The Achterhoek region is found in the eastern Netherlands, bordering Germany. The dialect of the region, Achterhoeks, is a Low Saxon dialect spoken amongst many inhabitants of the region. It differs markedly from Standard Dutch in its phonology, grammar and lexicon. Lexical differences observed from town to town are common (cf. Schaars, 1984-; Van Prooije, 2011), however there have been fewer studies on specific pronunciation differences.

This research considers the pronunciation of the monophthongs [y] and [u] in the Achterhoek region, which typically correspond to [œy] in the Standard Dutch phonological system. Previous studies (eg. Kloeke, 1927; Van Reenen, 2005; 2006) have shown a variable use of [y] and [u] in this area of the Netherlands. However, this research follows on from previous studies by considering the links between rural and non-rural pronunciation. Variations in the position of the vowel following rhotics were observed in 34 Achterhoeks speakers. Grouped into age, gender, and location, and measured through normalised formant frequencies, the more retracted vowel [u] was observed in rural speakers, whereas the fronted vowel [y] was seen in non-rural speakers. Where the vowel appeared in any position other than following the rhotic consonant, it was realised as [y], without any observable differences between speakers.

Production and perception experiments were conducted to assess the possible impact of sleep deprivation on the voice. The first experiment investigated whether fundamental frequency, speech rate, voice quality and vowel quality were affected by analysing audio recordings of 6 speakers at 4 hour intervals during a 20+ hour period without sleep. The second experiment tested whether 12 lay-listeners could distinguish between the same speaker in a wide awake and sleep-deprived condition and whether they could identify a point at which a speaker begins to sound sleep-deprived. The 12 participants listened to 95 recordings of the 6 speakers at 4 hour intervals whilst completing a questionnaire. Overall, the results suggest that sustained wakefulness can affect the quality of the NORTH and TRAP vowels but not consistently across speakers. Some lay-listeners can tell the difference between the same speaker in a wide awake and sleep-deprived condition.

The present study investigates the production of Italian vowels by German speakers, both from a phonological and from an acoustic perspective. Aim of the work is to check possible transfer from the native language, to examine the quality and quantity of this transfer and to interpret the results in the framework of Natural Phonology (Donegan & Stampe, 1979). Our corpus consists of two German native speakers, recorded both in Italian and in German. Particular attention is devoted to the examination of formant values: expected and actually recorded mean frequencies are compared; in this respect, deviations from expected values are identified and interpreted as transfer processes: in some case transfer comes from the L1, but we individuate also transfer phenomena from the L2. Additional results about contextual application of transfer processes and possible explanations are discussed. It is concluded that context and variability are crucial in spontaneous speech, and that a good phonological theory should highlight the naturalness of such phenomena.

The Irish poet and translator James Clarence Mangan was of the opinion that the translator's role was not simply to mirror the original poem to the best of their abilities in the target language, but rather to improve on the original. In addition to translating the text from one language to another, Mangan would take it upon himself to criticize the work in the same process. Compared to the majority of both Mangan's contemporaries and present day translators, he had a very free and unique approach to translation. So much so that the original poem in some instances is barely recognizable in the finished translation, leading to a discussion about whether his translations are in fact translations or should rather be considered imitations.