**********************************************
  foNETiks

  A network newsletter for
  the International Phonetic Association
  and for the Phonetic Sciences

  May 2007

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Editors:

Linda Shockey, University of Reading, UK.
Gerry Docherty, Newcastle University, UK. 
Paul Foulkes, JP French Associates and University of York, UK. 
Lisa Lim, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

E-mail address: [log in to unmask]

The foNETiks archive can be found on the WWW at:
<http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/fonetiks.html>

Visit the IPA web page at: <http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html>

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  ANNOUNCEMENTS
  [new ones marked **]
  [date of first appearance follows]
**************************************

18-20 May 2007. Experimental Approaches to Optimality Theory. Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. <http://www.ling.lsa.umich.edu/expot/> (09/06)

22-25 May 2007. NOLISP 2007. An ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop on Non Linear Speech Processing. The Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris, France. <http://www.congres.upmc.fr/nolisp2007/>;
<http://www.congres.upmc.fr/nolisp2007/Call%20NOLISP%2007.pdf> (04/06)

24-26 May 2007.  Manchester Phonology Conference. Manchester, England. <http://www.englang.ed.ac.uk/mfm/15mfm.html>; (02/07)

7-8 June 2007. Segments and Tone. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 
http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=141408&Itemid=70
(02/07)

25-26 June 2007. Phonetics and Phonology in Iberia 2007 (PaPI 2007). University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. <http://www2.ilch.uminho.pt/eventos/PaPI2007/> (12/06)

27-28 June 2007. Schwa(s) - 5th Journées d'Études Linguistiques (JEL'2007). Nantes, France. <http://www.lettres.univ-nantes.fr/lling/jel2007/> (11/06)

4-6 July 2007. Joint conference of the Linguistic Society of South Africa, the South African Applied Linguistics Association and the South African Association of Language Teaching. North-West University, South Africa. <http://www.ctext.co.za/Kongres%20engels/Index.html> (04/07)

** 6 - 8 July 2007. Workshop on Variation, Gradience and Frequency in Phonology, Stanford, CA, USA.
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/linguistics/linginst/nsf-workshop/workshop-july-2007.html (05/07) [further details below]

8-13 July 2007. Prosody and Pragmatics in Spoken Language corpora. Gothenburg, Sweden. <http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~ndehe/IPrA2007/hauptseite.html> (11/06)

12 - 14 July 2007.  From Oral Corpora to Phonological Theories: The Case of French, London, Ontario, Canada <http://ling.uwo.ca/PFC2007> (02/07)

22-25 July 2007. Annual Meeting of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics. Plymouth, UK. <http://www.iafpa.net/conf.htm> (03/07, 04/07)

2-3 August 2007. ParaLing'07: International workshop on Paralinguistic speech - between models and data. Saarbrucken, Germany. <http://www.dfki.de/paraling07> (01/07)

2-4 August 2007. Disfluency in Spontaneous Speech International Workshop (DiSS'07). Edinburgh, UK. <http://www.disfluency.org> (08/06)

3 - 4 August 2007. Phonetics and Phonology in Third Language Acquisition. Freiburg, Germany. <http://www.phonetik.uni-freiburg.de/L3phonology> (01/07)

4 August, 2007. Speaker Age. Saarbrucken, Germany. <http://w5/cs/uni-sb.de/%7Ecmueller/sa/> (01/07)

5 August 2007. Interdisciplinary Workshop on The Phonetics of Laughter. Saarbrucken, Germany. <http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/conf/laughter-07> (11/06)

5 August 2007. ICPhS 2007 Satellite Meeting. Workshop on Intonational Phonology: Understudied or Fieldwork Languages. Saarbrucken, Germany. <http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/jun/intonation.htm> (03/07)

6-10 August 2007. 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS2007). Saarland University, Saarbrucken, Germany. <http://www.icphs2007.de> (04/06, 08/06, 01/07, 02/07))

