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International audience; This paper investigates the potential role of syllabic structure in characterising the informational content of running speech using an energy-based measure (the cochlea-scaled entropy, CSE index). We computed the CSE and compared how it aligned to the energy envelope for a corpus of English and Spanish sentences. We also compared these measures to syl-labic structure, which differs markedly between the two languages. Results show that English exhibits a clear difference between informational and energy peaks in relation to the phonetic syllable nucleus, defined here in terms of the temporal mid-point of adjacent vowels. In contrast, in Spanish, both peaks align. Further, energy peaks occur later in the syllable in English, whereas they precede the nucleus in Spanish. Evaluation of internal syllable timing showed a more regular timing pattern in Spanish than English, which we suggest could have an implication for automatic selection of information bearing elements of speech.

International audience; In Soureth (North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic), only two syllable patterns are available : CVC and CV. When a succession of two consonants (CCV) occurs at the beginning of a stress group, the first ofthem must be considered as extra-syllabic. [ə] his not a phoneme but the contextualrealization of anempty vocalic position. On a morpho-phonological point of view, within a verbal stem : 1/ [ə] and [i]are contextual realizations of an empty vocalic position ; 2/ a vocalic position must get three main degrees: Ø (zero), /a/ and /u/ (and sometimes /o/, in a few marginal cases)

This version was slightly amended by the author in September 2014. Two typographical errors spotted by Albert Badosa Roldós were corrected in March 2021.; André G. Haudricourt, in his seminal article "De l'origine des tons en vietnamien" (1954), showed masterly that the three tones of Ancient Vietnamese originated from ancient laryngeal finals. In short, sắc-năng tones derived from an ancient final glottal stop and hỏi-ngã tones from an ancient final spirant, while, by contrast, ngang-huyền tones developed in final vowel context. Haudricourt's model was developed and extended by James A. Matisoff (1973) to account for much of the tonogenesis phenomena in Southeast Asia. Gérard Diffloth (1989), contra Haudricourt, proposed to reconstruct an earlier Proto-AA creaky voice to account for Vietnamese sắc-năng tones, contrasting with a Proto-AA clear voice. This theory solves several tonogenesis problems within the VM group; on the other hand, it raises many new problems within the AA family. I this paper, I suggest that the Vietnamese tone contrast, sắc-năng vs ngang-huyền and its cognates in other VM languages, reflects an earlier tense vs lax contrast that results from the influence of the Chinese language during the Han times (206 B.C.-220 A.D.). In the end, this hypothesis reinforces Haudricourt's ideas.

International audience; L'article porte sur l'existence d'une variété moyenne de l'arabe souvent qualifiée d“arabe médian”. Est-on passé ainsi d'une situation de diglossie (avec une opposition : arabe classique ou standard vs arabe dialectal) à une situation de triglossie ou à une situation de continuum ? Cette question est discutée sur la base des pratiques langagières observées en Mauritanie. Dans la perspective choisie, le traitement des emprunts joue un rôle important. Il est notamment montré que, en arabe médian, les formes empruntées à l'arabe standard fonctionnent comme des formes mixtes. Cette pratique de code-mixing est comparée avec un autre type de contact arabe/arabe. Ce second type de pratiques langagières, attesté dans un prêche, relève pour sa part de l'alternance codique.

Borrowings from Zenaga Berber. A vocalic subsystem of Ḥassāniyya The Ḥassāniyya Arabic dialect of Mauritania encompasses a set of lexemes (in Classical Arabic unattested) which are set apart form the others by their large number of vowels, espacially closed ones /i/ and /u/ in open syllabes, not easily identifiable as short or long. The possible influence of accent on vocalic length is discussed, and the foundations of an acoustic study of the different parameters are laid. They tend to confirm for this dialect the importance of intensity and, as far as long vowels are concerned, of duration. A phonetic and phonological study of the vocalic systems of both Ḥassāniyya and Zenaga is proposed. The vowels of borrowed items are then analysed, firstly as forming a subsystem of the Arabic dialect system, and secondly within the frame of a comparison between borrowed items and items of the source language, and between the two phonological systems. The subsystem for borrowings thus appears as a « mixed » system, halway between the vocalic systems of both dialects., Dans le dialecte arabe ḥassāniyya de Mauritanie, il existe un ensemble de lexèmes (non attestés en arabe classique) qui se distingue des autres par l'abondance des voyelles, notamment des voyelles fermées /i/ et /u/ en syllabe ouverte, sans que l'on puisse facilement déterminer s'il s'agit de voyelles longues ou brèves. Après avoir discuté de l'influence possible de l'accent sur la durée des voyelles, les bases d'une étude acoustique de différents paramètres sont posées ; elles tendent à confirmer, pour ce dialecte, l'importance de l'intensité et, dans le cas des voyelles longues, de celle de la durée. Puis, l'article propose une étude phonétique et phonologique des systèmes vocaliques du ḥassāniyya et du zénaga. Les voyelles des emprunts sont analysées en tant que sous-système du ḥassāniyya, et d'un point de vue comparatif : formes empruntées/formes de la langue source, systèmes phonologiques ḥassāniyya/zénaga. Le sous-système vocalique des emprunts apparaît alors comme un système « mixte », à mi-chemin entre les systèmes vocaliques des deux parlers.

International audience; Dans le dialecte arabe de Mauritanie, les variations des bases verbales dans la conjugaison et les modifications des schèmes verbaux et nominaux occasionnées par la présence de clitiques apparaissent tantôt comme un phénomène de métathèse, tantôt comme un phénomène de syncope des voyelles brèves. Cependant, en postulant une structure prosodique sous jacente beaucoup plus riche en voyelles brèves (peu différente de celle de l'arabe classique), on explique toutes les alternances par une règle unique de chute des voyelles brèves en syllabe finale.