Job Google Job Title: Linguistic Project Manager Specialty Areas: Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; General Linguistics; Phonetics; Phonology; Text to Speech - Reviewing and/or creating guidelines for TTS projects involving text processing and audio data evaluation - Communicating with cross-functional team members to create timelines and track progress for data collection and work - Evaluating and analyzing data quality Job requirements: - Degree in Linguistics or equivalent experience in Phonetics/Phonology or Speech - Excellent oral and written communication skills - Ability to quickly grasp technical concepts - Excellent organizational skills and attention to details - Previous project management experience Plus: - Programming language or previous experience working in Linux environment - Speaker of one or more Indic languages

Phonology

M-phonology The relationship between morphology and phonology

M-Phonology Fill in the table and pay attention to pronunciation differences Adjective Noun Adverb wide long broad

M-Phonology Fill in the table and pay attention to pronunciation differences Adjective Noun Adverb wide width widely long length Long/lengthwise broad breadth broadly

Do -th and -ly change pronunciation? M-Phonology Fill in the table and pay attention to pronunciation differences Do -th and -ly change pronunciation? Adjective Noun Adverb wide width widely long length Long/lengthwise broad breadth broadly

P-phonology (BTW P-phonology is the author’s own term)

Goals of phonology To describe the knowledge speakers must have about the sound system of their language

Goals of phonology To describe the knowledge speakers must have about the sound system of their language We assume all speakers of same dialect have same system

Goals of phonology To describe the knowledge speakers must have about the sound system of their language We assume all speakers of same dialect have same system We don’t disregard less prestigious forms

Phoneme Definitions A member of the set of the smallest units of speech that serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect

Phoneme Definitions A member of the set of the smallest units of speech that serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect One of the units of sound that distinguish one word from another in a particular language.

Phoneme Definitions A member of the set of the smallest units of speech that serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect One of the units of sound that distinguish one word from another in a particular language. A category that is defined by its allophones and their environments

Phoneme Definitions A member of the set of the smallest units of speech that serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect One of the units of sound that distinguish one word from another in a particular language. A category that is defined by its allophones and their environments A set of distinct features

Phone A speech sound. The actual sound.

Phone vs. phoneme Phoneme Mental concept of speech sound

Phone vs. phoneme Phoneme Mental concept of speech sound Can’t be measured Has no duration, frequency, tone

Phone vs. phoneme Phoneme Mental concept of speech sound Can’t be measured Has no duration, frequency, tone Phone Actual speech sound Can be measured Has duration, frequeny, tone

Phone vs. phoneme Phonemes are written / / Phones are written [ ]

Allophone Phones are uncategorzed sounds Allophones are phones whose categorization we are discussing

Allophone Phones are uncategorzed sounds Allophones are phones whose categorization we are discussing in terms of its relationship to a phoneme

Allophone Phones are uncategorzed sounds Allophones are phones whose categorization we are discussing in terms of its relationship to a phoneme e.g. the phone [p] is voiceless

Allophone Phones are uncategorzed sounds Allophones are phones whose categorization we are discussing in terms of its relationship to a phoneme e.g. the phone [p] is voiceless e.g. the allophone [p] belongs to the phoneme /p/

Grapheme Graphemes are written letters Graphemes have no sound Graphemes are written “ “ or { }

Grapheme Graphemes are written letters Graphemes have no sound Graphemes are written “ “ or { } When talking about a sound never say it is a letters e.g. ***the first sound in [dag] is the letter d***

Phonemic hypothesis Phonemes are the building blocks of language A language can be analyzed on the basis of its phonemes Speakers process language via phonemes

Phonemic hypothesis Phonemes are the building blocks of language A language can be analyzed on the basis of its phonemes Speakers process language via phonemes

Phonemic hypothesis Phonemes are the building blocks of language A language can be analyzed on the basis of its phonemes Speakers process language via phonemes Evidence that only alphabet literate people process via phonemes

Does writing system affect language processing? Subjects Portuguese speakers who learned to read after age 18 (ex illiterates) Portuguese speakers who could not read (illiterates)

Does writing system affect language processing? Experiment: Segmentation of speech Delete the first sound of a made-up word presented orally Some words were consonant initial [pluku] [pubə] Some were vowel initial [ʌbopu]

Does writing system affect language processing? Experiment: Segmentation of speech Delete the first sound of a made-up word presented orally Some words were consonant initial [pluku] [pubə] Some were vowel initial [ʌbopu] Results Ex-illiterates: 73% correct Illiterates: 19% correct

Does writing system affect language processing? If you haven’t learned to represent speech sounds as phonemes, you can’t manipulate phonemes

Does writing system affect language processing? If you haven’t learned to represent speech sounds as phonemes, you can’t manipulate phonemes Are linguists wrong to assume everyone (even illiterates) processes language by phonemes?

