Center of Excellence in Southeast Asian Linguistics

Publications

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An exploratory investigation of interactions between syllabic prominence, initial geminates, and phrasal boundaries in Pattani Malay

2024

This study investigates interactions among relative syllabic prominence, initial geminates (IGs), and prosodic boundaries in Pattani Malay (PM) against a background of previous analyses claiming that IGs are moraic and trigger a ‘stress shift’ or the linking of a pitch accent to the initial syllable. We conducted an acoustic study with 14 PM speakers, producing singleton–IG minimal pairs in naturalistic sentences. Our results show that the presence of IGs is not associated with the hypothesized phonological changes. Instead, it is associated with moderate increases in the duration of initial syllables, the intensity of the initial syllable vowels, and the f0 of the initial and final syllable vowels. On the other hand, the presence of a phrase-final prosodic boundary correlates with more drastic changes: in phrase-final position, final syllables exhibit final lengthening and falling contours of f0 and intensity, while, in the phrase-medial position, no lengthening is observed and f0 contours are rising. Furthermore, the effects of IGs are strongest in the phrase-final position, suggesting interactions between IGs and prosodic boundaries. Taken together, results cast doubts on the claim that IGs are moraic and associated with categorical differences in syllabic prominence profiles in PM and show that IGs effects are modulated by prosodic boundaries.

GIS Technique as an indispensable tool in the real time study of dialect change: a case of the northeastern region of Thailand

2024

For linguists, mapping a clear visual display of spatial change of dialects has been a challenging
task. This article aims to present an alternative solution by which GIS and linguistics are incorporated to
help improve quality of spatial analysis and map display in the study of dialect geography. Applied
methodological flow with the exemplified application to the northeastern region of Thailand is
illustrated. GIS’s spatial analysis functions are demonstrated to create and compare the dialect maps of
1979 and 2002. Result of the study exhibits as change-quantification maps showing the real time spatial
change patterns of Thai dialects. The benefit of GIS is obvious as an indispensable tool for assisting
linguists to better interpret and understand the spatial pattern of change with more confidence.

A Preliminary Investigation of the Phonetic Characteristics of Moklen Tones

2023

Moklen, an endangered Austronesian language in Southern Thailand, is important for studying tonogenesis. Previous research confirmed the presence of two lexical tones in Moklen, but their nature is unclear. This study analyzed the acoustic properties of Moklen tones. Eight native Moklen speakers participated, producing 93 mono- and disyllables with varied tones, onset voicing, vowel length, and coda classes. Acoustic measurements were obtained from the stressed final syllables, including f0, F1, F2, H1*-A3*, and CPP. Results showed that f0 is the primary phonetic cue for tonal contrast in Moklen, accompanied by the difference in vowel quality and phonation type. Specifically, Tone 1 is characterized by higher pitch and a lower and more front vowel with modal voice, while Tone 2 has a lower pitch and a higher, more back, and breathier vowel. These characteristics bear similarities to register distinctions observed in Austroasiatic languages of Southeast Asia, suggesting a possible transphonologization of laryngeal properties into prosodic ones in Moklen. However, the exact segmental sources of Moklen tones still remain an open question.

Difficulties with pronouns in autism: Experimental results from Thai children with autism

2023

This paper explores the acquisition of personal reference terms in Thai, a language with a highly complex personal reference system. Two separate studies were conducted for this paper, each featuring two groups of participants: children with typical development (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In each study, the participants were asked to complete two tasks on personal reference terms: a production task and a comprehension task. Overall, children with ASD performed on par in production, in terms of overall communicative success. However, an important finding was that they demonstrated a tendency toward pronoun avoidance, being less likely than children with TD to use deictic first-person pronominal forms. Instead, they preferred to use fixed referential terms for self-reference, contrasting with the children with TD’s preference for personal pronouns. The performance of children with ASD was significantly poorer in comprehension than that of children with TD. Children with ASD were generally able to detect lexically encoded person features but struggled with the more pragmatic and socially deictic aspects of personal reference terms. The latter also posed some challenges for children with TD, albeit to a lesser extent. In this regard, our results align with previous claims in the literature that lexical presuppositions are acquired earlier than implicated presuppositions. Our findings also add various new insights in terms of both population-specific effects in a language previously unstudied in this regard and the specific ways in which aspects of implicated presuppositions, i.e., the type of content in play, give rise to particular challenges in acquisition in general and for children with ASD in particular.