A dynamic acoustic view of real-time change in word-final liquids in spontaneous Glaswegian

This paper investigates the acoustic evidence for real-time change in word-final liquids (/r/ and /l/) in a small-scale study of older male Glaswegian speakers recorded from the 1970s to the 2000s. A dynamic acoustic analysis of the first three formants across the duration of the rhyme (vowel+liquid sequence) shows significant effects of preceding and following phonetic context on the course and trajectories of the formant tracks. We also find raising of F3 for /r/ in speakers who were born and recorded more recently; F2 is lowering for /l/ in the same speakers. Comparison of F2 across the two word-final liquids suggests that /r/ is clearer than /l/ for this Scottish dialect; interestingly the polarity in resonance between /r/ and /l/ is increasing over time

An Intraspeaker Variation Study of Scottish English /r/ Pharyngealisation

Pharyngealisation— the retraction of the tongue towards the pharynx— of prepausal and preconsonantal /r/ has been recognised as an emergent strategy of derhoticisation in Scotland’s  Central Belt (Stuart-Smith 2007). However, previous studies have focused on the incidence of this phenomenon between speakers, with little attention paid to intraspeaker variation. The question remains: How does Scottish English derhoticisation behave in a situation of style shifting? We explore the intraspeaker variation of comedian Frankie Boyle, a recognisable speaker of Scottish English, comparing his production of apical and pharyngealised /r/ in prepausal and preconsonantal environments in two interview contexts. The acoustic correlates of /r/ pharyngealisation are characterised as a rise in F3 with reduced energy in the formant. This is quite different from the plummeting F3 associated with an apical realisation of /r/, allowing for a binary categorisation of pharyngeal and apical tokens as well as an analysis of F3 frequency as a continuous measure.We present evidence that Boyle makes significantly more frequent use of pharyngealisation when interviewed by Kevin Bridges, a fellow Glasgow native, than by Richard Osman, a Southern Standard British English (SSBE) speaker. Further, a secondary analysis of phonation quality shows that Boyle uses significantly more creaky voice with Osman than with Bridges, allowing for a fuller understanding of Boyle’s style in each context. Attempts to attribute the observed differences in pharyngealisation rate to factors other than interview context (e.g., linguistic factors or discussion topic) yielded insignificant results, further reinforcing the notion that the style shift is due to interview context. Even within the binary categories of pharyngeal vs. apical, an analysis of formant frequency found that, on average, Boyle produced “ more apical”  apicals with Osman (lower plummeting F3) and “ more pharyngeal”  pharyngeals with Bridges (higher rising F3), suggesting that these forms are dynamic and can be strategically produced to varying degrees. This evident style shift between interview contexts is an ideal platform for a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of various sociolinguistic theories. Ultimately, we conclude that audience design best captures the interactional effects observed, but reference to second order indexicality is required to understand what social meaning Boyle achieves through style shifting

Voice quality and coda /r/ in Glasgow English in the early 20th century

We present acoustic and auditory analyses of changes to coda /r/ and voice quality in Glasgow English in the early twentieth century. Our initial acoustic analysis suggests that /r/ was weakening across the board based on an increase in F3. However, an auditory analysis of the same data finds no significant changes. An acoustic analysis of the same speakers’ vowels reveals that the shift in F3 is not unique to /r/. It reflects a change in voice quality, which we link to velarization using Vocal Profile Analysis. We then reanalyze the acoustic /r/ data, controlling for voice quality, and find only moderate changes that are restricted to females. These findings provide new evidence for diachronic changes in voice quality, contribute to our understanding of the development of /r/ in Glasgow English, and highlight the importance of investigating speech sounds in their broader context using multiple methodologies

