LINGUIST List 10.335

Thu Mar 4 1999

Qs: Throat Singing, Con clusters, Syntax, Italian

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Anthony M. Lewis, The articulatory gestures of Tuvan throat singing
2. Hideo Yamada, English consonant clusters VS Japanese phonology
3. Tamara Rae Neuberger, Lang Acquisition -- Syntax
4. Jillian R. Cavanaugh, Etruscan & Latin

Dear friends,

	My question has to do with the vocal configurations assumed by the
traditional Tuvan throat singers of Siberia. For those of you who may not
be familiar, the Tuvan Autonomous Republic is a central territory of the
Russian Federation situated on the border of Russia and Mongolia. This
particular style of singing (also known as "overtone" singing, and attested
in other parts of the world) is most notably characterized by the singer's
production of (at least ) a single, fundamental musical note, accompanied
by the corresponding overtones (presumably, harmonics, of the fundamental
tone). The perceptual effect is that of a robust, whistling, almost
chord-like nature.

	I have two rather simple questions regarding this phenomenon:
first, is this unique acoustic effect the result of a highly coordinated
posturing of the vocal folds (e.g., a complex setting of register(s)... a
la "soprano" in voice science terminology)?; purely supra-laryngeal in
nature?; or a combination of both?. My suspicion is that the robust
percept is purely the result of sustaining a configuration of the
supra-laryngeal cavity which enhances certain (resonant) frequencies of the
fundamental tone. I'd be most interested to hear alternative accounts
(e.g., complex laryngeal posturing, contribution of the pharyngeal wall,
etc.). My second question asks whether or not Tuvan singers (or any other
"overtone" singers for that matter) are capable of producing more than a
single "fundamental" tone (and, presumably, the corresponding harmonics) at
the same time. This, as far as I can figure, would require the vocal folds
to vibrate simultaneously at two different fundamental frequencies.


	If responses warrant, I will most pleased to post a summary to the
list.

Anthony M. Lewis


Anthony M. Lewis
Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

e-mail to: am-lewisuiuc.edu

I am a linguistic student from Japan, studying at California 
State University, Long Beach. I am now writing my thesis 
paper on the topic of comparative phonology between Japanese 
and English. 

My question is; English has consonant clusters, while 
Japanese doesn't. Therefore, when Japanese try to pronounce 
English words that have consonant clusters, they tend to 
insert certain vowels in between the clusters, which is /u/ 
or /o/ generally. (e.g. 'street' is not /strit/ but 
/sutoriito/.) Though many literatures have mentioned this 
phenomenon, I cannot find the reason why they choose /u/ or 
/o/ to insert. Are there any 'rules' to apply to this? What 
do other people who have similar phonological system to 
Japanese do when they borrow words with consonant clusters? 
I would like to get some useful information, advice, 
literatures, or anything else.

Dear Linguists,

I am a graduate student currently working on a research paper for a
language acquisition course. I am interested in exploring the theoretical
implications of the acquisition of aspect in child language from a
syntactic point of view. Unfortunately, I have had trouble locating
literature on this topic. I appreciate any suggestions or leads you may
have and will post a summary of any results that I receive.

Thank you for your time,

		 Tamara Rae Neuberger
		 Boston University

Has there been any work done on the relationship between Etruscan and
Latin, especially in terms of how Tuscan itself was formed? I've been
doing research on Italian dialects, and have been trying to understand the
relationships between Latin and the 'ethnical substrata' that developed
into Italian regional dialects. Any references would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks.

Jillian R. Cavanaugh
jrc6207is4.nyu.edu
Department of Anthropology
New York University