LINGUIST List 6.1751

Sat Dec 16 1995

Qs: Mora, Proverbs, Lg list, Voices, Pragmatics

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Kawagashira Nobuyuki, Mora-timed languages in the world
2. , proverbs
3. "Joseph D. Brown", list of languages
4. IDU0PNLMVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU, Voice identification
5. , Is there a Pragmatics list?

Dear Readers,

 I am a graduate student in Japan. I am now interested in prosody.
My question is _what language or dialect is a mora-timed language?_
I know the following languages are mora-timed. But this list is not
perfect. The symbol (?) shows questionability.

 Mora-timed languages are:
 Japanese, Lituanian, Classical Latin, Classical Greek,
 Classical Mongolian(?), Finnish, Lappish(?), Estonian(?)
 Some dialects of Slovakian(?), Lakkish(?), Sinhalese(?),
 Hawaiian(?).

I want to make a list of mora-timed languages or dialects of the world.
I would like to suggest some FORMAT if you post to me because it will be
available for every readers. The format is as follows. Each items are
explained by question format.

 1) language name or dialect one
 What is the name of the mora-timed language of dialect?
 e.g.: Japanese (except some Kyushu dialects and some Tohoku ones.)

 2) mono-moric phonemes
 Are there any mono-moric phonemes forming one mora?_
 e.g.: /N/ nasalized vowel or nasal consonant [m], [n], [N]
 /Q/ silence

 3) pitch or accent
 How many phonological pitches (accent) are there?
 e.g.: high(H) and low(L)

 4) word examples
 Please make a list of words at least 5 words, which includes mono-
 moric phoneme. Each word has item of phonemic, phonetic, pitch
 descriptions and English meaning. The greater the number of words,
 better it is.
 In addition to it moric delimitation is needed. Kirshenbaum's IPA
 description is preferable.
 e.g.: _se_N_e_N_ [see~ee~] HLLL one thousand yen
 _se_e_e_N_ [se::e~] LH cheering
 _se_e_ne_N_ [se:nee~] LHHH adolescent
 _se_Q_ke_N_ [se_kee~] LHHH soap ([_] shows silence)
 _te_Q_se_N_ [tessee~] LHHH iron wire
 _N_ma_ [mma] LH horse (colloq., fast speech)

 5) comments
 What is your opinion about this language? You can write additional
 information.
 e.g.: The /N/ is pronounced like nasalized vowel or nasal
 consonant. Many Japanese scholars treat it as a consonant.

 6) references

This format is not obligatory. You can post only the name of language.
Any information is welcomed, including the language listed above,
suggestions, oppositions, comments, questions and so on.
Thank you in advance.

Nobuyuki KAWAGASHIRA
s945025ipe.tsukuba.ac.jp
Literature and Language
University of Tsukuba

I am a doctoral student at The Universidad Complutense de Madrid. I would
like to do research into Spanish and/or English proverbs. References and
any help will be GREATLY appreciated.

Almudena Martinez-Cava
e-mail: martinaeucmax.sim.ucm.es

A co-worker recently posted the following request:

 "Help. !!! I need a to compile a list of all the languages that people,
speak- read- or write, let me know how as soon as possible, I get
letters from accounts that I am unable to understand, and I'm not able to
communicate with them."

Is there a compendium of world languages and alphabets available, either in
print of via ftp. Please respond to this address and I will post a summary
of useful data.

Thanks,

Joseph Brown
Data Analyst, International Telcom
joebms.kallback.com

I was recently asked what people think about the validity of
spectrographic evidence concerning speaker identity. My own view is
that spectrographic analyses can sometimes throw light on whether
two recordings were produced by the same speaker and sometimes can
not. Given two high quality studio recordings, each several minutes
long (as I was asked to compare on one occasion), I have no doubt that
spectrographic analyses can document similarities and dissimilarities
in a way that should be regarded as having evidential value. Given a
noisy recording lasting only a few seconds, there is not much one can
do, irrespective of the length and quality of the comparison recording.
In between these two extremes it seems to be a matter of how much
weight one should give to spectrographic evidence. It may not be
100%, or even 95% reliable, but it can still have some evidential value.
Do other people agree with me that this is not an all or nothing
matter, but that on some occasions it may be useful to document
similarities and dissimilarities between voices by means of
spectrographic analyses?
Let me know - oldfogeyucla.edu - and I'll summarize the results.
Peter Ladefoged
oldfogeyucla.edu

Dear linguist,

I would like to know if there is a pragmatics list.

Please send your answer to

patricia.bouuv.es or vicente.andreuuv.es


As soon as I collect a few replies Ill send a summary.