This dissertation investigates language-specific acoustic and aerodynamic phenomena in language contact situations. Whereas most work on second language and bilingual phonology has focused on individual consonants and vowels, this project examines patterns of coarticulation in the two languages of Spanish-English and French-English bilingual…

This paper documents the acoustic reflexes of ATR harmony in Kinande followed by an analysis of the dominance reversal found in class 5 nominals. The principal findings are that the ATR harmony is reliably reflected in a lowering of the first formant. Depending on the vowel, ATR harmony also affects the second formant. The directional asymmetry…

Phonological constraints can, in principle, be classified according to whether they are natural (founded in principles of universal grammar (UG)) or unnatural (arbitrary, learned inductively from the language data). Recent work has used this distinction as the basis for arguments about the role of UG in learning. Some languages have phonological…

A more highly constrained and more explanatory theory of phonology is produced if abbreviatory and essential variables are restricted. (CK)

Roots of Spanish verbs exhibit systematic vowel alternations. In traditional accounts of these alternations, the mid simplex nuclei are assumed to be basic, with complex nuclei being derived from them by rule. This paper suggests an alternative analysis assuming that the complex nuclei are more basic than the simplex ones. (CHK)

Demonstrates that both syllables and vowels are carriers of word stress. With the postulation of stronger activation flow between syllables and V-units and weaker activation between syllables and C-units, it is possible to unambiguously associate stress with the syllable and to explain the differential sensitivity of consonants and vowels to…

Replicating research originally performed with native speakers of English, this study investigated the mutability of vowels in Spanish. The study was based on the theory that when presented with non-words, native speakers are more likely to change the vowel than the consonant to arrive at an existing lexical item. It was hypothesized that if…

A study examined the pattern of formation of glides in a sample of 18 Niger-Congo languages that have substantial glide formation. It is noted first that four basic pattern dualities exist, with language-specific variations, determine by whether or not: (1) glide formation applies to both front and round first vowels or round first vowels only;…

When considering vowel alternations in English, it is possible to develop a less abstract vowel system than the one developed by Chomsky and Halle by using their laxing rule as the input for a restrictive vowel-shift rule which accounts for the relative height of alternating vowels in alternations such as divine-divinity, extreme-extremity,…

Acoustic analysis of two vowels thought to be merged in Utah English suggest that there are small but consistent differences between them. A matched guise experiment provides evidence that when the vowels are merged hypercorrection is involved. (33 references) (LB)

This paper discusses the term "language universal" and posits a definition of a "counter-universal." It is proposed that the voiced aspirates of Bario Kelabit represent an exception to a posited phonological behavioral universal and are an important addition to the inventory of possible phonetic segments. (AM)

This paper attempts to show that traditional generative phonology as formulated by Chomsky and Halle (1968) fails to account for the optional dropping of the schwa in French, and attempts to formulate a theory which can account for this phenomenon. The crucial factor governing the schwa-dropping process is the number of consonants preceding the…

Several traditional phonetic theories are explained and discussed. It is asserted that recent advances in knowledge of speech production and speech perception show that these theories are descriptively inadequate and that physiologic principles may instead structure phonetic feature theories. (Author/RM)

Revised version of a paper published in the "Edinburgh Working Papers in Linguistics," n1. (DD)