1. Accent (linguistics)
This article is about the pronunciation characteristic of a particular group of
people relative to another group.
In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a
particular individual, location, or nation. An accent may identify the locality
in which its speakers reside (a geographical or regional accent), the socio-
economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class,
their first language (when the language in which the accent is heard is not
their native language), and so on.
Accents typically differ in quality of voice, pronunciation of vowels and
consonants, stress, andprosody. Although grammar, semantics,
vocabulary, and other language characteristics often vary concurrently with
accent, the word 'accent' refers specifically to the differences in
pronunciation, whereas the word 'dialect' encompasses the broader set of
linguistic differences. Often 'accent' is a subset of 'dialect'.[1]
History

2. As human beings spread out into isolated communities, stresses and
peculiarities develop. Over time these can develop into identifiable accents.
In North America, the interaction of people from many ethnic backgrounds
contributed to the formation of the different varieties of North American
accents. It is difficult to measure or predict how long it takes an accent to
formulate. Accents in the USA, Canada and Australia, for example,
developed from the combinations of different accents and languages in
various societies, and the effect of this on the various pronunciations of the
British settlers, yet North American accents remain more distant, either as
a result of time or of external or "foreign" linguistic interaction, such as the
Italian accent.[3]
In many cases, the accents of non-English settlers from the British Isles
affected the accents of the different colonies quite differently. Irish, Scottish
and Welsh immigrants had accents which greatly affected the vowel
pronunciation of certain areas of Australia and Canada.
Development
Children are able to take on accents relatively quickly. Children of
immigrant families, for example, generally have a more native-like
pronunciation than their parents, though both children and parents may
have a noticeable non-native accent.[4] Accents seem to remain relatively

3. malleable until a person's early twenties, after which a person's accent
seems to become more entrenched.[5]
All the same, accents are not fixed even in adulthood. An acoustic analysis
by Jonathan Harrington of Elizabeth II's Royal Christmas
Messages revealed that the speech patterns of even so conservative a
figure as a monarch can continue to change over her lifetime.[6]
Non-native accents
Pronunciation is the most difficult part of a non-native language to learn.
Most individuals who speak a non-native language fluently speak it with an
accent of their native tongue.
The most important factor in predicting the degree to which the accent will
be noticeable (or strong) is the age at which the non-native language was
learned.[7][8] The critical period theory states that if learning takes place after
the critical period (usually considered around puberty) for acquiring native-
like pronunciation, an individual is unlikely to acquire a native-like
accent.[7] This theory, however, is quite controversial among researchers.
Although many subscribe to some form of the critical period, they either
place it earlier than puberty or consider it more of a critical ―window,‖ which
may vary from one individual to another and depend on factors other than

4. age, such as length of residence, similarity of the non-native language to
the native language, and the frequency with which both languages are
used.[8]
Nevertheless, children as young as 6 at the time of moving to another
country often speak with a noticeable non-native accent as adults.[4]There
are also rare instances of individuals who are able to pass for native
speakers even if they learned their non-native language in early
adulthood.[9] However, neurological constrains associated with brain
development appear to limit most non-native speakers’ ability to sound
native-like.[10] Most researchers agree that for adults, acquiring a native-like
accent in a non-native language is near impossible.[7]
Social factors
When a group defines a standard pronunciation, speakers who deviate
from it are often said to "speak with an accent". However, everyone speaks
with an accent.[2][11] People from the United States would "speak with an
accent" from the point of view of an Australian, and vice versa. Accents
such as BBC English or General American or Standard American may
sometimes be erroneously designated in their countries of origin as

5. "accentless" to indicate that they offer no obvious clue to the speaker's
regional or social background.[2]
Being understood
Many teachers of English as a second language neglect to teach
speech/pronunciation.[12] Many adult and near-adult learners of second
languages have unintelligible speech patterns that may interfere with their
education, profession, and social interactions.[12] Pronunciation in a second
or foreign language involves more than the correct articulation of individual
sounds. It involves producing a wide range of complex and subtle
distinctions which relate sound to meaning at several different levels.[12]
Teaching of speech/pronunciation is neglected in part because of the
following myths:
 Pronunciation isn't important: "This is patently false
from any perspective."[12] Speech/Pronunciation
forms the vehicle for transmitting the speaker's
meaning. If the listener does not understand the
message, no communication takes place, and
although there are other factors involved, one of the

