Talk by Janika Kunzmann (GU)

By Tina Bögel Comment Closed
We are happy to announce the next talk in the Phonology Colloquium by Janika Kunzmann (GU). Title: Describing an Understudied Language of Northern Cameroon: Prominent Phonetic and Phonological Features of Mbum (Adamawa) Date: Wednesday, 07.12.2022 Time: 16-18 Location: in person on campus IG 4.301 (if necessary, we will stream the talk via Zoom) If you are registered in Olat you'll find the Zoom link there. If you want to participate via Zoom, please register via email to Alina Gregori: gregori@lingua.uni-frankfurt.de Describing an Understudied Language of Northern Cameroon: Prominent Phonetic and Phonological Features of Mbum (Adamawa) Mbum is a Kebi-Benue language classified by Boyd (1989) to be part of the Adamawa family. Like many languages of this group, which is highly disputed in its internal classification (cf. Kleinewillinghöfer 2014), Mbum lacks a detailed phonological description. Given this descriptive gap, my research aims to provide a general overview of the phonological and tonological characteristics of Mbum, as it is spoken today in Ngaoundéré and Nganha (Adamawa region, northern Cameroon)....
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Talk by Fatima Hamlaoui (University of Toronto)

By Tina Bögel Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Fatima Hamlaoui in the Phonology Colloquium. Title: Prosodic Transfer in Contact Varieties: Vocative calls in Metropolitan and in Basaá-Cameroonian French Date: Wednesday, 01.06.2022 Time: 16-18 Location: Hybrid - Zoom and IG 4.301 If you want to participate via Zoom, please register via email to Alina Gregori: gregori@lingua.uni-frankfurt.de Abstract: The effect of context on the prosody of vocative calls has been a topic of growing interest (a.o., Borràs-Comes et al. 2015, Huttenlauch et al. 2016, Arvaniti et al. 2016, Kubozono & Mizoguchi 2019). In Metropolitan French, just as in a variety of intonation languages, sweet and friendly contexts are typically associated with a chanting contour, while urgent contexts have been described to elicit a rising-falling contour (a.o., Ladd 2008, Jun & Fougeron 1995, Fagyal 1997, Delais-Roussarie et al. 2015, Di Cristo 2016). Little is known however as to the extent of this form-meaning association and the effect of context on the prosodic realization of the different contours. What is also...
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Talk by Stefan Baumann (IfL Phonetik, University of Cologne)

By Tina Bögel Comment Closed
We are happy to announce the next talk in the Phonology Colloquium by Stefan Baumann (IfL Phonetik, University of Cologne). Title: Are highlighted words always informative? On the complex relationship between prosodic prominence and meaning Date: Wednesday, 11.05.2022 Time: 16-18 Location: in person on campus IG 4.301 (in addition, we will stream the talk via Zoom, see below) Abstract: When speakers communicate with each other, relevant parts of an utterance may either be actively highlighted through prosodic and syntactic means, or they are informative in themselves, such as novel or important discourse topics and uncommon words. As a result of both prosodic and syntactic highlighting and semantic-pragmatic informativeness, listeners perceive certain elements of an utterance as more or less prominent. The talk will examine the basic assumption that there is a direct correspondence between the two levels, such that (prosodically) highlighted elements should at the same time be more informative, and vice versa. This relationship has been shown to be much more complex, however, given the multidimensionality...
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PhD / researcher position in Phonology

By Tina Bögel Comment Closed
The Institute of Linguistics, Faculty of Modern Languages (FB 10), Goethe University Frankfurt, offers a position of a Scientific researcher (E13 TV-G-U, 50%-part-time) starting October 1st, 2019 up to three years (with possible extension). The salary grade is based on the job characteristics of the collective agreement (TV-G-U) applicable to Goethe-University. Application Requirements: The successful candidate should hold a Master degree in linguistics with a specialisation in phonology. An excellent command of spoken and written German and English is mandatory. The candidate should enjoy working in an independent and pro-active manner. Excellent organisational, communication and interpersonal skills are essential. Responsibilities: The successful candidate will conduct research within the area of prosodic phonology and will be responsible for the following tasks: • Preparation and conduction of teaching BA- and MA-level classes at the Institute of Linguistics (2 LVS = one course per semester) • Advice of students for preparation of BA- and MA-theses, and course assignments • Participation in preparing and conducting of research projects at the professorship of linguistics/phonology, particularly...
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Talk by Nancy Kula (U Essex), Wednesday 30, 16-18

By Tina Bögel Comment Closed
We are happy to announce the next talk in the Phonology Colloquium, which will take place on Wednesday, January 30, 4 – 6 pm in IG 4.301. You are all cordially invited. On the interaction of tone and intonation in some Eastern Bantu Languages Nancy C. Kula, University of Essex This talk looks at the implementation and effects of boundary intonational tones in different contexts in four Eastern Bantu languages: Bemba, Shingazidja, Chichewa, and Tumbuka. The goal is to look at the contrast in intonational tone implementation in local and global contexts. Global intonational effects target whole constituents and are good diagnostics for identifying larger prosodic constituents like maximal intonation phrases. Local intonational effects target smaller constituents – minimal and intermediate intonation phrases – embedded within maximal intonation phrases. A key focus will be to establish whether we can identify any emerging areal (Eastern Bantu) features in intonation patterns and specifically whether the punctual versus non-punctual implementation of boundary tones correlate to specific discourse...
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