from the speakers. The tokens produced by the speakers were recorded and analyzed using Praat version 6.0.50. The two formants were analyzed using the Formant Frequency Model, and independent samples t-tests were conducted. The findings reveal that the PM participants mostly produced vowels following impressionistic studies of past researchers. However, PM speakers did not distinguish between [ε] and [e] as the sounds were conflated as one vowel. These results challenge past claims of homogeneity between PM and Kedah Malay (KM). This study expands knowledge on PM's phonetics and highlights avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper analyzes the speech of 27 Trinidadian professionals (lawyers, lecturers, and politicians), who are typical speakers of Standard Trinidadian English in formal contexts, where traditionally Standard English is targeted. We investigate phonetic variation in Trinidadian English speech with regard to the varying integration of Creole features. The paper presents the results of an acoustic study of 10 vowels and an auditory analysis of three consonantal variables, using data from the Trinidad and Tobago component of the International Corpus of English. The analysis shows that exonormative influences do not play a role. Individual Trinidadian Creole features are integrated into standard speech (voiced TH-stopping, partial overlap of bath-start-trap, partial overlap of strut-lot) and some realizations are identical in both codes (face and goat), while others are avoided (voiceless TH-stopping, the realization of down with as a monophthong with a velar nasal, the cloth-thought merger, and the realization of mouth as [ɔʊ]). These results from Trinidad confirm the validity of Irvine's (2004, 2008) model of load-bearing and non load-bearing variables for the distinction between English and Creole. The conclusion highlights methodological differences to Irvine's study and discusses an extended conceptualization of Standard English that incorporates variation along the dimension of exo- versus endonormativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The main objective of this paper is to investigate language contact and phonetic adaptation with reference to Nigerian English variety. It focuses on the segmental aspect of phonetic adaptation. The data for this study comprises both primary and secondary data which are obtained through observation, interview and secondary sources like textbooks, journals, internet etc. Using the descriptive method of data analysis, the following findings are evident. English and Nigerian indigenous languages came into contact as a result of slave trade and missionary activities. Nigerians engage in phonetic adaptation in order to suit Nigerian situation, environment, purpose and users. In the Nigerian English, such forms of segmental phonetic adaptation like vowel and consonant phonetic adaptations abound. Segmental phonetic adaptation processes in the Nigerian English include substitution, adjunction, insertion, elision and monophthongization. Factors responsible for the phonetic adaptation in Nigerian English comprise linguistic and sociological factors. Linguistic factors include absence of some phonemes in their indigenous language, phonetic environment of speech sounds, linguistic and communicative incompetence and bilingualism while the sociological factors include for convenience sake and for the sake of local intelligibility. Some distinctive features which distinguish one class of sound from the other like consonant and vowel features are maintained during phonetic adaptation in Nigerian English. Phonetic adaptation in Nigerian English is equally allophonic.

Copyright of Glotta is the property of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG 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 Manila variety of Philippine Hybrid Hokkien (PHH-M) or Lánnang-uè is a contact language used by the metropolitan Manila Chinese Filipinos; it is primarily comprised of Hokkien, Tagalog/Filipino, and English elements. Approaching PHH-M as a mixed language, we investigate linguistically and socially conditioned variation in the monophthongs of PHH-M, focusing on the extent to which the vowel systems of the three source languages have converged. This analysis draws on data gathered from 34 native speakers; Pillai scores are calculated to assess the degree of merger. Contrary to certain predictions of prior work on mixed languages, PHH-M is found to have a unified, eight-vowel inventory distinct from any of its sources. Older women use more stable vowels across source languages, suggesting that they have led in the development of PHH-M as a mixed code; however, signs of change among younger women suggest either the endangerment of the code or its evolution in response to the community's shifting identity. We contextualize our conclusions in relation to the sociohistory and language ecology of metropolitan Manila's Chinese Filipino community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to investigate language contact and phonetic adaptation with reference to Nigerian English variety. It focuses on the segmental aspect of phonetic adaptation. The data for this study comprises both primary and secondary data which