Rhotics.New Data and Perspectives

This book provides an insight into the patterns of variation and change of rhotics in different languages and from a variety of perspectives. It sheds light on the phonetics, the phonology, the socio-linguistics and the acquisition of /r/-sounds in languages as diverse as Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Kuikuro, Malayalam, Romanian, Slovak, Tyrolean and Washili Shingazidja thus contributing to the discussion on the unity and uniqueness of this group of sounds

L2 speech learning of European Portuguese /l/ and /ɾ/ by L1-Mandarin learners: experimental evidence and theoretical modelling

It has been long recognized that the poor distinction between /l/ and /ɾ/ is one of the most perceptible characteristics in Chinese-accented Portuguese. Recent empirical research revealed that this notorious L2 speech learning difficulty goes beyond the confusion between two L2 categories, as L1-Mandarin learners’ acquisition of Portuguese /l/ and /ɾ/ seems to be subject to the interaction among different prosodic positions, speech modalities and representational levels. This thesis aims to deepen our current understanding of this L2 speech learning process, by exploring what constrains the development of L2 phonological categories across syllable positions and how different modalities interact during this process. To achieve this goal, both experimental tasks and theoretical modelling were employed. The first study of this thesis explores the role of cross-linguistic influence and orthography on L2 category formation. In order to elicit cross-linguistic influence directly, a delayed-imitation task was performed with L1-Mandarin naïve listeners. This task examined how the Mandarin phonology parses the Portuguese input ([l], [ɾ]) in intervocalic onset and in word-internal coda position. Moreover, whether orthography plays a role during the construction of L2 phonological representation was tested by manipulating the input types that were given in the experiment (auditory input alone vs. auditory + written input). Our study shows that naïve Mandarin listeners’ responses corroborated with that of L1-Mandarin learners, suggesting that cross-linguistic influence is responsible for the observed L2 prosodic effects. Moreover, the Mandarin [ɻ] (a repair strategy for /ɾ/) occurred almost exclusively when the written form was given, providing evidence for the cross-linguistic interaction between phonological categorization and orthography during the construction of L2 categories. In the second study, we first investigate the interaction between speech perception and production in L2 speech learning, by examining whether the L2 deviant productions stem from misperception and whether the order of acquisition in L2 speech perception mirrors that in production. Secondly, we test whether L2 phonological categories remain malleable at a mid-late stage of L2 speech learning. Two perceptual experiments were performed to test L1-Mandarin learners on their discrimination ability between the target Portuguese form and the deviant form employed in L2 production. Expanding on prior research, in this study, the perceptual motivation for L2 speech difficulties was assessed in different syllable constituents (onset and coda) and at both segmental and suprasegmental levels (structural modification). The results demonstrate that some deviant forms observed in L2 production indeed have a perceptual motivation ([w] for the velarised lateral; [l] and [ɾə] for the tap), while some others cannot be attributed to misperception (deletion of syllable-final tap). Furthermore, learners confused the intervocalic /l/ and /ɾ/ bidirectionally in perception, while in production they never misproduced the lateral (/ɾ/ → [l], */l/ → [ɾ]), revealing a mismatch between two speech modalities. By contrast, the order of acquisition (/ɾ/coda > /ɾ/onset) was shown to be consistent in L2 perception and production. The correspondence and discrepancy between the two speech modalities signal a complex relationship between L2 speech perception and production. To assess the plasticity of L2 categories /l/ and /ɾ/, two groups of L1-Mandarin learners who differ substantially in terms of L2 experience were recruited in the perceptual tasks. Our study shows that both groups behaved similarly in terms of the discrimination performance. No evidence for a role of L2 experience was found. The implication of this null result on L2 phonological development is discussed. The third study of the thesis aims to contribute to bridging the gap between the L2 experimental evidence and formal theories. Adopting the Bidirectional Phonology and Phonetics Model, we formalise some of the experimental findings that cannot be elucidated by current L2 speech theories, namely, the between and within-subject variation in L2 phonological categorization; the interaction between phonological categorization and orthography during L2 category construction; and the asymmetry between L2 perception and production. Overall, this thesis sheds light on the complex nature of L2 phonological acquisition and provides a formal account of how different modalities interact in shaping L2 speech learning. Moreover, it puts forward testable predictions for future research and suggestions for improving foreign language teaching/training methodologies.