6. most important is the intelligibility of the speaker's
pronunciation.[12]
 Students will pick it up on their own: "Some will learn
to pronounce the second language intelligibly; many
will not."[12]
Inadequate instruction in speech/pronunciation can result in a complete
breakdown in communication.[12] The proliferation of commercial "accent
reduction" services is seen as a sign that many ESL teachers are not
meeting their students' needs for speech/pronunciation instruction.[12]
The goals of speech/pronunciation instruction should include: to help the
learner speak in a way that is easy to understand and does not distract the
listener, to increase the self-confidence of the learner, and to develop the
skills to self-monitor and adapt one's own speech.[12]
Even when the listener does understand the speaker, the presence of an
accent that is difficult to understand can produce anxiety in the listener that
he will not understand what comes next, and cause him to end the
conversation earlier or avoid difficult topics.[12]
Prestige

7. Certain accents are perceived to carry more prestige in a society than other
accents. This is often due to their association with the elite part of society.
For example in the United Kingdom, Received Pronunciation of the English
language is associated with the traditional upper class.[13] However, in
linguistics, there is no differentiation among accents in regard to their
prestige, aesthetics, or correctness. All languages and accents are
linguistically equal.[14]
Accent stereotyping and prejudice
Stereotypes refer to specific characteristics, traits, and roles that a group
and its members are believed to possess.[15] Stereotypes can be both
positive and negative, although negative are more common.
Stereotypes may result in prejudice, which is defined as having negative
attitudes toward a group and its members.[16] Individuals with non-standard
accents often have to deal with both negative stereotypes and prejudice
because of an accent.[17] Researchers consistently show that people with
accents are judged as less intelligent, less competent, less educated,
having poor English/language skills, and unpleasant to listen
to.[17] [18] [19] [20][21] Not only people with standard accents subscribe to these
beliefs and attitudes, but individuals with accents also often stereotype
against their own or others' accents.

8. Accent discrimination
Discrimination refers to specific behaviors or actions directed at a group or
its individual members based solely on the group membership. In accent
discrimination, one's way of speaking is used as a basis for arbitrary
evaluations and judgments.[22] Unlike other forms of discrimination, there
are no strong norms against accent discrimination in the general society.
Rosina Lippi-Green writes,
Accent serves as the first point of gate keeping because we are forbidden,
by law and social custom, and perhaps by a prevailing sense of what is
morally and ethically right, from using race, ethnicity, homeland or
economics more directly. We have no such compunctions about language,
however. Thus, accent becomes a litmus test for exclusion, and excuse to
turn away, to recognize the other.[2]
Speakers with accents often experience discrimination in housing and
employment.[23][24] For example, landlords are less likely to call back
speakers who have foreign or ethnic accents and are more likely to be
assigned by employers to lower status positions than are those with
standard accents.[25] In business settings, individuals with non-standard
accents are more likely to be evaluated negatively.[26] Accent discrimination
is also present in educational institutions. For example, non-native

9. speaking graduate students, lecturers, and professors, across college
campuses in the US have been target for being unintelligible because of
accent.[27] On average, however, students taught by non-native English
speaker do not underperform when compared to those taught by native
speakers of English.[28]
Studies have shown the perception of the accent, not the accent by itself,
often results in negative evaluations of speakers. In a study conducted by
Rubin (1992), students listened to a taped lecture recorded by the same
native English speaker with a standard accent. However, they were shown
a picture of the lecturer who was either a Caucasian or Asian. Participants
in the study who saw the Asian picture believed that they had heard an
accented lecturer and performed more badly on a task measuring lecture
comprehension. Negative evaluations may reflect the prejudices rather
than real issues with understanding accents.[24][29]
[edit]Legal implications
In the United States, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits
discrimination based on national origin, implying accents. However,
employers may claim that a person’s accent impairs his or her
communication skills that are necessary to the effective business
operation.[11] The courts often rely on the employer’s claims or use judges’

