Research and teaching assistant at the University of Szczecin (Poland). 2024 - Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics 2017 - Master's Degree in English Philology 2015 - Bachelor's Degree in English Philology
The aim of this paper is to analyse the centre of gravity (COG) of release bursts in Welsh plosiv... more The aim of this paper is to analyse the centre of gravity (COG) of release bursts in Welsh plosives in order to assess their importance in distinguishing between /p, t, k/ (here termed fortis) and /b, d, g/ (here termed lenis). The COG of a release burst appears to be particularly interesting as (i) it has not yet been studied extensively in the phonetic scientific literature on Welsh plosives (see for instance Ball, Ball and Williams, Jones, Morris and Hejná), and (ii) using the COG variable to distinguish between stops is not very common, as it is normally used to differentiate between places of articulation in fricatives. To achieve the aforementioned goals, the authors, inspired by a study of American English plosives conducted by Chodroff and Wilson, measured the COG of bursts in wordinitial /p, b, t, d, k, g/.
This paper continues a research project aimed at proving that the fortis-lenis distinction is mor... more This paper continues a research project aimed at proving that the fortis-lenis distinction is more appropriate for studying the Welsh language than the voiced-voiceless divide. Previous analyses of articulatory timing revealed potentially distinctive features characteristic for Welsh plosives and fricatives. Even though the phonological features such as [spread glottis] or [voice] may be used both for distinguishing between the series of plosives and fricatives, the phonetic features responsible for the distinction are likely to differ due to the different phonetic nature of the manner of articulation and the position of fricatives and plosives (Honeybone 2005: 333-334). The aim of this paper is, therefore, to draw general conclusions from analysing the two sets of factors and find some universal features or characteristics of fortis and lenis obstruents in Welsh. Based on the previous studies, the importance of aspiration and voicing length are analysed in Welsh plosives. For fricatives, friction and voicing length are studied as potentially contrastive. The main hypotheses are that (i) phonetic voicing is not decisive in distinguishing between the two series of sounds in all places of articulation and (ii) other aspects of articulatory timing such as friction, aspiration length and hold phase duration appear to be more important in the fortis-lenis distinction and form a general pattern where the fortis sounds are generally longer than their lenis counterparts.
Proceedings of the Association of Celtic Students of Ireland and Britain Vol. VII, 2020
The aim of this paper is to describe Welsh consonants in order to reassess the common voiced/voic... more The aim of this paper is to describe Welsh consonants in order to reassess the common voiced/voiceless distinction applied to them. In view of certain minimal pairs or the vowel-consonant interplay, it may be claimed that explaining Welsh consonants along the fortis-lenis divide is more appropriate. Such a distinction would also link Welsh phonetics clearly to Welsh grammar which features a fully developed morpheme-initial consonant mutation system used for morphological, syntactical, and semantic marking. In a broader linguistic context, Welsh would also offer evidence that the fortis-lenis and voiceless-voiced distinctions of consonants must be kept apart. In order to achieve the aforementioned aim, the author presents a phonological argumentation based on the phonetic analysis of latest fieldwork research. The latter will reveal phonetic features characteristic of the phonological fortis-lenis divide. This investigation constitutes a part of an international research project aimed at describing the Welsh consonant system. It is believed that a more accurate description of the language and its various systems contributes directly to ensuring its continuity.
This paper is a continuation of comprehensive studies on Welsh and Irish phonology, which were st... more This paper is a continuation of comprehensive studies on Welsh and Irish phonology, which were started in 2012 involving the universities of Leipzig and Szczecin as well as the former Department of Linguistics in the Max-Max-Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology. Resulting publications have shed light on the nature of predominantly the Welsh language system, e.g. its lexicon (cf. Asmus and Anderson, 2015), and the length of vowels in Welsh monosyllables ending in simplex codas (cf. Asmus and Grawunder, 2017). During the course of investigation, desiderata concerning the analysis and interpretation of mutation patterns as well as the nature of Welsh consonants emerged. The aim of this article, therefore, is to tackle some of the issues involved in these problem areas, i.e. the notion of lenition and the contrast of aspiration/deaspiration vs voicing/devoicing in consonants.
This book was co-edited by dr hab hab Sabine Asmus, prof US, and dr Jaworska-Biskup. It discusses... more This book was co-edited by dr hab hab Sabine Asmus, prof US, and dr Jaworska-Biskup. It discusses issues of Welsh literature, history, and the vernacular language of the devolved region of Wales (as part of the United Kingdom of Northern Ireland and Great Britain). In this context, the volume sheds light on various aspects of the identity construction of a small nation with an endangered language, which is a P-Celtic tongue, known for exhibiting many features alien to Indo-European and SAE-languages. All the issues tackled here are presented in diachronic and synchronic perspective, allowing for correlations to be drawn with similar problems faced by other cultures.
