This paper focuses on the development of Prosodic Word shapes in Catalan, a language which differs from both Spanish and English in the distribution of PW structures. Of particular interest are the truncations of initial unstressed syllables, and how these develop over time. Developmental qualitative and quantitative data from seven…

The authors studied the acquisition of nine #sC clusters in 30 Croatian-speaking phonologically disordered children, aged between 3;8-7;0 years, by analysing their renditions of target words elicited in response to visual stimuli presented on a computer screen. Results did not support the idea that a greater jump in sonority from C1 to C2 would…

Language learning requires a capacity to recall novel series of speech sounds. Research shows that prosodic marks create grouping effects enhancing serial recall. However, any restriction on memory affecting the reproduction of prosody would limit the set of patterns that could be learned and subsequently used in speech. By implication, grouping…

This study investigated the acquisition of word initial s clusters of 3-5 year old Dutch children with phonological disorders. Within these clusters, sl was produced correctly most often, whereas sn and sx were the more difficult clusters. In cluster reductions, s+obstruent and sl clusters reduction patterns followed the Sonority Sequencing…

This paper analyzes linguistical features of Quiegolani Zapotec (QZ) via a combination of language-specific rules and universal constraints ordered within a constraint hierarchy that operates within a derivational phonology. A number of complex onset clusters in QZ do not follow the Sonority Sequencing Generalization discussed by J. Greenberg…

A study examined segmental and suprasegmental elements which contribute to an impression of one speaking style as opposed to another. A corpus containing three styles of speech, casual, careful, and read, for the same linguistic content was gathered. Thirteen speakers from Paris, France (aged 24-35) were given a scenario to be acted out over the…

Examined recorded business telephone conversations, noting that at least some forms of spontaneous conversation contained a second form of global intonational marking. Certain attributes of intonation persisted throughout discourse units in the calls, differentiating one unit from another. Two types of parameters emerged (one controlling midpoint…

Discusses some of the segmental and suprasegmental features that give Swazi English a unique accent. (Author/VWL)

Italian polysyllabic words with stress falling on the last syllable are written with a diacritic sign on the last vowel. It allows discrimination between two words with the same orthographic segments (e.g., papa [pope], papa [dad]). The effect of the accent mark in left neglect dyslexia has never been investigated. In the current study, six…

In two eye-tracking experiments the role of contrastive pitch accents during the on-line determination of referents was examined. In both experiments, German listeners looked earlier at the picture of a referent belonging to a contrast pair ("red scissors," given "purple scissors") when instructions to click on it carried a…

Arguing that the question of social acceptability of allophonic variations is not a linguistic issue, but rather an issue of social identity, the discussion considers the speech chain, language as a social activity with its "norms" for social acceptability, and the specific context where Singaporean English is a marker of social…

In this study the influence of prosodic foot structure on the processing of weak syllables in children with cochlear implants (CI) was investigated. A battery of tests investigating processing of weak syllables in single and multiword utterances was carried out on four groups of children: 15 children with CI developing spoken language as expected…

It is acknowledged that contrast plays an important role in understanding discourse and information structure. While it is commonly assumed that contrast can be marked by intonation only, our understanding of the intonational realization of contrast is limited. For German there is mainly introspective evidence that the rising theme accent (or…

The relationship between turn-regulation, the phonetic features of pitch, and loudness is examined in a study of two recorded natural conversations in Akan. Analysis of patterns in turn-delimitation suggests that (1) diminuendo loudness, a low pitch height, and falling pitch movement are treated by turn-occupants and their co-participants as…

Investigated functional differences between the accent-lending rise followed by sustained level pitch (10) and combined accent-lending rise and final rise (12) in Dutch. Thirty individuals were presented with short utterances bearing either a 10 or 12 contour. Results indicated that 10 is not readily interpreted as a question, so 10 may help…