From an integrative perspective this study analyses the evolution of ethnolinguistic variability in Cameroon English (CamE) pronunciation along the educational echelon. Focus is on the phonetic/phonological variables of ethnolects distinctive from Received Pronunciation and CamE, and markers which prompt attitudinal reactions in speakers and listeners' perceptions. Interviews are conducted and a questionnaire designed to elicit pronunciation and attitudinal variability. Integrative methods are explored to analyse the data, and the "trace element hypothesis" postulated. As contribution to studies on the evolution in the New Englishes it proposes the lectal continuum and fossilised CamE features as yard sticks for mainstreaming CamE phonology and advocates sociophonetics in language teaching.

The central assertion in this volume is that the young child uses general skills, scaffolded by adults, to acquire the complex knowledge of sound patterns and the goal-directed behaviors for communicating ideas through language and producing speech. A child's acquisition of phonology is seen as a product of her physical and social interaction capacities supported by input from adult models about ambient language sound patterns. Acquisition of phonological knowledge and behavior is a product of this function-oriented complex system. No pre-existing mental knowledge base is necessary for acquiring phonology in this view. Importantly, the child's diverse abilities are used for many other functions as well as phonological acquisition. Throughout, an evaluation is made of the research on patterns of typical development across languages in monolingual and bilingual children and children with speech impairments affecting various aspects of their developing complex system. Also considered is the status of available theoretical perspectives on phonological acquisition relative to an emergence proposal, and contributions that this perspective could make to more comprehensive modeling of the nature of phonological acquisition are proposed. The volume will be of interest to cognitive psychologists, linguistics, and speech pathologists.

Over the past few decades, the book series Linguistische Arbeiten [Linguistic Studies], comprising over 500 volumes, has made a significant contribution to the development of linguistic theory both in Germany and internationally. The series will continue to deliver new impulses for research and maintain the central insight of linguistics that progress can only be made in acquiring new knowledge about human languages both synchronically and diachronically by closely combining empirical and theoretical analyses. To this end, we invite submission of high-quality linguistic studies from all the central areas of general linguistics and the linguistics of individual languages which address topical questions, discuss new data and advance the development of linguistic theory.

This book discusses the phonology of glides and nasals in Polish and English on the basis of spelling and pronunciation errors. The aim of this study is to show the relatedness between spelling and pronunciation errors and the phonological systems of both languages in Standard Generative Phonology and Optimality Theory. The rule-based phonology, where the intricacies of gliding and nasalization are resolved by the application of fully productive rules, gives a coherent analysis of the investigated data corpus. Similarly, the constraint-based phonology, where the solution is offered by the system of universal constraints, successfully accounts for the examined phenomena. However, for generalizations concerning the insertion of the back glide, Standard Optimality Theory does not provide conclusive results. This study proves that the introduction of a two-level evaluation, as envisaged by Derivational Optimality Theory, satisfactorily handles the ongoing changes.

This book explores the interface between speech perception and production through a longitudinal acoustic analysis of the speech of postlingually deaf adults with cochlear implants (electrode and computer prostheses for the inner ear in cases of nerve deafness). The methodology is based on the work of Joseph Perkell at MIT, replicating and extending analysis to subjects with modern digital cochlear implants and processor technology. Lowenstein also examines how cochlear implants are portrayed in dramatic and documentary television programs, the scientific accuracy of those portrayals, and what expectations might be taken away by viewers, particularly given modern society's view that technology can overcome the frailties of the human body.

This book offers a concise introduction to synchronic English linguistics. Following an introduction to language and linguistics as such, it provides detailed descriptions of the different language levels: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, and meaning in language (comprising semantics and pragmatics). Furthermore, one chapter deals with constructional approaches to English grammar. The final chapter serves as an outlook on the application of linguistic theory in various domains of language use, including historical linguistics, dialectology, sociolinguistics, language acquisition and forensic linguistics. Every chapter contains specific exercises that help to rehearse the key concepts introduced in this book.

This book provides an overview of current issues in variation and gradience in phonetics, phonology and sociolinguistics. It contributes to the growing interest in gradience and variation in theoretical phonology by combing research on the factors underlying variability and systematic quantitative results with theoretical phonological considerations. Variation is inherent to language, and one of the aims of phonological theory is to describe and explain the mechanisms underlying variation at every level of phonological representation. Variation below the segment concerns articulatory, acoustic and perceptual cues that contribute to the formation of natural classes of sounds. At the segmental level there are grammatical differences in the production and perception of contextual variation of segments and in the syntagmatic constraints on the combination of segments. At the suprasegmental level the mapping of tones to grammatical functions and vice versa is discussed. Further aspects addressed in this book are factors outside of language: Variation that arises as a result of a particular dialect or of belonging to a certain age group, or variation that is the consequence of language change. Gradience and variation have always been a central issue in phonetic and sociolinguistic research. Gradience introduces variation in phonology as well. If a phonetic entity can be pronounced in different ways, depending on the environment, prosodic factors or dialectal influences, this 'gradience' may introduce 'variation', which we understand as a stable state of grammar.

