bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 Polymorphisms and Blood Pressure Response to Amlodipine among African-American Men and Women with Early Hypertensive Renal Disease
Authors: Bhatnagar Vibha , Garcia Erin P. , O’Connor Daniel T. , Brophy Victoria H. , Alcaraz John , Richard Erin , Bakris George L. , Middleton John P. , Norris Keith C. , Wright Jackson , Hiremath Leena , Contreras Gabriel , Appel Lawrence J. , Lipkowitz Michael S.
Published: November 2009

Purpose: To explore the association between CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 gene polymorphisms and blood pressure response to amlodipine among participants from the African-American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension Trial randomized to amlodipine (n = 164). Methods: Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine the risk of reaching a target mean arterial pressure (MAP) of ≤107 mm Hg by CYP3A4 (A–392G and T16090C) and CYP3A5 (A6986G) gene polymorphisms, stratified by MAP randomization group (low or usual) and controlling for other predictors for blood pressure response. Results: Women randomized to a usual MAP goal with an A allele at CYP3A4 A–392G were more likely to reach a target MAP of 107 mm Hg. The adjusted hazard ratio (AA/AG compared to GG) with 95% confidence interval was 3.41 (1.20–9.64; p = 0.020). Among participants randomized to a lower MAP goal, those with the C allele at CYP3A4 T16090C were more likely to reach target MAP: The adjusted hazard ratio was 2.04 (1.17–3.56; p = 0.010). After adjustment for multiple testing using a threshold significance level of p = 0.016, only the CYP3A4 T16090C SNP remained significant. CYP3A5 A6986G was not associated with blood pressure response. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that blood pressure response to amlodipine among high-risk African-Americans appears to be determined by CYP3A4 genotypes, and sex specificity may be an important consideration. Clinical applications of CYP3A4 genotype testing for individualized treatment regimens warrant further study.
Morphological Changes Induced by Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I Gene Therapy in Pituitary Cell Populations in Experimental Prolactinomas
Authors: Camihort Gisela A. , Hereñú Claudia B. , Luna Georgina C. , Rodríguez Silvia S. , Bracamonte María I. , Goya Rodolfo G. , Cónsole Gloria M.
Published: November 2009

In previous studies, we assessed the effects of intrapituitary injection of a recombinant adenoviral vector (RAd) harboring the cDNA for rat insulin-like growth factor type I (RAd-IGF-I) on the lactotrope and somatotrope populations in estrogen-induced prolactinomas. In the present study, we aimed to confirm these findings and further analyze the effect of transgenic RAd-IGF-I on the other pituitary cell populations in female rats. All animals except the intact group (no estrogen and no stereotaxic injection) received subcutaneous estrogen for 30 days, and the groups which received RAd-IGF-I or RAd expressing green fluorescent protein (control) were additionally treated with the appropriate vectors on experimental day 0. The RAd-IGF-I group showed a significant decrease in serum growth hormone and prolactin levels and lactotrope and somatotrope cell size induced by estrogen treatment. Cell density was not affected by 7 days of IGF-I gene therapy. Estrogen had an inhibitory effect on thyrotrope cell density, whereas with RAd-IGF-I there was a nonsignificant trend towards restoration of cell density, without changes in cell size. RAd-IGF-I treatment decreased corticotrope cell size without changing cell density. Estrogen decreased gonadotrope cell size and density, which was reversed by RAd-IGF-I. We conclude that in estrogen-induced pituitary tumors, IGF-I gene therapy has inhibitory effects on the lactotrope, somatotrope and corticotrope populations, while reversing the effect of estrogen on gonadotropic cells.
The Structure and Composition of Deciduous Enamel Affected by Local Hypoplastic Autosomal Dominant Amelogenesis Imperfecta Resulting from an ENAM Mutation
Authors: Shore R.C. , Bäckman B. , Elcock C. , Brook A.H. , Brookes S.J. , Kirkham J.
Published: November 2009

In a group of families in northern Sweden, a mutation in the ENAM gene (predicted to produce a highly truncated protein) results in the local hypoplastic form of autosomal dominant amelogenesis imperfecta. In this study, sections of deciduous teeth from members of 3 of these families were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the enamel mineral was analysed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The sections were also probed with antibodies raised to a conserved sequence of the enamelin protein. Selected intact teeth were first analysed by digital imaging and ascribed with an ‘Enamel Defects Index’ (EDI) score. SEM of tooth sections revealed disrupted prism morphology and the prisms had a glass-like appearance in some areas. These areas of dysplasia were sometimes irregular but formed regular arrays in others. Comparison of EDI scores with SEM indicated that in one tooth the surface had no measurable defects but significant defects were present in the underlying enamel microstructure. SEM immunohistochemistry with the antibody raised to a fragment of the enamelin protein produced positive, but light, labelling throughout normal enamel. In dysplastic areas, however, the labelling intensity appeared to be reduced. The results indicate that the presence of functional enamelin in the correct amounts is necessary for correct prism morphogenesis. In addition, a combination of EDI and structural analysis indicate that defects in enamel microstructure are not necessarily visible as defects on the surface of the tooth, suggesting the possibility, at least, that some instances of under-diagnosis may occur.
ZM447439, a Novel Promising Aurora Kinase Inhibitor, Provokes Antiproliferative and Proapoptotic Effects Alone and in Combination with Bio- and Chemotherapeutic Agents in Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor Cell Lines
Authors: Georgieva I. , Koychev D. , Wang Y. , Holstein J. , Hopfenmüller W. , Zeitz M. , Grabowski P.
Published: November 2009

