Zero Copula In Hungarian

In Hungarian the zero copula is restricted to the third person in present tense. The copula must be overtly expressed in other persons. Here are examples:

A kert szép. (The garden is beautiful)
A kertek szépek. (The gardens are beautiful)

In certain cases the verb must be expressed. They are in expressions of time, location and in interrogatives. Here are examples:

Hat óra van. (It's six o'clock)
A turisták a kertben vannak. (The tourists are in the garden)
Hol van a szálloda? (Where is the hotel?)

The zero copula is used in Hungarian, but it is restricted. It must be in present tense with the third person sngular and plural. However, with expressions of time, location and interrogatives, the zero copula does not apply. The zero copula is also used in Assamese, Japanese and Russian.

The Huron Carol

The Huron Carol is the oldest and most famous Canadian Christmas carol. It was written by Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary among the Hurons of Canada. He wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron people. The well-known English lyrics were written by Jesse Edgar Middleton.

Instead of the original nativity story, the English lyrics use imagery familiar to the natives of Canada. For example, Jesus is born in a lodge of broken bark and wrapped in a robe of rabbit skin. He is surrounded by hunters instead of shepherds, is visited by chiefs from afar and is given fox and beaver pelts.

The carol begins as follows:

'Twas in the moon of winter-time
When all the birds had fled,
That mighty Gitchi Manitou
Sent angel choirs instead.

The English version uses Gitchi Manitou, the traditional Huron name, for God. This is not used in the original version. The Huron Carol also has a French version.

The Huron Carol is a popular hymn in many Canadian churches. It has a melody which is ideal for instruments with a limited range such as the flute. Canada's most famous Christmas carol helped to introduce Christianity to the natives of Canada.

Schwa and Vocalic /r/ in German

German has two similar vowels. One is the schwa and the other the vocalic /r/. The two vowels are sometimes called the light schwa and the dark schwa. The light schwa also occurs in English. The vocalic /r/ is lower and more retracted than the schwa.

Minimal pairs can be formed with the schwa and the vocalic /r/. For example, the word bitte means please and bitter means bitter. The German schwa is very common and occurs in words such as Auge (eye) and Banane (banana). The vocalic /r/ occurs in Bruder (brother) and Schwester (sister).

German has two /r/ sounds. One is the consonantal /r/ in words such as rot (red). The vocalic /r/ occurs in the syllable nucleus in words such as Lehrer (teacher). The vocalic /r/ is lower and more retracted than the schwa of English.

Markedness of Antonyms

Markedness is useful for the analysis of binary oppositions. The marked form is less common than the unmarked one. The unmarked form is the basic form and thus the default. Many marked adjectives have prefixes such as impossible, irregular and unlikely.

The unmarked form is the one which is usually used in communication. For example, the following questions use unmarked forms:

How big is the house?
How full is the container?
How good is your Italian?
How long is the bridge?
How much is it?
How heavy is the box?
How old are you?
How sure are you that they are coming?
How tall are you?
How wide is the road?

If the marked form is used, it contains a presupposition. For example, the question How bad is your Italian? presupposes that the hearer is bad at Italian. The question How small is the house? presupposes that the house is small.

In word pairs such as big/small and young/old, the word with higher value is unmarked. Other word pairs have positive and negative characteristics such as bad/good and lucky/unlucky. With these types of word pairs, the word with a positive value is unmarked.

The concept of markedness is often used in linguistics. Marked forms are irregular and less common than unmarked ones. The unmarked forms can thus be considered basic.

English Vowel Change Before Palatals and Alveopalatals

Many English speakers pronounce words such as cure and sure with the same vowel as in nurse. This occurs in both rhotic and non-rhotic varieties of English. The sound change only occurs before palatals and alveopalatals. In words such as poor and tour, this sound change does not occur. However, many speakers pronounce these words with the vowel in four and more.

The following words can be pronounced with the vowel of nurse:

bureau
cure
curious
during
fury
jury
mature
mural
pure
sure

In East Anglia, the cure-nurse merger results in identical pronunciations for word pairs such as cured/curd, fury/furry and pure/per. Two sound changes apply: one is the vowel change from a back vowel to a central vowel, and the other is yod-dropping. In North America, yod-dropping does not occur after palatals and alveopalatals.

Many vowels changes occur before post-vocalic /r/. Most English speakers pronounce the words first, nurse and word with the same vowel. Many speakers also use this vowel after palatals and alveopalatals. In East Anglia this vowel change applies with yod-dropping, but in North America no yod-dropping occurs. 

Comparison of Bilabial Plosives of Spanish and Italian

Many Spanish words with the voiced bilablial plosive have the voiceless one in Italian. The voiceless plosive became voiced in Spanish. However, Italian preserved the voiceless bilablial plosive. Here are examples:

abierto aperto (open)
cabo capo (cape)
cabra capra (goat)
escoba scopa (broom)
jabón sapone (soap)
liebre lepre (hare)
lobo lupo (wolf)
obra opera (work)
pueblo popolo (people)
sobre sopra (over)

French also preserved the voiceless bilabial plosive of Latin in the words cap (cape), loup (wolf) and peuple (people). The voiced bilabial plosive of Spanish occurs between two sonorants. This is thus an example of voicing assimilation.