The Iranian languages form the major eastern branch of the Indo-European group of languages, itself part of the larger Indo-Iranian family. Estimated to have between 150 and 200 million native speakers, the Iranian languages constitute one of the world's major language families. This comprehensive volume offers a detailed overview of the principle languages which make up this group: Old Iranian, Middle Iranian, and New Iranian. The Iranian Languages is divided into fifteen chapters. The introductory chapters by the editor present a general overview and a detailed discussion of the linguistic typology of Iranian. The individual chapters which follow are written by leading experts in the field. These provide the reader with concise, non-technical descriptions of a range of Iranian languages. Each chapter follows the same pattern and sequence of topics, taking the reader through the significant features not only of phonology and morphology but also of syntax; from phrase level to complex sentences and pragmatics. Ample examples on all levels are provided with detailed annotation for the non-specialist reader. In addition, each chapter covers lexis, sociolinguistic and typological issues, and concludes with annotated sample texts. This unique resource is the ideal companion for undergraduate and postgraduate students of linguistics and language. It will also be of interest to researchers or anyone with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistics anthropology and language development. Gernot Windfuhr is Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Michigan; he has published widely on Persian and Iranian languages and linguistics and related languages, as well as on other aspects of Iranian culture including Persian literature and Pre-Islamic Iranian religions.

Rhetoric in the Monastic Tradition presents a series of "test cases" in rhetorical theory. John P. Bequette explores several important texts from the Western monastic tradition through the lens of ancient rhetoric, using the figures and topica of the Roman rhetorical tradition to exposit the texts in all their depth. This tradition, filtered through Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana, provides a useful hermeneutic to unlock the inexhaustible riches of the texts that comprise the monastic tradition from 500 to 1100 A.D. Each chapter focuses on a specific text to understand the relationship between human language and divine revelation as expressed by the monastic author in question. Texts include the Rule of St. Benedict, Bede's Advent Homily on Mark 1:4-8, Anselm's Letter to Lanzo, Peter Damian's The Book of "The Lord Be with You," and sermons thirty-five through thirty-eight of Bernard of Clairvaux's Sermons on the Song of Songs.

The volume represents a state-of-the-art snapshot of the research on prosody for phoneticians, linguists and speech technologists. It covers well-known models and languages. How are prosodies linked to speech sounds? What are the relations between prosody and grammar? What does speech perception tell us about prosody, particularly about the constituting elements of intonation and rhythm? The papers of the volume address questions like these with a special focus on how the notion of context-based coding, the knowledge of prosodic functions and the communicative embedding of prosodic elements can advance our understanding of prosody.

"Speaking is part of a whole: an expression of inner life." Cicely Berry has based her work on the conviction that while all is present in nature our natural instincts have been crippled from birth by many processes----by the conditioning, in fact, of a warped society. So an actor needs precise exercise and clear understanding to liberate his hidden possibilities and to learn the hard task of being true to the a instinct of the momenta . As her book points out with remarkable persuasiveness a techniquea as such is a myth, for there is no such thing as a correct voice. There is no right way----there are only a million wrong ways, which are wrong because they deny what would otherwise be affirmed. Wrong uses of the voice are those that constipate feeling, constrict activity, blunt expression, level out idiosyncrasy, generalize experience, coarsen intimacy. These blockages are multiple and are the results of acquired habits that have become part of the automatic vocal equipment; unnoticed and unknown, they stand between the actora s voice as it is and as it could be and they will not vanish by themselves. So the work is not how to do but how to permit: how, in fact, to set the voice free. And since life in the voice springs from emotion, drab and uninspiring technical exercises can never be sufficient. Cicely Berry never departs from the fundamental recognition that speaking is part of a whole: an expression of inner life. After a voice session with her I have known actors speak not of the voice but of a growth in human relationships. This is a high tribute to work that is the opposite of specialization. Cicely Berry sees the voice teacher as involved in all of a theatrea s work. She would never try to separate the sound of words from their living context. For her the two are inseparable. ----from Peter Brooka s foreword to Voice and the Actor

The Glot International State-of-the-Article books constitute the ideal solution for every-one who wants to have a good idea of what the others are doing but does not have time to follow the developments in all other parts of the field on a day to day basis. All articles were previously published in Glot International and have been revised and updated, and special attention was given to the extensive bibliography, which constitutes an important part of each overview article. Among the essays in the first volume are overview articles dealing with VP ellipsis (by Kyle Johnson), Ergativity (by Alana Johns), tone (by San Duanmu), acquisition of phonology (by Paula Fikkert), and semantic change (by Elizabeth Closs Traugott). The second volume offers articles on subjects ranging from the development of grammars (by David Lightfoot) and markedness in phonology (by Keren Rice) to the syntactic representation of linguistic events (by Sara Thomas Rosen), optionality in Optimality syntax (by Gereon Muller) and the nature of coordination (by Ljiljana Progovac).

The Fifth International Workshop on Balto-Slavic Accentology took place in 2009 at the Silesian University in Opava (Czech Republic). This volume contains papers presented at the workshop. The papers treat thematically various aspects of Baltic and Slavic prosodic development as well as provide synchronic descriptions of individual Baltic and Slavic languages and their dialects.