Background: Therapeutic approaches to gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) are still not satisfactory. A new direction in treatment options could be the novel aurora kinase inhibitor ZM447439, which was previously reported to interfere with the mitotic spindle integrity checkpoint and chromosome segregation, but does not interfere with other kinases when used up to 5 µM. Methods: We evaluated the antineoplastic effects of ZM447439 on growth and apoptosis of the GEP-NET cell lines BON, QGP-1 and MIP-101, representing the different malignant tumor types, using standard cell biological tests as crystal violet assays, caspase activation, DNA fragmentation and cell cycle analysis. Results: ZM447439 dose-dependently inhibited proliferation of all three cell lines with IC50 values in the nanomolar to low micromolar range. Moreover, aurora kinase inhibition by ZM447439 potently induced apoptosis, which was accompanied by DNA fragmentation and caspase 3 and 7 activation. Furthermore, we observed cell cycle arrest at G₀/G1 phase as well as a block in G2/M transition. In addition, combined treatment with the chemotherapeutic agents streptozocin and cisplatin augmented significantly the antiproliferative effects of those agents. Conclusion: Aurora kinase inhibition by ZM447439 seems to be a promising new therapeutic approach in GEP-NETs, which should be evaluated in further clinical trials.
Automatische Spracherkennung als Dekodierung der phonetischen Information?
Authors: Backhausen W.J.
Published: November 2009

In a detailed and critical analysis of the theoretical foundations of automatic speech recognition (ASE) and of their basis, the fundamentals of signal phonetics, it is shown that an unnecessary prerequisite is regarded as a constitutive condition. That is why the aim of ASE appears as a decoding of phonetic information. Contrarywise, it is attempted here to recognize the problem of ASE as the automation of a process of active phonetic information retrieval through iterative signal processing. For this purpose the construction of a complex vector structure is suggested which takes into account the phonological and linguistic knowledge of the relevant means of oral communication as well as the similarities and regularities that can be found in the signal domain. The process of active information retrieval is then defined by a system of rules which, with the help of this structure, relates incoming (communicative) signals to a text and which at the same time constantly adapts the vector structure on the basis of such relations. In view of this active retrieval procedure the ASE phoneme or word identification by static class features turns out to be a spurious and erroneous simplification.
Phonetik und Phonologie bei Paul Menzerath
Authors: Wodarz H.-W.
Published: November 2009

It is well known that Paul Menzerath has achieved results of importance in phonetics. His comments on the conception of phonetics have, however, remained unknown until now; he was, with his views and opinions, ahead of his time and may be well considered as modern even in our days.
Distinctive Features in Sarnami Hindustani
Authors: Huttar G.L. , Eslick Judith A.
Published: November 2009

The systematic phonemes of the Hindi spoken in Suriname are described in terms of their distinctive features. The language appears to be more simply describable by use of a feature system including syllabic instead of vocalic. The feature consonantal is also found to be non-distinctive in this description. The necessity of a distinction between primary phonetic features (such
as
consonantal and vocalic) and primary systematic phonemic features (such
as
syllabic) is suggested. Marginal phonemes of Sarnami Hindustani, reflecting characteristics of the Hindi of India, are briefly described.
Some Considerations in the Cinefluorographic Analysis of Tongue Movements during Speech
Authors: Kent R.D.
Published: November 2009

This paper discusses techniques in the application of cinefluorography to the study of speech and presents sample data to illustrate such techniques. The data pertain to movements of the tongue, jaw, and hyoid bone in the midsagittal plane. In the case of the tongue, small radiopaque markers were attached to the midline of this structure; and the cineradiographs were used to record the planar displacement patterns of the markers. The primary objective of the analysis methods is the investigation of the intrastructural and interstructural relationships in lingual articulation.
Le parler populaire franco-canadien
Authors: Holder M.A.
Published: November 2009

Apart from the general characteristics described by Gendron in “Tendances phonétiques du français parlé au Canada” there are, in ‘the accent of Sudbury’, a few specifically Acadian features, such as the velarization of ch, j to H X, the lack of affrication in t, d before i or j, and the non-diphthongization of long vowels, ce of normal opening is found in a few speakers, but very open æ in others; père, mèrefrère, bière pronounced with closed e is one of the most significant features of this area. The feature combinations vary between individual speakers.
Optional Word-Final Consonants in French
Authors: Malécot A. , Richman Marie
Published: November 2009

