Sound Patterns of Hindi

Manjari Ohala
San José State University

Sound Patterns of Hindi is a collection of articles by Manjari Ohala covering Hindi phonetics and phonology. Each chapter includes updates on the current status of the issues being addressed, citing recent relevant literature.

Hindi phonology is addressed by a variety of experimental methods—from phonetics (physiological/acoustic/perceptual) to psycholinguistic. The phonological studies treat such issues as features for aspirated stops, the organization of the syllable, syllabification, patterns of nasals/nasalization, geminates, stress, speech errors, and the psychological status of certain phonological rules. The seeds of sound change are revealed using detailed acoustic analysis of unscripted speech data. The key phonological issues addressed are applicable to any language, not just Hindi, thus providing an important resource for linguists interested in Hindi as well as those interested in theoretical phonology, phonological universals, and sound change since Hindi not only has a rich segment inventory of both consonants and vowels but also has a well-documented history, from Sanskrit to Modern Hindi.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Segment Inventory
2. Features for Voicing and Aspiration in Stops and Their Phonetic Correlates
3. The Issue of Stress
4. Schwa Deletion and Vowel Nasalization
5. The Treatment of Phonological Variation
6. Geminate Consonants
7. Experiments on Syllabification
8. The Micro-Phonetics of Syllabification
9. Speech Errors? In Hindi?
10. The Organization of the Syllable
11 Analysis of Unscripted Speech
12. Nasal Epenthesis and Spontaneous Nasalization in the Historical Phonology of Hindi
13. The Representation of Underlying Forms
14. Perceptual Confusions of VC Transitions
References
Index

ISBN 9783862885534 (Hardbound). 247pp. LINCOM Studies in Phonetics 11. 2014.

German Pronunciation & Accents

(Geo-social Applications of the Natural Phonetics & Tonetics Method)

Luciano Canepari
University of Venice

This book applies the principles of Natural Phonetics & Tonetics to describe the pronunciation of German, including intonation, in a precise way never found in earlier treatises. It includes an introduction to the Natural Phonotonetics Method, which can be used for any other language, as well (without the sadly known limitations of official IPA).

The vowels, consonants, structures, and intonation of German are fully described and transcribed, with many examples of words, sentences, and conversations, in addition to the intonationally integrated IPA sample passage ‘The North Wind and the Sun’ and a poem. A chapter gives more than 300 reduced forms (or ‘weak forms’), with several gradations and examples.

Different types of German pronunciation are fully described, starting with 5 for Germany: international, neutral, traditional, mediatic and North-east. Then, the neutral, mediatic and broad pronunciations currently used in Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol are extensively treated.

Three more chapters describe (with 5 clear phonic maps) the 34 regional accents found in: Germany (18), Austria (9) and Switzerland (7), followed by those in Liechtenstein, Alsace, Lorraine, Luxemburg and Eastern Wallonia (Belgium). Other chapters provide more than 10 traditional dialects, 17 foreign accents of German, and 6 diachronic stages.

A mini-phono-dictionary contains more than 2200 words and proper names usually puzzling and challenging especially for foreigners.

ISBN 9783862885626 (Hardcover). LINCOM Studies Phonetics 12. 370pp. 2014.

English Pronunciation & Accents

Geo-social Applications of the Natural Phonetics & Tonetics Method

Luciano Canepari
University of Venice

The first part gives the ‘International’ accent of English. This is not meant to be a simplified version for foreigners speaking to other foreigners, so often falsely presented as the solution for intercultural communication. The International accent of English, on the contrary (both in its current and native-like versions), is the sublimation of the American and British neutral (or ‘standard’) accents. This avoids the inconvenient peculiarities of both these accents, while privileging their common and most general features, reducing thus their differences and real or seeming exceptions with respect to its current and highly unsatisfactory spelling.

The neutral American and British accents are always given along, for comparisons and useful information, as well: Vowels, Consonants (including The ‘whole truth’ on English R), Stress and Intonation (including Paralinguistics). There follow a few chapters with phonotonetic transcriptions: Conversations, Literary texts, and the IPA sample text. The ‘mediatic’ American (or ‘General American’) and British (or ‘Estuary English’) accents are also fully treated in separate chapters. The second part - with 32 linguistic maps and more than 300 clear (though rigorous and extensive) illustrations for vowels, consonants and intonation - describes more than 200 accents: 121 native (up to 146 with variants), 63 bilingual, and 30 foreign accents. They are so distributed: North America: Canada & USA (including 13 Native-American accents). British Isles: England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Other accents: Australia, New Zealand & South Africa. Second language: Caribbean, Far East, India, Africa, Malta, Gibraltar, the Falkands, and Foreign accents.

We can safely say that the book provides the most accurate descriptions of English accents ever done, in almost 900 pages, thanks to very many clear figures and precise transcriptions, with no ambiguities, that overcome the too obvious limits of the official IPA conception and symbols, sadly designed just for phonemic intralinguistic purposes, not for more useful interlinguistic and diaphonemic purposes.

11 Appendices complete the book with a concise international-pronunciation dictionary with about 2200 selected words, and 6000 homophonic words; more on vowels, consonants, intonation, voices, and diachronic stages. A selected annotated bibliographical review to safely direct readers. The author - Natural Phonetics & Tonetics, i.e. articulatory, auditory and functional, at the University of Venice, Italy - was trained in the British phonetic tradition.

ISBN 9783862885916 (Hardbound). LINCOM Studies in Phonetics 13. 882pp. 2015.

Chinese Pronunciation & Accents

This book applies the principles of Natural Phonetics & Tonetics to describe the pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese, including tones and intonation, in a precise way never found in earlier treatises (even those by native phoneticians). It includes an introduction to the Natural Phonotonetics Method, which can be used for any other language, as well (without the sadly known limitations of official IPA). The vowels, consonants, structures, tonemes, and intonation of Chinese are fully described and transcribed, with examples of words, sentences, and conversations, in addition to the intonationally integrated IPA sample passage ‘The North Wind and the Sun’. Many illustrations clearly show the articulation of vowels, diphthongs, including words in -r (érhuà), and tonograms for the tones and intonation.

In addition to the neutral pronunciation of Chinese, also the mediatic/Pekingese pronunciation is fully described, with all its differences and peculiarities.

Also included are two kinds of Taiwan Mandarin pronunciation, ten Chinese regional accents, three different dialects/languages, three diachronic stages. A mini-phono-dictionary contains more than 400 words, mainly proper names.

Luciano Canepari, Natural Phonetics & Tonetics, University of Venice, Italy, originally trained in the British phonetic tradition, developed the Natural Phonotonetics Method. Marco Cerini, PhD in Natural Phonetics & Tonetics applied to Mandarin Chinese, University of Venice, Italy.

For Lincom, LC published (among others): A Handbook of Pronunciation; Natural Phonetics & Tonetics; English Pronunciation & Accents; German Pronunciation & Accents; Dutch & Afrikaans Pronunciation & Accents (with M. Cerini). They are presently working on Japanese Pronunciation & Accents.

ISBN 9783862886364 (Hardbound). LINCOM studies in Phonetics 14. 242pp. 2015.