are obtained through observation, interview and secondary sources like textbooks, journals, internet etc. Using the descriptive method of data analysis, the following findings are evident. English and Nigerian indigenous languages came into contact as a result of slave trade and missionary activities. Nigerians engage in phonetic adaptation in order to suit Nigerian situation, environment, purpose and users. In the Nigerian English, such forms of segmental phonetic adaptation like vowel and consonant phonetic adaptations abound. Segmental phonetic adaptation processes in the Nigerian English include substitution, adjunction, insertion, elision and monophthongization. Factors responsible for the phonetic adaptation in Nigerian English comprise linguistic and sociological factors. Linguistic factors include absence of some phonemes in their indigenous language, phonetic environment of speech sounds, linguistic and communicative incompetence and bilingualism while the sociological factors include for convenience sake and for the sake of local intelligibility. Some distinctive features which distinguish one class of sound from the other like consonant and vowel features are maintained during phonetic adaptation in Nigerian English. Phonetic adaptation in Nigerian English is equally allophonic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English loanwords are adapted in Yorùbá via various processes such as deletion, insertion, spirantization, and (de)voicing. This paper examined the category of English loanwords adaptation involving the process of monophthongization using Optimality Theory. The large chunks of the data analysed in the paper were obtained by observation and from the extant literature, and were then subjected to content analysis. The study discovered two broad patterns of monophthongization: simple and complex, the latter being further divided into doubling and splitting. In simple monophthongization (e.g. férémù from 'frame'), the underlying diphthong in the loanword changes to a monophthong in the adapted form; in doubling monophthongization (e.g. síléètì from 'slate'), the underlying diphthong changes to a monophthong which is in turn doubled, analogous to compensatory lengthening in some languages; in splitting monophthongization (e.g. fáìlì from 'file'), the diphthong's two vowels are split into two monophthongs, resulting in nuclei of different syllables. The paper concluded that monophthongization is motivated by the fact that diphthongs are excluded from the Yorùbá phoneme inventory, hence English loanwords containing diphthongs are systematically nativized in Yorùbá on the basis of the ranking, *DIPH >> INTEG, which is expanded as: *DIPH, *CC, *CODA >> IDENT[F] >> Hiatus >> DEP, INTEG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using comparative evidence from the three Sakishima (South Ryukyuan) languages, Miyakoan, Yaeyaman and Dunan, this paper postulates a reconstruction of two Proto-Sakishima *a-initial diphthongs, *ao and *au, and argues that this distinction was carried over to Proto-Miyakoan and Proto-Yaeyaman. The number of vocabulary items traceable to Proto-Sakishima *au is scarce and almost exclusively involves morphologically complex forms, mostly verbs, making the *ao and *au distinction one easy to omit or disregard as random sound change irregularities. Furthermore, most of the modern Sakishima regiolects have lost the distinction between *ao and *au, Tarama-Miyakoan being the only one that consistently maintains the original distinction in all relevant areas of vocabulary and not just verbs, reflecting *ao as /au/ or /o/and *au as /u/. Positing ProtoSakishima *ao and *au in accordance with the Tarama reflexes begets new insights concerning the *o >*u raising in Sakishima as well as in Ryukyuan in general, thus confirming the slow gradualness of the process and hinting at the chronology of the changes related to this raising. It also reveals a number of specifics concerning the diachrony of Sakishima verb systems, especially the development of conclusive verb forms, thus explaining the apparent discrepancy in *au and *ao reflexes in the regiolects of Miyako and Yaeyama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a systematic literature review of the monophthongization of the diphthong in Brazilian Portuguese. Monophthongization is a sound change by which a diphthong becomes a single vowel. Thus, the output of, for example, the word beira (‘edge’) can be b[eɪ̯]ra or b[e]ra. Our primary sources, 10 Master’s theses that analyzed this phenomenon using quantitative sociolinguistic methodologies, focus on individually describing a region’s variety of Portuguese. However, the results were never systematically related to each other. Consequently, these works do not present a comprehensive overview of the production of in Brazilian Portuguese. Therefore, this systematic review gathers and unifies information dispersed in these studies, aiming to offer an overview of this optional phenomenon. The overall results demonstrate that the following context was the relevant linguistic variable, while the speaker’s educational level and dialect variation are the relevant non-linguistic variables for the application of the monophthongization rule.

