A Useful System in Learning and Teaching English Pronunciation——IPA Cardinal Vowels System

The paper introduces the cardinal vowels system invented by the famous English phonetician Daniel Jones.This system enables a teacher to describe to his students a foreign vowel by comparing it with the nearest vowel in his mother tongue,which makes the learning of a foreign sound much easier to his students.Two cases of teaching Chinese students English vowels are taken as an example to illustrate the point.IPA cardinal vowel system is of use in terms of teaching and learning English.Two suggestions are put forward in the end.

Using Formants to Compare Short and Long Vowels in Modern Standard Arabic

This study was concerned with the short vowels in modern standard Arabic words with Consonant Vowel-Consonant Vowel-Consonant Vowel (CVCVCV) structure, and the long vowels in words with Consonant Vowel Vowel-Consonant (CVVC). Even though there has been a dispute on the precise number of Arabic vowels that exist between language studies, this study used the opinion that the Arabic language has three vowels;the elongation of each vowel gave the other three because this is the opinion of classical Arabic linguists which is the source of the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Studies said that the first and second formant values (F1, F2) can represent the vowels. In this study, the formants were measured using LPC (Linear Predictive Coding), verifying the measurement to see if the measured follows the pattern of formants measurements of the other studies, and the formants were used to investigate the relationship between short and long vowels. Furthermore, the study figured out if the dialect of speakers can affect the values of formants, even if the spoken language is MSA, some statistical measurements were calculated to evaluate the relationship.

Payload Capacity Scheme for Quran Text Watermarking Based on Vowels with Kashida

The most sensitive Arabic text available online is the digital Holy Quran.This sacred Islamic religious book is recited by all Muslims worldwide including non-Arabs as part of their worship needs.Thus,it should be protected from any kind of tampering to keep its invaluable meaning intact.Different characteristics of Arabic letters like the vowels(),Kashida(extended letters),and other symbols in the Holy Quran must be secured from alterations.The cover text of the Quran and its watermarked text are different due to the low values of the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio(PSNR)and Embedding Ratio(ER).A watermarking technique with enhanced attributes must,therefore,be designed for the Quran’s text using Arabic vowels with kashida.The gap addressed by this paper is to improve the security of Arabic text in the Holy Quran by using vowels with kashida.The purpose of this paper is to enhance the Quran text watermarking scheme based on a reversing technique.The methodology consists of four phases:The first phase is a pre-processing followed by the second phase-the embedding process phase—which will hide the data after the vowels.That is,if the secret bit is“1”,then the kashida is inserted;however,the kashida is not inserted if the bit is“0”.The third phase is the extraction process and the last phase is to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme by using PSNR(for the imperceptibility)and ER(for the capacity).The experimental results show that the proposed method of imperceptibility insertion is also optimized with the help of a reversing algorithm.The proposed strategy obtains a 90.5%capacity.Furthermore,the proposed algorithm attained 66.1%which is referred to as imperceptibility.

Using Formants to Extract Short Vowels from Arabic Words with (Consonant Vowel)³Structure

Arabic texts suffer from missing short vowels. Arabic Speech Recognition is not as good as English speech recognition due to the short vowels not being recognized. And the Arabic language is unlike the English language in characteristics such as the number of vowels. English has more than 24 vowels that are close to each other in pronunciation. The Arabic language only has three short vowels that are far from each other in utter and measurement, by elongating those short vowels, long vowels arose. Researchers said that the vowels could be recognized using formants. The formants’ measurements of Arabic vowels are far from each other too, so it is possible to recognize them so that Arabic Speech recognition can give more accurate results. The paper applies this idea to the corpus Phonemes of Arabic. It uses the Euclidian distance method to measure the distances between formant values to recognize Arabic from words with a CV3 structure, the Linear Predictive Coding method and MATLAB to develop the programs that will extract the formants and calculate the means of the short vowels by using the corpus to identify the short vowels within words in the corpus. The results showed that if highly qualified readers were chosen to read the Arabic text, then higher rates of recognition of the short vowels involved in words will be achieved. This paper revealed that some of the characteristics of a language can be utilized for vowel recognition or to enhance the existing methods for speech recognition.