Voiceless Velar Fricative of English

The voiceless velar fricative was one of the sounds of Old English. It was spelled gh. Though the letters remain in English spelling, they are now usually not pronounced or pronounced /f/. The English letters gh often correspond to the letters ch in German and Dutch.

In words such as eight and night the gh is silent. However, in words such as cough and laugh, the letters are pronounced /f/. This sound change occurs word-finally.

The German ch represents a voiceless velar fricative or palatal fricative after front vowels and vocalic /r/. Here are examples:

daugher Tochter
eight Acht
freight Fracht
high Hoch
light Licht
neighbour Nachbar
night Nacht
sight Sicht
through durch
weight Gewicht

In Dutch, a language closely related to German, the letters ch are always pronounced as a velar fricative. The Dutch words for neighbour and through are buurman and door. They are not part of the following list:

daughter dochter
eight acht
freight vracht
high hoog
light licht
night nacht
sight zicht
weight gewicht

The Dutch word hoog is spelled with a g, but this is pronounced as a velar fricative. The English gh was spelled h in Old English. Many researchers believe that it changed from a voiceless velar fricative to a voiced or partly voiced velar fricative, which explains the spelling gh.

In words such as ghetto, ghost and spaghetti, the gh was never pronounced as a velar fricative. These words have different origins. Here the gh is pronounced /g/.

English words with the spelling gh were once pronounced with the voiceless velar fricative. This sound is used in both German and Dutch. In these languages, many words with ch correspond to English words with gh.

Cot-Caught Merger in Newfoundland English

The cot-caught merger is nearly universal in Canada. However, in Newfoundland English, the merger is not universal. A few speakers maintain a contrast.

In Newfoundland English, the vowel of cot is either a central or back unrounded vowel. It has a more advanced articulation than in other varieties of Canadian English. The vowel of caught is more retracted or longer for those speakers who do not have the merger. The majority of speakers, however, have the merger and pronounce both words with a central unrounded vowel.

The more advanced articulation of the low vowel in Newfoundland English resembles that of the cities in the USA that have undergone the Northern Cities Shift. The advanced articulation distinguishes Newfoundland English from standard Canadian English. For those speakers who do not have the cot-caught merger, the distinction of cot and caught is realized with either a more retracted vowel or a longer vowel in the word caught.

Alveolar Plosive Elision

Alveolar plosive elision is very common in English. The alveolar plosives are unstable. The following conditions are necessary for alveolar plosive elision: the alveolar plosive must be in the syllable coda, it must be preceded by a consonant which agrees in voicing, and the following consonant must not be a glottal fricative.

Here are examples of alveolar plosive elision:

confused student
exactly 
finished manuscript
first performance
iced tea
handmade
just finished
last night
locked door
used car

Alveolar plosive elision is a type of lenition. It occurs in the syllable coda, the least perceptually salient part of the syllable. It is especially common in casual speech.

R-deletion and Schwa Insertion

In non-rhotic varieties of English, the /r/ is deleted after a vowel. However, many non-rhotic varieties of English such as Received Pronunciation also insert a schwa. This only occurs after the high front, mid front and high back lax vowels.

In words such as car and fork, English dialects such as Received Pronunciation delete the /r/ and lengthen the vowel. This is known as compensatory lengthening. However, in words with high tense vowels such as here and tour, the /r/ is deleted, the vowel becomes lax, and a schwa is inserted. With words such as there, the vowel is lax, and as a result, vowel laxing does not apply.

The schwa is inserted after three vowels which are close to the schwa with respect to tongue height and tongue backness. The lax vowels are closer to the schwa than the tense vowels. In addition, they do not lengthen. It appears that the insertion of the schwa replaces the deleted /r/.

Here is an analysis of the words here, there and tour in dialects of English with schwa insertion:

UR /hir/
r-deletion hi
schwa insertion hiɘ                 
vowel laxing hIɘ
PR [hIɘ]

UR /ðɛr/
 r-deletion ðɛ
schwa insertion ðɛɘ
vowel laxing
PR [ðɛɘ]

UR /tur/
r-deletion tu
schwa insertion tuɘ
vowel laxing tʊɘ
PR [tʊɘ]

The rules of r-deletion and schwa insertion need to be ordered. R-deletion is necessary because it is the trigger for schwa insertion. It is also necessary to apply schwa insertion before vowel laxing because lax vowels do not occur word-finally.

Non-rhotic varieties of English have compensatory lengthening after the loss of post-vocalic /r/. However, many non-rhotic varieties have schwa insertion after the high front, mid front and high back vowels. These vowels are close to the schwa in both vowel height and backness. In addition to schwa insertion, the tense vowels become lax. The lax vowels are closer to the schwa in both backness and height than are the tense vowels.