On the history of palatography in Hungarian phonetics

The beginnings of the field of experimental phonetics can be traced back to the second half of the nineteenth century, when (among others) palatography, initiated by an English dentist, started an important new trend in phonetics. This paper outlines the evolution of this revolutionary experimental technique, discusses its two types, direct (static vs. natural) and indirect palatography, and describes the materials and procedures that researchers used. Hungarian scholars, Balassa, Gombocz, Csűry and Hegedűs, were among the very first who used palatography, ahead of many other European researchers. This paper highlights their methodological achievements and some of their findings obtained in studying the articulation of Hungarian vowels and consonants using palatography.

Lithuanian language intonation: history of research, in the context of language intonology

The linguists Jablonskis (1911) and Durys (1927) were the first to study Lithuanian language intonation. Research on intonation in other European languages (English, Russian) began earlier, in the 16th and 17th centuries (English: Hart (1551) and Butler (1634); Russian: Lomonosov (1743, 1765)). The beginning and the second half of the 20th century were the most productive research periods on Lithuanian language intonation. Intonation was studied by Lithuanian linguists – syntax specialists and phoneticians. A considerable amount of research using methods of experimental phonetics was carried out. The main authors were the syntactician Balkevičius (1963, 1998) and the phoneticians Pukelis (1972) and Bikulčienė (1976), Pakerys (2003), Girdenis (1980; 2003). Variants of the Lithuanian language intonation system inventory are presented in the numerous works of the author. Keywords: intonation, experimental phonetics, intonation units, intonation system of the Lithuanian language, intonation typology.

PROSODIC STRESS IN THE THEORY OF RHYTHM BY HENRI MESHONNIK UNDER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS OF EXPERIMENTAL PHONETICS

Henri Meschonnik’s legacy includes diversified, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary research. The history and theory of literature, philosophy and linguistics underlie his methodology for studying rhythm. To analyze the text, Meshonnik uses the stress system, in particular, the prosodic stress that occurs on the first syllable of a word when its first consonant is repeated in a verse or in a prosaic sentence. The existence of prosodic stress, which is understood in this way, is ignored by phoneticians. The stress in the text is presented in the theory of Madden as a symbolic display of a clot of energy, since initially stress in speech concentrates muscular effort. The article makes an attempt to determine what is the current status of prosodic stress, an important element of A. Meshonnik’s analytical apparatus. Stress has measurable acoustic parameters (intensity, pitch, duration), so an experiment was carried out (using a Praat speech analyzer). The stress on the first syllable in French phonetics is considered to be additional, depending on the individual implementation, however, Meshonnik, as well as his follower and co-author J. Desson, consider prosodic stress to be a linguistic (phonological) law. The article describes the stage of the experiment when native speakers (students of ENS Paris) were offered the phrase of Flaubert, commented by Madden and Desson in “Treatise on Rhythm”, and the same phrase, modified in two ways, to trace the stress in the absence of sound repetition. In the course of the experiment, most of the participants showed a slight increase in intensity when reading the original phrase, a decrease in intensity when reading a shortened phrase, and in some cases, the intensity increased when reading a phrase with a word modified to avoid repetitions.

Study of the intermittent vowels of the Surgut dialect of the Khanty language through the method of direct digital laryngoscopy: preliminary results

Introduction: the Khanty language and its dialects (in particular, the Surgut one) are still poorly studied from the point of view of the experimental phonetics. Direct digital laryngoscopy is one of the methods of dynamic observation of speech production processes in the larynx, which allows to describe not only the articulatory features of a concrete sound, but also to trace the processes of co-articulation and adaptation. Objective: to analyze articulatory features of the previously identified intermittent vowels. Research materials: the laryngo-grams of the intermittent vowels in the pronunciation of the native speakers of the Tromagan subdialect of the Surgut dialect of the Khanty language. Results and novelty of the research: the study revealed that the phonation of intermittent vowels can be divided into several phases with the corresponding acoustic and articulatory effects. Analysis of the laryngo-grams allowed to classify the Surgut vowels i, ɵ, e as injective, i. e. pronounced with a lowered larynx. The vowel a requires further study and verification with the help of somatic and acoustic methods. The data obtained are in a good agreement with the works by B. B. Feyer on the Ket vocalism.

The Role of the Experiment in the Study of the Language Material

The article deals with the role of the experiment in the study of the language material. As it is known the learning of voices is very difficult, and it requires great attention. In this case it is necessary to use the opportunities of experimental phonetics. It should be stressed that the role of experiment in the investigation of the language facts through experiment has long been proved. The author uses expedient to investigate the acoustic peculiarities of the language voices. The intonation is used to be closely related to the various emotions of a person in the speech acts. In recent years, the application of principles, conceptual schemes, ideas and concepts derived from psycho- and sociolinguistics and linguistic pragmatics in the field of intonation has become widespread. Intonation must be studied at the communicative level. Semantic categories expressed in intonation units usually refer to the communicative components of speech. In the grammatical structure of the sentence, they can correspond to the composition of any length. Accordingly, the "sphere of activity" of intonation units can have different components from word to sentence at the hierarchical level.

