Euphony in World Languages
There are many languages in the world but every language has its own sound picture. By the sound picture of a language we mean the distribution of its speech sounds in the speech sound chain. It is very interesting to find the languages which are melodical or euphonic and which are not. Melodicity o...
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ftamickiewiczojs:oai:ojs.pressto.amu.edu.pl:article/33100 2023-09-26T15:19:34+02:00 Euphony in World Languages Tambovtsev, Yuri 2010-09-22 application/pdf http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/linpo/article/view/v10122-010-0008-8 eng eng Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/linpo/article/view/v10122-010-0008-8/28663 http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/linpo/article/view/v10122-010-0008-8 Prawa autorskie (c) 2010 Yuri Tambovtsev https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 Lingua Posnaniensis; Vol. 52 No. 1; 99-111 Lingua Posnaniensis; Tom 52 Nr 1; 99-111 2083-6090 euphony sound patterns typology info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2010 ftamickiewiczojs 2023-08-28T23:08:47Z There are many languages in the world but every language has its own sound picture. By the sound picture of a language we mean the distribution of its speech sounds in the speech sound chain. It is very interesting to find the languages which are melodical or euphonic and which are not. Melodicity or euphony is the total of the vowels and sonorant consonants in the speech sound chain of a language. It is also possible to call this total the vocalo-sonorant quotient. Thus, the degree of melodicity is the value of this quotient. Vowels and sonorant consonants constitute the vocalo-sonorant structure of the sound picture of any language. We take into consideration the basic features of sound classes and groups. The basic features consist of the frequency of occurrence of vowels and sonorant consonants in the speech chain. These basic features may be found in any world language. This is why, melodicity is one more language universal. Analysing the value of melodicity, one can construct the typology of distribution of language taxa according to this universal characteristic. Austronesian languages have a great concentration of vowels in the speech sound chain (e.g. maximum – 65.24% in Hawaiian and 69.75% in Samoan). Vocalo-sonorant quotient turned out to be bigger in the following language taxa: Sino-Tibetan family (Burmese – 75.67%), Bantu (Swahili – 76.29%), Afro-Asian family (Neo-Aramaic – 81.47%), Austronesian family (Hawaiian – 83.29%), languages of Australian aboriginals – Nunggubuyu – 85.14%). It means that 85.14% of the Nunggubuyu speech sound chain consists of vowels and sonorant consonants. On the other hand, some of the world languages have the minimum of the concentration of vowels. So, in the Itelmen language (Paleo-Asiatic family) vowels comprise only 32.61%. Let us consider the minimum of the vocalo-sonorant quotient. Thus, in the Adygian language (Caucasian family) this quotient reaches only 54.07%. It should be mentioned that on the average the Caucasian language family has a rather low ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Itelmen Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań: PRESSto |
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Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań: PRESSto |
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ftamickiewiczojs |
language |
English |
topic |
euphony sound patterns typology |
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euphony sound patterns typology Tambovtsev, Yuri Euphony in World Languages |
topic_facet |
euphony sound patterns typology |
description |
There are many languages in the world but every language has its own sound picture. By the sound picture of a language we mean the distribution of its speech sounds in the speech sound chain. It is very interesting to find the languages which are melodical or euphonic and which are not. Melodicity or euphony is the total of the vowels and sonorant consonants in the speech sound chain of a language. It is also possible to call this total the vocalo-sonorant quotient. Thus, the degree of melodicity is the value of this quotient. Vowels and sonorant consonants constitute the vocalo-sonorant structure of the sound picture of any language. We take into consideration the basic features of sound classes and groups. The basic features consist of the frequency of occurrence of vowels and sonorant consonants in the speech chain. These basic features may be found in any world language. This is why, melodicity is one more language universal. Analysing the value of melodicity, one can construct the typology of distribution of language taxa according to this universal characteristic. Austronesian languages have a great concentration of vowels in the speech sound chain (e.g. maximum – 65.24% in Hawaiian and 69.75% in Samoan). Vocalo-sonorant quotient turned out to be bigger in the following language taxa: Sino-Tibetan family (Burmese – 75.67%), Bantu (Swahili – 76.29%), Afro-Asian family (Neo-Aramaic – 81.47%), Austronesian family (Hawaiian – 83.29%), languages of Australian aboriginals – Nunggubuyu – 85.14%). It means that 85.14% of the Nunggubuyu speech sound chain consists of vowels and sonorant consonants. On the other hand, some of the world languages have the minimum of the concentration of vowels. So, in the Itelmen language (Paleo-Asiatic family) vowels comprise only 32.61%. Let us consider the minimum of the vocalo-sonorant quotient. Thus, in the Adygian language (Caucasian family) this quotient reaches only 54.07%. It should be mentioned that on the average the Caucasian language family has a rather low ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tambovtsev, Yuri |
author_facet |
Tambovtsev, Yuri |
author_sort |
Tambovtsev, Yuri |
title |
Euphony in World Languages |
title_short |
Euphony in World Languages |
title_full |
Euphony in World Languages |
title_fullStr |
Euphony in World Languages |
title_full_unstemmed |
Euphony in World Languages |
title_sort |
euphony in world languages |
publisher |
Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/linpo/article/view/v10122-010-0008-8 |
genre |
Itelmen |
genre_facet |
Itelmen |
op_source |
Lingua Posnaniensis; Vol. 52 No. 1; 99-111 Lingua Posnaniensis; Tom 52 Nr 1; 99-111 2083-6090 |
op_relation |
http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/linpo/article/view/v10122-010-0008-8/28663 http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/linpo/article/view/v10122-010-0008-8 |
op_rights |
Prawa autorskie (c) 2010 Yuri Tambovtsev https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 |
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1778142939294203904 |