The Czech language has two trills produced with the anterior tongue, represented in the Czech orthography as /r/ and /ř/. The phonetic characterization of the latter trill, currently transcribed in the IPA as [ ], has been especially controversial. The present study uses ultrasound, electroglottography (EGG) and acoustic evidence to examine these trills, with the particular aim of achieving a more phonetically grounded representation of /ř/. In the first part of the paper, ultrasound imaging is used to compare tongue positions between /r/ and /ř/, ruling out tongue height as the key factor distinguishing the two sounds. The second part uses EGG and acoustic evidence to examine phonatory aspects of production. Results implicate vocal fold abduction as the more robust factor distinguishing /r/ from /ř/. Consequently, we posit [ ] as a more appropriate phonetic characterization of /ř/.

Cochabamba Quechua disallows pairs of ejectives within roots (*[k’it’ɑ]), but this structure may arise across word boundaries, e.g. [misk’it’ɑntɑ] ‘good bread’. This paper presents an acoustic study of these phonotactically legal, trans-vocalic ejective pairs that occur at word boundaries. It is found that Cochabamba Quechua speakers de-ejectivize one of the two ejectives in such phrases a significant portion of the time, and that, in correct productions with two ejectives, the period between the two ejectives is lengthened by increasing the duration of the vowel and the closure duration of the second ejective.

Hiatus occurs when the juxtaposition of syllables results in two separate vowels occurring alongside one another. Such vowel adjacency, both within words and across word boundaries, is phonologically undesirable in many languages but can be resolved using a range of strategies including consonant insertion. This paper examines linguistic and extralinguistic factors that best predict the likelihood of inserted linking ‘r’ across word boundaries in Australian English. Corpus data containing a set of 32 phrases produced in a sentence-reading task by 103 speakers were auditorily and acoustically analysed. Results reveal that linguistic variables of accentual context and local speaking rate take precedence over speaker-specific variables of age, gender and sociolect in the management of hiatus. We interpret this to be a reflection of the phonetic manifestation of boundary phenomena. The frequency of the phrase containing the linking ‘r’, the frequency of an individual's use of linking ‘r’, and the accentual status of the flanking vowels all affect the /ɹ/ strength (determined by F3), suggesting that a hybrid approach is warranted in modelling liaison. Age effects are present for certain prosodic contexts indicating change in progress for Australian English.

Pitjantjatjara is a dialect of the Western Desert Language (WDL) of central Australia (Douglas 1958). The Western Desert Language is a member of the south-west Pama-Nyungan group. Together with Warnman, it forms the Wati sub-group. It is spoken by 4000–5000 people, and covers the widest geographical area of any language in Australia, stretching from Woomera in central northern South Australia, as far west as Kalgoorlie and Meekatharra and north to Balgo Hills, in Western Australia. The main dialects, which differ most in regards the lexicon but also to some extent in grammar and phonology, include Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra, Ngaatjatjarra, Southern Luritja, Pintupi-Luritja, Kukatja, Gugarda, Ngalia, Wangkatja, Wangkatha, Manyjilyjarra, Kartutjarra and Yurlparija. It is perhaps more accurately conceived of as a dialect chain, whereby a dialect such as Pitjantjatjara is mutually intelligible with its neighbours Ngaanyatjatjarra and Yankunytjatjara, but not with dialects more distant than these, such as Kukatja and Manyjilyjarra.

In Malaysia, Kedayan (ISO code ‘kxd’) speakers are found primarily in the state of Sabah, the state of Sarawak, and the federal territory of Labuan, which is an offshore island near Sabah. Lewis (2009) classifies Kedayan as one of the many Malayic dialects within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian languages.

Berber (or Tamazight) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by an estimated 15–25 million in North Africa. It is mainly spoken in Morocco, Algeria, and by the Touareg population in Niger and Mali. Berber is also a native language of populations living in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, though their numbers are less significant. Large Berber communities also live in Diasporas mainly in France, Spain, Holland, and Belgium. Three varieties of Berber are spoken in Morocco: Tarifit, spoken in northern Morocco, Tamazight, spoken in the Middle-Atlas, and Tashlhiyt, spoken in southern Morocco. Tashlhiyt, the variety presented here, is sufficiently homogeneous for all native speakers, who number an estimated 7–9 million, to communicate without difficulties (Stroomer 2008). There is nonetheless a measure of sub-dialectal variation, which affects mainly the way some stop consonants are produced. Three subsystems, corresponding roughly to three distinct geographical locations, can be identified: the ‘occlusive’ subsystem spoken in Agadir and its suburbs, the ‘fricative’ subsystem spoken mainly in the High-Atlas area, which spirantizes noncoronal obstruents /bkg/ in some contexts, and the ‘sibilant’ subsystem spoken in the Anti-Atlas area, where /t/ and /d/ are realized in some contexts as [s] and [z], respectively (Boukous 1994). This study is based on the speech of Tashlhiyt speakers who originate from Agadir. The text of ‘The North Wind and the Sun’ was read by a 27-year-old female speaker.

Romani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in several European countries as well as in the Americas, Asia and Australia, showing substantial dialectal variation. This illustration deals with Xoraxane Romane (Turkish Romani) spoken in Greek Thrace. Xoraxane Romane, which belongs to the Vlax branch of Romani, has been heavily influenced by contact with Turkish and also shows influences from Greek. As a result, Xoraxane Romane exhibits a mixed system that includes phonemes borrowed from both Turkish and Greek but without exhibiting complex phonological phenomena such as Turkish vowel harmony.

As prescribed in the by-laws of the Association and the Permanent Council for the Organization of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, nominations to elect the new IPA Council, as well as the six IPA-elected representatives to the Permanent Council, for 2015–2019 will be open from 10 August 2014 to 10 October 2014. Elections for both the IPA Council and Permanent Council will be held in November–December 2014. Twenty members of the IPA Council will be elected; the Council-elect will then elect 10 additional members in March 2015. The new Council (30 members) will elect the Executive Committee in June 2015.

On 22 February 2014, the IPA Council voted to form a limited company, ‘The International Phonetic Association Ltd’, in the UK. By the time of publication of this issue of the Journal, the Association expects to have completed all necessary steps to do so. Incorporation will make banking much easier for the Association, but should have no effect on members or on how the Association conducts its affairs.

The call for proposals for the organization of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (19th ICPhS) is now open. The 19th ICPhS will take place in 2019, four years after the 18th ICPhS to be held in Glasgow in August 2015. Bids for the 19th ICPhS organisation need to be prepared before the 18th ICPhS Congress and defended at the 18th ICPhS venue before the Permanent Council for the Organisation of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. The deadline for the submission of bids is 30 May 2015.

The Association is offering several IPA Student Awards of up to €425 to student members presenting their work at conferences in 2014. Please consult the Association's website (http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/grants.html) or email the Secretary ([email protected]) for further information about applying for these awards.

Dr Juha-Pertti Laaksonen (24 September 1963 – 19 March 2013), Medical Sciences Department, Indiana University, Bloomington USA; previously Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Turku, Finland.