They're not analysing sounds, they're analysing the series of movements that results in a given sound.

They've been doing it for at least a decade, so it must be good enough. You don't need to get a full "image" of the mouth (the teeth don't move much, for one) but just find the location of the mass of the tongue. Notice that they're specifically studying slenderisation -- ie palatisation. You measure the height and depth of the point of articulation and you're done. How else would you be able to measure this?

_________________
A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

Let's hope they get good native speakers for this

_________________
__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

That's something I'm curious about, and none of the articles on this specify...are they going to be traveling to Ireland and seeking out native speakers? If not, this study doesn't mean much.

Redwolf

Aye, I hope they won't record any random person who claims he's a native speaker (since many Irish people say "Irish is my native language" even though they don't know a word of it, simply because Irish is the native language of Ireland...), and who replaces every Irish sound by the closest English one...

_________________
Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

*Cough cough* Duolingo *Cough cough*

But, seriously. This is the one major flaw I've found with the articles about this study. Nothing I've seen mentions natives, just "Irish speakers." Maybe they'll definitely search for natives, since they are trying to look at palatalization and such particularly.

If they do get good images of native speakers, that could be a real help to those of us learning the language. When I'm trying to teach the proper sounds, I talk about such things as the position of the tongue, whether the soft palate is raised, etc. It would be great to be able to use images to illustrate what I'm talking about.

I always find it funny to learn about things that are going on with Irish at the university, as the Irish speakers and learners there have never been inclined to mingle with the rest of us who speak or are learning the language. I hope they bother to make their findings public, so those of us who aren't academics can benefit from them.

Redwolf

It's not hard to make pictures for tongue positions for the main phones in the language, if you were teaching alone, as we know already what they are; the value in this research would be in hard data on allophonic variance over dialect, age, speech liason and social context, in my opinion

_________________
__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

Not for you, maybe, but I couldn't draw a tongue inside a mouth to save my soul!

Redwolf

I meant in 2D like in some of the foghraíocht books, just a few lines, not anatomically correct like some Victorian or Edwardian butterfly collector!

_________________
__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

Just read more about this study. Apparently the ultrasound images have already been made (and yes...they went to Ireland and worked with native speakers. I don't know if they researched more than one dialect though, or anything that specific). Apparently this grant is to let them do work in addition to what they've already done (though what that might be I don't know). According to the print article I was given, you should be able to click on a link within the article to see the actual image of a speaker's tongue as he or she reads the script, but I can't find a link to it there:

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/News/c ... h-language