10. subjective opinions when deciding whether the (potential) employee’s
accent would interfere with communication or performance, without any
objective proof that accent was or might be a hindrance.[30]
Kentucky's highest court in the case of Clifford vs. Commonwealth held that
a white police officer, who had not seen the black defendant allegedly
involved in a drug transaction, could, nevertheless, identify him as a
participant by saying that a voice on an audiotape "sounded black." The
police officer based this "identification" on the fact that the defendant was
the only African American man in the room at the time of the transaction
and that an audio-tape contained the voice of a man the officer said
―sounded black‖ selling crack cocaine to a white informant planted by the
police.[13]
Acting and accents
Actors are often called upon to speak varieties of language other than their
own. For example, Missouri-born actor Dick van Dyke attempted to imitate
a cockney accent in the film Mary Poppins. Similarly, an actor may portray
a character of some nationality other than his or her own by adopting into
the native language the phonological profile typical of the nationality to be
portrayed – what is commonly called "speaking with an accent". One

11. example would be Viggo Mortensen's use of a Russian accent in his
portrayal of Nikolai in the movie Eastern Promises.
The perception or sensitivity of others to accents means that
generalizations are passed off as acceptable, such as Brad Pitt's Jamaican
accent in Meet Joe Black.[31][unreliable source?] Angelina Jolie attempted
a Greek accent in the film Alexander that was said by critics to be
distracting.[32][unreliable source?] Gary Oldman has become known for playing
eccentrics and for his mastery of accents.
Accents may have associations and implications for an audience. For
example, in Disney films from the 1990s onward, English accents are
generally employed to serve one of two purposes: slapstick comedy or evil
genius.[33] Examples include Aladdin (the Sultan and Jafar,
respectively), The Lion King (Zazu and Scar, respectively), The Hunchback
of Notre Dame (Victor the Gargoyle and Frollo, respectively),
andPocahontas (Wiggins and Ratcliffe, respectively - both of whom happen
to be played by the same actor, American David Ogden Stiers).
[edit]See also
 Accent reduction
 Acting and accents

12.  Foreign accent syndrome
 Human voice
 Language change
 Non-native pronunciations of English
 Regional accents of English
 Variety (linguistics)
[edit]References
1. ^ a b The New Oxford American Dictionary.
Second Edition.. Oxford University Press.
2005. ISBN 0-19-517077-6.
2. ^ a b c d Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an
Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination
in the United States. New York:
Routledge. ISBN 0-415-11476-4.
3. ^ a b "Australian Accents". Ask a Linguist.
Retrieved 2008-05-12.
4. ^ a b Flege, James Emil; David Birdsong, Ellen
Bialystok, Molly Mack, Hyekyung Sung and
Kimiko Tsukada (2006). "Degree of foreign

13. accent in English sentences produced by Korean
children and adults". Journal of Phonetics 34 (2):
153–175.doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2005.05.001.
5. ^ "Accent changing". Ask a Linguist. Retrieved
2008-05-12.
6. ^ Harrington, Jonathan (2006). "An Acoustic
Analysis of 'Happy Tensing' in the Queen's
Christmas Broadcasts". Journal of
Phonetics 34 (4): 439–
57. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2005.08.001.
7. ^ a b c Scovel, T. (2000). A critical review of the
critical period research. Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics, 20, 213–223.
8. ^ a b Piske, T., MacKay, I. R. A., & Flege, J. E.
(2001). Factors affecting degree of foreign accent
in an L2: A review. Journal of Phonetics, 29, 191–
215.
9. ^ Bongaerts, T., van Summeren, C., Planken, B.,
& Schils, E. (1997). Age and ultimate attainment
in the pronunciation of a foreign language.

14. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19,
447–465.
10. ^ Long, M. H. (1990). Maturational constraints
on language development. Studies in Second
Language Acquisition, 12, 251–285.
11. ^ a b Matsuda, M. J. (1991). Voices of
America: Accent, antidiscrimination law, and a
jurisprudence for the last reconstruction. Yale
Law Journal, 100, 1329–1407.
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Morley, Joan. "Acquisition,
instruction, standards, variation, and accent"
Georgetown University Round Table on
Languages and Linguistics 1996: Linguistics,
language acquisition, and language variation:
current trends and future prospects. Comp.
James E. Alatis. Georgetown University Press. pp
140–
160. http://books.google.com/books?id=R8jZ62kA
9akC

