Volume 27, Issue 1

We have outlined a numerical method which, if developed systematically, allows the exact comparison of suprasegmental features of texts. On the one hand, this procedure completes an existing phonetic theory of segmentals; on the other hand, it complements a method developed recently for the syntax of texts and might therefore be of interest for linguists, too.

This investigation examines the relation between the prosodemes of stress in French and some of its prosodic features (both physiological and acoustic). Airflow is not found to provide much information about emphatic or unemphatic stress. Subglottal pressure patterns for unemphatic stress are very much like Lieberman’s ‘archetypal normal breath-group’. Emphatic stress is characterized by a sharp increase of subglottal pressure occurring on or just before the stressed syllable. A comparison with English shows that for the English subject the average subglottal pressure is markedly higher for emphatic stress than for unemphatic stress, whereas for the two French subjects this average is of the same order of magnitude for both types of accent, with a marked difference only on the stressed syllable.

In response to W. G. Moulton’s critical review of the book by Penzl, published in 1971, the author stresses the importance of graphemic and distributional analysis in the phonetic interpretation of historical spellings and of a careful distinction between phonotactic rules, individual phonemic systems, abstract overall patterns. He explains his interpretation of Old High German digraph and geminate spellings as phonemic clusters (except for the fricatives ff hh zz ; aa , etc.). He rejects the interpretation of ‘direct spelling variation’ (e.g. fraono, frono ) as representing allophonic fluctuation and as synchronic evidence for an intermediate stage of a phonemic change.

This experiment used electromyography and direct, high-speed motion picture photography, in combination, to describe the effect of speaking rate on the production of labial consonants. Electromyographic signals from a number of facial muscles were recorded simultaneously with high-speed motion pictures of the lips, from two subjects. The speech material consisted of syllables containing the consonants /p b m w/ in both CV and VC combinations with the vowels /i a u/. The major finding of this experiment is that an increase in speaking rate is accompanied by both an increase in the activity level of the muscle as well as an increase in the speed of movement of the articulators. The data also showed certain manner effects and instances of both subject-to-subject and individual token variability. These findings are discussed in terms of theoretical models of speech production.