Sound comparisons: A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world

Paul Heggarty; Aviva Shimelman; Giovanni Abete; Cormac Anderson; Scott Sadowsky; Ludger Paschen; Warren Maguire; Lechoslaw Jocz; María José Aninao; Laura Wägerle; Darja Dërmaku-Appelganz; Ariel Pheula do Couto e Silva; Lewis C. Lawyer; Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral; Mary Walworth; Jan Michalsky; Ezequiel Koile; Jakob Runge; Hans-Jörg Bibiko

Sound comparisons: A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world

Paul Heggarty, Aviva Shimelman, Giovanni Abete, Cormac Anderson, Scott Sadowsky, Ludger Paschen, Warren Maguire, Lechoslaw Jocz, María José Aninao, Laura Wägerle, Darja Dërmaku-Appelganz, Ariel Pheula do Couto e Silva, Lewis C. Lawyer, Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral, Mary Walworth, Jan Michalsky, Ezequiel Koile, Jakob Runge, Hans-Jörg Bibiko

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Sound Comparisons hosts over 90,000 individual word recordings and 50,000 narrow phonetic transcriptions from 600 language varieties from eleven language families around the world. This resource is designed to serve researchers in phonetics, phonology and related fields. Transcriptions follow new initiatives for standardisation in usage of the IPA and Unicode. At soundcomparisons.com, users can explore the transcription datasets by phonetically-informed search and filtering, customise selections of languages and words, download any targeted data subset (sound files and transcriptions) and cite it through a custom URL. We present sample research applications based on our extensive coverage of regional and sociolinguistic variation within major languages, and also of endangered languages, for which Sound Comparisons provides a rapid first documentation of their diversity in phonetics. The multilingual interface and user-friendly, ‘hover-to-hear’ maps likewise constitute an outreach tool, where speakers can instantaneously hear and compare the phonetic diversity and relationships of their native languages.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019
Editors	S. Calhoun, P. Escudero, M. Tabain, P. Warren
Place of Publication	Canberra, Australia
Publisher	Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.
Pages	280-284
ISBN (Print)	9780646800691
Publication status	Published - 2019

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

database
endangered languages
sound change
comparative/historical linguistics
diversity

Access to Document

HeggartyEtal2-19SoundComparisonsFinal published version, 746 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)

Cite this

Heggarty, P., Shimelman, A., Abete, G., Anderson, C., Sadowsky, S., Paschen, L., Maguire, W., Jocz, L., Aninao, M. J., Wägerle, L., Dërmaku-Appelganz, D., do Couto e Silva, A. P., Lawyer, L. C., Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral, A., Walworth, M., Michalsky, J., Koile, E., Runge, J., & Bibiko, H.-J. (2019). Sound comparisons: A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world. In S. Calhoun, P. Escudero, M. Tabain, & P. Warren (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019 (pp. 280-284). Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.. https://assta.org/proceedings/ICPhS2019/papers/ICPhS_329.pdf

Heggarty, Paul ; Shimelman, Aviva ; Abete, Giovanni et al. / Sound comparisons : A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019. editor / S. Calhoun ; P. Escudero ; M. Tabain ; P. Warren. Canberra, Australia : Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019. pp. 280-284

@inproceedings{318ddbb3c762416c9af21a3f0a387998,

title = "Sound comparisons: A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world",

abstract = "Sound Comparisons hosts over 90,000 individual word recordings and 50,000 narrow phonetic transcriptions from 600 language varieties from eleven language families around the world. This resource is designed to serve researchers in phonetics, phonology and related fields. Transcriptions follow new initiatives for standardisation in usage of the IPA and Unicode. At soundcomparisons.com, users can explore the transcription datasets by phonetically-informed search and filtering, customise selections of languages and words, download any targeted data subset (sound files and transcriptions) and cite it through a custom URL. We present sample research applications based on our extensive coverage of regional and sociolinguistic variation within major languages, and also of endangered languages, for which Sound Comparisons provides a rapid first documentation of their diversity in phonetics. The multilingual interface and user-friendly, {\textquoteleft}hover-to-hear{\textquoteright} maps likewise constitute an outreach tool, where speakers can instantaneously hear and compare the phonetic diversity and relationships of their native languages. ",

keywords = "database, endangered languages, sound change, comparative/historical linguistics, diversity",

author = "Paul Heggarty and Aviva Shimelman and Giovanni Abete and Cormac Anderson and Scott Sadowsky and Ludger Paschen and Warren Maguire and Lechoslaw Jocz and Aninao, {Mar{\'i}a Jos{\'e}} and Laura W{\"a}gerle and Darja D{\"e}rmaku-Appelganz and {do Couto e Silva}, {Ariel Pheula} and Lawyer, {Lewis C.} and {Suelly Arruda C{\^a}mara Cabral}, Ana and Mary Walworth and Jan Michalsky and Ezequiel Koile and Jakob Runge and Hans-J{\"o}rg Bibiko",