Dialectical variations operate at varied linguistic levels giving a dialect its unique place on the language map. In a paper, AlYaari et al. tried to consider a comparative study of the linguistics of the different dialects of Yemeni Arabic DYA. This paper looks at Raimi Yemeni Arabic, a dialect that is not considered by AlYaari et al. The paper considers two phonological phenomena studied by Alyaari et al.; namely, vowel deletion and absence of diphthongs. The paper demonstrates that RA is similar to Adeni Arabic in terms of vowel deletion, but is unique in monophthongization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the question of why, when immediately preceding primary stress, orthographic o is as a rule phonetically realized not only as the diphthongs / əʊ /, / oʊ / but also as the qualitatively reduced short monophthong / ə /. For example, l / əʊˈ / cation ∼ l / əˈ / cation. It is argued that the instability of alphabetic o in this position is mainly due to 1) its frequent occurrences in intertonic position (e.g., ˌ comp o ˈ nential), in which it is surrounded by two stressed syllables; 2) derivation from forms in which stress occurs upon the short monophthongs / ɒ /, / ɑ / (e.g., Roberta ← Robert + - a); 3) a relatively small number of formations such as co- sponsor or pro-choice , in which alphabetic o belongs to a semantically transparent prefix; and 4) frequent use of the single letter o (to orthographically represent alphabetic o) rather than a combination of letters such as, e.g., ow. Additionally, this paper argues that the American English diphthong / oʊˈ / is in general more stable than the British English diphthong / əʊˈ / because American English is in general a more conservative variety, which to a larger extent than British English respects the etymological history of a word. The reduction of alphabetic o in environments when it immediately precedes primary stress is mainly due to: • Its frequent occurrences in intertonic position (e.g., ˌ comp o ˈ nential), in which it is surrounded by two stressed syllables; • Derivation from forms in which stress occurs upon the short monophthongs / ɒ /, / ɑ / (e.g., Roberta ← Robert + - a); • A relatively small number of formations such as co-sponsor or pro-choice , in which alphabetic o belongs to a semantically transparent prefix; • Frequent use of the single letter o (to orthographically represent alphabetic o) rather than a combination of letters such as, e.g., ow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Southern accent is often seen as key to the performance of country music and to one's larger Southern identity. This work examines two Southern dialect features of country music singer, Alan Jackson, in two acoustic contexts: songs and interviews. The Southern accent features chosen for focus are the Southern Vowel Shift (SVS) and /ai/ monophthongization. Our data show that Jackson displays fewer Southern features in songs, such as a lack of FACE/DRESS inversion. When interviewed, however, Jackson displays more markers of Southern identity in his speech, such as more intense back vowel fronting and inversion of FACE and DRESS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the perceived similarity between Standard British English vowels and Spanish vowels, including Spanish diphthongs, not usually considered in studies on cross-language categorization. Twenty-nine Spanish speakers performed two perceptual assimilation tasks that differed in the number of response alternatives provided, that is, including or excluding diphthongs. The participants also performed an L1 vowel identification task. The results showed that Spanish listeners consistently perceived English diphthongs as closer to Spanish diphthongs than to Spanish monophthongs, with comparatively high assimilation scores. These results emphasize the need to include diphthongs in cross-language comparisons and second-language acquisition studies involving languages like Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos 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.)

