{"title":"Voicing patterns in stops among heritage speakers of Western Armenian in Lebanon and the US","authors":"Niamh E. Kelly, Lara Keshishian","doi":"10.1017/S0332586521000093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586521000093","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Research on Western Armenian (WA) has described it as having a contrast between voiceless aspirated stops and voiced stops (Fairbanks 1948; Vaux 1998; Baronian 2017). Since there is no monolingual community of WA, all speakers are part of a minority language community, and also speak the majority language. The current study examines speakers from two heritage communities of WA: one in Lebanon, where the majority language is Arabic, and one in the US, where the majority language is English. The speakers in Lebanon were found to have a contrast between voiced and voiceless unaspirated stops, in line with Lebanese Arabic. The speakers in the US were more variable, some having the English pattern of voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated stops, while others had voiceless aspirated stops, but their voiced stops were variable between voiced and voiceless unaspirated. These results indicate L2 transfer in both communities, leading to two different patterns of voicing in WA.","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S0332586521000093","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44268266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Finnish inserted vowels: a case of phonologized excrescence","authors":"Robin Karlin","doi":"10.1017/S033258652100007X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S033258652100007X","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this paper, I examine a case of vowel insertion found in Savo and Pohjanmaa dialects of Finnish that is typically called “epenthesis”, but which demonstrates characteristics of both phonetic excrescence and phonological epenthesis. Based on a phonological analysis paired with an acoustic corpus study, I argue that Finnish vowel insertion is the mixed result of phonetic excrescence and the phonologization of these vowels, and is related to second-mora lengthening, another dialectal phenomenon. I propose a gestural model of second-mora lengthening that would generate vowel insertion in its original phonetic state. The link to second-mora lengthening provides a unified account that addresses both the dialectal and phonological distribution of the phenomenon, which have not been linked in previous literature.","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S033258652100007X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49436960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"NJL volume 44 issue 1 Cover and Back matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s0332586521000044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0332586521000044","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/s0332586521000044","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42456389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"NJL volume 44 issue 1 Cover and Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s0332586521000032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0332586521000032","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/s0332586521000032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43429931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Grammatical gender in L2 Swedish in Finnish-speaking immersion students: A comparison with non-immersion students","authors":"Eeva-Liisa Nyqvist, Sinikka Lahtinen","doi":"10.1017/S0332586520000256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586520000256","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Swedish grammatical gender is challenging for Finnish-speaking learners of Swedish due to its abstract meaning, the complex nature of Swedish NPs and the low salience of the morphology used to mark gender. Our study compares the expression of gender in texts written in Swedish by Finnish-speaking 12- and 15-year-old immersion students with that of 16-year-old non-immersion students. The results show that NPs with gender agreement, i.e. those with several morphemes marking gender, are more difficult than NPs with only one marker. In all informant groups, uter is significantly easier than neuter, but uter is also overused, as approximately 75% of all Swedish nouns are uter in modern Swedish. Comparisons between different informant groups show that non-immersion students often reach a significantly higher level of accuracy than immersion students, which indicates that formal teaching has a positive effect.","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S0332586520000256","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41718615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ulla Vanhatalo, C. Lindholm, Tiina Onikki-Rantajääskö
{"title":"Easy Language research","authors":"Ulla Vanhatalo, C. Lindholm, Tiina Onikki-Rantajääskö","doi":"10.1017/s0332586521000019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0332586521000019","url":null,"abstract":"The second issue of Volume 45 (autumn 2022) of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics will be a special issue devoted to Easy Language research. The issue will be edited by Camilla Lindholm, Tiina Onikki-Rantajääskö and Ulla Vanhatalo. The term EASY LANGUAGE (Germ. Leichte Sprache, Swe. lätt språk, Finn. selkokieli; earlier EASY-TO-READ LANGUAGE) refers to a modified variety of a natural language that has been adjusted so that it is easier to read and understand in terms of content, vocabulary and structure. Easy Language has been primarily targeted at people who have various difficulties in understanding standard forms of language, for example, due to learning disabilities or neurocognitive disorders. One can also see a connection