Volume 32, Issue 4

Multivalued features have generally not been permitted on the classificatory level of representation by generative phonologists. It is found necessary, however, to posit a multivalued scalar feature ‘glottal width’ on the classificatory level of representation in order to provide a satisfactory explanation of the diachronic tone splits conditioned by the phonation type of the syllable-initial consonants among the languages and dialects of the Tai language family in Southeast Asia. The feature ‘glottal width’ consists of a linearly ordered set of terms along a single physical continuum that extends from the widest open position of the glottis to the fully closed position (i.e. glottal stop). Other proposed sets of laryngeal features are tested against this evidence and found to be inadequate. A binary feature ‘vibrating’ is also proposed within this theoretical framework.

The acoustic spectra of [m] produced by speakers of American English in various [mV] contexts was studied for coarticulatory variations caused by the [vowel] under conditions of varying juncture boundaries occurring between [m] and [vowel]. Dispersion analysis was used to estimate the coarticulatory variation in [m] spectra. Low level junctures marked by short pauses do not disrupt nasal-vowel coarticulation. However, higher level junctures such as between extraposed clauses or phrases and the body of an utterance are more often than not marked with long pauses, and concomitant reduction of nasal-vowel coarticulation.

Synchronic cognates are subject to recognition failures across dialects, if processing through different determining features leads to phonemic misclassification. But phonemes common to all dialects can also cause recognition failures if they differ in function. These findings support a theoretical distinction between phone, phoneme, and morpho phone, the last being an essential unit for the cognate reconstruction necessary for error-free processing of unfamiliar dialects.

PILCH's analysis of the English intonation contour implies that the difference between the primary and secondary stresses exists only in the contour nucleus, but is inaudible elsewhere. This hypothesis has been checked and confirmed both by auditory and acoustic analysis and by the test responses of native speakers. The parameters by which primary and secondary stresses are heard as different are length and pitch change. The pitch difference disappears outside the contour nucleus, and the length relations may be reversed causing wrong identifications by the listeners.

This paper describes a ‘reading machine’. The source of the system is basically a phonemic transcription of Hebrew punched on cards. With the aid of a computer programme, a parallel-formant synthesizer automatically produces the synthetic speech. The computer programme includes a phoneme table which gives average acoustic values for each phoneme. It also includes allophone rules, transition rules and intonation rules. Various intelligibility tests were carried out, the final test including sentences and a story. This last test scored an average of 97 % of words correctly recognized by 33 participants.