A number of French words (mostly monosyllabic nouns) whose orthographies end in a consonant, e.g., but, mœurs, fait, are frequently heard pronounced both with and without that final element. A computer-assisted analysis of a corpus of 50 tape-recorded conversations with well-educated upper middle-class Parisians has revealed that the final consonant of these words is now generally pronounced in all contexts (utterance-final, prevocalic and preconsonantal). Variations in the frequency of occurrence of this phenomenon, as a function of a number of paralinguistic factors, such as age, sex, syllabic rate, degree of formality, etc., were also studied. The results were corroborated by questionnaires designed to reveal the awareness and the degree of acceptance of this phenomenon, on the part of a representative group of Frenchmen.
«Il est huit heures»: contribution à I’analyse sémantique de la vive voix
Authors: Fónagy I. , Bérard Eva
Published: November 2009

A trivial utterance was pronounced in 26 different ways by an actress according to 26 contexts. 80 subjects were asked to guess these contexts and to place the sentences on semantic scales (cf. OSGOOD and E. ULDALL). The success of message transmission varies between complete failure and almost total equivalence. Adequate vocal interpretations of suggested situations do not necessarily conjure up these situations when they are separated from their contexts. There is a kind of homonymy in the domain of vocal stylistic messages. The encoding and decoding of secondary messages, far from being a ‘natural’, ‘instinctive’ phenomenon, is a very complex process which presupposes coordination, the integration of a series of partial messages and the reconstruction of the total message from the partial ones. The most elementary and the most specific messages were transmitted with the least distortion. Vocal performance – intonation, stress, articulation – does not contain a direct reference to a concrete situation, it hints at the situation indirectly by the successive and/or simultaneous expression of different simple attitudes. The secondary vocal messages are yielded by an archaic code which works only with motivated signs. These signs are, at the same time, integrated, more or less perfectly into the linguistic code.
Some Statistical Characteristics of Subordinate Clauses
Authors: Folsom M.H. , Rencher A.C.
Published: November 2009

With respect to the number of finite verbs in subordinate clauses within a text, we have demonstrated for the material examined that the variable: (a) differs significantly for the prose of detective stories and the prose exemplified by WINTER’s data (reservation as noted below); (b) differs significantly between authors; (c) is relatively consistent within a single author of detective stories with only an occasional exeption; and (d) when examined throughout a book, is subject to at least two different types of nonrandomness.
Eine Methode zur numerischen Erfassung der Suprasegmentalia
Authors: Drommel R. , Geršić S. , Hintzenberg Dagmar
Published: November 2009

We have outlined a numerical method which, if developed systematically, allows the exact comparison of suprasegmental features of texts. On the one hand, this procedure completes an existing phonetic theory of segmentals; on the other hand, it complements a method developed recently for the syntax of texts and might therefore be of interest for linguists, too.
Corrélats physiologiques de l’accent en français
Authors: Benguerel A.-P.
Published: November 2009

This investigation examines the relation between the prosodemes of stress in French and some of its prosodic features (both physiological and acoustic). Airflow is not found to provide much information about emphatic or unemphatic stress. Subglottal pressure patterns for unemphatic stress are very much like Lieberman’s ‘archetypal normal breath-group’. Emphatic stress is characterized by a sharp increase of subglottal pressure occurring on or just before the stressed syllable. A comparison with English shows that for the English subject the average subglottal pressure is markedly higher for emphatic stress than for unemphatic stress, whereas for the two French subjects this average is of the same order of magnitude for both types of accent, with a marked difference only on the stressed syllable.
Perception of Word Boundaries under Conditions of Lexical Bias
Authors: Winitz Harris , LaRiviere Conrad , Herriman Eve
Published: November 2009

The unitary hypothesis of sentence perception implies a decoding process wherein listeners anticipate or confirm lexical units according to received syntactic information. A test of this hypothesis was made by constructing sentences which biased subjects to misinterpret the word boundaries of certain words making items subsequent and prior to this word meaningless. All material was presented by audio tape and read without phonetic bias (experiment 1) and with phonetic bias uncontrolled (experiment 2). Immediate recall scores were depressed relative to an appropriate control group (more so for experiment 1 than experiment 2) offering support for the unitary perception hypothesis.
The Imitation of Synthetic Vowels and Some Implications for Speech Memory
Authors: Kent Raymond D.
Published: November 2009

The ability of American English speakers to imitate synthetic vowels was assessed by spectral comparisons of the computer-generated vowels and the corresponding human imitations. The stimulus vowels formed two trajectories in the (vowel formant) F1-F2-F3- space: one trajectory from /u/ to /i/ and the other from /æ/ to /i/. It is concluded from the imitation responses that the vowels in the /u/ to /i/ series are represented in memory as a continuous transformation of the acoustic signal, whereas the vowels in the /æ/ to /i/ series are represented as a classification transformation.
Cineradiographic Data on the Feature ‘Covered’ in Twi Vowel Harmony
Authors: Painter Colin
Published: November 2009