Regional identity does not always neatly correspond to geography. In the cognitive conception of many people, Appalachia is located firmly in the American South although the official boundaries range from Alabama to New York. There are undoubtedly differing levels of regional affiliation even by people who orient toward the region. The core area of Appalachian identity, with the strongest regional affiliation, is located in the Southern Appalachian subregion and includes eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southern West Virginia. The present case study investigates the idea of rootedness, or connection to the conceptual Appalachia, taking /AI/ monophthongization, a classic Southern feature, as a marker of rootedness. Tokens from a single speaker born and raised in East Tennessee, are examined at two different times. As a high school student, the speaker produces almost categorical monophthongal /AI/; however, as a professional in her mid-30s, the speaker is almost categorically diphthongal. This stark change in linguistic behavior undoubtedly has many sources, yet the speaker discusses how her orientation to the region changed dramatically. The current study furthers our understanding of how speakers negotiate a nuanced Southern and Southern Appalachian regional identity identity and employ linguistic resources to reflect shifting orientations. [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]

Copyright of Acta Linguistica Asiatica is the property of Acta Linguistica Asiatica 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 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]

This study examines acoustic vowel data from a group of 88 Finnish and Italian Americans from Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP), stratified by task, heritage, age, sex, and educational attainment. Results reveals four sociolinguistic patterns in Michigan's UP English regarding lingering substrate and encroaching exogenous norms. First, the presence of a systematic structural difference of the low and back vowels and the presence of the monophthongized /o/ is argued to result from substratal influence. Additionally, the fully realized low-back merger and the conditionally compromised Canadian raising of /αi/and /α℧/are older features originating from Canadian English. Furthermore, apparent-time evidence in this rural community indicates a developing change in progress in which front lax vowels participate in the Canadian Shift. This change in progress toward Canadian-like norms is led by females of successively younger generations. Finally, the existence of these new local norms in the younger UP speakers' systems for both the reading passage and the word list data indicates that such norms are well established and largely below these speakers' awareness in various speech styles. This study compares subgroups within the larger speech community and reveals much about the impact of ethnic-heritage languages on a rurally spoken American English variety while simultaneously showing the exogenous influences of neighboring regional varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten 3- to 5-year old children (5M, 5F) who were diagnosed as children with articulatory phonological disorders (CWAPD) and attending a therapy program were recruited to participate in a 'repeat-after-her' experiment. They were asked to produce a total of 85 real Mandarin words, including 28 monophthongs, 41 diphthongs, and 16 triphthongs. The results indicated that CWAPD have no problem producing monophthongs. However, attempts to articulate diphthongs and triphthongs induced more errors. CWAPD showed more errors when producing words with 1st sonorant diphthongs than words with 2nd sonorant diphthongs--this is because the least sonorant segment in the last position is prone to distortion. Similar phenomena were found in other triphthongs, except with /iai/ and /iou/, which did not see deviant pronunciation. Comparing our study to the information provided by two therapists showed that the participating CWAPD encountered difficulties in producing multi-vowel syllables, where the position and sonorant matters. In addition, our results also reveal a similar vowel acquisition order among CWAPD as among normal children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the phenomenon of monophthongization, whereby a diphthong is changed into a long monophthong. As established by Yoda (2005), Gaber (2012), Elramli (2013), and Hwaidi (2016) in Libyan Arabic, especially in the varieties spoken in the western part of Libya, the diphthongs /aw/ and /aj/ surface as fooj and [ee] respectively. The former monophthong is a combination of /a/ and /j/ while the latter is an amalgam of /a/ and /w/. The constraint COMBINE {A, 1} guarantees that /aj/ is realized as /ee/. By the same token, COMBINE {A, U} guarantees that /aw/ surfaces as /oo/. Given the fact that COMBINE {A, 1} and COMBINE {A, U} have analogous tasks, and taking linguistic parsimony into consideration, we can unify these two constraints, ending up with the constraint COMBINE {FEATURE}. The same is true of the constraints MAX-{A} and MAX-{U}, which can be merged to yield MAX-FEATURE. It will be shown that the constraint responsible for the alternation is the markedness constraint NO-DIPH. This constraint, however, is at work only when the diphthong is in a non-final position. By contrast, when the diphthong is word-final no monophthongization takes place. The analyses in this paper will be cast within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004). The relevant OT constraints will be introduced and the ranking of these conflicting constraints will be accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) vowels produced by ten Jordanian males are acoustically analyzed and described. In line with previous studies on MSA produced by speakers from different parts of the Arab world, this study shows that