É bem conhecido o facto de as trocas associadas a /l/ e /ɾ/ constituírem uma das caraterísticas mais percetíveis no português articulado pelos aprendentes chineses. Recentemente, estudos empíricos revelam que a dificuldade por parte dos aprendentes chineses não se restringe à discriminação moderada entre as duas categorias da L2, dado que a aquisição de /l/ e /ɾ/ do português por aprendentes chineses parece estar sujeita à interação entre contextos prosódicos, entre modalidades de fala e entre níveis representacionais diferentes. Esta tese visa aprofundar a nossa compreensão deste processo da aquisição fonológica L2, explorando o que condiciona o desenvolvimento das categorias fonológicas L2 em diferentes constituintes silábicos e de que modo as modalidades interagem durante este processo, recorrendo para tal a tarefas experimentais bem como a formalização teórica. O primeiro estudo averigua o papel da influência interlinguística e o da ortografia na construção das categorias de L2. Para elicitar a influência interlinguística diretamente, uma tarefa de imitação retardada foi aplicada aos falantes nativos do mandarim sem conhecimento de português, investigando assim como a fonologia do mandarim categoriza o input do português ([l], [ɾ]) em ataque simples intervocálico e em coda medial. Para além disso, a influência ortográfica na construção de representações fonológicas em L2 foi examinada através da manipulação do tipo do input apresentado na experiência (input auditivo vs. input auditivo + ortográfico). Os resultados da situação experimental em que os participantes receberam input de ambos os tipos replicaram o efeito prosódico observado na literatura, evidenciando a interação entre categorização fonológica e ortografia na construção das categorias de L2. No segundo estudo, investigamos a interação entre a perceção e a produção de fala na aquisição das líquidas do PE por aprendentes chineses e a plasticidade destas categorias fonológicas, respondendo às questões seguintes: 1) as produções desviantes de L2 resultam da perceção incorreta? 2) a ordem da aquisição em L2 é consistente na perceção e na produção? 3) as categorias da L2 permanecem maleáveis numa fase intermédia da aquisição? Duas tarefas percetivas foram conduzidas para testar a capacidade percetiva dos aprendentes nativos do mandarim em relação à discriminação entre a forma alvo do português e as formas desviantes utilizadas na produção. No presente estudo, a motivação percetiva das dificuldades em L2 foi testada nos constituintes silábicos diferentes (ataque simples e coda) e nos níveis segmental e suprassegmental (modificação estrutural). Os resultados demonstram que algumas formas desviantes que os aprendentes chineses produzem têm uma motivação percetiva (i.e. [w] para a lateral velarizada; [l] e [ɾə] para a vibrante alveolar), enquanto outras não podem ser analisadas como casos de perceção incorreta (como é o caso do o apagamento da vibrante em coda). Para além disso, na posição intervocálica, os aprendentes manifestam dificuldade na discriminação entre /l/ e /ɾ/ de forma bidirecional, mas, na produção, a lateral nunca é produzida incorretamente (/ɾ/ → [l], */l/ → [ɾ]). Tal revela uma divergência entre as duas modalidades de fala. Por contraste, mostrou-se que a ordem da aquisição (/ɾ/coda > /ɾ/ataque) é consistente na perceção e na produção da L2. A correspondência e a discrepância entre as duas modalidades de fala, sinalizam uma relação complexa entre a perceção e a produção na aquisição fonológica de L2. Em relação à questão da plasticidade das categorias de L2, recrutaram-se para as tarefas percetivas dois grupos de aprendentes nativos do mandarim que se diferenciavam substancialmente em termos da experiência em L2. Não se encontrou um efeito significativo da experiência da L2. A implicação deste resultado nulo no desenvolvimento fonológico de L2 foi discutida. O terceiro estudo desta tese tem como objetivo contribuir para a colmatação das lacunas entre estudos empíricos de L2 e as teorias formais. Adotando o Modelo Bidirecional de Fonologia e Fonética, formalizamos os resultados experimentais que as teorias atuais da aquisição fonológica de L2 não conseguem explicar, nomeadamente, a variação inter e intra-sujeitos na categorização fonológica em L2; a interação entre categorização fonológica e ortografia na construção das categorias na L2; a assimetria entre a perceção e a produção na L2. Em suma, esta tese contribui com dados empíricos para a discussão da relação complexa entre a perceção, produção e ortografia na aquisição fonológica de L2 e formaliza a interação entre essas modalidades através de um modelo linguístico generativo. Além disso, apresentam-se predições testáveis para investigação futura e sugestões para o aperfeiçoamento das metodologias de ensino/treino da língua não materna

