Department of African Languages

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https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/39

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Duurverskynsels by enkelvoudige nasale en komplekse nasaalverbindings in Xhosa
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-03) Olivier, Iolanda; Roux, J. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages .
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this assignment durational features in singular nasals and complex nasal combinations in Xhosa are studied. The focus is on durational differences between single nasals, nasals in combination with consonants and nasal combinations featuring a morpheme boundary. Nouns were selected with these INCI-combinations in various syllable positions in a word. Data from one mother-tongue speaker were analysed and statistically processed and internally compared. It was found that the duration of a singular /m/ and /n/ preceding a morpheme boundary was longer than the corresponding nasal in a final syllable without an intervening morpheme boundary. When an obstruent appears in conjunction with a labial and alveolar nasal, the total duration of these INCI-combinations are longer than those of the singular /m/ and /n/. The presence of a morpheme boundary after complex nasals seemingly has no influence on the duration of the nasal or on the rest of the segments in the syllable. The duration of the syllabic /m/ is longer than that of the singular labial /m/. As secondary findings sequential aspects of nasals are discussed. In this study theoretical arguments are offered where possible in support of the above mentioned results.
Intrusive stop formation in Zulu : an application of Feature Geometry Theory
(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005-12) Naidoo, Shamila; Roux, J. C.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
This study investigates the Intrusive Stop Formation process in Zulu. In this process an intrusive stop arises when a nasal and fricative are juxtaposed resulting in the following seven affricate sounds /þf’, {v, ts’, dz, tñ’, dL, tS’/. These sounds are theoretically distinct from the four affricate phonemes which occur in Zulu, namely /kl’, dZ, ts’, tS’/. In this study the former are termed derived affricates and the latter pure affricates. Two aspects of Intrusive Stop Formation are focused on - firstly, determining experimentally whether durational differences obtain between pure and derived affricates and secondly, using the results of the experimental investigation to facilitate a feature geometry description of the Intrusive Stop Formation process. In the experimental investigation nine affricate sounds were examined. Words, containing these sounds, were recorded in frame sentences by five speakers, using PRAAT, a speech–processing platform. The duration of the pure and derived affricates were then determined. It was found that pure affricates are durationally longer than derived affricates. The next progression in this study was the incorporation of the experimental results into a feature geometry description of Intrusive Stop Formation. Feature Geometry Theory has enjoyed acclaim because of its ability to retain Distinctive Feature Theory – the crux of Phonology – in a nonlinear framework. However, Feature Geometry Theory faces challenges with regard to the extent to which it includes phonetic detail; and its formalization technique. This study – Intrusive Stop Formation in Zulu : An Application of Feature Geometry Theory – brings a new perspective to Feature Geometry Theory with the incorporation of the Duration tier – significant for the description of the Intrusive Stop Formation process. Furthermore the study introduces a more efficient formalization technique, which facilitates the explanation of the process. It is always incumbent upon endeavours like this study, which examine specific phonological processes, to show relevance. In the concluding section the application of the experimental approach and Feature Geometry Theory is evaluated in terms of the contribution made to the disciplines of Human Language Technology and Speech Disorders. A compact disk accompanies this thesis. It contains the sound files, spectrograms and textgrids of the recorded data.
Nasal assimilation and related processes in Tshivenda : a linear and non-linear phonological analysis
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-03) Radzhadzhi, Musiiwa Aaron; Roux, J. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on nasal strengthening and nasal assimilation processes in Tshivenda. Two phonological models are applied in order to present credible descriptions and explanations of these phenomena. After having described the core components of, respectively, the classical Transformational Generative (TG) model of Chomsky & Halle (1968), and the more contemporary feature Geometry (FG) model, analyses of the phenomena are presented. It appears as if the TG model can handle the idiosyncrasies of the language more elegantly, with a sustained high level of credibility. The FG model is unable to render the same results.
Nasal strengthening in Northern Sotho
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-12) Maepa, Mafotha Charles; Roux, J. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the phonological process of Nasal Strengthening in Northern Sotho. It sets out to employ two phonological models to describe the phenomenon in order to determine which model presents the most credible explanation for the phenomenon. The core elements of a classical linear model, the so called SPE model of Transformational Generative (TG) phonology is described and applied to the phenomenon. It is indicated that a number of phonological rules are actually involved in the process as a whole. It is argued that the following rules are in fact involved in the generation of appropriate phonetic outputs: a strengthening rule, a homorganic nasal assimilation rule and a nasal deletion rule. The previously inexplicable /k'/ insertion rule is shown to be nothing more than part of a more general process of glottal stop strengthening. This is indeed a new view with respect to the traditional stance on "vowel strengthening." Although the majority of the sound changes may be accounted for within a TG model, the formalism of the strengthening rule itself unfortunately does not reflect any phonetic explanation for the phenomenon. A second, non-linear, phonological model, i.e. a Feature Geometry model (FG) is described and applied to the same phenomenon. It appears that although the more contemporary FG model presents innovative ideas on the structure of phonological representations and processes, it can not account for the strengthening of voiced fricatives at all. At the most this model seems to be able only to account for voiceless fricatives being strengthened to voiced obstruents. It is clear that none of the models can present a complete and credible account of Nasal Strengthening in Northern Sotho.