the inventory of MSA vowels consists of six monophthongs and two diphthongs. Moreover, the long monophthongs of MSA are found to be more than double the duration of their short counterparts. In comparison with studies on MSA vowels produced by Palestinian, Saudi, Sudanese and Egyptian speakers, the MSA monophthongs produced by the Jordanian speakers here are found to be significantly shorter than those in the latter studies. Moreover, this study proposes the use of different IPA symbols for the MSA vowels which have been for long inaccurately transcribed as /a:, i:, u:, a, i, u, aj, aw/. This is justified by the finding that long and short MSA monophthongs are significantly different not only in duration but also in vowel quality. This latter finding has been corroborated by many previous studies on MSA vowels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author compares the monophthongization of ai/ay and au/aw in Old Germanic dialects and Arabic dialects. The main question is whether the monophthongizations of ai and au into ē and ō in the Germanic and Arabic dialects are phonologically comparable. This turns out to be the case to a large extent. In both linguistic groups there were biphonematic diphthongs in the protophase, followed by a monophonematic period, after which monophthongization could occur. Moreover, in both groups there were dialects without monopthongization and other dialects in which monophthongization was not finished and intermediate forms like ei and ou occurred. Another question is whether contacts between Germans and Arabs played a part in mutual monophthongization. This turns out to be highly unlikely. Intriguingly, a different monophthongization should be taken into account as well: au and ai into ā and a, which also occurs in both dialect groups. I have conformed to the Arabist terminology for distinguishing between these monophthongizations: monopthongizations into ē and ō are called contraction monophtongizations, those into ā and a they call elision monophthongizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monophthongization of /ay/ in the Southern United States is disfavored by following voiceless consonants (price) relative to voiced or word-final environments (prize). If monophthongization is the trigger for the Southern Shift (Labov, 2010) and chain shifts operate as predicted by a modular feedforward phonological theory (cf. Bermúdez-Otero, 2007), this implies price and prize must be two ends of a phonetic continuum, rather than two discrete allophones. We test this hypothesis via distributional analysis of offglide targets and statistical analysis of the effect of vowel duration. As predicted, we find price and prize share a continuous distribution in the Inland South, the region where the Southern Shift probably originated (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006). We use Raleigh, North Carolina, outside the Inland South, as a comparison point; there, the same methodologies indicate price and prize are more discretely separated. Our results thus offer empirical support for the phonological theory that motivated the hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apparent time analysis has revealed that the Tyneside FACE vowel is the site of two intersecting trends: levelling towards the supra-northern monophthong as well as the gradual incursion of the southern standard closing diphthong. This article investigates the participation of individual speakers across their life-span in these ongoing changes in the FACE vowel. We report on a small-scale panel sample of six speakers who were recorded in 1971 and again, 42 years later, in 2013. The analysis probes the stability of individual speakers' grammars, relying on longitudinal ethnographic analysis in the community as well as insights gleaned from sociolinguistic interviews about the speakers' socio-demographic trajectory and their presentations of self. The article contributes to the growing body of panel research that aims to determine the scope and the limits of linguistic malleability across speakers' life histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Long Terawan Berawan system of vowel phonemes consists of one monophthong in the antepenult, schwa, and four monophthongs in the penult, i, ə, a, and u. However, the final syllable exhibits ten monophthongs (i, ĭ, e, ĕ, a, ă, u, ŭ, o, ŏ) and six diphthongs (əi, əu, ăi, ai, ău, au). The paper describes how the Long Terawan vowel phoneme system emerged from a Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian system of four monophthongs (*i, *ə, *a, *u). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas the Proto-Italic mid and low vowels */e, a, o/ were targeted by syncope in Sabellic, the high back vowel */u/ has often been thought to be retained. This paper is devoted to examining whether such a view is founded on secure examples. Our investigation shows, first, that forms alleged to support u-retention are uncertain or dubious; and second, that there are two forms that may illustrate u-syncope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the separating and uniting phonological evidences of Proto Wanokaka-Anakalang (PWn-An) and Mamboro language (Mb) reflected from the phonological changes of the Proto Mamboro-Wanokaka-Anakalang (PMb-Wn-An) phonemes. The description is based on the types of phonological changes suggested by Jeffers and Lehiste (1979). This article shows that the three phonemes of PMb-Wn-An were found ‘retention’ in PWn-An, but underwent ‘split’ in Mb and one phoneme underwent ‘monophthongization’. One phoneme of PMb-Wn-An underwent ‘substitution’, in PWn-An, but ‘retention’ in Mb. One phoneme of PMb-Wn-An was found ‘split’ in PWn-An, but ‘retention’ in Mb. Whereas, the uniting evidences show that three PMb-Wn-An phonemes were found ‘retention’ both in PWn-An and Mb. One phoneme of PMb-Wn-An underwent ‘split’ both in PWn-An as well as in Mb.