22-24 August 2007. SSW-6: 6th ISCA Speech Synthesis Research Workshop. Bonn, Germany. <http://www.isca-speech.org/ssw6/> (09/06)

24-26 August 2007. Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference. London, England.  http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/ptlc/index.html (02/07)

27-31 August 2007. Interspeech 2007. Antwerp, Belgium. <www.interspeech2007.org> (08/06)

31 August - 3 September 2007. International Conference on Auditory-Visual Speech Processing (AVSP 2007). Hilvarenbeek, The Netherlands. <http://foap.uvt.nl/avsp2007> (01/07)

16-21 September 2007. Summer School: Cognitive and physical models of speech production, perception, and perception-production interaction. Autrans, France. <http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/events/summerschool_2007/>
(03/07)

19-20 September 2007. Phonological Words in South Asia and Southeast Asia Workshop. University of Leipzig, Germany.(04/07)

1-3 October 2007. SLaTE Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education. ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop. The Summit Inn, Farmington, Pennsylvania USA. <www.sigslate.org> ; <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Emax/mainpage_files/SLATE_files/SLaTE%20Call%20for%20Participation%20poster.doc> (04/07)

4-5 October 2007. International Conference: Where Do Features Come From? Phonological Primitives in the Brain, the Mouth, and the Ear. Sorbonne-nouvelle, Paris, France. <http://phoneticbases.free.fr/>; (04/07) 

8-10 October 2007. Phonetics Today 2007. Moscow, Russia. <http://phoneticstoday.ruslang.ru/en/> (01/07)

** 15 - 18 October 2007. XII International Conference "Speech and Computer" -- SPECOM 2007; http://specom2007.ru; (05/07) [further details below]

** 25 - 28 November 2007. New Sounds 2007: Fifth International Sympoium on the Acquisition of Seond Language Speech. Praiatur Hotel, Ingleses Beach, Florianopolis-SC, Brazil. (05/07) [further details below]

6-9 May 2008. Speech Prosody 2008. Campinas, Brazil. (12/06) http://www.sp2008.org/ 

** 30 June - 2 July 2008. 11th Laboratory Phonology Conference. Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. http://www.vuw/ac/nz/labphon11 (05/07) [further details below]

22-26 September 2008. Interspeech 2008. Brisbane, Australia. <http://www.interspeech2008.org/> (09/06)


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  CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS
*****************************

New Sounds 2007
Fifth International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech November 25-28 Praiatur Hotel, Ingleses Beach, Florianopolis-SC, Brazil

Deadline for submitting abstracts: May 11, 2007.

Types of presentations: twenty-minute talks or poster

Abstracts should report research on:
(1) the perception and/or production of second/foreign language sounds; or
(2) research on the effect of second/foreign language pronunciation teaching/training. The target L2 can, of course, be any language.

Check the call for papers at www.nupffale.ufsc.br/newsounds

Important dates:
Abstract Submission Deadline: May 11
Acceptance Notification: June 30
Early registration:July 01
Publication of Proceedings Guidelines: July 01 Late registration: September 01 Last-minute registration: November 01 On-site registration: November 25

Keynote speakers:
Leonor Scliar Cabral (Federal University of Santa Catarina) Ocke-Schwen Bohn (Aarhus University) Paul Iverson (University College London)

Abstract Reviewing Committee:
Allan James (University of Klagenfurt)
Andréia Schurt Rauber (UFSC)
Barbara Oughton Baptista (UFSC)
Geoffrey Stewart Morrison (Boston University) Juli Cebrian (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) Leonor Scliar Cabral  (UFSC) Mehmet Yavas (Florida International University) Michael Alan Watkins (UFPR) Ocke-Schwen Bohn (Aarhus University) Paola Escudero (University of Amsterdam) Robert Carlisle (California State University) Rosana Denise Koerich (UFSC) Rosane Silveira (UFSC) Roy C. Major (Arizona State University)

New Sounds Organizing Committee
Barbara O. Baptista (UFSC)
Michael Alan Watkins (UFPR)
Andréia Schurt Rauber (UFSC)
www.nupffale.ufsc.br/newsounds

---------------------------------------------------------

11th Laboratory phonology Conference

The organising committee is pleased to announce that Laboratory Phonology 11 will be held at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 30 June - 2 July 2008.

