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Phoneme representations provide targets for speech production. During speech production in multilingual speakers, phoneme representations and their associated articulatory movements in multiple languages can be activated simultaneously (Cabrelli Amaro, 2017b; Amengual, 2018, 2021; Simonet & Amengual, 2020). Hearing altered auditory feedback of one’s own voice in real time while speaking induces a mismatch between predicted sensory feedback and heard sensory feedback. This mismatch results in corrective changes to speech production (adaptation) when conditioned over repeated trials. Balanced bilinguals can transfer the after-effects of vowel adaptation between their languages bidirectionally and in equal proportions (Shiller et al., 2022), which suggests that phonemic representations and their changes are shared across the bilingual vowel inventory and are available during production of both languages. However, it is not known with certainty if adaptation magnitude is greater in the L1 or L2 in unbalanced bilinguals, nor how well that adaptation is transferred to an L3. We will test the predictions of Shiller et al. (2022) from another angle, using Spanish and Basque, both of which possess the same vowel system. Therefore, any difference in results across languages cannot be simply attributed to differences in the vowel inventory. Feedback perturbation studies in trilingual speakers will provide a novel picture of how vowel representations of multiple languages influence each other during speech production.

This task is directed at unbalanced Spanish/English bilinguals. It is not known with certainty if speech motor adaptation magnitude is greater in the L1 or L2 in unbalanced bilinguals. It is also not known how well adaptation is transferred into the other, non-perturbed language in a bilingual's inventory, nor if adaptation can change perceptual boundaries in the non-perturbed language. Furthermore, this experiment will also target differences between the DIVA and SFC models of speech production, using vowel space density differences between English and Spanish. Overall, altered auditory feedback highlights the relationship between perception representations and production categories in each language and across languages, and will provide a novel picture of the mechanisms underlying vowel perception and speech motor control in bilingual speakers.

Allophonic palatalisation of velar consonants in Chilean Spanish has been hastily attributed to the inevitable anticipatory assimilation that occurs between aback consonant and front vowel. In this study, the extent of palatalisation of the voiceless velar fricative /x/ was measured before /e/ and /i/, in male and female speakers, and in controlled and casual speech, to ascertain the relationship between palatalisation, the gender of the speaker and the speech style, from a variationist standpoint. Using reading and interview tasks, a total of 1586 /x/ tokens were taken from 14 participants from Santiago. Results show a significant drop in frequency (indicative of lesser palatalisation) in casual speech from males, but not in casual speech from female speakers. Concurrently, the following vowel also influenced the degree of palatalisation. It can be proposed that palatalisation is dictated to an extent by articulatory effort and caution, linked to differences in sociolinguistic behaviours of both genders. [h] has also been registered as a more infrequent allophone of /x/, serving as a replacement for [x] and [ç].

Resolution 2467, the latest UN Security Council (SC) Resolution on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), adopted on 23 April 2019, has been greeted with scepticism and dismay with respect to advancement of the WPS agenda. Two concerns predominate: that this Resolution – along with the previous eight WPS Resolutions – lacks binding legal force; and that this Resolution in particular weakens the WPS agenda and thus the ability of civil society to use it for advancing women’s rights during and in the aftermath of conflict. In this Commentary we argue that there are reasons for optimism with respect to these issues and that this Resolution, in conjunction with the earlier WPS Resolutions, ensures continuation of State legal obligations and the basis for civil society action for implementation of those obligations.

Publish in 2017 by Women Organizing for Change in Bosnia and Herzegovina of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Resolution 2467, the latest UN Security Council (SC) Resolution on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), adopted on 23 April 2019, has been greeted with scepticism and dismay with respect to advancement of the WPS agenda. Two concerns predominate: that this Resolution – along with the previous eight WPS Resolutions – lacks binding legal force; and that this Resolution in particular weakens the WPS agenda and thus the ability of civil society to use it for advancing women’s rights during and in the aftermath of conflict. In this Commentary we argue that there are reasons for optimism with respect to these issues and that this Resolution, in conjunction with the earlier WPS Resolutions, ensures continuation of State legal obligations and the basis for civil society action for implementation of those obligations.

Resolution 2467, the latest UN Security Council (SC) Resolution on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), adopted on 23 April 2019, has been greeted with scepticism and dismay with respect to advancement of the WPS agenda. Two concerns predominate: that this Resolution – along with the previous eight WPS Resolutions – lacks binding legal force; and that this Resolution in particular weakens the WPS agenda and thus the ability of civil society to use it for advancing women’s rights during and in the aftermath of conflict. In this Commentary we argue that there are reasons for optimism with respect to these issues and that this Resolution, in conjunction with the earlier WPS Resolutions, ensures continuation of State legal obligations and the basis for civil society action for implementation of those obligations.