The author examined cineradiographic tracings of 92 syllables in Twi including examples of all five tense vowels, all five lax vowels, two nasalized vowels and six long vowels in order to determine (a) whether the feature ‘covered’ is needed at all, (b) if it is not needed, whether it is merely an alternate term for tense-lax, (c) if it is needed, to what articulatory configurations it refers and (d) whether it is, in any case, the best term available. He confirms that the tense set is characterized by a widening of the pharynx but notes that it is not the case that the five tense vowels as a set have wider pharynges than all the lax vowels as a set. This is not even true of the eight non-low vowels. He concludes that the most useful way of characterizing vowel harmony in Twi is to refer to tense-lax at the level of competence and to pharynx width at the level of articulatory configuration.
Asymmetrie binärer Stammbäume
Authors: Sander H.-D. , Altmann G.
Published: November 2009

A formula for the measure of the asymmetry of binary trees is proposed and its components are derived. To minimize the effort of computing, a table of the necessary asymmetry (NA) is given. The application of the measure is illustrated by examples from phonology, morphology, semantics and taxonomy.
Interaction between Tone and Quantity in Serbocroatian
Authors: Lehiste Ilse , Ivić Pavle
Published: November 2009

The paper reports the results of an experiment designed to explore the interaction between tone and quantity in Serbocroatian. The test materials consisted of 39 synthesized versions of the test word pusti. Depending on the type of accent, this word may have four meanings, short accents being associated with forms of the verb pustiti and long accents with forms of the adjective pust. In producing the test stimuli, the duration of the first vowel was varied in 10-msec steps from 120 to 240 msec. Three fundamental frequency patterns were superimposed on the test words: a monotone pattern, a falling pattern, and a rising pattern. Twelve listeners identified the stimuli as forms of the verb pustiti or of the adjective pust. The results indicate that the tonal patterns influence the boundary value at which listeners change from ‘short’ responses to ‘long’ responses. This boundary value was at 145 msec for monotone and falling fundamental frequency patterns, and at 170 msec for words with rising fundamental frequency patterns. The responses are interpreted with reference to the dialect background of the listeners: the higher crossover point between short and long rising accents appears to be a characteristic of listeners from Vojvodina.
Frequency of Occurrence of French Phonemes and Consonant Clusters
Authors: Malécot Andre
Published: November 2009

This fourth article in a series presenting the results of a computer-assisted analysis of a tape-recorded corpus of upper-class French conversations deals with the distribution and frequency of occurrence of phonemes in that language. Statistics are given for all phonemes in word-initial and word-final positions, together with grand totals for all positions, and for consonant clusters, as they occur within words and as they are created by word juncture. The numerical results are interpreted in the context of several prevalent notions about French.
Nouvelle contribution à la théorie des «locus»
Authors: Emerit Etienne
Published: November 2009

The author discusses the validity of the ‘locus’ theory as brought forward by Delattre, and concludes that such a theory can be applied only to dental and alveolar consonants. Then he describes some relatively simple laws of formant transitions applicable to speech synthesis, and tests the relative importance of forman: versus ‘sound quality’ for some consonants. He eventually presents some of his own experiments with ‘synthetic poetry’ (a poem by J. M. de Heredia ‘read’ by the speech synthesizer ‘EVA III’). He compares the sonagrams of human voice with sonagraras of synthetic voice for this poem, and, as regards synthetic consonants ‘sound quality’, he suggests some improvements liable to bring synthetic voice to a higher level of quality.
Is Length Phonologically Relevant in Icelandic ?
Authors: Plotkin V.Y.
Published: November 2009

The paper contains arguments in favour of a negative answer to the question posed in its title. They are based on a biphonemic treatment of Icelandic ‘long’ consonants, which is supported by phonetic and morphological data. The problem is discussed from the synchronic and diachronic viewpoints. The solution adopted throws new light on Icelandic pre-aspiration of stops, dissimilation of sonants, vowel diphthongization.
On the Domain of Tone in Mandarin
Authors: Howie John M.
Published: November 2009

Measurements of the fundamental frequency of 136 Mandarin citation syllables have yielded average curves for the four distinctive tones in nine types of syllable. It appears that the basic contours of Mandarin tones are coextensive only with the syllabic vowel and any voiced segment that may follow it, while those portions of the pitch pattern that occur with an initial voiced consonant or a non-syllabic vowel are merely anticipatory adjustments of the voice.
Probleme der allgemeinen und der französischen Phonologie
Authors: Herrmann M.
Published: November 2009

Phonemic theories must be classified according to their acceptance, or refusal, of the Saussurean distinction between form and substance. If one is to accept this distinction, one has to disagree with the principle that a phoneme is a phoneme in every environment, a disagreement which means rejecting the taxonomic and/or generative concepts of (partial and total) phonemic overlapping, suprasegmental versus inherent distinctive features, universality of distinctive features, phonemic (non morphemic) junctures, morphophonemes, and a phonographic system without any logographic element. As to the mute e in French, an attempt is being made to establish a theory of clusters independently from it, on the grounds of feature-compatibility: the mute e is thus considered as the (facultative) phonetic aspect of an incompatibility between phonemic features.
Auditive Dimensionen der Vokalklangwahrnehmung
Authors: Jerrentrup A. , Thürmann E.
Published: November 2009

