Japanese has long been described as a "mora-timed" language by linguists. Japanese pedagogy has traditionally claimed that moras are constant in duration. Four experiments are reported investigating segmental timing in Japanese in order to test several straightforward hypotheses about mora timing. First, it is demonstrated that words with an increasing number of moras increase in duration by nearly constant increments. The next two experiments explored the mechanisms by which constant mora durations are achieved given that there are large universal differences in the inherent duration of various segment types (e.g., /u/vs/a/), and given that some syllables are supposed to be two mora long (such as, those with long vowels or final consonants). In each case, it was found that the duration of a word stays very close to a target duration that depends on the number of moras in it. This is achieved by stretching or compressing the duration of neighboring segments and adjacent moras. Thus increasing the number of segments in two-mora syllables results in lengthening, not the expected shortening, of other segments in the heavier syllable.

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A familiar phonological neutralization rule is the merger of voiced and voiceless obstruents in syllable-final position in German. Thus, the /d/ in Leid ‘sorrow’ is pronounced [-voice] like the /t/ in leit ‘lead.’ A spectrographic test of minimal pairs by nine Germans, however, revealed (1) vowels before underlying voiced consonants were 10% longer than before underlying voiceless ones, (2) there was a slightly longer interval of glottal pulsing into the consonant closure for the underlying voiced consonants, yet (3) consonant closure durations were the same. Since these consonants all sounded voiceless to us, a listening test was performed. Native speakers of German listened to these utterances and indicated which word of the minimal pair was heard. Subjects were able to guess the intended word about 70% correct—significantly better than chance. This “semicontrast” must be nearly useless in conversation. These results show that voicing neutralization is only partially achieved in German and disprove any analysis of the form [+voice] → [−voice]. Instead we propose that Germans employ a “motor implementation rule” of final devoicing that simulates the voiceless feature but is distinct from it. [Research supported by NIH grant HD12511.]

Objective:Allergic rhinitis is a common, usually long-standing, condition that may be self-diagnosed or have a formal diagnosis. Our aim was to identify how allergic rhinitis sufferers self-manage their condition.Methods:A sample of 276 self-identified adult allergy sufferers pooled from social media completed an online survey comprising 13 questions. The survey was fielded by a professional research organization (Lab42). The main outcome measures included the use of prescription and/or non-prescription allergy medication, and interactions with physician and/or pharmacist with respect to medication use.Results:Of the respondents, 53% (146/276) indicated that they used both prescription and over-the-counter medication to manage their allergy symptoms. Of those who used prescription medication, 53% reported that they discussed their prescription medication in great detail with their physician when it was prescribed, while 42% spoke about it briefly. Following the initial prescription, few discussions about the prescription occur with the physician (45% indicate several discussions, 40% indicate one or two discussions, and 10% indicate no discussions). In most cases (~75% of the time), allergy prescription refills did not require a doctor visit with patients obtaining refills through phone calls to the doctor’s office or through the pharmacy. Two-thirds of patients (69%) report that they have discussed their prescription allergy medication with a pharmacist, with greater than half of respondents having discussed the use of the non-prescription medication with their doctor.Conclusion:Patients with diagnosed allergic rhinitis appear to be self-managing their condition with few interactions with their doctor about their allergy prescription. Interactions with a pharmacist about allergy medication (prescription and non-prescription) appear to be more common than interactions with a physician.