Dutch Rhotic Allophony, Coda Weakening, and the Phonetics-Phonology Interface

Evidence is presented that suggests that articulation should be considered separately from acoustics (or the auditory impression) in investigations of the interface between phonetics and phonology. We use Ultrasound Tongue Imaging to show that onset and coda versions of Dutch /r/ can have secondary articulations, categorical allophones, and subtle or covert articulations which have few acoustic implications. Covert rhotic (retroflex) articulation was observed in one speaker, who displayed acoustic derhoticisation. We also consider this finding in relation to ongoing work in Scottish English.caslpub2745pu

Derhoticisation in Scottish English: a sociophonetic journey

Item deposited in University of Glasgow (Enlighten) repository on 10 April 2014, available at: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/87460/Sociophonetic variation presents us with challenges and opportunities. This paper focuses on an area of phonetic variation which is particularly rich and informative about the social exploitation of the complexities of the acoustics-articulatory relationship - namely fine-grained variation and change in Scottish English coda /r/. Scottish English is typically thought to be 'rhotic' (e.g. Wells 1982), such that postvocalic /r/ in words such as car, card, and better are realized with some kind of articulated rhotic consonant (approximant, tap, and exceptionally a trill). This paper presents historical and more recent sociophonetic data from the Central Belt of Scotland (from Edinburgh to Glasgow), which show auditory/impressionistic, acoustic, and articulatory evidence of derhoticisation (e.g. Stuart-Smith 2003; Stuart-Smith et al 2007; Lawson et al 2011a; Lawson et al 2011). Derhoticisation is especially evident in working-class speakers, whilst middle-class speakers are developing auditorily 'stronger' rhotics and merging vowels before /r/. We consider the geographical and social distribution of the rhotic-derhotic continuum in these varieties and the linguistic and sociolinguistic factors involved, and the evidence to date that exists from speech perception and social evaluation of speech. We conclude by considering how sociophonological detail and abstraction are encoded in mental representations (cf e.g. Johnson 2006).The research presented here was supported by awards to Jane Stuart-Smith from the Leverhulme Trust (F/179/AX), the AHRC, and the ESRC (R000239757), and to James M. Scobbie and Jane Stuart-Smith, from the ESRC,RES-000-22-2032 and RES-062-23-3246.caslpub3084pu

Português europeu e galego: estudo fonético e fonológico das consoantes em rima medial

Tese de mestrado em Linguística Portuguesa apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, 2008Os diferentes segmentos que podem ocupar a periferia direita da sílaba em português parecem apresentar funcionamentos divergentes, devido à relação que podem ter quer com o núcleo homossilábico, quer com o ataque da sílaba seguinte. O objectivo desta dissertação centra-se na análise de diferentes propriedades fonéticas e fonológicas dos segmentos que podem ocupar o limite direito da sílaba, na variedade standard do português europeu, e num dialecto ocidental do galego. Com este fim, foram realizadas gravações de falantes nativos das duas variedades; analisaram-se acusticamente as propriedades dos segmentos referidos, contrastando-as com as análises fonológicas propostas na literatura. Em termos teóricos, realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica de anteriores trabalhos sobre fonética e fonologia que lidassem com as sequências objecto de estudo nas diferentes variedades do português, em particular, e noutras línguas, em geral. Com base nos dados fonéticos obtidos, realizou-se uma análise fonológica para cada um dos sistemas com base no modelo da Teoria da Optimidade, observando as semelhanças e divergências entre eles. A análise proposta no presente trabalho explica, através de restrições universais, (i) a preservação dos segmentos róticos na rima; (ii) as diferentes realizações de /s/ em coda nos dois sistemas; (iii) as diferentes produções dos segmentos laterais e (iv) a velarização e projecção no núcleo do próprio /l/ e dos segmentos nasais implosivos como degraus intermédios no processo geral de nuclearização; este, mais avançado no padrão português, produz-se devido à maior importância das restrições de alinhamento na gramática desta variedade do que no sistema galego.The consonant segments at the right edge of the syllable exhibit different behaviours, according to the relations they establish either with the tautossylabic nucleus or the following consonant. This thesis aims at the identification of phonetic and phonological properties of consonants at the right edge of the syllable in standard EP andWestern Galician. Several native speakers of the two varieties were recorded in order to achieve a better understanding of the phonetic properties of these segments. The phonetic results were then compared with previous phonological analysis in the literature. A review of previous theoretical works was carried out, namely phonetic and phonological texts on VC rhymes in Galician and EP, among other languages. Drawing from the phonetic data obtained, a phonological analysis of the data for both linguistic systems was carried out. This analysis, based on the Optimality Theory framework, allowed us to identify similarities and differences between the two systems. Based on universal constraints, the proposed phonological analysis explains (i) the preservation of rhotic segments in the rhyme; (ii) the different phonetic productions of /s/ in coda position in both linguistic varieties; (iii) the different surface representations of lateral segments and (iv) the velarization and projection of /l/ and the implosive nasal segments into the nucleus as intermediate degrees of the general process of nuclearization. This process, more advanced in standard EP that in Galician, is due to the higher position of alignment constraints in the hierarchy of EP grammar