Relative difficulty in the L2 acquisition of the Spanish dorsal fricative

Research on relative difficulty in L2 production has revealed that learners target the most salient parameter when acquiring new sounds (Colantoni & Steele, 2008). For example, L1 English-L2 French learners acquire the more salient fricative manner of the French /ʁ/ before the voicing and duration parameters (Colantoni & Steele, 2007, 2008). Previous work in this framework has not compared the acquisition of place and manner parameters. If the more salient parameter is targeted first, we should expect L2 learners to acquire the manner of articulation before the place of articulation, given that manner is a more salient feature than place (Miller & Nicely, 1955; Bedoin et al., 2013). This hypothesis was tested by investigating the L2 production of the Spanish voiceless dorsal fricative by L1 English speakers living in Madrid, a region in which the fricative has a strident realization (Hualde, 2014) and a uvular place of articulation (Ibabe et al., 2016). Fourteen L1 English-L2 Spanish speakers and 14 native Spanish controls performed a picture description task that elicited the target in two vocalic contexts: [aχe, eχa]. An acoustic analysis revealed that the L2 speakers produced fricatives with a similar amplitude compared to controls. However, in the [eχa] context, the learners produced fricatives with a more anterior place of articulation and less frication. The results are consistent with the finding from previous work that learners focus on the most salient property when learning new segments, and provide further evidence that vocalic context is an important factor in production difficulty

세대에 따른 한국어 화자의 외국어 어두 유성 폐쇄음 지각 변화

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 인문대학 언어학과, 2021.8. 장현정.This study aims to investigate how Korean speakers perceive foreign unaspirated voiceless and voiced stops, and how the mechanisms of stop perception differ across generations. Contemporary Seoul Korean speakers tend to utilize fundamental frequency (f₀) of the following vowel as the primary cue for perceiving lenis stops, while older generations relied more on voice onset time (VOT). In the lenis and aspirated stop perception, f₀ and VOT were also observed to trade off. In this study, a perception and mapping test was conducted with 20 teenage subjects and 20 senior subjects to determine if the cue trade-off and the changing tendency with respect to cue-weighting, observed in Korean speakers native voiceless stop perception, are also present in their foreign voiced stop perception. The results indicate that younger listeners do perceive foreign voiced stops differently from the older listeners. Consistent with their native stop perception, the teenage subjects utilized f₀ more actively as a cue when perceiving word-initial unaspirated voiceless and voiced stops. The trend towards increased f₀-dependency seems to be consistent across native and foreign stops with or without aspiration or prevoicing. However, the f₀-VOT trade-off observed in previous studies on Korean speakers voiceless stop perception was not found to be replicated in this experiment with stimuli with near-zero to negative VOT values. For Korean speakers, whose native language lacks voicing contrasts in stop consonants at word-initial positions, negative and positive VOT in word-initial stop consonants may not serve equally well as a cue.이 연구는 지각 실험을 통해 한국어 화자의 어두 무기 유·무성음 지각 기제와 그 변화 양상을 밝히고자 한다. 서울말 화자가 어두 예사소리를 구분할 때, 과거에는 성대 진동 시작 시간(VOT)이 더 주요한 단서였으나 최근에는 후행 모음의 기본 주파수(f₀)가 더 적극적으로 활용된다. 거센소리와 예사소리 지각에서는 f₀와 VOT의 트레이드오프(trade-off) 관계가 보고되기도 했다. 이 연구에서는 한국어 화자의 어두 무성 폐쇄음 지각 양상에서 보이는 단서 트레이드오프와 단서 비중 변화가 유성 폐쇄음 지각에서도 나타나는지 살펴보기 위해 10대 청소년 화자와 70대 노인 화자를 대상으로 청취 실험을 시행해, 외국어 어두 무기 유·무성음 인지에서 세대 차가 있음을 밝혔다. 젊은 한국어 화자는 외국어 유·무성 폐쇄음을 인지할 때 이전 세대보다 후행 모음의 f₀를 더 적극적으로 활용하며, 이는 이들의 모어 무성 폐쇄음 인지 기제와 일치한다. 한국어 화자의 어두 폐쇄음 지각에서 f₀의 단서 비중 확대는 기식성이나 성대 진동 여부, 모어와 외국어 소리에 상관없이 두루 나타나는 것으로 보인다. 한국어 화자의 모어 무성 유·무기 폐쇄음 지각에서 관찰되었던 VOT와 f₀ 간 트레이드오프는 외국어 무기 유·무성음 폐쇄음 지각에서는 관찰되지 않았다. 모어의 어두 폐쇄음에서 유·무성 대립이 나타나지 않는 한국어 화자의 폐쇄음 지각 기제에서, 음수 VOT는 양수 VOT와 다른 성격을 지니는 것으로 보인다.1. Introduction 7 2. Experiment 13 2.1. Stimuli 13 2.1.1. Characteristics 16 2.1.2. Manipulation 23 2.2. Subjects 27 2.3. Methods 28 2.3.1. Experiment design 28 2.3.2. Performance 31 3. Results 32 3.1. VOT contrasts 32 3.1.1. Young listeners 33 3.1.2. Senior listeners 37 3.2. f₀ contrasts 41 3.2.1. Young listeners 42 3.2.2. Senior listeners 49 3.3. Correlations 55 4. Conclusion 56 References 59석