15. 13. ^ a b "Accents". Indiana: ). Retrieved 2008-05-
12.
14. ^ Edwards, J. (1999). Refining our
understanding of language attitudes. Journal of
Language and Social Psychology, 18, 101–110.
15. ^ Hamilton, D. L., & Sherman, S. J. (1996).
Perceiving persons and groups. Psychological
Review, 103, 336–355.
16. ^ Biernat, M., & Dovidio, J. F. (2000). Stigma
and stereotypes. In T. F. Heatherton, R. E. Kleck,
M. R. Hebl, & J. G. Hull (Eds.), The social
psychology of stigma (pp. 88–125). New York:
Guilford.
17. ^ a b Gluszek, A., & Dovidio, J. F. (2010). The
way they speak: Stigma of non-native accents in
communication. Personality and Social
Psychology Review, 14, 214–237.
18. ^ Bradac, J. J. (1990). Language attitudes
and impression formation. In H. Giles & W. P.
Robinson (Eds.), Handbook of language and

16. social psychology (pp. 387–412). London: John
Wiley.
19. ^ Bresnahan, M. J., Ohashi, R., Nebashi, R.,
Liu, W. Y., & Shearman, S. M. (2002). Attitudinal
and affective response toward accented English.
Language and Communication, 22, 171–185.
20. ^ Cargile, A. C., & Giles, H. (1997).
Understanding language attitudes: Exploring
listener affect and identity. Language and
Communication, 17, 195–217.
21. ^ Nesdale, D., & Rooney, R. (1996).
Evaluations and stereotyping of accented
speakers by pre-adolescent children. Journal of
Language and Social Psychology, 15, 133–154.
22. ^ Ng, S. H. (2007). Language-based
discrimination: Blatant and subtle forms. Journal
of Language and Social Psychology, 26, 106–
122.
23. ^ Zhao, B., Ondrich, J., & Yinger, J. (2006).
Why do real estate brokers continue to

17. discriminate? Evidence from the 2000 Housing
Discrimination Study. Journal of Urban
Economics, 59, 394–419.
24. ^ a b Rubin, D. L. (2002). Help! My professor
(or doctor or boss) doesn’t speak English. In J. N.
Martin, T. K. Nakayama, & L. A. Flores (Eds.),
Readings in intercultural communication:
Experiences and contexts (pp. 127–137). Boston:
McGraw Hill.
25. ^ de la Zerda, N., & Hopper, R. (1979).
Employment interviewers’ reactions to Mexican
American speech. Communication Monographs,
46, 126–134.
26. ^ Tsalikis, J., Ortiz-Buonafina, M., & LaTour,
M. S. (1992). The role of accent on the credibility
and effectiveness of the international business-
person: The case of Guatemala. International
Marketing Review, 9, 57–72.
27. ^ Marvasti, A. (2005). U.S. academic
institutions and perceived effectiveness of

18. foreign-born faculty. Journal of Economic Issues,
39, 151–176.
28. ^ Fleisher, B., Hashimoto, M., & Weinberg, B.
A. (2002). Foreign GTAs can be effective
teachers of economics. Journal of Economic
Education, 33, 299–325.
29. ^ Rubin, D. L. (1992). Nonlanguage factors
affecting undergraduates' judgments of nonnative
English-speaking teaching assistants. Research
in Higher Education, 33, 511–531.
30. ^ Nguyen, B. B.-D. (1993). Accent
discrimination and the Test of Spoken English: A
call for an objective assessment of the
comprehensibility of nonnative speakers.
California Law Review, 81, 1325–1361.
31. ^ "Jamaicans accent on TV".
"Jamaicans.com".
32. ^ "Angelina Jolie accent". "about".
33. ^ "Why Villains in Movies Have English
Accents". January 15, 2003

19. [edit]Further reading
 Bragg, Melvyn (2003). The Adventure of English,
500AD to 2000: The Biography of a Language.
London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-82991-5.
 Giles, H., & Coupland, N. (1991). Language:
Contexts and consequences. Buckingham, UK:
Open University Press.
 Lindemann, S. (2003). Koreans, Chinese or Indians?
Attitudes and ideologies about non-native English
speakers in the United States. Journal of
Sociolinguistics, 7, 348–364.
 Lindemann, S. (2005). Who speaks ―broken
English‖? US undergraduates’ perception of non-
native English. International Journal of Applied
Linguistics, 15, 187–212.
 Milroy, James; and Lesley Milroy (2005). Authority in
Language: Investigating Standard English (3rd ed.).
London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17413-9.