Two groups of listeners were subjected to our own version of the Semantic Differential (Eindrucksdifferential) and responded to synthesized vocalic stimuli. One group consisted of professional phoneticians, the other group comprised subjects relatively inexperienced in any of the phonetic sciences. The two sets of judgments were factor-analyzed. The results of the dimensional analyses for the two groups differed in various respects as did the ‘psychological distance’ of segments which was operationalized by ‘profile distance’. These symptomatic differences were discussed with regard to ‘phonemic distance’ (Dph) which was computed according to various phonological models. It seems that the judgments of the expert group were strongly biased by phonological concepts whereas the phonetically inexperienced listeners responded in a truely naive manner.
Nouvelle contribution à la théorie des «locus»
Authors: Emerit E.
Published: November 2009

In a previous paper, the author had discussed the problematical phonetic existence of the «loci» and had concluded that only the F2-F3 loci of the dental and alveolar consonants might be applied without modification to synthetic speech, owing to their phonetic existence. He now discusses the validity of the theoretical bases of the «loci» as isolated not from real speech, but by means of auditory tests. A possible (although not universal) application of the «loci» of labial and velar consonants to synthetic speech is due to some coincidence between such artificial formantic patterns and some real formantic patterns heard the same way. But the precision of such «loci» does not by any means warrant that they contribute maximally to the perception of a given «place of articulation». The only loci on which an investigator may rely are the F2-F3 loci of dental and alveolar consonants because they are the only ones warranted by a very real articulatory correlation. The other «loci» may be profitably replaced by very simple rules of second formant-transition proportionality. The author minimizes the validity of «statistical verifications of the loci» with natural speech, in which formant frequency can by no means be regarded as a valuable criterion of vocality or of transition if it is not verified by synthesis and auditory tests.
The Glottal Stop in French
Authors: Malécot André
Published: November 2009

This article, the fifth in a series of reports on the results of a computer-assisted analysis of a surreptitiously recorded corpus representing 50 half-hour conversations with members of the Paris ‘establishment’, deals with the glottal stop. Two types are described: The first, a towel-releasing articulation, occurs in utterance-initial and -internal positions. It serves in both positions as a stress marker. The second is an arresting articulation, occurring internally and in utterance-final position. It serves to call attention to a preceding or following element, to abort an unwanted utterance, or to terminate an utterance as quickly as possible in order to get on with the next. It also terminates words repeated in hesitation. The overall frequency of occurrence of the glottal stop in French varies as a function of sex, age, occupation, speaker’s intent, voice level, type of articulation and utterance length. Its pertinent acoustic features are deduced from measurements of spectrograms and synthetic patterns.
Air Flow Rate in the Production of Stops in Sindhi
Authors: Nihalani Paroo
Published: November 2009

It is felt that the air flow rate is largely determined by the nature of impedance caused to the pulmonic air stream by the opening state of the glottis. Thus it is assumed that the air flow rate is tied up with the phonation process. Sindhi uses voice, voicelessness, aspiration and breathy voice/murmur as four distinctive glottal positions to account for the linguistic oppositions. An attempt, therefore, has been made here to examine the air flow and provide a quantitative description of air flow rate vis-à-vis different phonation processes in the formation of stop consonants in Sindhi.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Fo Variations in Swedish Tonal Accents
Authors: Löfqvist Anders
Published: November 2009

The influence of voiced and vo iceless consonants on the Fo of the stressed vowel in words with different tonal accents is studied. Peak Fo of the vowel is circa 15 Hz lower after voiced than after unvoiced consonants; the influence of the preceding consonant is, however, not confined to the beginning of the vowel but still present near its end. The interval from vowel onset to Fo peak increases circa 25 msec when the preceding consonant is changed from voiceless to voiced. When Fo curves for long and short vowels are compared the Fo peak is found to remain constant relative to the nearest boundary of the vowel. The variations are discussed in relation to the mechanisms which cause them to occur and to their role in the speech communication process.
The Nature of Temporal Relationship between Adjacent Segments in Spoken Korean
Authors: Kim Kong-On
Published: November 2009

In the first experiment, it was found that in Korean the duration of a consonant has a systematic relationship with the duration of the adjacent vowel. However, there is no indication that a syllable boundary affects the degree of influence on the durations of preceding or following vowels, which suggests that the syllable is not the unit of time programming in Korean. In the second experiment, it was argued that all the statistical results used to support the contention that individual segments are not the time programming units, are also compatible with the traditional view that segments are the units of time programming.
Die Verteilung der Phonemanzahl in den natürlichen Sprachen
Authors: Lehfeldt W.
Published: November 2009

