Events

• Mon

  23

  Mar

  2026

  Didier Demolin (Université Sorbonne nouvelle, CNRS & Rhodes University Makhanda) & Francisco Mendes (Federal University of Brasilia) - "Acoustic features and grammatical structures of Muriqui vocalizations"

  3:00 pmBlandijn 2 3.30 (Camelot)

  Vocal communication of the Muriqui

  Abstract:
  What can we learn from animal communication, if we set this issue in terms of evolution? Comparisons with animal communication lead to a better understanding of some of the principles underlying human languages. Muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxantus) show that the acoustics of their vocalizations are generated from a set limited features in addition to showing non-linear characters in their voice source. A close examination of the communication system of the muriqui also shows that the recombination of discrete elements in part of their vocal communication shows both recursion and grammatical structure.

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• Mon

  20

  Apr

  2026

  Annachiara Clementelli - t.b.a.

  3:00 pm

Event Information:

• Thu

  09

  May

  2019

  Philippe Boula de Mareüil (CNRS): "Towards a speaking atlas of dialects and minority languages of Western Europe"

  2:30 pmGrote Vergaderzaal (Blandijnberg 2, 3rd floor)

  Abstract:

  We will describe a speaking atlas that takes the form of a website presenting interactive maps, where it is possible to click on over 300 survey points to listen to speech samples and read a transcript of what is said, in dialects and minority languages of France, Italy and Belgium. We show how an attractive website enables us to collect more data in underresourced and endangered languages and how these data may be used for phonetic analyses and dialectometry purposes. A one-minute story (“The North Wind and the Sun”) was used, phonetically transcribed automatically by grapheme-to-phoneme converters and forced aligned with the audio signal: a methodology which can be applied to other languages and dialects.

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