year = "2019",

language = "English",

isbn = "9780646800691",

pages = "280--284",

editor = "S. Calhoun and P. Escudero and M. Tabain and P. Warren",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019",

publisher = "Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.",

}

Heggarty, P, Shimelman, A, Abete, G, Anderson, C, Sadowsky, S, Paschen, L, Maguire, W, Jocz, L, Aninao, MJ, Wägerle, L, Dërmaku-Appelganz, D, do Couto e Silva, AP, Lawyer, LC, Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral, A, Walworth, M, Michalsky, J, Koile, E, Runge, J & Bibiko, H-J 2019, Sound comparisons: A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world. in S Calhoun, P Escudero, M Tabain & P Warren (eds), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019. Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., Canberra, Australia, pp. 280-284. <https://assta.org/proceedings/ICPhS2019/papers/ICPhS_329.pdf>

Sound comparisons: A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world. / Heggarty, Paul; Shimelman, Aviva; Abete, Giovanni et al.
Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019. ed. / S. Calhoun; P. Escudero; M. Tabain; P. Warren. Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019. p. 280-284.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

TY - GEN

T1 - Sound comparisons

T2 - A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world

AU - Heggarty, Paul

AU - Shimelman, Aviva

AU - Abete, Giovanni

AU - Anderson, Cormac

AU - Sadowsky, Scott

AU - Paschen, Ludger

AU - Maguire, Warren

AU - Jocz, Lechoslaw

AU - Aninao, María José

AU - Wägerle, Laura

AU - Dërmaku-Appelganz, Darja

AU - do Couto e Silva, Ariel Pheula

AU - Lawyer, Lewis C.

AU - Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral, Ana

AU - Walworth, Mary

AU - Michalsky, Jan

AU - Koile, Ezequiel

AU - Runge, Jakob

AU - Bibiko, Hans-Jörg

PY - 2019

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N2 - Sound Comparisons hosts over 90,000 individual word recordings and 50,000 narrow phonetic transcriptions from 600 language varieties from eleven language families around the world. This resource is designed to serve researchers in phonetics, phonology and related fields. Transcriptions follow new initiatives for standardisation in usage of the IPA and Unicode. At soundcomparisons.com, users can explore the transcription datasets by phonetically-informed search and filtering, customise selections of languages and words, download any targeted data subset (sound files and transcriptions) and cite it through a custom URL. We present sample research applications based on our extensive coverage of regional and sociolinguistic variation within major languages, and also of endangered languages, for which Sound Comparisons provides a rapid first documentation of their diversity in phonetics. The multilingual interface and user-friendly, ‘hover-to-hear’ maps likewise constitute an outreach tool, where speakers can instantaneously hear and compare the phonetic diversity and relationships of their native languages.

AB - Sound Comparisons hosts over 90,000 individual word recordings and 50,000 narrow phonetic transcriptions from 600 language varieties from eleven language families around the world. This resource is designed to serve researchers in phonetics, phonology and related fields. Transcriptions follow new initiatives for standardisation in usage of the IPA and Unicode. At soundcomparisons.com, users can explore the transcription datasets by phonetically-informed search and filtering, customise selections of languages and words, download any targeted data subset (sound files and transcriptions) and cite it through a custom URL. We present sample research applications based on our extensive coverage of regional and sociolinguistic variation within major languages, and also of endangered languages, for which Sound Comparisons provides a rapid first documentation of their diversity in phonetics. The multilingual interface and user-friendly, ‘hover-to-hear’ maps likewise constitute an outreach tool, where speakers can instantaneously hear and compare the phonetic diversity and relationships of their native languages.

KW - database

KW - endangered languages

KW - sound change

KW - comparative/historical linguistics

KW - diversity

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 9780646800691

SP - 280

EP - 284

BT - Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019

A2 - Calhoun, S.

A2 - Escudero, P.

A2 - Tabain, M.

A2 - Warren, P.

PB - Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.

CY - Canberra, Australia

ER -

Heggarty P, Shimelman A, Abete G, Anderson C, Sadowsky S, Paschen L et al. Sound comparisons: A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world. In Calhoun S, Escudero P, Tabain M, Warren P, editors, Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019. Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc. 2019. p. 280-284 Epub 2019 Aug 14.

Sound comparisons: A new resource for exploring phonetic diversity across language families of the world

Abstract

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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Cite this