Does writing system affect language processing? Experiment 2 Listen to a word and determine if it contained a particular phone or syllable [t], [k], [ta], [tʌ], [r]

Does writing system affect language processing? Experiment 2 Listen to a word and determine if it contained a particular phone or syllable [t], [k], [ta], [tʌ], [r] Subjects: Illiterates, poor readers, better readers

Does writing system affect language processing? Experiment 2 Listen to a word and determine if it contained a particular phone or syllable [t], [k], [ta], [tʌ], [r] Subjects: Illiterates, poor readers, better readers Results: depending on phone Illiterates: 36-68% correct Poor readers: 84-95% correct Better readers: 77-98% correct [r] recognized best, [tʌ] worst

Does writing system affect language processing? Better readers recognize phones and syllables in spoken speech

Does writing system affect language processing? Experiment 3 Subjects asked to determine if words rhymed (ended in same sounds) Results: better readers >> poor readers >> illiterates

Phonemic segmentation Ability to separate words into phones

Phonemic segmentation Ability to separate words into phones Why is it hard?

Phonemic segmentation Ability to separate words into phones Why is it hard? Fuzzy boundaries between phones

Phonemic segmentation Ability to separate words into phones Why is it hard? Fuzzy boundaries between phones It is necessary to read alphabetic system

Problem Illiterates contrasted with literates

Problem Illiterates contrasted with literates Is it not knowing a writing system at all or not knowing an alphabetic writing system?

Problem Illiterates contrasted with literates Is it not knowing a writing system at all or not knowing an alphabetic writing system? How about comparing literates in non- alphabetic system to literates in alphabetic system

Problem Illiterates contrasted with literates Is it not knowing a writing system at all or not knowing an alphabetic writing system? How about comparing literates in non- alphabetic system to literates in alphabetic system Who? Chinese

Hanyu Pinyin Phonemic representation of Chinese in Latin letters

Hanyu Pinyin Phonemic representation of Chinese in Latin letters Learned by young Chinese kids before Chinese characters

Hanyu Pinyin Subjects One group learned pinyin before Chinese characters Other group only learned characters Both groups were literate

Hanyu Pinyin Subjects Experiment 1 One group learned pinyin before Chinese characters Other group only learned characters Both groups were literate Experiment 1 Delete [d, n, s] from syllable (e.g. [dan]) Add [d, n, s] to syllable (e.g. [an])

Hanyu Pinyin Subjects Experiment 1 One group learned pinyin before Chinese characters Other group only learned characters Both groups were literate Experiment 1 Delete [d, n, s] from syllable (e.g. [dan]) Add [d, n, s] to syllable (e.g. [an]) Some items were real words, others were not

Hanyu Pinyin Results Real words Pinyin taught: 93% correct Not pinyin taught: 37% correct

Hanyu Pinyin Results Real words Non words Pinyin taught: 93% correct Not pinyin taught: 37% correct Non words Pinyin taught: 83% correct Not pinyin taught: 21% correct

Hanyu Pinyin It’s not literate vs. illiterate It’s alphabetic literate vs. alphabetic illiterate

Hanyu Pinyin Spoken speech not divided into phones until/unless it is seen in alphabetic writing

Hanyu Pinyin Spoken speech not divided into phones until/unless it is seen in alphabetic writing This casts doubt on phonemic basis of phonological processing

Distinctive feature The elements that make up a phoneme Analogy-the pigments that make up a color Some features are articulatory and others acoustic [b] is [+voice] [p] is [- voice]

Syllable Are syllables real? Do they play a role in language processing?

Sonorant and obstruents They are mutually exclusive Obstruents-stops, fricatives, affricates

Sonorant and obstruents They are mutually exclusive Obstruents-stops, fricatives, affricates Have more closure Sonorants-nasals, rhotics, laterals, approximants, taps, trills Have less closure Are more singable than obstruents