The Emotional Approach of Foreign Vowel Acquisition Within the Example of British English Vowels

The aim of the article is to present results of research that was performed with 97 Polish students of the second and third year of English Philology. The purpose of the research is to examine how conscious manipulation of facial expressions aids acquisition of foreign vowels by learners, regardless of their native language and the culture they have been brought up in. Taking advantage of achievements derived from such disciplines as psychology of emotions and phonetics depicted as a physical process, an attempt is made to find a tool that improves teaching/learning of foreign vowels, that is to say, an effort is put in search of a useful method to make the phonetic process faster and more accurate. Teachers of English are encouraged to put the method, which is described in detail in the paper, into practice with their own mother languages and to share opinions about the method with colleagues. Similarly, it is believed that it can be applied to courses of other languages than just English. Teachers of those languages are encouraged to try to use it, too.

Presentation of Consonants,Vowels and Stresses in English Medical Terminology

This paper studies the special pronunciation rules of consonants.vowels and stresses in English medical terms from the phonetic and etiologic perspectives,which may provide help for medical students in studying medical English.

IPA Cardinal Vowels and the English Pronunciation Teaching in China

In pronunciation teaching, learners may have difficulty when there is a ＂gap＂ in the phonemic system between L1 （the first or native language） and L2 （the second or foreign language）. In such a case, they tend to use their native language sounds in speaking the foreign language. Since some Chinese and English vowel sounds are easy to be confused, applying IPA cardinal vowels in the teaching of English pronunciation will help Chinese learners identify the difference between an English vowel sound and a Chinese vowel sound and thus enables them to make intelligible English speech sounds.

《碛砂藏》随函音义甾思韵考

《碛砂藏》的随函音义作于宋初,其中止摄开口精、庄组字改良切下字,比例超过90%(少数特殊情况除外),而且完全不作其他字的切下字,反映甾思韵已经独立。甾思韵的性质大概是舌尖元音,有?、?两个条件变体,分别出现在精、庄组声母之后。甾思韵进一步发展,则为《韵会》的赀字母韵,演变路径与《中原音韵》的支思韵不同。

嗓音障碍患者的普通话元音空间面积及其合理施测方式和语料研究

目的探究嗓音障碍患者的元音声学特征,以及普通话体系下的元音空间面积(vowel space area,VSA)合理的施测方式和语料。方法招募年龄和性别相匹配的嗓音障碍患者和正常健康对照组受试者各20例,在不同语料(单个元音/a/、/i/、/u/、/o/、/e/和长句)以及不同元音顶点个数(3个、4个、5个)下的VSA进行差异分析。结果嗓音障碍组与正常组之间在单元音和长句语料下VSA都有极显著差异,但两种语料类型间VSA差异不显著,两种语料均可用于VSA的测量。4个元音顶点与3个元音顶点及5个元音顶点下的VSA差异极显著,选择5个元音用于普通话体系下VSA的测量更加合适。结论嗓音障碍患者的元音发音较正常人清晰度下降。在普通话体系下采用5个元音顶点测量VSA相对较精准,更能测得口腔的运动能力。单个元音和连续语音两种语料均适用于VSA的测量。

普兰店方言元音格局代际差异的实验研究

本研究采用声学实验的方法,以元音格局理论为依据,通过对比老中青3个年龄段的元音格局,考察不同年龄段发音人元音格局之间的代际差异。研究发现,不同年龄段发音人的元音格局之间确实存在代际差异,且发音人年龄越小,其元音格局越接近于普通话元音格局。这一现象表明普兰店方言元音格局在这几十年来一直在不断地向着普通话元音格局转变。导致这一代际差异的原因不仅有普通话强有力的影响,还有人们对普通话和当地方言所采取的不同态度。

弗朗西斯科·皮纳尔《厦门方言语法》韵母系统研究

西班牙传教士弗朗西斯科·皮纳尔所著的《厦门方言语法》(1928)从语音、词汇、语法等角度对厦门方言进行全面系统的分析,重点围绕着语法特征展开。论文着重整理韵母系统:19个元音韵母(包括7个单元音和12个复元音)、15个鼻音韵母、10个鼻化韵母、2个声化韵母、31个入声韵母。《厦门方言语法》对元音的分析没有罗常培《厦门音系》的精细和全面,它的音系与《翻译英华厦腔语汇》《厦荷大辞典》《厦门方言英汉辞典》《厦门话字典补编》等传教士文献比较接近。