The overall theme of the conference will be "Phonetic detail in the lexicon", with the following sub-themes:

1.      Accessing the lexicon

2.      Social information in the lexicon

3.      Phonetic cues to lexical structure

4.      Generalising over the lexicon

Further announcements will be made shortly, and posted on the conference web-page: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/labphon11

Note that this conference will be immediately followed at the same venue by the 5th conference of the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA5)

Paul Warren, Victoria University of Wellington Jen Hay, University of Canterbury

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XII International Conference "Speech and Computer" -- SPECOM 2007

Moscow - 15 - 18 October 2007

The website of SPECOM'2007 (http://specom2007.ru) is now open. Online registration procedure is available.
Early and late registration deadlines have been extended. Paper submission deadline will be extended too (now May, 25). Please visit the site to get the newest information. If you have any problems with online registration, please contact the site's webmasters by e-mail: [log in to unmask] If you have questions on paper submission or presentation, please contact our technical assistant Nikolay Bobrov ([log in to unmask]).

The Organizing Committee
of the XII International Conference
"Speech and Computer"
SPECOM'2007

--------------------------------------------------

Workshop on Variation, Gradience and Frequency in Phonology
6-8 July  2007
Stanford, CA, USA 

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/linguistics/linginst/nsf-workshop/workshop-july-2007.html 

This three-day workshop on Variation, Gradience, and Frequency in Phonology will run concurrently with the 2007 Linguistic Institute at Stanford University in July 2007. The goal is to facilitate the collaboration among phonologists seeking unified theoretical explanations for qualitative and quantitative patterns in phonology. 

The workshop will focus on three main topics: 

- Phonological variation
- Gradient phonotactics
- Lexical frequency effects 

Phonology studies the sound patterns of human languages. Sound patterns sometimes emerge as quantitative tendencies and preferences. This can be illustrated by the following three examples. First, in American English, word-final /t/ is variably deleted, more often before consonants (''west side'') than before vowels (''west end''). Second, some sound combinations make better words than others. This can be seen in the dictionary where some combinations are statistically overrepresented, others underrepresented, as well as in experiments where subjects judge some nonsense words to sound more natural than others (''stin'' > ''smy'' > ''bzharsk''). Third, word frequency influences phonological patterns. The low-frequency word ''exploit'' has initial stress as a noun, final stress as a verb, whereas the high-frequency word ''express'' has final stress under both readings. 

Phonological theory has traditionally focused on qualitative patterns. 
Quantitative phenomena, such as variation, gradient phonotactics and lexical frequency effects, have not figured prominently in theoretical discussion. This is changing. Quantitative studies are becoming common, partly because of new methodological developments (annotated corpora, sociolinguistic databases, searchable dialect archives, on-line dictionaries, experimental psycholinguistic data, new computational tools), and partly because of new theoretical developments. This has broadened the empirical base of phonology and is likely to lead to new discoveries and connections to neighboring fields of inquiry. 

Speakers: 

Adam Albright (MIT)
Arto Anttila (Stanford University)
Paul Boersma (University of Amsterdam)
Andries Coetzee (University of Michigan) Gregory Guy (New York University) Michael Hammond (University of Arizona) Bruce Hayes (UCLA) Dan Jurafsky (Stanford University) Yoonjung Kang (University of Toronto) Paul Kiparsky (Stanford University) James Myers (National Chung Cheng University) Marc van Oostendorp (Meertens Institute) Joe Pater (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) Betty Phillips (Indiana State University) Kie Zuraw (UCLA) 

Abstract Guidelines: 

We are soliciting abstracts for posters relevant to any of the topics mentioned above. Abstracts should be at most one page long on a letter size or A4 sheet with one-inch margins and typed in at least 12 point font. An optional second page may be used for data, charts, and references. Abstracts should be submitted electronically in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format to gmail.com>. The author(s) of the abstract should not be identified in the abstract itself. The body of the submission message should include the title of the abstract, the names(s) of the author(s), the(ir) affiliation(s), and e-mail address(es). Submissions are limited to one individual and one joint abstract per author, or two joint abstracts per author. 