The paper contains a proposition of a method for classifying the natural languages according to the number of their segmental phonemes. In order to solve this problem the attempt is made to find the distribution of the random variable ‘number of segmental phonemes in the inventory’ for 600 languages. The hypothesis by Sigurd, according to which this distribution is a normal one, cannot be accepted. The author comes to the result that the distribution of the number of phonemes is a gamma distribution with the parameters p = 4 and b = 1.05. This result has to undergo further examination. After the form of the distribution has been established, a confidence interval is constructed which fixes the limits of the three intended classes. The author also discusses the possible linguistic-systematic value of the proposed classification.
Spezifische Dauer und spezifische Tonhöhe der Vokale
Authors: Neweklowsky Gerhard
Published: November 2009

The hypothesis that intrinsic duration of vowels correlated with tongue height is dependent on the extent of the articulatory movements is refuted. If one chooses vowels in a consonantal environment which allow far-reaching co-articulation (vowels between bilabial consonants) the phenomenon of intrinsic duration still remains. The same is valid for whispered vowels. The phenomenon of intrinsic pitch is confirmed. The author establishes the hypothesis that intrinsic duration and intrinsic pitch of vowels are a matter of compensation conditioned by different resonance factors of the vocal tract when high and low vowels are produced.
Spektrale Intensitätsverteilung deutscher Phonemrealisationen
Authors: Klingholz F. , Meinhold G.
Published: November 2009

In the description of the distribution of spectral intensity of open and closed vowels as well as of voiceless plosives and fricatives, the use of deviation of spectral structure from equidistribution yields clear distinctions between sounds concerned. A comparison of the open and closed vowels shows a closer approximation of the open vowels to equidistribution with regard to their spectral structure. The same approximation applies the fricatives as compared with the plosives. A clear distinction is found between the vowels and the voiceless consonants (factor 3 as mean value). A distinction of individual sounds does not seem to be possible for various reasons (e.g. dispersion, variations of intensity). Nevertheless, the use of deviation from equidistribution describes typical spectral variations, so that investigations of nasalization, harshness of voice, etc. can be made with it.
Experimental Approach to the Study of Vowel Perception in German
Authors: Wängler Hans-Heinrich , Weiss Rudolf
Published: November 2009

An experimental phonetic investigation is described whose goal it was to develop a test which could be used to establish norms in the perception of vowels by native speakers of German. Particular emphasis is placed upon the design of the experiment. The test procedure and the results are discussed.
Cognate Recognition across Dialects
Authors: Neuburger Savitt Joan
Published: November 2009

Synchronic cognates are subject to recognition failures across dialects, if processing through different determining features leads to phonemic misclassification. But phonemes common to all dialects can also cause recognition failures if they differ in function. These findings support a theoretical distinction between phone, phoneme, and morpho phone, the last being an essential unit for the cognate reconstruction necessary for error-free processing of unfamiliar dialects.
A Programme for Synthesizing Hebrew Speech
Authors: Laufer Asher
Published: November 2009

This paper describes a ‘reading machine’. The source of the system is basically a phonemic transcription of Hebrew punched on cards. With the aid of a computer programme, a parallel-formant synthesizer automatically produces the synthetic speech. The computer programme includes a phoneme table which gives average acoustic values for each phoneme. It also includes allophone rules, transition rules and intonation rules. Various intelligibility tests were carried out, the final test including sentences and a story. This last test scored an average of 97 % of words correctly recognized by 33 participants.
Die Instabilität wortfinaler Alveolarpiosive im Deutschen: eine elektropalatographische Untersuchung
Authors: Kohler K.
Published: November 2009

Descriptive autority analyses of continuous texts in German have shown that word-final alveolar plosives are frequently assimilated to following labials and velars. On the basis of illustrative data this experimental investigation deals with the question of whether the alveolar movement is completely eliminated by articulatory control or whether coarticulation arises which involves the preservation of the articulatory gesture without a perceptual consequence. As regards the experimental procedure, a method of dynamic palatography is used and described here, also in respect of its limitations. Material from one subject is then discussed and the direction of future research in this area outlined with regard to new experiments and the necessary instrumental facilities. Finally, the special articulatory and physiological status of alveolar consonants in general is considered as well as ensuing consequences for sound change.
Perception of Coarticulated Lip Rounding
Authors: Benguerel André-Pierre , Adelman Sharon
Published: November 2009

This study investigates the perceivability of coarticulated lip rounding in French. Nine utterances containing the clusters /kstr/, /rstr/, and /rskr/ followed by one of the vowels /i/, /y/, or /u/ in all possible combinations, were truncated at 4 different points before the vowel. Test items in each of the 4 groups therefore contained different amounts of information regarding the nature of the following vowel, due to coarticulatory influences of the vowel on the preceding consonants. Subjects were asked to predict the identity of the missing vowel. Results show that when segments up to and including at least half of the final consonant of the cluster are present, subjects correctly identify the missing vowel well above chance level. Several individuals were able to identify the vowel even when presented with shorter versions of the utterances. No significant difference in performance was found between French and English subjects, nor between subjects with and without phonetic training. Perceivability of individual features of the missing vowel is discussed. It is concluded that coarticulatory effects due to lip rounding (as well as to horizontal place of articulation) provide perceivable information at a level significantly above chance, and that this information may be used by the perceptual mechanism as an aid in speech sound identification.
Acoustic Properties of the Nasal Tract
Authors: Lindqvist-Gauffïn J. , Sundberg J.
Published: November 2009

