Volume 30, Issue 4

This paper is concerned with the examination of the positions of the supraglottal articulatory organs in the production of Sindhi stops. Phoneticians’ description of sounds is generally based on auditory impressions, and the sounds are classified with the help of the traditional phonetic categories. The articulatory positions have not been examined with the help of any instrumental techniques. Palatography and X-ray photography have therefore been used to confirm the validity of my proprioceptive impressions, and also to demonstrate the precision with which the physiological features of the stop articulations in Sindhi can be described with the help of these techniques.

One peculiarity of St. Lawrence Island Eskimo is the ‘fake’ vowel length which is triggered by stress in a conditioned environment. The degree of the fake vowel length has been neither seriously questioned nor recognized in the Eskimo literature as being distinct, phonetically or phonemically, from the intrinsically long or short vowel. Based on acoustic evidence, the present paper argues that there are, phonetically but not phonemically, three distinct degrees of vowel length and that the perceptual difficulties in identifying the fake vowel length are primarily due to its unsubstantial contrast with the other degrees of vowel length. Measurements of these vowel lengths were made on spectrographic displays.

With this article we intend to provide all people concerned with speech pauses under any aspect whatsoever with an exausting survey of the more recent work done on this phenomenon. The great number of publications on pauses does not permit a detailed critique of each work.