This workshop is funded by NSF Grant #0647250. Funding will be available to help offset the travel costs of student presenters. 

Deadline for submission: April 30, 2007. The workshop program will be announced in early May. 

Important Dates: 

April 30: Poster abstracts due (send to: variation07gmail.com) Early May: Notification of acceptance July 6-8: Workshop 

More information about the workshop, including the final program, will be posted on the workshop's website in due course: 

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/linguistics/linginst/nsf-workshop/workshop-july-2007.html 

For any questions about the workshop, please email your queries to either of the
organizers: 

Arto Anttila or Lauren Hall-Lew
variation07gmail.com 

This workshop is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 
0647250. 


*********************
  POSITIONS VACANT
*********************

Edinburgh University
Research Fellow in Linguistics and English Language School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, College of Humanities and Social Science

Applications are invited for a full-time, fixed term Research Fellow in Linguistics and English Language. In collaboration with the Centre for Speech Technology Research, the School of Informatics (U. of Edinburgh) and Speech and Language Sciences (Queen Margaret University). You will be responsible for working on this EPSRC funded project together with the PIs and technical staff in laboratory setup, method validation, development of the Map Task corpus of spontaneous dialogue, experimental protocols, data collection and analysis, training of staff and casual assistants, and will carry out a pilot research project as part of software testing. 

You should have a Ph.D. in Linguistics, Phonetics, Psychology or a cognate discipline, or equivalent research experience, good interpersonal and organisational skills, and ideally will have had experience collecting and analysing data using similar equipment. 

The post is available for a term of 34 months tenable from June 2007. 

For further particulars https://www.jobs.ed.ac.uk/jobs/index.cfm?action=jobdet&jobid=3007309 and an application pack visit our website (www.jobs.ed.ac.uk) or telephone the recruitment line on 0131 650 2511. 

Salary Scale: £26,666 - £31,840 

Please quote vacancy reference: 3007309JW 

Closing date: 10 May 2007

-----------------------------------------------------

Interdisciplinary research on speech motor networks

Fulltime 2-year Postdoc Scholarship
Max-Planck-Institute for Neurological Research, Cologne, Germany

The Max-Planck-Institute for Neurological Research with Klaus-Joachim-Zülch-Laboratories of the Max Planck Society and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cologne is a research institute of the German Max-Planck-Society. One focus of research is the investigation of cortical networks mediating cognitive processes and their disturbances. Currently a new research lab investigating the neuronal networks underlying speech production and dysarthria is established.

Applications are invited for a postdoc scholarship of the Max-Planck-Society. This project will suit a PhD graduate with a background in phonetics. The candidate should have profound experience of conducting research, skills in acoustic analysis of speech, and should be interested in interdiscplinary work with neuroscientists, psychologists and neurologists. Facilities for acoustic signal analysis will be provided; the project also involves neuroscientific methods like functional imaging and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Knowledge of these research methods is not expected but can be acquired during the scholarship.

To get further details or if you want to apply, please contact Dr. Ingo Meister, [log in to unmask] or call +49-221-478-87650 

-----------------------------------------------------

Student Internship 

Toshiba Research and Development Center (RDC), Kawasaki, Japan, are offering a 6 month to 1 year internship in speech recognition or speech synthesis (signal processing). The international candidate will be a masters or PhD level student. She or he will work in the Multimedia Laboratory at RDC. The Center is situated in Kawasaki which is between Tokyo and Yokohama. 

