The Effect of IP Constituent Position and Foot Complexity on Timing in Polish Learner's English Pronunciation

A comparison of native and Polish learners' performance shows similar durations of stressed and pitch accented syllables. The unstressed syllables and syllable clusters, on the other hand, are significantly longer in non-native speech, and the discrepancies increase at lower phrasal prominence levels, especially in the preheads. Similar results for both groups have been obtained with respect to the number of consecutive unstressed syllables (foot complexity). The same test repeated after seven months of pronunciation training reveals a considerable tendency towards native speech timing, although the differences concerning low prominence levels remain significant

Prosodic description: An introduction for fieldworkers

This article provides an introductory tutorial on prosodic features such as tone and accent for researchers working on little-known languages. It specifically addresses the needs of non-specialists and thus does not presuppose knowledge of the phonetics and phonology of prosodic features. Instead, it intends to introduce the uninitiated reader to a field often shied away from because of its (in part real, but in part also just imagined) complexities. It consists of a concise overview of the basic phonetic phenomena (section 2) and the major categories and problems of their functional and phonological analysis (sections 3 and 4). Section 5 gives practical advice for documenting and analyzing prosodic features in the field.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Phonological Factors Affecting L1 Phonetic Realization of Proficient Polish Users of English

Acoustic phonetic studies examine the L1 of Polish speakers with professional level proficiency in English. The studies include two tasks, a production task carried out entirely in Polish and a phonetic code-switching task in which speakers insert target Polish words or phrases into an English carrier. Additionally, two phonetic parameters are studied: the oft-investigated VOT, as well as glottalization vs. sandhi linking of word-initial vowels. In monolingual Polish mode, L2 interference was observed for the VOT parameter, but not for sandhi linking. It is suggested that this discrepancy may be related to the differing phonological status of the two phonetic parameters. In the code-switching tasks, VOTs were on the whole more English-like than in monolingual mode, but this appeared to be a matter of individual performance. An increase in the rate of sandhi linking in the code-switches, except for the case of one speaker, appeared to be a function of accelerated production of L1 target items

The Phonetics-Phonology Interface of the Paiwan Dialects- Establishing the Voice Corpus (II)

面對臺灣原住民語言急速流失的現狀, 語言學界對於臺灣排灣語語音及音韻描述或分析的研究相對地稀少。至於語音現象如何影響音韻系統、音韻系統如何在語音層次上被驗證, 語音及音韻的介面研究, 迄今仍相當匱乏。 然而,語音音韻的介面研究, 對於語音保存、田野調查的實務性,及語言學的專業學術研究, 都有其存在的必要性。若無基礎語音音韻系統研究的探討, 對於所紀錄的語音資料, 是否能成為忠實的田野調查紀錄, 可以存疑。本研究聚焦於排灣語方言, 以聲學語音學(Acoustics Phonetics)及實驗音韻學(Laboratory Phonology)的理論與方法提供一些科學的証據，瞭解更多語音音韻介面的現象，這些現象又反過來修正或重新詮釋描述語言學(Descriptive Linguistics) 及音韻學理論(Phonological Theories)的研究成果。本計劃的首要目標在於整合語音實驗室與田野調查所建構的語音資料庫, 一方面忠實紀錄並補充方音的差異, 一方面探討語音資料庫建立過程中語音音韻的互動現象。建立排灣語語音資料庫及整合語音資料庫與語音實驗室不僅能彙整與驗證語音差異、進行各方言的區別音位建構, 更能提供語言學田野調查方法上新的蒐集語料模式; 語音資料庫在學術上，亦可作為進一步語言學研究的題材。表The project investigates the Phonetics-Phonology interface of the Paiwan dialects, based on the under construction voice corpus and the varieties from Sandimen, Majia, Taiwu, Gulou, Shimen, and Mudan villages in Pingtung County, as well as Dawu and Taimali dialects in Taitung County. The majority of field reports on Formosan languages give rather minimal details on their phonetic, phonological, and prosodic properties, usually one or two lines of vague description, not to mention the number of field reports on Formosan languages is rather small. The project addresses questions related to the evolution of language within the Paiwan dialect speech communities and the development of language within the individual speaker. In the present project, the interaction between phonetic variation and phonological distinctive features will be dealt with, and the principles and the methodology in Laboratory Phonology and Acoustic Phonetics will be used to verify the existing field notes in descriptive linguistics or adjust the phonological theories.Eight dialects of Paiwan, including Northern, Central, Southern, and Eastern varieties of Paiwan, will be studied. The speech styles such as word lists, phrases, sentences, stories, and spontaneous speech will be collected in the field and served as the voice corpus in the phonetic laboratory for measurements and further empirical studies. The second goal of the project is to harness the professional software of acoustic analysis and speech technologies to aid in the collection of field data. While constructing the voice corpus, it is hoped that a portable phonetic laboratory is accessible to the recording and analyzing tasks in the Paiwan voice data. The present project draws evidence from the field data and proposes an account for the interaction between phonetic variance and phonological invariance among the Paiwan dialects.The most significant contribution of the current project will be the construction of the voice corpus and the interface study of the segments and suprasegmentals in the Paiwan dialects, which has never been done in any earlier field report or project. The preservation of the phonetic voice data of the Paiwan dialects will help researchers understand more about the dialects and the language

