While eavesdropping on Japanese language study material that someone else in the household is playing, I keep hearing word-initial [ts] (or something similar, but definitely an affricate) instead of word-initial [s] (which I have been assured is the correct pronunciation).
Is there a process in Japanese which causes word-initial [s] to resemble [ts] after a glottal stop at a word boundary, before a voiceless vowel, or in some other environment?
📄 #New #Publication! Jolin, Armel. 2025. “Tonal features in Shilluk”. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 8, 165-191.
🌍 From our #SpecialIssue on #Nilotic #languages.
☎️ On tones, subtonal features and tone underspecification
#OpenAccess #Phonology
https://radical.cnrs.fr/jolin-tonal-features-in-shilluk/
📄 #New #Publication! Faust, Noam & Bien Dobui. 2025. “A report on definite and indefinite relativizers in Nuer”. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 8, 151-164.
🌍 From our #SpecialIssue on #Nilotic #languages.
Ⓜ️ On definite markers on Nuer nouns
#OpenAccess #Phonology
https://radical.cnrs.fr/faustdohui-a-report-on-definite-and-indefinite-relativizers-in-nuer/
🌟 #New spark! Popp, Marie-Luise & Jochen Trommer. 2025. “Phonologically conditioned affix order is stratal”. A spark in Radical: A J of Phonology. 20 pp.
👉 On a previously unnoticed prediction of Stratal OT and how it is in fact borne out.
#OpenAccess #Phonology
https://radical.cnrs.fr/popptrommer-phonologically-conditioned-affix-order-is-stratal/
📄 #New #Publication! Payne, Doris L. 2025. “Final consonants in Maa”. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 8, 135-150.
🌍 From our #SpecialIssue on #Nilotic #languages.
On #coda, #epenthesis, #deletion, and challenges to native speaker intuition 🤯
#OpenAccess #Phonology
https://radical.cnrs.fr/payne-final-consonants-in-maa/
📄 #New #Publication! Rodríguez-Vázquez, R. & S. de la Ossa. 2025. Accentual text-setting in a syllabic tradition: the case of Muiñeira Nova. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 9, 1-38.
🎵 In the ongoing #SpecialIssue on #musical text-setting 🎶
@winbuzzer
“Unlike traditional ASR systems that require extensive fine-tuning, Omnilingual ASR introduces a novel “Bring Your Own Language” feature. This capability, inspired by large language models, allows users to add support for entirely new languages by providing just a handful of paired audio and text samples.”
Magical thinking, so I'm suspecting hype. A handful of paired samples is not enough data to correctly work out the phonological system of any language. (I used to teach how to do that, with a new language every year.) So I assume it's just transcribing into some generic alphabet (which is certainly possible), without regard to the actual pattern of the language in question. Like using Italian spelling to write down !Xhosa?
Their contribution to data on under-represented languages is welcome, though.
Sometimes I'm embarrassed to call myself a #linguist. Came across the word "chimerical" in Dixon & Durrheim's (2003) paper on #segregation, and I realized I never hear the word, so I wanted to know if it started with /k/ or /ʃ/. Turns out it's /k/, but the first vowel is /aɪ/ rather than the /ɪ/ that I assumed and for which I didn't even consider an alternative.
Did people notice the Great Vowel Shift? (23 mins.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SD60KpJvA
#language #phonology #history #phonetics #speech #linguistics #accents #LanguageChange
📄 #New #Publication! Althabégoïty, Galla & Charles Vancaeyzeele. 2025. “Rounding contrast activation in Ngbúgù: licensing and sub-segmental interactions”. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 7, 32-86.
⭕ Paper on #vowel roundness in Ngbúgù ! 💫
#OpenAccess #Phonology
https://radical.cnrs.fr/althabegoityvancaeyzeele-rounding-contrast-activation-in-ngbugu-licensing-and-sub-segmental-interactions-2/
(Reviewers: Shanti Ulfsbjorninn, Connor Youngberg and Fabian Zuk) Download paper Abstract: Ngbúgù (banda group, Ubangi family, Central African Republic) exhibits a contextual contrast between round…
dstu
Radical A Journal of Phonology
𝔸𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕤 🔉
Joshua McNeill
Stan Carey