Research on speech rhythm over the last decades has led to the widespread application of so-called rhythm metrics in order to empirically quantify variation in timing across languages and dialects. Many of these rhythm metrics are duration-based, such as the standard deviation of vocalic and consonantal interval duration (ΔV and ΔC), respectively, the coefficient of variation of vocalic interval duration (VarcoV), and the normalized pairwise variability index for vocalic intervals (nPVI-V). While these and other duration-based rhythm metrics have been widely used in research, and also tested for their reliability, there are also a number of lesser-used acoustic rhythm metrics. These indices rely solely on measures of variability in pitch, loudness, or factors, or combine them with measures of duration. This chapter discusses which rhythm metrics are available and concludes with practical recommendations for their application (an accompanying Praat script is available at https://osf.io/79qyg/).

This chapter presents an overview of various issues related to English in Pakistan. A timeline of the language and education policy for English highlights notable events from the day of independence to the twenty-first century. Pakistani English is mostly used in the written medium though spoken and spoken-like written mediums on the internet are also emerging. The review of attitudinal research shows that generally students and other concerned groups of the society have a pragmatic view of accepting English. In terms of language features, Pakistani English has developed many distinctive features at various linguistic levels. There is also extensive language contact happening between English and regional languages, where both sides borrow from each other. Lastly, the review of various aspects of English in Pakistan presented in this paper shows that English might be in a stable state in Pakistan, at least for now.

Speech is a multiplexed signal displaying levels of complexity, organizational principles, and perceptual units of analysis at distinct timescales. This critical acoustic signal for human communication is thus characterized at distinct representational and temporal scales, related to distinct linguistic features, from acoustic to supra-lexical. This chapter presents an overview of experimental work devoted to the characterization of the speech signal at different timescales, beyond its acoustic properties. The functional relevance of these different levels of analysis for speech processing is discussed. We advocate that studying speech perception through the prism of multi-timescale representations effectively integrates work from various research areas into a coherent picture and contributes significantly to increasing our knowledge on the topic. Finally, we discuss how these experimental results fit with neural data and current dynamical models of speech perception.

There are similarities in the historical development of English in Brunei and Malaysia, two countries that share many socio-cultural and linguistic traits; yet at the same time, differences in the educational policies that have been adopted have seen English promoted more consistently in Brunei, while support for English-medium education in Malaysia has fluctuated in recent decades, and this has resulted in a substantial divergence in the current status of English in the two countries. This chapter describes the historical development of English in Brunei and Malaysia, traces changes in educational policy over the past few decades, discusses the current status of English, provides an overview of some of the features of Brunei English and Malaysian English, gives a snapshot of local literature in English, and finally offers a brief prognosis for the future of English in the two countries.

The destructive competition hypothesis views the brain as a system with finite processing resources, where new cognitive functions compete with evolutionary older ones for cortical space. In contrast, our combined neuroimaging and behavioral evidence points to a different conclusion: The human brain has the remarkable capacity to accommodate new cultural skills, such as reading, while simultaneously enhancing related preexisting abilities, such as face recognition. Rather than impairing older functions, reading acquisition appears to support and refine them.

Stuttering and Parkinson’s disease (PD) manifest in altered motor control, apparent in speech and walking. Both disorders display untimely initiation or termination of motor commands. Stuttering symptoms include blockades, sound and syllable repetitions, and prolongations that can severely interrupt the rhythmic flow of speech. PD is associated with dysfunctional gait and balance, and freezing episodes, hindering the regular rhythm of walking. These rhythmic alterations span across motor effectors and extend to rhythm perception. In this chapter we examine the hypothesis that in both populations, motor deficits are underpinned by alterations within a general-purpose timing system that sustains rhythmic behavior via temporal predictions. We focus on similarities between stuttering and PD in terms of impaired rhythm mechanisms and on the associated neuronal circuitries. We provide new insights into how rhythm in speech relates to nonverbal functions and how this knowledge can inform us about rhythm-based interventions.

Data from auditory neuroscience provide a novel "oscillatory hierarchy" perspective on how the brain encodes speech. Temporal sampling theory, originally proposed to provide a conceptual framework to explain why acoustic rhythmic impairments in children with developmental dyslexia and developmental language disorder lead to phonological and syntactic impairments, can also explain why sensitivity to linguistic rhythm is a key factor in language acquisition. An overview of the theory is provided, and then data from two longitudinal infant projects applying temporal sampling theory to language acquisition are discussed. One project followed infants at family risk (or not at risk) for developmental dyslexia from age five months, and one followed typically developing infants from age two months. The infant data suggest that neural oscillatory mechanisms, along with acoustic rhythm sensitivity, play key roles in early language acquisition.

Namibia has long been a stepchild of World Englishes research despite an increasing influence of English in the country. The current chapter is one of the first to introduce Namibian English (NamE) to a wider collection of World Englishes. It outlines its unprecedented emergence and development and offers an overview of the latest research findings on language attitudes and use, identity conceptions related to the English language, as well as local characteristics of NamE. Most importantly, the chapter highlights two aspects of NamE. First of all, it outlines NamE’s heterogeneous character, i.e. the existence of a number of subvarieties of NamE. Second, the chapter emphasizes its independent character and claims that it should be treated as a variety of English in its own right and not just an offshoot of South African English. Even though the last ten years have produced an impressive surge of interest into the variety and thus important research findings, research on NamE is still in its infancy. The current contribution is, hopefully, the starting point for a more thorough integration into the World Englishes paradigm.

With arguably the largest number of speakers of any postcolonial variety of English and a history stretching over four centuries, Indian English has received more attention in the literature than many other varieties. This chapter will track its emergence and development from the end of the sixteenth century onwards, from early English-speaking travelers and the earliest English trading ventures via the gradual extension of British colonial power over the subcontinent and its linguistic consequences, to the diffusion of English to ever greater sections of society at the start of the twenty-first century. Regarding the structure of Indian English, this chapter will take advantage of the large body of corpus-based research which has probed into the actual frequency and distribution of a wide range of Indian English features, allowing for a more empirical approach towards Indian English, encompassing its phonology, morphosyntax, lexicon and (discourse) pragmatics.

Overseas varieties of English emerged during the colonial period (c. 1600-1900) with features arising which stem partly from dialect input of the early settlers and partly from contact among dialect speakers and with indigenous groups along with some features which represent independent developments in new varieties. The external settings at the overseas locations also played a key role here. There are basic distinctions, such as that between settler and non-settler varieties which, despite certain caveats, still retain their validity in the field of variety studies. The internal developments in forms of English at overseas locations reveal patterns which allow of certain generalisations which help to recognise the developmental trajectories in the past and current pathways of change. Furthermore, new sources for the study of vernacular varieties have become available and yield new insights into variety formation during the colonial period.

Much linguistic research into the perception of rhythmic structure in speech has been concerned with temporal domains that may show isochronous or at least somewhat regular timing. Early studies discovered that there is a substantial discrepancy between the physical and the subjectively perceived onsets of speech events such as words or syllables. Sequences of alternating speech units tend to be perceived as irregularly timed if the intervening pause duration is kept constant. This peculiarity of speech perception is commonly referred to as the perceptual center effect (or the P-center). Since its discovery, the effect has been defeating all quantification attempts as the P-center does not seem to consistently coincide with any specific acoustic markers of speech signals, though it is generally agreed that the P-center represents the rhythmic beat in speech. This chapter reviews existing evidence, outlines future directions, and discusses the domain of beat perception in spoken language.