This article investigates sound change in the vowels of Māori, the indigenous language of New Zealand. It examines the relationship between sound changes in Māori and in New Zealand English, the more dominant language, with which Māori has been in close contact for nearly 200 years. We report on the analysis of three adult speaker groups whose birth dates span 100 years. All speakers were bilingual in Māori and New Zealand English. In total the speech of 31 men and 31 women was investigated. Analysis was done on the first and second formant values, extracted from the vowel targets. There has been considerable movement in the Māori vowel space. We find that the sound change in the Māori monophthongs can be directly attributed to the impact of New Zealand English, however the situation for the diphthongs is not so clear cut. There is some evidence that both New Zealand English monophthongs and diphthongs are impacting on the Māori diphthongs, but so too are the Māori monophthongs. We conclude that although New Zealand English has had a strong influence on Māori, there is very strong evidence that new generations of speakers of Māori are acquiring a phonemic system with its own internal parameters and consistencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variety of Acehnese spoken in Malaysia, in particular the way in which it is pronounced, has thus far received little attention in the literature. One group of Malaysian Acehnese speakers can be found in a village in the northwest of Peninsular Malaysia. The present paper examines the oral monophthong vowels of the Acehnese variety spoken in this village based on an analysis of the formant values of the monophthong vowels produced by speakers from this location. The main aim of the paper is to determine the characteristics of monophthong vowels in the Malaysian Acehnese variety. The first and second formant values of the vowels were extracted and analysed from ten female Malaysians of Acehnese descent living in Kampung Aceh in Kedah. Comparisons with vowels in the Indonesian Acehnese variety were also carried out. Our findings indicate that most of the Malaysian Acehnese monophthongs displayed similar qualities with the Indonesian variety of Acehnese. However, there appears to be a loss of / ʌ /, and a more back production of / ǝ /, and in some cases / a /. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional notion that the pre-Baltic long diphthong *ōu yielded uo in Lithuanian and Latvian is weakly grounded and should be rejected. Pre- Baltic *ōu predictably yielded Lith., Latv. áu except in absolute final position. The presence of Lith., Latv. uo in the u-series of ablaut is due to a specific East Baltic analogy * ī̆ : *ẹ̄ = * ῡ̆ : X, X = *ō that took place after the monophthongization of *ei, *ai > *ẹ̄ (> ie). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Linguistica is the property of 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.)

How do speakers of current Turkish and Moroccan ethnolects of Dutch deal with phonemes that do not exist in their heritage languages and that are at the same time subject to pronounced regional and social variation in the Dutch speech community at large, such as the Dutch diphthong /εi/? This diphthong does not occur in Turkish and Berber and it occurs only as a dialectal allophone in certain dialects of Moroccan Arabic. Data from speakers from the Amsterdam and Nijmegen urban areas are studied. In the Amsterdam dialect, the diphthong is traditionally subject to monophthongization and lowering, yielding realizations as [a:] or [a:], while in Nijmegen the diphthong is only subject to monophthongization, resulting in the variant [ε:]. Recently, a new lowered, diphthongal variant [ai] entered colloquial spoken standard Dutch. Therefore, ethnolect speakers have a wide range of variants to 'choose' from: the traditional standard Dutch variant [εi], the new variant [ai], which is expanding areally and socially, and the monophthongal variants of the surrounding urban dialects. Two variable properties of /εi/ are examined: (1) height of the prominent first element, and (2) the degree of monophthongization. The urban dialect features which had developed into sociolect features over the past generations appear to be undergoing social redistribution to become ethnolect markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]