20.  Moyer, A. (1999). Ultimate attainment in L2
phonology: The critical factors of age, motivation and
instruction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition,
21, 81–108.
 Scovel, T. (1988). A time to speak: A psycholinguistic
inquiry into the critical period for human speech.
Cambridge, England: Newbury House.
 Wated, G., & Sanchez, J. I. (2006). The role of
accent as a work stressor on attitudinal and health-
related work outcomes. International Journal of
Stress Management, 13, 329–350.
 Wells, J C. 1982. Accents of English. (3 volumes).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Wells's
home pages also have a lot of information about
phonetics and accents.]
 'Hover & Hear' accents of English from around the
World, and compare them side by side.
 The Speech Accent Archive (Native and non-native
accent recordings of English)
 Wells Accents and Spelling

21.  I don't have an accent! by Karen Stollznow
 FAQ about Accents
 humanaccents.com – a summary of research on
non-native accents and
Dialectology
Dialectology (from Greek διάλεκτος, dialektos, "talk, dialect"; and -λογία, -
logia) is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field
ofsociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on
geographic distribution and their associated features. Dialectology treats
such topics as divergence of two local dialects from a common ancestor
and synchronic variation.
Dialectologists are ultimately concerned with grammatical and phonological
features that correspond to regional areas. Thus they usually deal with
populations that have lived in certain areas for generations, but also with
migrant groups that bring their languages to new areas (see language
contact).

22. Commonly studied concepts in dialectology include the problem of mutual
intelligibility in defining languages and dialects; situations ofdiglossia,
where two dialects are used for different functions; dialect
continua including a number of partially mutually intelligible dialects;
andpluricentrism, where what is essentially a single genetic language exists
as two or more standard varieties.
William Labov is one of the most prominent researchers in this field.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Methods of data collection
3 Mutual intelligibility
4 Diglossia
5 Dialect continuum
6 Pluricentrism
7 The Ausbausprache — Abstandsprache — Dachsprache framework
8 See also
9 References

23. [edit]History
Dialect studies began in the latter half of the 19th century. The idea of
dialect studies began in 1876, by Georg Wenker, who sent postal
questionnaires out over Northern Germany. These postal questionnaires
contained a list of sentences written in Standard German. These sentences
were then transcribed into the local dialect, reflecting dialectal differences.
Many studies proceeded from this, and over the next century dialect
studies were carried out all over the world. Joseph Wright produced the six-
volume English Dialect Dictionary in 1905.
Traditional studies in Dialectology were generally aimed at producing
dialect maps, whereby imaginary lines were drawn over a map to indicate
different dialect areas. The move away from traditional methods of
language study however caused linguists to become more concerned with
social factors. Dialectologists therefore began to study social, as well as
regional variation. The Linguistic Atlas of the United States (1930s) was
amongst the first dialect studies to take social factors into account.
In the 1950s, the University of Leeds undertook the Survey of English
Dialects, which focused mostly on rural speech in England and the eastern
areas of Wales.

24. This shift in interest consequently saw the birth of Sociolinguistics, which is
a mixture of dialectology and social sciences.
[edit]Methods of data collection
Dialect researchers typically use questionnaires to gather data on the
dialect they are researching. There are two main types of questionnaires;
direct and indirect.
Researchers using direct questionnaires will present the subject with a set
of questions that demand a specific answer and are designed to gather
either lexical or phonological information. For example, the linguist may ask
the subject the name for various items, or ask him or her to repeat certain
words.
Indirect questionnaires are typically more open-ended and take longer to
complete than direct questionnaires. A researcher using this method will sit
down with a subject and begin a conversation on a specific topic. For
example, he may question the subject about farm work, food and cooking,
or some other subject, and gather lexical and phonological information from
the information provided by the subject. The researcher may also begin a
sentence, but allow the subject to finish it for him, or ask a question that