Articulation in time : Some word-initial segments in Swedish

Speech is both dynamic and distinctive at the same time. This implies a certain contradiction which has entertained researchers in phonetics and phonology for decades. The present dissertation assumes that articulation behaves as a function of time, and that we can find phonological structures in the dynamical systems. EMA is used to measure mechanical movements in Swedish speakers. The results show that tonal context affects articulatory coordination. Acceleration seems to divide the movements of the jaw and lips into intervals of postures and active movements. These intervals are affected differently by the tonal context. Furthermore, a bilabial consonant is shorter if the next consonant is also made with the lips. A hypothesis of a correlation between acoustic segment duration and acceleration is presented. The dissertation highlights the importance of time for how speech ultimately sounds. Particularly significant is the combination of articulatory timing and articulatory duration

Segmental Durations of Speech

This dissertation considers the segmental durations of speech from the viewpoint of speech technology, especially speech synthesis. The idea is that better models of segmental durations lead to higher naturalness and better intelligibility. These features are the key factors for better usability and generality of synthesized speech technology. Even though the studies are based on a Finnish corpus the approaches apply to all other languages as well. This is possibly due to the fact that most of the studies included in this dissertation are about universal effects taking place on utterance boundaries. Also the methods invented and used here are suitable for any other study of another language. This study is based on two corpora of news reading speech and sentences read aloud. The other corpus is read aloud by a 39-year-old male, whilst the other consists of several speakers in various situations. The use of two corpora is twofold: it involves a comparison of the corpora and a broader view on the matters of interest. The dissertation begins with an overview to the phonemes and the quantity system in the Finnish language. Especially, we are covering the intrinsic durations of phonemes and phoneme categories, as well as the difference of duration between short and long phonemes. The phoneme categories are presented to facilitate the problem of variability of speech segments. In this dissertation we cover the boundary-adjacent effects on segmental durations. In initial positions of utterances we find that there seems to be initial shortening in Finnish, but the result depends on the level of detail and on the individual phoneme. On the phoneme level we find that the shortening or lengthening only affects the very first ones at the beginning of an utterance. However, on average, the effect seems to shorten the whole first word on the word level. We establish the effect of final lengthening in Finnish. The effect in Finnish has been an open question for a long time, whilst Finnish has been the last missing piece for it to be a universal phenomenon. Final lengthening is studied from various angles and it is also shown that it is not a mere effect of prominence or an effect of speech corpus with high inter- and intra-speaker variation. The effect of final lengthening seems to extend from the final to the penultimate word. On a phoneme level it reaches a much wider area than the initial effect. We also present a normalization method suitable for corpus studies on segmental durations. The method uses an utterance-level normalization approach to capture the pattern of segmental durations within each utterance. This prevents the impact of various problematic variations within the corpora. The normalization is used in a study on final lengthening to show that the results on the effect are not caused by variation in the material. The dissertation shows an implementation and prowess of speech synthesis on a mobile platform. We find that the rule-based method of speech synthesis is a real-time software solution, but the signal generation process slows down the system beyond real time. Future aspects of speech synthesis on limited platforms are discussed. The dissertation considers ethical issues on the development of speech technology. The main focus is on the development of speech synthesis with high naturalness, but the problems and solutions are applicable to any other speech technology approaches.Siirretty Doriast

Speech data acquisition: the underestimated challenge

(This version makes 1 correction to the references: BARBOSA 2012 was cited in the text but missing from the list of references.)International audienceThe second half of the 20th century was the dawn of information technology; and we now live in the digital age. Experimental studies of prosody develop at a fast pace, in the context of an "explosion of evidence" (Janet Pierrehumbert, Speech Prosody 2010, Chicago). The ease with which anyone can now do recordings should not veil the complexity of the data collection process, however. This article aims at sensitizing students and scientists from the various fields of speech and language research to the fact that speech-data acquisition is an underestimated challenge. Eliciting data that reflect the communicative processes at play in language requires special precautions in devising experimental procedures and a fundamental understanding of both ends of the elicitation process: speaker and recording facilities. The article compiles basic information on each of these requirements and recapitulates some pieces of practical advice, drawing many examples from prosody studies, a field where the thoughtful conception of experimental protocols is especially crucial