Sweep frequency measurements of the transfer function of nasals and nasalized vowels have been found to show a more complex pole-zero pattern than can be predicted with a traditional model of the nasal tract which consists of two parallel tubes coupled to the oral cavities. In this paper, we put forward the hypothesis that the more complex transfer function can be explained with reference to the shunting effect of the sinus maxillares and the sinus frontales. The two maxillar sinuses are situated in the bone symmetrically on the right and left side of the nasal tract. The two frontal sinuses are situated above the nasal tract in the bone of the forehead. These cavities are acoustically coupled to the nasal tract via short channels in the bone. Direct sweep tone data on the transfer function of the nasal tract support this hypothesis.
Aspiration et activité glottale
Authors: Pétursson Magnús
Published: November 2009

The results of an experimental research of the glottal activity during the production of Icelandic consonants and consonant clusters are reported. The method of research is the photoglottography. It is concluded from the data examined that aspiration in Icelandic can be described as a function of glottal opening at the moment of release. The last part of the study contains a discussion of the place of phonetics in linguistic analysis. It is asserted that an analysis of the linguistic form always must precede a phonetic analysis.
Measuring Larynx Movement in Standard Thai Using the Cricothyrometer
Authors: Gandour Jack , Maddieson Ian
Published: November 2009

Vertical movement of the larynx during connected speech was investigated in Standard Thai – a language that has five phonologically contrastive tones. The effects of pitch, consonant phonation-type, vowel quality, tonal categories, and position in the utterance were determined. Utterance position was found to be the factor most clearly associated with variations in larynx movement. The occurrence of an overall rise-fall pattern of larynx movement distributed over-utterances of varying pitch patterns leads to the conclusion that larynx height is not a principal factor regulating pitch in connected speech. Implications for models of pitch production, distinctive features for tone, theories on the historical development of tone and the role of larynx movements in the production of consonants and vowels are discussed.
A Note on the Glottal Stop
Authors: Priestly Tom M.S.
Published: November 2009

In this paper, the frequently noted variation between glottal stops and laryngealization is explored. Possible factors involved in this variation are discussed. The analysis of spectrographic data from the Carinthian Slovene dialect of Sele Fara, where the glottal stop has distinctive function, suggests that speech tempo and perhaps also sentence rhythm may be involved.
Pitch Control and Pharynx Width in Twi: An Electromyographic Study
Authors: Painter Colin
Published: November 2009

The author examined electromyographic tracings from four muscles – genioglossus (GG), anterior belly of the digastric (D) sternothyroid (ST) and thyrohyoid (TH) – for 210 Twi syllables selected so as to give information on seven parameters: tense/lax vowels, long/short vowels, close/open vowels, front/back vowels, high-tone/low-tone vowels, vowels preceded by a fricative/plosive consonant and vowels preceded by a voiced/voiceless consonant, and concluded, inter alia (1) that GG and D functioned as pitch control muscles but that it is not clear why raising of the larynx should accompany an increase in pitch; (2) that GG did not play the major role in tongue root fronting that was expected of it but that we may have to consider GG to consist of at least four functional muscles; (3) that GG and D offered little evidence to support a prosodic view of vowel harmony in Twi, and (4) that features may be ranked by the muscle activity associated with them and that ‘high-tone’, ‘fricative’ and ‘voiced’ dominated for GG, D and ST.
The Acoustic Variation of Mandarin Tones
Authors: Ho Aichen T.
Published: November 2009

This study investigated the acoustic correlates of the four Mandarin tones in isolated words and variations in these parameters in relation to sentence environment, syllable vowel, and preceding consonant. Results indicate that differences associated with sentence environment, syllable vowel and preceding consonant affect the realization of the tone, although the four tones maintain their characteristic basic differences. The influence of sentence environment on tones is greater than that of the syllable vowel, and the influence of syllable vowel is greater than that of the preceding consonant.
Oral Air Pressure and Airflow in German Stop Consonants
Authors: Haag Winfried K.
Published: November 2009

The interaction of peak oral air pressure and peak airflow rate in the production of medial voiceless stop consonants in German is investigated and the claim that the two parameters are linearly related is considered. It was found that the two parameters behave in a similar fashion with respect to the consumption of aerodynamic energy prior to the plosive and to the degree of expiratory activity, but in a reverse fashion with respect to an increase in the rate of speech. The degree of opening of the glottis is thought to be responsible for the reverse behaviour of the parameters in this case.
Intonation in Discourse Analysis
Authors: Pilch Herbert
Published: November 2009