25. does not demand a specific answer, such as ―What are the most common
plants and trees around here?‖[1]
[edit]Mutual intelligibility
Main article: Mutual intelligibility
Some have attempted to distinguish dialects from languages by saying that
dialects of the same language are understandable to each other. The
untenable nature of blunt application of this criterion is demonstrated by the
case of Italian and Spanish cited above. While some native speakers of the
two may on occasion enjoy some limited mutual understanding, few people
would want to classify Italian and Spanish as dialects of the same language
in any sense other than historical. Spanish and Italian are similar,
but phonology, syntax, morphology, andlexicon are sufficiently distinct that
the two cannot be considered dialects of the same language.
Diglossia
Main article: Diglossia
Another problem occurs in the case of diglossia, used to describe a
situation in which, in a given society, there are two closely related
languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government
and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the

26. spoken vernacular tongue. An example of this is Sanskrit, which was
considered the proper way to speak in northern India, but only accessible
by the upper class, and Prakrit which was the common (and informal
or vernacular) speech at the time.
Varying degrees of diglossia are still common in many societies around the
world.
[edit]Dialect continuum
Main article: Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum is a network of dialects in which geographically
adjacent dialects are mutually comprehensible, but with comprehensibility
steadily decreasing as distance between the dialects increases. An
example is the Dutch-German dialect continuum, a vast network of dialects
with two recognized literary standards. Although mutual intelligibility
between standard Dutch and standard Germanis very limited, a chain of
dialects connects them. Due to several centuries of influence by standard
languages (especially in NorthernGermany, where even today the original
dialects struggle to survive) there are now many breaks in intelligibility
between geographically adjacent dialects along the continuum, but in the
past these breaks were virtually nonexistent.

27. The Romance languages—
Galician/Portuguese, Spanish, Sicilian, Catalan, Occitan/Provençal, French
, Sardinian, Romanian, Romansh,Friulan, other Italian, French, and Ibero-
Romance dialects, and others—form another well-known continuum, with
varying degrees of mutual intelligibility.
In both areas—the Germanic linguistic continuum, the Romance linguistic
continuum—the relational notion of the term dialect is often vastly
misunderstood, and today gives rise to considerable difficulties in
implementation of European Union directives regarding support of minority
languages. Perhaps this is no more evident than in Italy, where still today
some of the population use their local language (dialetto 'dialect') as the
primary means of communication at home and, to varying lesser extent, the
workplace. Difficulties arise due to terminological confusion. The languages
conventionally referred to as Italian dialects are Romance sister languages
of Italian, not variants of Italian, which are commonly and properly
called italiano regionale ('regional Italian'). The label Italian dialect as
conventionally used is more geopolitical in aptness of meaning rather than
linguistic: Bolognese and Neapolitan, for example, are termed Italian
dialects, yet resemble each other less than do Italian and Spanish.
Misunderstandings ensue if "Italian dialect" is taken to mean 'dialect of

28. Italian' rather than 'minority language spoken on Italian soil', i.e. part of the
network of the Romance linguistic continuum. The indigenous Romance
language of Venice, for example, is cognate with Italian, but quite distinct
from the national language in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon,
and in no way a derivative or a variety of the national
language. Venetian can be said to be an Italian dialect both geographically
and typologically, but it is not a dialect of Italian.
[edit]Pluricentrism
Main article: Pluricentric language
A pluricentric language is a single genetic language that has two or
more standard forms. An example is Hindi-Urdu or Hindustani, which
encompasses two main standard varieties, Urdu and Hindi. Another
example is Norwegian, with Bokmål having developed closely with Danish
and Swedish, and Nynorsk as a partly reconstructed language based on
old dialects. Both are recognized as official languages in Norway.
In a sense, the set of dialects can be understood as being part of a
single diasystem, an abstraction that each dialect is part of. In generative
phonology, the differences can be acquired through rules. An example can
be taken with Occitan (a cover term for a set of related varieties of

29. Southern France) where 'cavaL' (from late Latin *caballu-, 'horse') is the
diasystemic form for the following realizations.
 Languedocien dialect: caval [kaβal] (L > [l],
sometimes velar, used concurrently with French
borrowed forms chival or chivau);
 Limousine dialect: chavau [tʃavau] (ca > cha and -L >
-u);
 Provençal dialect: cavau [kavau] (-L > -u, used
concurrently with French borrowed
forms chival or chivau);
 Gascon dialect: cavath [kawat] (final -L > [t],
sometimes palatalized, and used concurrently with
French borrowed forms chibau)
 Auvergnat and Vivaro-alpine
dialects: chaval [tʃaval] (same treatment of ca cluster
as in Limousine dialect)