This paper questions the voiceless-voiced distinction of Welsh consonants and claims that the for... more This paper questions the voiceless-voiced distinction of Welsh consonants and claims that the fortis-lenis distinction is more appropriate for the description of the language. Research results of theoretical as well as experimental investigations into Welsh, e.g. the vowel-coda length dependence discovered by Asmus and Grawunder (2017), advocated further research into that matter, seeing also that the fortis-lenis distinction establishes a firm link to focal properties of Welsh, such as morpheme-initial consonant mutations (mICM). It was, therefore, decided to look at potential phonetic features that would contribute to the postulated distinction. These features are aspiration, voicing, hold phase duration and the centre of gravity (abbreviated to CoG) in the articulation of Welsh plosives. It appears that the two series of plosives under review are different in terms of all features studied, but it is aspiration that is of major importance (thus confirming classifications of Welsh as an aspiration language). Published in Lublin: Linguistics Beyond and Within 6 (2020), 5-16
The aim of this paper is to challenge the often-claimed phonological voiced-voiceless distinction... more The aim of this paper is to challenge the often-claimed phonological voiced-voiceless distinction of Welsh consonants. This concept was recently doubted by Asmus/Grawunder, who revealed that final /b/ and /d/ are devoiced in monosyllables, but still distinct from /p/ and /t/. Applying the fortis-lenis divide links Welsh phonetics better to Welsh grammar, which features a fully developed morpheme-initial consonant mutation system for morphological, syntactical and semantic marking. In order to confirm our hypothesis, this paper discusses two potential phonetic correlates of a phonological fortis-lenis distinction, i.e. articulatory timing via the holding phase and aspiration of initial and final stops in Welsh.
The voiced-voiceless and fortis-lenis distinction are often equalled. Recent research points to d... more The voiced-voiceless and fortis-lenis distinction are often equalled. Recent research points to differences between voicing and non-voicing languages. The aim of the research conducted here is a contribution to this discussion by suggesting that the voiced-voiceless distinction is inappropriate for Welsh, confirming that the fortis-lenis divide as phonologically distinctive (see mICM) and fully language-structuring in this P-Celtic language and offering the first two phonetic correlates of such a phonological distinction in Welsh.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the centre of gravity (COG) of release bursts in Welsh plosiv... more The aim of this paper is to analyse the centre of gravity (COG) of release bursts in Welsh plosives in order to assess their importance in distinguishing between /p, t, k/ (here termed fortis) and /b, d, g/ (here termed lenis). The COG of a release burst appears to be particularly interesting as (i) it has not yet been studied extensively in the phonetic scientific literature on Welsh plosives (see for instance Ball, Ball and Williams, Jones, Morris and Hejná), and (ii) using the COG variable to distinguish between stops is not very common, as it is normally used to differentiate between places of articulation in fricatives. To achieve the aforementioned goals, the authors, inspired by a study of American English plosives conducted by Chodroff and Wilson, measured the COG of bursts in wordinitial /p, b, t, d, k, g/.
This paper continues a research project aimed at proving that the fortis-lenis distinction is mor... more This paper continues a research project aimed at proving that the fortis-lenis distinction is more appropriate for studying the Welsh language than the voiced-voiceless divide. Previous analyses of articulatory timing revealed potentially distinctive features characteristic for Welsh plosives and fricatives. Even though the phonological features such as [spread glottis] or [voice] may be used both for distinguishing between the series of plosives and fricatives, the phonetic features responsible for the distinction are likely to differ due to the different phonetic nature of the manner of articulation and the position of fricatives and plosives (Honeybone 2005: 333-334). The aim of this paper is, therefore, to draw general conclusions from analysing the two sets of factors and find some universal features or characteristics of fortis and lenis obstruents in Welsh. Based on the previous studies, the importance of aspiration and voicing length are analysed in Welsh plosives. For fricatives, friction and voicing length are studied as potentially contrastive. The main hypotheses are that (i) phonetic voicing is not decisive in distinguishing between the two series of sounds in all places of articulation and (ii) other aspects of articulatory timing such as friction, aspiration length and hold phase duration appear to be more important in the fortis-lenis distinction and form a general pattern where the fortis sounds are generally longer than their lenis counterparts.