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/rdc/index.htm
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/rdc/mmlab/index_e.htm 

Toshiba RDC will provide a dormitory for accommodation and living expenses.
PC, software tools and other necessities will be provided. Travel costs to and from Japan are not covered by this internship. 

Closing date for applications: Monday 21st May, 2007 

Applications in the first instance should be made to Dr Kate Knill, Cambridge Research Lab, Toshiba Research Europe Limited. Electronic applications preferred to [log in to unmask] Please include a covering letter, your CV and the names of 3 referees.

--------------------------------------------------

University of Victoria
Department of Linguistics
http://web.uvic.ca/ling/ 

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Victoria invites applications for an eight-month sessional appointment in phonetics and phonology, effective 1 September 2007. 

Duties will include teaching undergraduate courses in acoustic and experimental phonetics, a graduate course in experimental phonetics (or related area), and undergraduate courses in phonetics and phonology. 
Applicants will be expected to participate in MA and PhD student supervision. Experience teaching in these areas of research is an asset, as is experience with graduate supervision. Information about the Department of Linguistics and its programs can be found on the Department's web page. 

Candidates are expected to have a PhD in Linguistics, a record of research achievement, and a strong commitment to excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching. The appointment will be within the CUPE 4163 (component
3) Sessional Lecturers certification. The salary is determined by experience and qualifications. 

Applications should be submitted in hard copy to the address below, and should include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, sample of published work, teaching evaluations, the names and contact information for three referees, and a brief 2-4 paragraph proposal for a graduate seminar in experimental phonetics (or related) course. Please send electronic versions of your cover letter and curriculum vitae to linguistuvic.ca. 

The University of Victoria is an equity employer and encourages applications from women, persons with disabilities, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, people of all sexual orientations and genders, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of the university. 

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority. 

Application deadline -- 31 May 2007 

Mailing Address for Applications: 
Dr. Leslie Saxon
Chair, Department of Linguistics
University of Victoria
PO Box 3045
Victoria, BC V8W 3P4
Canada 

For further information, contact: 
Dr. Leslie Saxon
Email: saxonuvic.ca
Phone: 250 721 7422
Fax: 250 721 7423 

--------------------------------------------------

Post-doc Researcher Position 

Toshiba Research and Development Center (RDC), Kawasaki, Japan, are looking for an international researcher to work on acoustic modeling for robust speech recognition. She or he will have a PhD degree and preferably work experience in the field of speech recognition. 

This will be a 3 year fixed term contract. Renewal subject to agreement on both sides. The salary is dependent on the applicant. Detailed benefits will be discussed at the interview.

The applicant will work in the Multimedia Laboratory. RDC is located in Kawasaki, which is situated between Tokyo and Yokohama.

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/rdc/index.htm
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/rdc/mmlab/index_e.htm 

Closing date for applications: Monday 14th May, 2007 

Applications in the first instance should be made to Dr Kate Knill, Cambridge Research Lab, Toshiba Research Europe Limited. Electronic applications preferred to [log in to unmask] Please include a covering letter, your CV and the names of 3 referees.


****************************
  SPECIAL ISSUE ANNOUNCEMENT
****************************

Speech Communication Special Issue on Iberian Languages (IL)

The purpose of this Special Issue is to present recent progress and significant advances in all areas of speech science and technology research in the context of IL. Submitted papers must address topics specific to IL and/or issues raised by analyses of spoken data that shed light on speech science and linguistic theories regarding these languages. Research which deals with IL data, but makes use of standard techniques should not be submitted for this Special Issue. However, both research presenting relevant optimization of current technology and systems, and work exploring specific features of IL spoken corpora will be considered for submission.

Important Dates
Submission deadline: May 31st, 2007
Notification of acceptance: October 31st, 2007 Final manuscript due: December 30th, 2007 Tentative publication date: March, 2008

Check the call for papers at http://www.il-sig.org/


Andreia S. Rauber
ISCA SIG on Iberian Languages

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   The deadline for material for the June 2007 issue of foNETiks is 28 May 2007.
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