Experience and learning in cross-dialect perception: Derhoticised /r/ in Glasgow

It is well known that unfamiliar accents can be difficult to understand. Previous research has investigated the effect of hearing e.g. foreign-accented speech, but relatively little research has been conducted on the effect of hearing an unfamiliar native English accent. This thesis investigates how listeners process fine phonetic detail for a phonological contrast, measuring their perceptual efficiency depending on their level of experience with the working class Glaswegian dialect. In Glasgow, speakers are stereotypically rhotic. However, recent sociophonetic research indicates a trend towards derhoticisation (the phonetic erosion of postvocalic /r/ in working class Glaswegian speech). The potential for misperception exists when listeners hear minimal pairs such as 'hut/hurt', when spoken by working class speakers who realise postvocalic /r/ as an acoustically ambiguous variant, with delayed tongue tip gesture and early tongue body gesture. This makes derhoticised /r/ perceptually very similar to the preceding open back vowel in both 'hut' and 'hurt', leading to difficulty when listeners try to distinguish between /CʌC/ and /CʌrC/ words in general. This thesis begins with a novel dynamic acoustic analysis of the key cues for rhoticity in Glaswegian for such words, demonstrating that minimal pairs such as 'hut/hurt' are acoustically very similar in the Glaswegian working class accent, but remain distinct for middle class speakers. A suite of listening experiments is then described. Experiment 1 was conceived and run as a pilot study to this work, but new analysis of the data assessed the influence of long-term learning, using Signal Detection Theory as a key analytical tool. This showed strong effects of listener familiarity in both sensitivity and response bias. Experiment 2 tested listeners' ability to learn the distinction between 'hut' and 'hurt' word types, with Response Time and Signal Detection analyses finding that listeners least familiar with the accent very quickly matched the response patterns of listeners with an intermediate level of experience. However, neither listener group was able to match the performance of listeners most familiar with the accent, who were native to Glasgow, suggesting that acoustic phonetic detail plays an important role in perception, with interesting interactions with listener experience. Finally, for Experiment 3 the overarching purpose shifts from offline to online perception. The results of the acoustic analysis showed that dynamics are key, so Experiment 3, a Mouse Tracking experiment, allows for the measurement of dynamic perceptual responses – in a listening context which is more difficult – for the most experienced listeners. It yielded results in terms of Response Time, and two sets of measures capturing cursor trajectories, Area Under the Curve, and Discrete Cosine Transformation. Taken together, the results of these analyses reveal that even for the most experienced listeners (Glaswegians), the phonetically ambiguous tokens present perceptual challenges when hearing working class Glaswegian 'hut' and 'hurt' words, and also demonstrated that challenging listening conditions lead to processing costs, even for the ‘easiest’ stimuli; i.e. when hearing talkers and accents randomised together. This thesis examines a single difficult phonological contrast, with the simplicity of the linguistic scope affording an extremely in-depth analysis. Not only did this provide a clear insight into the perception of the contrast itself, but the depth of analysis allows for a more sophisticated discussion of the results, potentially speaking to wider theoretical standpoints. The results have implications for theories of speech perception, as they may be explained by some general principles which underlie exemplar theories and Bayesian inference. They also constitute valuable acoustic and perceptual contributions to the ongoing research into the complex and changing nature of postvocalic /r/ in Scotland