韵母类型对听障儿童不同塞音嗓音起始时间的影响

目的探究韵母类型对听障儿童不同塞音嗓音起始时间(voice onset time,VOT)的影响,为其塞音习得及矫正提供依据。方法随机选取3~6岁听障儿童和健听儿童各22例,录制6个塞音(/b/、/p/、/d/、/t/、/g/、/h/)与3个单韵母(/a/、/i/或/e/、/u/)所组成的18个辅-元(consonant-vowel,CV)音节,声调均为第一声。使用Praat 6.1.29软件提取VOT值,对每种塞音采用双因素方差分析,因变量为VOT,自变量为听力状况、韵母类型。结果听障组儿童/t/、/g/、/k/发音存在构音错误。听力状况对塞音/g/、/p/、/t/、/k/主效应效果显著(P<0.05),健听组塞音/g/、/p/、/t/、/k/的VOT显著大于听障组(P<0.05)。韵母类型对塞音/b/、/p/、/t/VOT主效应效果显著(P<0.05)。听力状况与韵母类型在塞音/t/VOT上产生交互效应,简单主效应显示,听障组与健听组/ti/音VOT差异大于/ta/及/tu/。结论听障儿童塞音/g/、/p/、/t/、/k/音的VOT小于健听儿童,听障组与健听组/ti/音的VOT差异大于/ta/及/tu/。对听障儿童/t/音教学,可以先从差异较小的/ta/、/tu/开始,后期巩固/ti/音,并且注重呼吸及口部运动训练,为清晰发音奠定良好的基础。

基于超声动态舌形的普通话元音发音特点研究

目的基于超声动态舌形图研究拼音方案中元音字母的实际舌位,并提出针对性发音训练策略,以提高言语康复和教学质量。方法选取包含6个元音(a、o、e、i、u、ü)的45个发音材料(覆盖普通话所有韵母),招募16例20~25岁的普通话二甲以上的受试者,同步采集语音和超声舌形数据。处理数据时,首先用Praat进行音段标注,然后用AAA软件提取目标音段的舌形、上腭线的坐标,最后从语音教学的角度基于发音舌位对比,确定6个元音的实际舌位。结果元音a有[A]、[■]2种舌位,o有[o]1种舌位,e有[■]、[e]、[■]3种舌位,i有[i]、[■]、[■]3种舌位,u有[u]1种舌位,ü有[y]1种舌位,儿化元音是元音目标舌位后加卷舌动程。结论①韵母根据元音舌位统计分成11类,可以更准确系统地进行普通话元音舌位的教学和训练;②超声舌位数据为元音的发音学习提供可视化参照,比传统拼音方案教学更直观。

从历代文献探究蒙古书面语“元音+■”和“元音+■”的性质及其演变规律

回鹘式蒙古文或现行蒙古文词中元音之后的■是音节、复合元音还是音节末辅音?学者们持有不同的观点。在蒙古文中,■是多音字形,因此单从蒙古文文献或上述字符自身所包含的信息很难判定其性质。本文以婆罗米文蒙古语文献、八思巴字蒙古语文献、托忒文文献等不同时期蒙古语文献为依据,从■所对应的字符序列阐释了其性质和演变规律。我们认为,在古代蒙古语词中元音之后的“■”表示一个单独的音节“yi”,但到中期蒙古语随着“y”的元音属性的逐渐突出,这一书写形式也发生了变化,词中依然是单独的音节,但词末变成了复合元音的组成部分。再到托忒文或现代蒙古文,词中和词末均变成了构成复合元音的元素。