30. This conceptual approach may be used in practical situations. For instance
when such a diasystem is identified, it can be used construct
adiaphonemic orthography that emphasizes the commonalities between
the varieties. Such a goal may or may not fit with sociopolitical preferences.
[edit]The Ausbausprache — Abstandsprache — Dachsprache framework
Main article: Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache and Dachsprache
One analytical paradigm developed by linguists is known as
the Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework. It has
proved popular among linguists in Continental Europe, but is not so well
known in English-speaking countries, especially among people who are not
trained linguists. Although only one of many possible paradigms, it has the
advantage of being constructed by trained linguists for the particular
purpose of analyzing and categorizing varieties of speech, and has the
additional merit of replacing such loaded words as "language" and "dialect"
with the German terms of Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache,
and Dachsprache, words that are not (yet) loaded with political, cultural, or
emotional connotations.
[edit]See also
 Abstandsprache

31.  Language geography
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Accent · Dialect
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Language varieties
Linguistic description
Pragmatics
Variation
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Applied linguistics
Historical linguistics
Linguistic anthropology
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Prosody (linguistics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

33. In linguistics, prosody (pronounced /ˈprɒsədi/ PROSS-ə-dee) is
the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various
features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker;
the form of the utterance (statement, question, or command); the presence
of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of
language that may not be encoded by grammar or choice of vocabulary.
Contents
[hide]
1 Acoustic attributes of prosody
2 The prosodic domain
3 Prosody and emotion
4 Brain location of prosody
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
[edit]Acoustic attributes of prosody
In terms of acoustics, the prosodics of oral languages involve variation
in syllable length, loudness, pitch, and the formant frequencies of speech
sounds. In sign languages, prosody involves the rhythm, length, and
tension of gestures, along with mouthing and facial expressions. Prosody is
typically absent in writing, which can occasionally result in reader
misunderstanding. Orthographic conventions to mark or substitute for
prosody include punctuation (commas, exclamation marks, question
marks, scare quotes, and ellipses), and typographic styling
for emphasis (italic, bold, and underlined text).
The details of a language's prosody depend upon its phonology. For
instance, in a language with phonemic vowel length, this must be marked
separately from prosodic syllable length. In similar manner, prosodic pitch
must not obscure tone in a tone language if the result is to be intelligible.
Although tone languages such as Mandarin have prosodic pitch variations
in the course of a sentence, such variations are long and smooth contours,

34. on which the short and sharp lexical tones are superimposed. If pitch can
be compared to ocean waves, the swells are the prosody, and the wind-
blown ripples in their surface are the lexical tones, as with stress in English.
The word dessert has greater stress on the second syllable, compared to
the noun desert, which has greater stress on the first; but this distinction is
not obscured when the entire word is stressed by a child demanding "Give
me dessert!" Vowels in many languages are likewise pronounced differently
(typically lesscentrally) in a careful rhythm or when a word is emphasized,
but not so much as to overlap with the formant structure of a different
vowel. Both lexical and prosodic information are encoded in rhythm,
loudness, pitch, and vowel formants.
[edit]The prosodic domain
Prosodic features are suprasegmental. They are not confined to any
one segment, but occur in some higher level of an utterance.
Theseprosodic units are the actual phonetic "spurts", or chunks of speech.
They need not correspond to grammatical units such
as phrases andclauses, though they may; and these facts suggest insights
into how the brain processes speech.
Prosodic units are marked by phonetic cues, such as a coherent pitch
contour – or the gradual decline in pitch and lengthening of vowels over the
duration of the unit, until the pitch and speed are reset to begin the next
unit. Breathing, both inhalation and exhalation, seems to occur only at
these boundaries where the prosody resets.
"Prosodic structure" is important in language contact and lexical borrowing.
For example, in Modern Hebrew, the XiXéX verb-template is much more
productive than the XaXáX verb-template because in morphemic
adaptations of non-Hebrew stems, the XiXéX verb-template is more likely
to retain – in all conjugations throughout the tenses – the prosodic structure
(e.g., the consonant clusters and the location of the vowels) of the stem. [1]
[edit]Prosody and emotion
Emotional prosody is the expression of feelings using prosodic elements of
speech. It was considered by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man to
predate the evolution of human language: "Even monkeys express strong

