The first language word recognition system copes easily with the great variability of spoken language. A particular kind of context-dependent variation is phonological assimilation. In French, for example, there is a process of voicing and devoicing assimilation. For example, jupe [yp] ‘skirt’ can be pronounced [yb] when followed by an obstruent of opposite voicing, like /g/ in grise [iz] ‘...

The Ikema dialect of Miyako Island in Okinawa, Japan, has typologically rare word-initial and voiced geminate obstruents (e.g. /vva/ ‘you’, /ffa/ ‘child’, /tta/ ‘tongue’, /badda/ ‘side’). These sounds are marked two ways: Voicing through is hard to produce initial voiceless plosives seem be difficult perceive. This study investigated real-time magnetic resonance imaging (rt-MRI) examine the art...

Two factors have facilitated advances in the study of the interplay between speech perception and phonology: first, we now have the benefit of various technological advances that allow for the collection and analysis of data on perception that were unavailable 20 years ago, and second, theoretical progress. In the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004, McCarthy & Prince 1993),...

This paper examines the acoustic properties of Sylheti phonemes. Sylheti is generally regarded as one of the varieties of Bangla. The historical development of this language witnessed significant reduction and reconstruction of its phoneme inventory. The phoneme inventory is considerably reduced due to the phonological process of deaspiration [+spread glottis], spirantization and deaffrication ...