从李梦阳用韵看明代庆阳方音韵母特点

以李梦阳用韵中的特殊混押现象,结合清代陇东方音著作并对照今中原官话秦陇片方言对其加以分析,可考证出明代庆阳方音的韵母特点:-m尾、入声韵消失,鼻音韵尾-n与-混并,通摄字主元音舌位前移,江摄及宕摄舒声细音读如通摄,梗摄舒声细音读同宕摄,果摄洪音字读如假摄,止摄合口读如遇摄,遇摄端系、庄组字读如流摄,流摄细音读如效摄,效摄一等唇音字读如遇摄。

普通话教学中单韵母数量与分类研究商榷

现代汉语中单元音韵母存在三个关联问题:定义与内容不符;发音特点与实际发音不符;分类与标准不符。通过分析er的构成和发音,以及韵母的元辅音分类,归其为辅音韵母;分析舌面单元音韵母的发音机制重划为舌尖、舌面和舌根三类;分析-i(前)、-i(后)的发音特点和音节情况,归为i的音位变体;综合前人观点和教学实效,把o和e合并为e,ê归为e的音位变体。最后重新划分了现代汉语中韵母的分类、数量和书写,以更加便捷地促进高校普通话、现代汉语和对外汉语教学。

不同韵母任务下神经性言语障碍患者的构音运动特征研究

目的探讨神经性言语障碍患者单、复韵母构音运动的声学特征。方法在上海市多家医院收集24例40~81岁的神经性言语障碍患者(患者组),在上海市社区收集24例40~80岁的健康成人(对照组),从两组跟读含有不同韵母的语音样本中,提取单韵母/a/、/i/、/u/的第一、二共振峰(F1、F2),并计算出下颌距、舌距、元音空间面积(vowel space area,VSA)、元音清晰度指数(vowel articulation index,VAI);提取复韵母/ai/、/ua/、/uai/的第二共振峰并计算其斜率,比较不同语料任务下两组受试者的声学指标。结果单韵母任务下,患者组/a/的F1、/i/的F2、下颌距、舌距、VSA、VAI极显著小于正常对照组(P<0.01),/u/的F2极显著大于正常对照组(P<0.01);复韵母任务下,患者组/ai/、/ua/、/uai/的F2斜率均显著小于正常对照组(P<0.05)。结论神经性言语障碍患者单韵母构音运动范围减小,运动位置呈现集中趋势;复韵母构音运动速度减慢。

基于超声成像的藏语安多方言元音研究

本文借助超声仪采集了藏语安多方言元音的生理语音数据,系统分析了安多方言元音的动态舌位和稳定段的静态舌位,以及声学共振峰数据。实验结果显示,在舌位运动过程中确实存在一个稳定阶段,此阶段各帧数据间的差异都较小,将该阶段的舌位特征与古藏语相比,发现安多方言元音系统已经产生了一定的变化,即元音舌位由低到高依次为/a/、/i, u, o/、/e/,舌位由前到后分别为/e/、/i, u, a/、/o/,其中元音/i/和/u/央化并产生了新的音位变体。最后我们从空间域角度对安多方言元音的舌体音姿进行了总体描述。明确了元音在生理特征与声学特征上具有统一性,这对藏语不同方言之间的发音差异和共性研究均有一定的理论意义和参考价值。

Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet:As Sound Notation

While Bronze Age Proto-Sinaic and Proto-Canaanite syllabic inscriptions were found engraved on fragments of pottery and stone,evidence of early alphabetic script was also inscribed in ink onto a massive parchment scroll,known as the Torah.Albeit the contours of those original characters transformed over time,it took the clairvoyant genius of Moses,and later the scribes of Ancient Israel,to configure and adapt ancient semitic prototypes into phonetic letters,producing the greatest literary document in the history of the world,the Bible.This article summarizes the acoustic properties of that alphabet,with further historical considerations.

试析反切古今变读转换规律

反切是一种注音方法,它是用两个汉字注出另一个汉字的读音,也是中国古代对汉字字音结构的分析。反切规律古代反切转换到现代汉语普通话的读音上可从声母、韵母和声调三个方面发现规律。但反切存在用于注音的切语用字繁杂不一,是间接拼音、汉字古今音不同以及汉语方言方音不同导致反切失效等局限性。反切实际情况复杂,现有规律不能保证适用所有反切,不能作为万能法则。