Argument: intonation is not additional, but essential to the composition of texts. Motivation: even pathological (written) texts can be made to sound normal when read with a good intonation; even well-formed (written) texts cannot be put across when read with a poor intonation; loss of intonation, in aphasia, is coupled with inability to handle texts, and inversely. Theory: intonation is analysed either as phonological pattern or as a constituent of texts. The lexical meaning of intonations (such as question, statement) is spurious; social tradition makes available certain (spoken) rhetorical topoi for use in standard situations; their use ensures textual meaning. It is not predictable in any given instance.
Emphasis in Telugu
Authors: Prabhakar Babu B.A.
Published: November 2009

The phenomenon of emphasis is studied with regard to the phonetic variation of the vowel and consonant units of the word structure in Telugu, a Dravidian language spoken mainly in South India. The electro-aerometer and the mingograph are used to provide phonetic evidence. The study reveals that different means are used to emphasise words of different structures so that the phonological structure is not disturbed.
English Stops after /s/ at Medial Word-Boundary
Authors: McCasland George P.
Published: November 2009

Subjects listened to a speech perception test. It consisted of a series of items obtained by tape splicing from one recorded English utterance it’s still. The subjects assigned one of four possible English utterance choices to each item. Combined durations of the /s/ friction and closure of the following stop account for their choice between it’s dill, it
still or it’s still. A delay in voice onset of the stop is primarily responsible for items consistently heard as it’s till. There is no difference in closure duration between the traditionally forlis and lenis stops following the /s/.
Photoelektrische Untersuchung zur Velumhöhe bei Vokalen: erste Anwendungen des Velographen
Authors: Kuenzel Hermann J.
Published: November 2009

Some methodological aspects of the main physiological techniques for investigating the velopharyngeal closure mechanism are discussed. A new instrument for optical registration of velar movement is described. The possibilities and limits arising from its mode of operation are discussed. First results corroborate the relation between velar height and tongue height in vowels, which has been established by cineradiographic research. It is argued that the velograph records relative velar height in the speech continuum with reasonable accuracy. Two ways of calibrating the device are proposed so as to allow the measurement of absolute velar elevation (from rest position).
Quelques problèmes posés par l’introduction de la linguistique dans l’analyse des troubles d’articulation et de parole
Authors: Christe Robert , Lhote Elisabeth , Gassmann Monique , Grange Marie-Françoise
Published: November 2009

The study of a case of dyslalia enables the authors to show the need for language phenomenons to be studied on at least three different levels; connections exist between these levels, but they are neither set nor univocal.
Intonation Variation in a Mandarin Sentence for Three Expressions: Interrogative, Exclamatory and Declarative
Authors: Ho Aichen T.
Published: November 2009

This study investigated two aspects of Mandarin Chinese: (1) the acoustic correlates of intonations of a sentence for three expressions, declarative, interrogative and exclamatory, and (2) the influence of intonation on the four tones in the sentence-final position. A corpus was prepared and 6 speakers recorded the corpus. Acoustical analysis was made for the 1,824 test items. Results show that the duration of syllable nuclei in a sentence varies according to word position rather than intonation except that in the sentence-final position. Both intonation and word position have influenced the fundamental frequency, tone range, and peak amplitude of syllable nuclei. The duration, fundamental frequency and peak amplitude of the four tones in sentence-final position are modified by intonation. However, the basic characteristic of the shape of the four tones remains very close to that of tones in isolated words.
Laryngeal Control for Voicing Distinction in Japanese Consonant Production
Authors: Hirose Hajime , Ushijima Tatsujiro
Published: November 2009

The aim of the present study was to investigate the laryngeal adjustments for voiced versus voiceless distinction in Japanese consonant production by means of laryngeal electromyography (EMG) and fiberoptic observation. Multichannel EMG recordings were taken of a Japanese subject and the data were computer-processed to obtain the averaged activity patterns of the five intrinsic laryngeal muscles with special reference to the voicing distinction in consonant production in various phonetic environments. It was found that there were apparent reciprocal patterns in the posterior cricoarytenoid (PCA) and the interarytenoid (INT) in terms of significant negative correlation, and active control of PCA for voicelessness was demonstrated. The patterns of the thyroarytenoid and the lateral cricoarytenoid were different from that of INT even though these two muscles are usually classified as the members of the adductor group, and their activity levels were apparently influenced by the phonetic environment. A possible contribution of the cricothyroid (CT) to the voicing distinction was also pointed out but further investigations on acoustic parameters seem to be mandatory in more critical interpretation of CT activity in speech.
Contrastive Intonation of German and English
Authors: Esser J.
Published: November 2009

For the purpose of a contrastive analysis only distinctive formal elements and functions are to be considered. The latter are ‘lexical or syntactic disambiguation’, ‘syntactic characterization’ and ‘communicative differentiation’. In German, modal particles and intonation render expressive functions which are conveyed in English by intonation only. The differing punctuation systems of English and German have to be considered as a source of interference besides limited differences between the English and the German intonation systems.