Author: Hugues Steve Ndinga-Koumba-Binza
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443836184
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 325
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Book Description
This is an experimental phonetic investigation into the vowel duration system of Civili, an indigenous language spoken in Gabon and some of its neighboring countries. Apart from providing insight into how mother-tongue speakers articulate and perceive certain vowels, it contributes significantly to the establishment of a credible orthography for this language. Speech data acquired through extensive fieldwork were analyzed acoustically to determine sound qualities, after which perception tests were administered to determine how listeners perceive vowel sounds in different environments. The findings are of significance for linguistic descriptions per se, as well as for eventual use in the field of human language technologies. This seven-chapter book is mainly intended for an expert readership and for students of phonetics and phonology.
Author: Hugues Steve Ndinga-Koumba-Binza
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gabon
Languages : en
Pages : 604
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Book Description
Author: Brent de Chene
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317933192
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 183
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Book Description
Data from a variety of languages are offered in support of the claim that although there are several processes by which languages commonly add to an already existing stock of long vowels, there is only one mechanism by which a language without a distinction of vocalic length commonly introduces such a distinction. This mechanism is the coalescence of vowel sequences, typically after loss of intervocalic consonants. This book examines vowels lengths, their differences and their effects on language.
Author: Steve Ndinga-Koumba-Binza
Publisher: AFRICAN SUN MeDIA
ISBN: 1920338799
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 384
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Book Description
This book provides a broad overview of current work on South African languages, language resources and language technologies. While it provides a fairly comprehensive overview, it also ties together the most recent knowledge state here, and is therefore truly innovative ? The book is therefore informed by current international trends in the respective fields of science, and feeds back into them ? There is absolutely no doubt that the book has an academic peer audience and is directed at specialists in the field. - Prof. Axel Fleisch, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author: Brent Eugene De Chene
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 170
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Book Description
Data from a variety of languages are offered in support of the claim that although there are several processes by which languages commonly add to an already existing stock of long vowels, there is only one mechanism by which a language without a distinction of vocalic length commonly introduces such a distinction. This mechanism is the coalescence of vowel sequences, typically after loss of intervocalic consonants. Conversely, it is argued that such coalescence always leads to the development of a length contrast unless the language is subject at the time of coalescence to a rule distributing length as a function of some other variable, typically stress. Development of a situation in which length is a function of stress is claimed, equally, to account for most cases of loss of a Jong-established length contrast. The chapter closes with a consideration of three cases in which surface contrasts of vowel length may be claimed to be the result of incipient phonologization of phonetically conditioned length.
Author: Michele Loporcaro
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191630535
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 327
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Book Description
This book investigates the changes that affected vowel length during the development of Latin into the Romance languages and dialects. In Latin, vowel length was contrastive (e.g. pila 'ball' vs. pila 'pile', like English bit vs. beat), but no modern Romance language has retained that same contrast. However, many non-standard Romance dialects (as well as French, up to the early 20th century) have developed novel vowel length contrasts, which are investigated in detail here. Unlike previous studies of this phenomenon, this book combines detailed historical evidence spanning three millennia (as attested by extant texts) with extensive data from present-day Romance varieties collected from first-hand fieldwork, which are subjected to both phonological and experimental phonetic analysis. Professor Loporcaro puts forward a detailed account of the loss of contrastive vowel length in late Latin, showing that this happened through the establishment of a process which lengthened all stressed vowels in open syllables, as in modern Italian casa ['ka:sa]. His analysis has implications for many of the most widely-debated issues relating to the origin of novel vowel length contrasts in Romance, which are also shown to have been preserved to different degrees in different areas. The detailed investigation of the rise and fall of vowel length in dozens of lesser-known (non-standard) varieties is crucial in understanding the development of this aspect of Romance historical phonology, and will be of interest not only to researchers and students in comparative Romance linguistics, but also, more generally, to phonologists and those interested in historical linguistics beyond the Latin-Romance language family.
Author: Mark Van de Velde
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317628691
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 788
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Book Description
Written by an international team of experts, this comprehensive volume presents grammatical analyses of individual Bantu languages, comparative studies of their main phonetic, phonological and grammatical characteristics and overview chapters on their history and classification. It is estimated that some 300 to 350 million people, or one in three Africans, are Bantu speakers. Van de Velde and Bostoen bring together their linguistic expertise to produce a volume that builds on Nurse and Philippson’s first edition. The Bantu Languages, 2nd edition is divided into two parts; Part 1 contains 11 comparative chapters, and Part 2 provides grammar sketches of 12 individual Bantu languages, some of which were previously undescribed. The grammar sketches follow a general template that allows for easy comparison. Thoroughly revised and updated to include more language descriptions and the latest comparative insights. New to this edition: • new chapters on syntax, tone, reconstruction and language contact • 12 new sketch grammars • thoroughly updated chapters on phonetics, aspect-tense-mood and classification • exhaustive catalogue of known languages with essential references This unique resource remains the ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Bantu linguistics and languages. It will be of interest to researchers and anyone with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic typology and grammatical analysis.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : South Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
Author: Patrice Speeter Beddor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
Author: William Ham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136711120
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Using acoustic studies of Bernese, Hungarian, Levantine Arabic and Madurese, the author argues that differences in geminate timing are ultimately correlated with whether a language is syllable-or mora-timed.