German and Dutch in Contrast

Designed as a contribution to contrastive linguistics, the present volume brings up-to-date the comparison of German with its closest neighbour, Dutch, and other Germanic relatives like English, Afrikaans, and the Scandinavian languages. It takes its inspiration from the idea of a Germanic Sandwich, i.e. the hypothesis that sets of genetically related languages diverge in systematic ways in diverse domains of the linguistic system. Its contributions set out to test this approach against new phenomena or data from synchronic, diachronic and, for the first time in a Sandwich-related volume, psycholinguistic perspectives. With topics ranging from nickname formation to the IPP (aka 'Ersatzinfinitiv'), from the grammaticalisation of the definite article to /s/-retraction, and from the role of verb-second order in the acquisition of L2 English to the psycholinguistics of gender, the volume appeals to students and specialists in modern and historical linguistics, psycholinguistics, translation studies, language pedagogy and cognitive science, providing a wealth of fresh insights into the relationships of German with its closest relatives while highlighting the potential inherent in the integration of different methodological traditions

An auditory and acoustic study of liquids in Malayalam

This thesis aims to describe the auditory and acoustic characteristics of the rhotics in Malayalam. There is disagreement in the limited literature that exists on the language regarding the manner of articulation of the rhotics. Some refer to them as one tap and one trill (Kumari, 1972) while others describe both as trills differing slightly in place of articulation (Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996; Srikumar and Reddy, 1988). The two rhotics are lexically contrastive, e.g. /kaɾi/ soot -/kari/ curry. One of the objectives of the present study is to describe the phonetic characteristics of the two rhotics and the contrast maintenance strategies used by speakers to distinguish between them. Apart from the two uncontested rhotics, there is a fifth liquid, an allegedly similar sound in Tamil and Malayalam that has previously been referred to as being a rhotic by some (Asher and Kumari, 1997; Krishnamurti, 2003, 152) and a lateral by others (Kumari, 1972). Recent studies on Tamil liquids (McDonough and Johnson, 1997; Narayanan et al. 1999) have described the fifth liquid as being a retroflex central approximant, i.e. another rhotic. The second objective of this study is to explore the possibility of the fifth liquid being a third rhotic in Malayalam. Eight male speakers were recorded reading out words, containing at least one of the five liquids in all permissible word-positions, in a carrier phrase. Results of the auditory and acoustic analyses showed that the two rhotics differed mainly in their tongue configurations (laminal and advanced vs. apical and retracted), resonance characteristics (clear vs. dark) and surrounding vowel quality (advanced and closer vs. retracted and open). F2 was found to be the most robust distinguishing acoustic cue. Manner of articulation varied for the apical rhotic from trill to tap to approximant across speakers and depending on word-position while the laminal rhotic was always realised as a tap. Duration was not found to be a robust cue in distinguishing between the two rhotics. The fifth liquid appears to be a clear post-alveolar approximant phonetically while functioning as a retroflex approximant from a phonological point of view. The lack of traditional phonetic cues separating the tap and trill segments in Malayalam highlights the importance of looking at non-segmental long-domain effects for the realisation of their clear (tap) and dark (trill) resonance, which was found to be more important than the actual manner of articulation and temporal cues. This, together with the discrepancy in the phonetic and phonological behaviour of the fifth liquid, suggests that phonetics and phonology share a „partly absolute-partly relative relationship‟ and supports the notion of an Extrinsic Phonetic Interpretation (EPI), which seems to better account for the paradox surrounding the phonologically unified yet phonetically asymmetric class of rhotics.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceCWIT : FFWG : ECLS : Newcastle UniversityGBUnited Kingdo