Generating segmental foreign accent

For most of us, speaking in a non-native language involves deviating to some extent from native pronunciation norms. However, the detailed basis for foreign accent (FA) remains elusive, in part due to methodological challenges in isolating segmental from suprasegmental factors. The current study examines the role of segmental features in conveying FA through the use of a generative approach in which accent is localised to single consonantal segments. Three techniques are evaluated: the first requires a highly-proficiency bilingual to produce words with isolated accented segments; the second uses cross-splicing of context-dependent consonants from the non-native language into native words; the third employs hidden Markov model synthesis to blend voice models for both languages. Using English and Spanish as the native/non-native languages respectively, listener cohorts from both languages identified words and rated their degree of FA. All techniques were capable of generating accented words, but to differing degrees. Naturally-produced speech led to the strongest FA ratings and synthetic speech the weakest, which we interpret as the outcome of over-smoothing. Nevertheless, the flexibility offered by synthesising localised accent encourages further development of the method.

Análisis traductológico de la obra paremiográfica de Charles Cahier, (francés-español)

This thesis contains a translatological analysis of the Spanish proverbs collected by Charles Cahier in Quelque six mille proverbes et aphorismes usuels empruntés à notre âge et aux siècles derniers. Proverbs and other sententious sayings are part of our day-to-day life, and are more or less intensely used according to cultures and their types of speech. They have always existed in every single civilisation. There is, indeed, no denying that the purpose of proverbs is to convey an old experience. They are quoted by major philosophers and writers of all times. As a result of the interest they have raised, books of proverbs have been published for many centuries in a high number of countries. Proverbs can be found everywhere, both in professional and personal settings, or in a conversation between friends. In France, these sayings are more commonly used in literature than in spoken language, whereas in Spain proverbs can be found at all levels of communication. In this regard, it is interesting to compare the translations of international works to detect a number of misunderstandings regarding the interpretation of paremiological elements. This is why translating proverbs is a genuine, complex issue. This thesis, which is aimed at Spanish and French speakers (including native and foreign speakers), has a double application (translatological and linguistic) and falls within the context of translatological and comparative paremiology...

Foreign words in the English of textiles

All references and quotations to be made to the original, i.e. Balteiro Fernández, M. Isabel. 2009. “Foreign Words in the English of Textiles”. In Linde, A. and Crespo, R. Ed. Professional English in the European Context: The EHEA Challenge. Bern: Peter Lang. Pp. 127-150

D. Certification to study French, 1796 September 5

This subseries contains one brief handwritten certification that Loammi Baldwin's son may study the French language as part of his college studies.

D. Certification to study French, 1796 September 5

This subseries contains one brief handwritten certification that Loammi Baldwin's son may study the French language as part of his college studies.

Kitāb Mukālamāt ʻArabīyah : manuscript, [ca. 1783]

المقالة الأولى في حروف العربية ووضعهم في الكلام أول ذلك علىيد اليمين على جانب الشمال... :Incipit

The Impact of Language Opacity and Proficiency on Reading Strategies in Bilinguals: An Eye Movement Study

Reading strategies vary across languages according to orthographic depth - the complexity of the grapheme in relation to phoneme conversion rules - notably at the level of eye movement patterns. We recently demonstrated that a group of early bilinguals, who learned both languages equally under the age of seven, presented a first fixation location (FFL) closer to the beginning of words when reading in German as compared with French. Since German is known to be orthographically more transparent than French, this suggested that different strategies were being engaged depending on the orthographic depth of the used language. Opaque languages induce a global reading strategy, and transparent languages force a local/serial strategy. Thus, pseudo-words were processed using a local strategy in both languages, suggesting that the link between word forms and their lexical representation may also play a role in selecting a specific strategy. In order to test whether corresponding effects appear in late bilinguals with low proficiency in their second language (L2), we present a new study in which we recorded eye movements while two groups of late German-French and French-German bilinguals read aloud isolated French and German words and pseudo-words. Since, a transparent reading strategy is local and serial, with a high number of fixations per stimuli, and the level of the bilingual participants' L2 is low, the impact of language opacity should be observed in L1. We therefore predicted a global reading strategy if the bilinguals' L1 was French (FFL close to the middle of the stimuli with fewer fixations per stimuli) and a local and serial reading strategy if it was German. Thus, the L2 of each group, as well as pseudo-words, should also require a local and serial reading strategy. Our results confirmed these hypotheses, suggesting that global word processing is only achieved by bilinguals with an opaque L1 when reading in an opaque language; the low level in the L2 gives way to a local and serial reading strategy. These findings stress the fact that reading behavior is influenced not only by the linguistic mode but also by top-down factors, such as readers' proficiency.

French Guiana.

On t.p.: Confidential.

The language of flowers with illustrative poetry : to which are now first added the calendar of flowers, and the dial of flowers.

Probably based on "Le langage des fleurs" by Mme. Louise Cortambert, who wrote under the pseudonym "Charlotte de Latour."

A dictionarie of the French and English tongues. Reproduced from the 1st ed., London, 1611.

Mode of access: Internet.

"Aunt Babette's" cook book : foreign and domestic receipts for the household : a valuable collection of receipts and hints for the housewife, many of which are not to be found elsewhere /

Includes sections on servants, grocery marketing, canning; household hints; samples of menus; recipes for German, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Jewish dishes; some recipes include wine or liquor as an ingredient. Sample recipes: Filet de bœuf au champignons, Velvet potato puffs, Rhubarb custard pie, Bergamot ice-cream.

Royal dictionary, English and French and French and English,

Title of v. 2 reads: Grand dictionnaire français-anglais et anglais-français ...

Mansion's shorter French and English dictionary,

Mode of access: Internet.