Motor Impulses of Verse

Chapter 2 explores scholarly theories that accounted for the role of kinesthetic sensations of pronunciation in the aesthetic experience of the poetic form. The Russian Formalists described the articulatory properties of various poetic styles as an objective, impersonal formal structure. They aimed to establish whether this structure takes shape during the process of verse composition and whether it impacts the subsequent oral renditions of the poem by the author and other readers. In historicizing the Formalists’ conceptions of the performative, embodied aspect of poetry, my analysis centers on the Petrograd Institute of the Living Word (Institut Zhivogo Slova) and the Laboratory for the Study of Artistic Speech under the auspices of the Institute of Art History (Kabinet Izucheniiа Khudizhestvennoi Rechi pri Institute Istorii Iskusstv) between 1919 and 1930. Their endeavor to register poetic rhythms and intonations closely resembled the methods of experimental phonetics used by the European and American phoneticians. My analysis points to numerous common sources shared by the Russian and Western authors—notably, the publications coming out from Jean-Pierre Rousselot’s laboratory of experimental phonetics. The final section of the chapter unravels the concept of “formal emotions,” proposed by the Russian Formalists, as they attempted to distance themselves from the simplistic biographic interpretations of affects encoded in literature and considered the psychomotor properties of verse from the standpoint of genre and style.

From the history of Russian phonetics: Theory and practice in acoustic and perceptual research of the Department of Phonetics, Leningrad University (1950–70s)

The article dedicated to the memory of Ludmila Verbitskaya is concerned with the role of acoustic and perceptual research in the development of Lev Shcherba’s phonological theory. Of fundamental importance for this were the studies of the Laboratory of Experimental Phonetics of Leningrad University, conducted in the 1950–1970s, in which fundamental theoretical issues were inseparable from the problems of application. It is at this period that Verbitskaya’s early works were created, largely responsible for her reputation of an outstanding linguist. In 1965, she defended her Ph.D. dissertation Russian Speech Units vis-à-vis Аllophones and Phonemes (Lev Zinder, advisor), based on an extensive experimental study. Among other things, she challenged the dogma of the traditional phonological theory that speakers perceive only distinctive phonemic oppositions, by demonstrating the ability of the speakers of Russian to distinguish a greater variety of vowels than was normally supposed. It should be noted, however, that in Verbitskaya’s experiment, of all the allophones involved, the informants discerned only those responsible for providing the hardness-softness consonantal opposition. In this case, the informants not only perceived the differences, but were able to interpret them in accordance with the phonological system of the Russian language.

Keele asend eesti palatalisatsioonis

Artiklis uuritakse palatalisatsiooni mõju konsonandi ja talle eelneva vokaali häälduskohale ja kestusele. Katse viidi läbi elektromagnetartikulograafi abil, mis mõõdab katseisiku artikulaatoritele liimitud sensorite liikumist kolmemõõtmelises ruumis. Tulemused näitasid, et palataliseerimisega kaasnes konsonandi ja talle eelneva vokaali hääldamisel keele kõrgem ja eespoolsem asend. Keele eesosa kõrgus oli vähesel määral palatalisatsioonist mõjutatud, kuid kõrguse muutumine ei olnud süsteemne. Tulemused ei näidanud palatalisatsiooni süstemaatilist efekti ka konsonandi ja talle eelneva vokaali kestusele. Ainult üksikutel juhtudel pikenes hääliku kestus palataliseeritud kontekstis olulisel määral. Abstract. Anton Malmi and Pärtel Lippus: The position of the tongue in Estonian palatalization. This article analyses the effect of secondary palatalization of alveolar consonants on the place of articulation and the segmental duration in Estonian CVC words. The study was carried out with 21 test subjects using a Carstens AG501 electromagnetic articulograph. The results show that the place of articulation of palatalized consonants was always higher and more anterior than that of non-palatalized consonants. The back of the tongue was raised towards the hard palate, but the height of the apical part of the tongue was not systematically affected by palatalization. With few exceptions, the duration of the vowels and consonants were not affected by palatalization. Keywords: articulatory phonetics, experimental phonetics, articulation, palatalization, Estonian, duration, Carstens AG501

Tekanan dalam Bahasa Tontemboan: Pendekatan Fonetik Eksperimental

Stress is one of suprasegmental feature in language and is included in the study of acoustic phonetics. Tontemboanese is a language spoken in several areas in Minahasa, and in this research, the word stress in Tontemboanese is done through the approach of experimental phonetics by employing the software Praat in data analysis. The data are collected through recording from interview, cut the recording into several one-word recordings, and then the data are analyzed with Praat to determine the pitch, duration, and intensity of each syllable. Through the data analysis, it is found that the Tontemboanese word stress is a fixed word stress, and the position of the stress is generally in the penultimate syllables. The result is still similar with the results by Schwarz (1908) and Tambuwun (1986) which states that the word stress in Tontemboanese is in the penultimate syllable. Keywords: Stress, Suprasegmentals, Tontemboan, Experimental Phonetics