New Perspectives on Diphthong Dynamics

我们建议的首要目标是加深我们对一系列双元音和两种不同语言的双元音内部时间动态的理解。尽管双元音是世界语言中许多元音清单的一部分，但对于双元音的定义特征是什么，以及如何从理论和经验上捕捉到它们在统一性(单一单位)和二元性(两个单位的序列)之间的振荡同一性，人们缺乏了解。我们建议的工作将利用蒂罗林和撒丁语的双元音库存，以及语音科学中数据量化方法的最新进展，以显著加深我们对双元音在语音产生中的动力学的了解。提罗尔和撒丁岛非常适合作为调查对象，因为它们丰富但对比鲜明的双元音资源可能包括结构上不同的双元音类型。我们的工作在几个方面具有创新潜力：首先，我们首次对两种语音研究不足的语言的元音库进行了全面的语音描述，包括它们的大量双元音。我们将从声音上记录梅兰市所说的提罗尔人的元音清单(单元音和双元音)，以及濒危语言撒丁语的卡利亚里坎皮丹语变种。我们将记录每种语言的40名说话者，分为两个年龄组，以便能够观察可能正在进行的声音变化。其次，我们将利用最先进的统计技术对时间序列数据进行分析，以研究这两种语言在不同韵律条件下双元音的内部时间结构。这些分析旨在为以下问题提供新的视角：双元音是否可以被理解为两个不同程度协同发音的发声手势的序列，或者双元音产生的目标是否是通过元音空间的动态过渡运动。第三，我们将向科学界提供一个数据库，其中包括我们的录音，以及语音技术工具--经过培训的自动分词模型--这将有助于今后对这些语文的研究。扩展我们对双元音动态的了解，以及它们与单元音和元音序列的关系，对于加深我们对(1)元音类型和共时元音系统的类型，(2)元音系统历时演变的路径，以及(3)很少涉及双元音的言语产生理论的理解至关重要。我们的意大利-德国研究团队已经做好了准备，通过汇集语音产生、语言变异和方言方面的专家，对蒂罗尔和撒丁语丰富的元音系统进行拟议的调查。

The overarching objective of our proposal is to further our understanding of the inner temporal dynamics of diphthongs across a range of diphthongs and for two different languages. Despite diphthongs being part of many vowel inventories in the world’s languages, there is a dearth of knowledge about what the defining characteristics of diphthongs are and how to capture theoretically and empirically their oscillating identity between unity (single unit) and duality (sequence of two units). Our proposed work will capitalize on the diphthong inventories of Tyrolean and Sardinian, as well as on recent advances in data quantification methods in the phonetic sciences to significantly deepen our knowledge of diphthong dynamics in speech production. Tyrolean and Sardinian are well suited as objects of investigation due to their rich but contrasting diphthong inventories comprising presumably structurally different diphthong types. Our work carries innovative potential in several aspects: For one, we provide the first comprehensive phonetic description of the vowel inventories of two phonetically understudied languages, including their numerous diphthongs. We will acoustically record the vowel inventory (monophthongs and diphthongs) for Tyrolean as spoken in the city of Meran and for the Cagliari Campidanese variety of Sardinian, an endangered language. We will record 40 speakers per language, divided into two age groups to be able to observe possible ongoing sound changes. Secondly, we will exploit state-of-the art statistical techniques for the analysis of time series data to study the inner temporal structure of the diphthongs of these two languages under varying prosodic conditions. These analyses are designed to open new vistas on the question whether diphthongs can be understood as a sequence of two vocalic gestures, coarticulated to varying degrees, or whether the target of diphthong production is a dynamic transitional movement through the vowel space. Thirdly, we will make available to the scientific community a database with our recordings, as well as speech technological tools – trained models for automatic segmentation – that will facilitate future research on these languages. Expanding our knowledge of diphthong dynamics across languages, and their relation to both monophthongs and vowel sequences (hiatus) is crucial to deepening our theoretical and empirical understanding of (1) types of vowels and synchronic vowel systems, (2) the evolutionary paths vowel systems take diachronically, as well as (3) theories of speech production, which rarely deal with diphthongs. Our Italian-German research team is well poised to tackle the proposed investigation into the rich vowel systems of Tyrolean and Sardinian by bringing together experts on speech production, language variation, and dialectology.