Proceedings of the Association of Celtic Students of Ireland and Britain Vol. VII, 2020
The aim of this paper is to describe Welsh consonants in order to reassess the common voiced/voic... more The aim of this paper is to describe Welsh consonants in order to reassess the common voiced/voiceless distinction applied to them. In view of certain minimal pairs or the vowel-consonant interplay, it may be claimed that explaining Welsh consonants along the fortis-lenis divide is more appropriate. Such a distinction would also link Welsh phonetics clearly to Welsh grammar which features a fully developed morpheme-initial consonant mutation system used for morphological, syntactical, and semantic marking. In a broader linguistic context, Welsh would also offer evidence that the fortis-lenis and voiceless-voiced distinctions of consonants must be kept apart. In order to achieve the aforementioned aim, the author presents a phonological argumentation based on the phonetic analysis of latest fieldwork research. The latter will reveal phonetic features characteristic of the phonological fortis-lenis divide. This investigation constitutes a part of an international research project aimed at describing the Welsh consonant system. It is believed that a more accurate description of the language and its various systems contributes directly to ensuring its continuity.
This paper is a continuation of comprehensive studies on Welsh and Irish phonology, which were st... more This paper is a continuation of comprehensive studies on Welsh and Irish phonology, which were started in 2012 involving the universities of Leipzig and Szczecin as well as the former Department of Linguistics in the Max-Max-Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology. Resulting publications have shed light on the nature of predominantly the Welsh language system, e.g. its lexicon (cf. Asmus and Anderson, 2015), and the length of vowels in Welsh monosyllables ending in simplex codas (cf. Asmus and Grawunder, 2017). During the course of investigation, desiderata concerning the analysis and interpretation of mutation patterns as well as the nature of Welsh consonants emerged. The aim of this article, therefore, is to tackle some of the issues involved in these problem areas, i.e. the notion of lenition and the contrast of aspiration/deaspiration vs voicing/devoicing in consonants.
This book was co-edited by dr hab hab Sabine Asmus, prof US, and dr Jaworska-Biskup. It discusses... more This book was co-edited by dr hab hab Sabine Asmus, prof US, and dr Jaworska-Biskup. It discusses issues of Welsh literature, history, and the vernacular language of the devolved region of Wales (as part of the United Kingdom of Northern Ireland and Great Britain). In this context, the volume sheds light on various aspects of the identity construction of a small nation with an endangered language, which is a P-Celtic tongue, known for exhibiting many features alien to Indo-European and SAE-languages. All the issues tackled here are presented in diachronic and synchronic perspective, allowing for correlations to be drawn with similar problems faced by other cultures.
This paper questions the voiceless-voiced distinction of Welsh consonants and claims that the for... more This paper questions the voiceless-voiced distinction of Welsh consonants and claims that the fortis-lenis distinction is more appropriate for the description of the language. Research results of theoretical as well as experimental investigations into Welsh, e.g. the vowel-coda length dependence discovered by Asmus and Grawunder (2017), advocated further research into that matter, seeing also that the fortis-lenis distinction establishes a firm link to focal properties of Welsh, such as morpheme-initial consonant mutations (mICM). It was, therefore, decided to look at potential phonetic features that would contribute to the postulated distinction. These features are aspiration, voicing, hold phase duration and the centre of gravity (abbreviated to CoG) in the articulation of Welsh plosives. It appears that the two series of plosives under review are different in terms of all features studied, but it is aspiration that is of major importance (thus confirming classifications of Welsh as an aspiration language). Published in Lublin: Linguistics Beyond and Within 6 (2020), 5-16
The aim of this paper is to challenge the often-claimed phonological voiced-voiceless distinction... more The aim of this paper is to challenge the often-claimed phonological voiced-voiceless distinction of Welsh consonants. This concept was recently doubted by Asmus/Grawunder, who revealed that final /b/ and /d/ are devoiced in monosyllables, but still distinct from /p/ and /t/. Applying the fortis-lenis divide links Welsh phonetics better to Welsh grammar, which features a fully developed morpheme-initial consonant mutation system for morphological, syntactical and semantic marking. In order to confirm our hypothesis, this paper discusses two potential phonetic correlates of a phonological fortis-lenis distinction, i.e. articulatory timing via the holding phase and aspiration of initial and final stops in Welsh.
The voiced-voiceless and fortis-lenis distinction are often equalled. Recent research points to d... more The voiced-voiceless and fortis-lenis distinction are often equalled. Recent research points to differences between voicing and non-voicing languages. The aim of the research conducted here is a contribution to this discussion by suggesting that the voiced-voiceless distinction is inappropriate for Welsh, confirming that the fortis-lenis divide as phonologically distinctive (see mICM) and fully language-structuring in this P-Celtic language and offering the first two phonetic correlates of such a phonological distinction in Welsh.
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