35. feelings in different tones – anger and impatience by low, – fear and pain
by high notes."[2] Native speakers listening to actors reading emotionally
neutral text while projecting emotions correctly recognized happiness 62%
of the time, anger 95%, surprise 91%, sadness 81%, and neutral tone 76%.
When a database of this speech was processed by computer, segmental
features allowed better than 90% recognition of happiness and anger, while
suprasegmental prosodic features allowed only 44%–49% recognition. The
reverse was true for surprise, which was recognized only 69% of the time
by segmental features and 96% of the time by suprasegmental
prosody.[3] In typical conversation (no actor voice involved), the recognition
of emotion may be quite low, of the order of 50%, hampering the complex
interrelationship function of speech advocated by some authors.[4]
[edit]Brain location of prosody
An aprosodia is an acquired or developmental impairment in
comprehending or generating the emotion conveyed in spoken language.
This is seen sometimes in persons with Asperger syndrome.
Producing these nonverbal elements requires intact motor areas of the
face, mouth, tongue, and throat. This area is associated with Brodmann
areas 44 and 45 (Broca's area) of the left frontal lobe. Damage to areas
44/45 produces motor aprosodia, with the nonverbal elements of speech
being disturbed (facial expression, tone, rhythm of voice).
Understanding these nonverbal elements requires an intact and properly
functioning Brodmann area 22 (Wernicke's area) in the right hemisphere[5].
Right-hemispheric area 22 aids in the interpretation of prosody, and
damage causes sensory aprosodia, with the patient unable to comprehend
changes in voice and body language .
Prosody is dealt with by a right-hemisphere network that is largely a mirror
image of the left perisylvian zone. Damage to the right inferior frontal gyrus
causes a diminished ability to convey emotion or emphasis by voice or
gesture, and damage to right superior temporal gyrus causes problems
comprehending emotion or emphasis in the voice or gestures of others.
[edit]See also

36.  Intonation
 Phonological hierarchy
 Prosody (poetry)
[edit]References
1. ^ Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple
Causation, Forms and Patterns. In Journal of
Language Contact, Varia 2 (2009), pp. 40-67.
2. ^ Charles Darwin (1871). "The Descent of
Man". citing Johann Rudolph Rengger, Natural
History of the Mammals of Paraguay, s. 49
3. ^ R. Barra, J.M. Montero, J. Macías-Guarasa,
L.F. D’Haro, R. San-Segundo, R.
Córdoba. "Prosodic and segmental rubrics in
emotion identification".
4. ^ H.-N. Teodorescu and Silvia Monica Feraru. In:
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer
Berlin, Heidelberg. ISSN 0302-9743, Volume
4629/2007, ―Text, Speech and Dialogue‖. Pages
254-261. "A Study on Speech with Manifest
Emotions,".
5. ^ Miller, Lisa A; Collins, Robert L; Kent, Thomas
A (2008). "Language and the modulation of
impulsive aggression.". The Journal of
neuropsychiatry and clinical
neurosciences 20 (3): 261–73. PMID 18806230.
[edit]Further reading
 NESPOR, Marina. Prosody: an interview with Marina
Nespor ReVEL, vol. 8, n. 15, 2010.
 Nolte, John. The Human Brain 6th Edition
[edit]External links
 Lessons in Prosody (at the University of Freiburg)
 Prosody on the Web - (a tutorial on prosody)

37. [hide]v · d · eSuprasegmentals
Timing Syllable · Mora · Metrical foot · Vowel reduction
Tone contour · Pitch accent · Register · Downstep · Upstep · Downdrift · Tone
Tone
terracing · Floating tone · Tone sandhi · Tone letter
Stress Secondary stress · Vowel reduction
Length Chroneme · Gemination · Vowel length · Extra-short
Intonation (pitch) · Pitch contour · Pitch reset · Stress · Rhythm · Loudness · Prosod
Prosody
unit · Pausa
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