Palatalization and labialization in Tshivenda : a linear and non-linear phonological analysis
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-03) Nemakhavhani, Daniel Phuluwani; Roux, J. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on two phonological processes occurring in Venda, i.e. on palatalization and labialization. Two phonological models are applied to describe these phenomena: a traditional (linear) phonological model, the Transformational Generative model of Chomsky and Halle (1968), and a non-linear Feature Geometry model of Clements (1985). This was done in order to ascertain which model would be more effective in its coverage of these sound changes. The core concepts of each model were described and the sound system of Venda was analysed in terms of distinctive features. The application of the two models led to the conclusion that a linearly structured model seem to be more effective to account for both these phenomena in Venda than its nonlinear counterpart.
Palatalization in Northern Sotho
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-12) Kgasago, K. P; Roux, J. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the phonological process of Palatalization in Northern Sotho. In view of the fact that most available descriptions of this phenomenon are taxonomic in nature, this study sets out to employ two more recent phonological models in the description and explanation of this process. Description of the core components of, respectively, the classical linear Transformational Generative (TG) model of Chomsky and Halle (1968) and a non-linear Feature Geometry (FG) model (cf Clements and Hume, 1995) mark the first chapter of this study This is followed by a detailed TG description in which it is argued that a number of other phonological processes are also involved 10 the process of Palatalization. It is demonstrated that a Semivocalization process actually serves as the input to a classical rule of palatalization, i.e. the assimilation of a [+ high] feature to a preceding consonant. It is demonstrated that a feeding-bleeding rule ordering is necessary to derive the required output In this process an optional rule of Semivowel deletion also plays a role, especially in the case of the labio-velar semivowel lw/. This analysis is followed by an FG analysis stressing the fact that this non-linear model does not involve the concept of rule ordering or derivational schemes. The mechanisms of Spreading and Delinking of hierarchically ordered nodes are demonstrated m a systematic fashion. Due to the fact that the phonological representation does not allow for other successive processes to apply, it is shown that the FG model is not able to account for all of the sound changes in a credible manner The conclusion is eventually drawn that the TG model describes and explains the phenomenon of Palatalization in Northern Sotho more elegantly and comprehensively than the more recent FG model.
Prosodic features of imperatives in Xhosa : implications for a text-to-speech system
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000-03) Swart, Philippa H.; Roux, J. C.; Botha, E. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the prosodic features of imperatives and the role of prosodies in the development of a text-to-speech (TIS) system for Xhosa, an African tone language. The perception of prosody is manifested in suprasegmental features such as fundamental frequency (pitch), intensity (loudness) and duration (length). Very little experimental research has been done on the prosodic features of any grammatical structures (moods and tenses) in Xhosa, therefore it has not yet been determined how and to what degree the different prosodic features are combined and utilized in the production and perception of Xhosa speech. One such grammatical structure, for which no explicit descriptive phonetic information exists, is the imperative mood expressing commands. In this study it was shown how the relationship between duration, pitch and loudness, as manifested in the production and perception of Xhosa imperatives could be determined through acoustic analyses and perceptual experiments. An experimental phonetic approach proved to be essential for the acquisition of substantial and reliable prosodic information. An extensive acoustic analysis was conducted to acquire prosodic information on the production of imperatives by Xhosa mother tongue speakers. Subsequently, various statistical parameters were calculated on the raw acoustic data (i) to establish patterns of significance and (ii) to represent the large amount of numeric data generated, in a compact manner. A perceptual experiment was conducted to investigate the perception of imperatives. The prosodic parameters that were extracted from the acoustic analysis were applied to synthesize imperatives in different contexts. A novel approach to Xhosa speech synthesis was adopted. Monotonous verbs were recorded by one speaker and the pitch and duration of these words were then manipulated with the TD-PSOLA technique. Combining the results of the acoustic analysis and the perceptual experiment made it possible to present a prosodic model for the generation of perceptually acceptable imperati ves in a practical Xhosa TIS system. Prosody generation in a natural language processing (NLP) module and its place within the larger framework of text-to-speech synthesis was discussed. It was shown that existing architectures for TTS synthesis would not be appropriate for Xhosa without some adaptation. Hence, a unique architecture was suggested and its possible application subsequently illustrated. Of particular importance was the development of an alternative algorithm for grapheme-to-phoneme conversion. Keywords: prosody, speech synthesis, speech perception, acoustic analysis, Xhosa
Queclaratives in Xhosa : an acoustic and perceptual analysis
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-03) Jones, Catherine Jacquelynn Julia; Roux, J. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Key words: acoustic speech analysis, speech synthesis, speech perception, copulative queclarative, linguistics, psycho linguistics, human language technology This study investigates the notion of interrogativity in Xhosa as expressed in the form of Queclaratives. Queclaratives, or statements which are question-like in function, have been studied in many languages of the world. Unfortunately with regard to the Bantu languages, studies relating to interrogativity in general have largely been impressionistic in nature. This research comprised two aspects of analysis. These included an acoustic and a perceptual analysis of data. The reason for this approach is that, without this combination the results could have been considered to be suspect and lacking in authenticity. The acoustic analysis was conducted on 858 words in statement and queclarative pairs. Significant parameters were extracted and these were then statistically analyzed. The results revealed that duration on the penultimate vowel, pitch on the penultimate vowel and the overall raised pitch of queclaratives as opposed to statements were indeed the acoustically significant parameters differentiating statements from queclaratives. However as is well known, there is no one-to-one relationship between the acoustic signal and its perception and, therefore, it is imperative that such findings also be perceptually tested. The perceptual testing of these parameters was conducted in an attempt to elicit whether they were perceptually significant and also at what point in the utterance listeners could differentiate between queclaratives and statements. The next progression was the compilation of carefully designed perception tests on the acoustically significant parameters. Two experiments were compiled using stimuli that were manipulations of the original signal of one of the selected informant's utterances. These tests were administered on multimedia computers in the Language Laboratory at the University of Stellenbosch using 64 subjects for the first experiment and 63 for the second. The results of the perception tests showed that duration and pitch on the penultimate syllable are perceptually highly significant in differentiating statements from queclaratives. However the results also indicated very early recognition of the different forms with minimal speech segments from which the penultimate vowels were absent altogether. This then suggests that the perceptual judgements made earlier in the utterance may be either reinforced or overridden by the duration and pitch on the penultimate vowel. These results have assisted in the validation of some impressionistic claims made within the Bantu and other languages, while refuting others. However, as this corpus of data has included research on copulative queclaratives, it appeals for further research on this subject using any other linguistic markers. The results have also been evaluated in terms of their possible contribution to the related disciplines of psycholinguistics, linguistics and human language technologies. In so doing, the thesis makes an urgent appeal to researchers to pursue this experimental approach to language research. Another appeal is made for an awareness campaign as to the importance of this approach in harnessing the power of language for the development of language and society as a whole. The fertility of the South African society lies in its richness of multilingualism and the necessity for the improvement of the dissemination of information to all people of all languages and the improvement of communication between people in general, including those less fortunate in terms of literacy skills.
The representation of phonetic-phonological information in Nguni dictionaries
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-12) Shoba, F. M. (Feziwe Martha); Roux, J. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages .
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The concern of the study of phonetics and phonology is the speech sounds of languages. Phonetics is concerned with the description and the classification of speech sounds. Phonology, on the other hand is responsible for the sound patterns of speech sounds in a given language namely, the sound inventory, permissible sequences and how the sounds change in different circumstances. This study examines and evaluates the manner in which phonetic-phonological information is applied in South African dictionaries with particular reference to Nguni dictionaries. Dictionaries are regarded as authoritative linguistic tools, therefore, the phonetic-phonological aspects of the language is one of the important information categories that is included in dictionaries. A word as the linguistic unit consists of speech sounds which are in turn regarded as phonological units as well as phonetic entities. The phonetic-phonological signification of the lexical unit in the dictionary entry plays a role in access to facilitating the spoken form of the language recorded. This critical analysis and evaluation of Nguni dictionaries reflects on the current approaches pertaining to the presentation of both segmental and suprasegmental features of speech sound. Secondly, it also demonstrates the types of pronunciation information that is lexicographically relevant for the thorough treatment of the lemma. Although phonetic-phonological information is almost the prevalent feature of all dictionary types, there are problems encountered during its presentation. In the evaluation of Nguni dictionaries the treatment of pronunciation information is coupled with inadequacies and inconsistencies. This is due to the lack of lexicographic planning and the sound application of lexicographic principles. It is evident from the investigation that pronunciation information remains the essential component of the dictionary entry. The inclusion of phonetic-phonological information requires lexicographic planning that is actually based on linguistic theories that are primarily aimed at practical lexicography. The general guidelines that are presented in this study compel lexicographers to introduce innovative methods when handling pronunciation. The proposed approaches in future dictionaries will enhance the accessibility of information when harmonised. It is concluded that lexicographical products in the multilingual South Africa should begin to document the spoken form of various languages for the general record of the sounds of the language and also for pedagogic purposes. A good phonological and phonetic description of the official languages is also pertinent especially in the design stage of the dictionary. The lexicographic approaches followed in the treatment of any linguistic information should based on the (a) functional criteria of the dictionary compiled and (b) also on the prospective user's skills.
Syllable structure processes in Northern Sotho : a linear and non-linear phonological analysis
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2003-12) Madigoe, Mashikane William; Roux, J. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study intends to describe and explain syllable structure processes in Northern Sotho. It deals with phonological processes such as vowel deletion, semivocalization and semivowel insertion. The major aim of these processes is to restore the preferred ICVI syllable structure which has been violated by morphological processes such as passive, diminutive, the construction of absolute pronouns, etc. Two phonological models are applied with the intention to determine the one that presents the most credible explanation for the phenomenon at hand. The two models employed are, respectively, the Transformational (TG) and Feature Geometry (FG) models. It appears that Feature Geometry model yields better results in the description of syllable structure processes in Northern Sotho.

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