between Easy Language and PLAIN LANGUAGE (see International Plain Language Federation, https://www.iplfederation.org/), both aiming at simplifying language. Although attempts to create understandable language have probably been around for a long time, the start of the Easy Language era in the European context can be dated back to the late 1960s, when the first easy-to-read Swedish materials were published. Significant milestones were reached in the 1990s, when the first recommendations for easy writing were published by The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA, https://www.ifla.org/) and Inclusion Europe. Since then, the target groups of Easy Language have been expanding, comprising people with various backgrounds and life situations. Ongoing changes in societies and legislation on accessibility are creating increasing need for Easy Language and research on the topic. Besides language studies, Easy Language is also of interest in many disciplines such as economics, health sciences, sociology and cognitive science. While Easy Languages have been used in Europe and especially in the Nordic countries for decades already, only little linguistic research has been done until the last few years. The development and use of Easy Languages have been built on experience gained from practical work done with the target groups (Wengelin 2015). More recently, especially interesting cases have been seen in Germany, where development and research are currently carried on a large scale (e.g. Bredel & Maaß 2016, Bock 2019, Maaß & Rink 2019, Hansen-Schirra & Maaß 2020). In this call for papers of NJL, we invite research papers which take a variety of linguistic approaches to Easy Language. First of all, we want to learn how Easy Nordic Journal of Linguistics (2021), page 1 of 2 doi:10.1017/S0332586521000019","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/s0332586521000019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41600441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Marking one’s own viewpoint: The Finnish evidential verb+kseni ‘as far as I understand’ construction","authors":"Minna Jaakola","doi":"10.1017/S0332586520000244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586520000244","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines evidentiality in the frame of inferential adverbs in written interaction from the perspective of Finnish, a language that does not have evidentiality as a grammatical category. The analysis focuses on six adverbs, such as käsittääkseni ‘as far as I understand’ and tietääkseni ‘to my knowledge, as far as I know’. Evidentiality and epistemic modality intertwine in their semantics, as these adverbs represent a writer’s access to information, but also indicate her evaluation of its reliability. First, this article offers a description of the interactional functions of these adverbs such as marking a writer’s opinion in contrasts, expressing slight hedging in order to anticipate corrections, to allow space for other opinions, or to create irony. Second, in the framework of cognitive grammar, the analysis focuses on the meaning of the evidential verb+kseni construction and the effect of different verb stems on it. These adverbs share similar functions in texts, which is due to their flexible constructional meaning. While varying from lexeme to lexeme, specific evidential and epistemic dimensions can either be foregrounded and relevant in a situation or remain backgrounded and not activated.","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S0332586520000244","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41493528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Variation in adjunct islands: The case of Norwegian","authors":"Ingrid Bondevik, Dave Kush, Terje Lohndal","doi":"10.1017/S0332586520000207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586520000207","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Finite adjunct clauses are often assumed to be among the strongest islands for filler–gap dependency creation cross-linguistically, but Kush, Lohndal & Sprouse (2019) found experimental evidence suggesting that finite conditional om-adjunct clauses are not islands for topicalization in Norwegian. To investigate the generality of these findings, we ran three acceptability judgment experiments testing topicalization out of three adjunct clause types: om ‘if’, når ‘when’ and fordi ‘because’ in Norwegian. Largely replicating Kush et al. (2019), we find evidence for the absence of strong island effects with topicalization from om-adjuncts in all three experiments. We find island effects for når- and fordi-adjuncts, but the size of the effects and the underlying judgment distributions that produce those effects differ greatly by island type. Our results suggest that the syntactic category ‘adjunct’ may not constitute a suitably fine-grained grouping to explain variation in island effects.","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S0332586520000207","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41287436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"NJL volume 43 issue 3 Cover and Back matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/S0332586520000232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586520000232","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S0332586520000232","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42774815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"NJL volume 43 issue 3 Cover and Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/S0332586520000220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586520000220","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43203,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S0332586520000220","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43281097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}