This is an account of the phonology and morphology of modern spoken Arabic, the first to be published in any language and based largely on the author's research. Dr Watson's approach is theoretically innovative and aware, but accessible to Arabic language specialists outside linguistics. Broad in coverage, this is an important and pioneering book.

This is the first comprehensive work on word and sentence prosody in Koshikijima Japanese, a dialect of Japanese not fully documented in the literature. It is an endangered dialect spoken by about 2,000 speakers on a small southern island in Japan. Being separated from mainland dialects by the sea, this dialect exhibits unique prosodic features not shared by other Japanese dialects. It also exhibits considerable regional variations among the ten or more small villages that were isolated from each other until recently. Based on the author's fieldwork, the book analyzes word accent and intonation, the two linguistic areas in which this endangered dialect exhibits unique features and remarkable regional variations within itself. They include the emergence and development of a secondary H tone, postlexical deletion of the primary H tone, and the L boundary tone in question and vocative intonation. These phenomena bear crucially on general issues in prosody, including postlexical tonal neutralizations, competitions between lexical and postlexical tones, and the number of tones that a syllable can maximally bear. The book thus demonstrates the relevance of studying an endangered language/dialect in general linguistic contexts.

Research on sound change often focuses on vowels, yet consonantal sound change also offers fascinating insights into language development and variation. This pioneering book provides a detailed investigation of consonantal sound change in English, by analyzing a large corpus of specifically designed field recordings from Austin, Texas. It offers one of the most in-depth analyses of /str/-retraction to date, drawing comparisons with studies of change in the distinguishing phonetic features of other varieties of English, and with studies of /str/-retraction in other Germanic languages. It further deepens our understanding of sound change by including qualitative data to position the sound change in the social reality of Austin, showing that specific sound changes are universally driven by age, gender and ethnicity. The results provide a testing ground for models of sociolinguistic and sound change, and highlight the importance of the social fabric of language in modeling language change.

Given the linguistically diverse nature of academic institutions in English-speaking contexts, a strong rationale exists for the incorporation of L2 accents of English in academic listening assessment on the grounds of authenticity and construct representation. However large-scale tests have tended to feature only native-speaker varieties in listening test input owing to concerns about the intelligibility of L2 accents, construct validity and acceptability. This book presents a mixed-methods study designed to address these concerns. Versions of the University Test of English as a Second Language (UTESL) featuring Australian English, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese accented speakers were used to explore the potential for a shared-L1 or familiarity advantage, and to investigate test-takers' attitudes towards L2 accents on a listening test. Implications are drawn for test development and for future research.

With close to 100 million speakers, Tai-Kadai constitutes one of the world's major language families. The Tai-Kadai Languages provides a unique, comprehensive, single-volume tome covering much needed grammatical descriptions in the area.

It presents an important overview of Thai that includes extensive cross-referencing to other sections of the volume and sign-posting to sources in the bibliography. The volume also includes much new material on Lao and other Tai-Kadai languages, several of which are described here for the first time.

Much-needed and highly useful, The Tai-Kadai Languages is a key work for professionals and students in linguistics, as well as anthropologists and area studies specialists.

ANTHONY V. N. DILLER is Foundation Director of the National Thai Studies Centre, at the Australian National University.

JEROLD A. EDMONDSON is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas Arlington and a member of the Academy of Distinguished Scholars.

YONGXIAN LUO is Senior Lecturer in the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Australian Linguistic Society.

The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert

The book contains a number of studies in Japanese phonology and morphology, all analyses by leading scholars in the field. It presents an overview of the work that has been done in Japan and other countries and offers new solutions to long-standing problems. In the phonology chapters, it focuses on segmental as well as suprasegmental issues, including voicing and tone, approaching these issues from a variety of perspectives, including Optimality Theory and Government Phonology. In the morphology chapters, attention is given to truncation patterns and the possibilities for compound formation.

Do loanword adaptations apply on a phonological or a phonetic level? This study addresses this issue by investigating the adaptation of German and French loanwords and proper names with front rounded vowels into Japanese. The adaptation forms of front rounded vowels are analysed from a phonological and a phonetic perspective. Both the phonological and the phonetic analysis can account for part of the data, but neither alone is able to account for all the adaptation forms of German and French front rounded vowels in Japanese. It is shown that adaptations are complex processes determined by a variety of factors such as perception, knowledge of the source language, and written forms. Furthermore, it is shown that socio-linguistic factors have a major impact on adaptation processes.

This book gives true characters of Japanese speech sounds in reference to European speech sounds. When it was first published in 1931, it was the first book of its kind. There are only 5 Japanese vowel elements as opposed to 18 in English, 13 in French and 8 in German. There are 15 Japanese consonants, 26 in English, 22 in French & 23 in German. Because of the lesser number of elements, it follows that the wider range in vowels and consonants is heard by Japanese ears, so this volume gives average sounds uttered by Japanese in the twentieth century in relation to the English sounds.