The production of Mexican rhotics by Haitian Creole speakers in Tijuana Mexico: a sociophonetic approach

This study investigates the production of the Spanish /ɾ-r/ (e.g., [ˈpɛ.ɾo] ‘but’ vs. [ˈpɛ.ro] \u27dog\u27) contrast by 30 multi-lingual Haitian Creole speakers learning Spanish, living in Tijuana, Mexico. Specifically, it (a) tests the Speech Learning Model (Flege, 1995) regarding the ease of acquisition of \u27new sounds\u27 (i.e. the Spanish rhotics), (b) examines the effect of orthography and (c) investigates the role of social factors, namely language attitude and education on the production of the Spanish rhotics. An acoustic analysis of 2396 tokens show that despite Flege\u27s predictions, the [r] and the [ɾ] are difficult for the learners to produce, albeit the latter is easier than the former. Developmental patterns, transfer and target-like production of the /ɾ/ and the /r/ are reported. The results also indicate a novel effect of orthography, where the grapheme and the digraph trigger an asymmetrical effect in the learners\u27 productions. Moreover, the results presented a trend, where the more educated learners had less difficulty with the production of the /r/. Furthermore, all learners reported a positive attitude towards Spanish, which may explain why there was not a significant correlation between language attitude and the production of the /ɾ-r/ contrast. The findings make an important contribution to the field of L2 and speech learning because of the various factors that have been considered in the study

The Application of English Theories to Sorani Phonology

This thesis investigates phonological processes in Sorani Kurdish within the framework of Element Theory. It studies two main varieties of Sorani spoken in Iraq which are Slemani and Hawler. Since the phonology of SK is one of the least studied areas in Kurdish linguistics and the available studies provide different accounts of its segments, I start by introducing the segmental system of the SK dialect group. I present a list of consonants and vowels and discuss the variation between Hawler and Slemani. I then present an Element Theory analysis of the segmental system of SK which reflects the phonological behaviour of each segment and how it patterns with other sounds. For example, š and ž are post-alveolar articulatorily while they behave like palatals in phonological processes and hence have a headed |I| element. I then study processes of place assimilation in SK. The process of palatalization is one area that sets Hawler and Slemani varieties apart. In SK, velar stops, k g, are palatalized before front vocoids. However, in Hawler, the output of velar palatalization is an affricate consonant while in Slemani, palatalization is secondary and adds a secondary articulation to the velar stops. Similarly, both varieties have a set of emphatic consonants which have caused considerable debate in the literature as there is no agreement on their distribution in SK. In this study, I present the first detailed account of the emphatic consonants in SK and argue that their triggers differ between Slemani and Hawler and I also argue that they differ phonologically from emphatics in Arabic. Another place assimilation process that is discussed briefly is nasal place assimilation. Other processes discussed in the thesis relate to laryngeal contrasts in SK. The data show that word-initial obstruents have a typologically uncommon laryngeal contrast that utilizes the extreme points on the VOT continuum. That is, SK has a pre-voiced set of obstruents that contrasts with an aspirated set in word-initial position. In word-final position, however, the pre-voiced set is devoiced, and the contrast is between an aspirated set and a neutral set. I also discuss the process of voicing assimilation that occurs in both Hawler and Slemani. The study also accounts for such processes as metathesis and deletion and presents data to show variations between Hawler and Slemani. The study ends with an evaluation of the main findings and asserts the importance of this thesis and how it can be used as a basis for future work

Foreigner-directed speech and L2 speech learning in an understudied interactional setting: the case of foreign-domestic helpers in Oman

Ph. D. (Integrated) ThesisSet in Arabic-speaking Oman, the present study investigates whether speech directed to foreign domestic helpers (FDH-directed speech) is modified when compared with speech addressed to native Arabic speakers. It also explores the FDH’s ability to learn the sound system of their L2 in a near-naturalistic setting. In relation to input, the study explores whether there are any adaptations in native speakers’ realizations of complex Arabic consonants, consonant clusters, and vowels in FDH-directed speech. By doing so, it compares the phonetic features of FDH-directed speech in relation to other speech registers such as foreigner-directed speech (FDS), infant-directed speech (IDS) and clear speech. The study also investigates whether foreign accentedness, religion and Arabic language experience, as indexed by length of residence (LoR), play a role in the extent of adaptations present in FDH-directed speech. In relation to L2 speech learning, the study investigates the extent to which FDHs are sensitive to the phonemic contrasts of Arabic and whether their production of complex Arabic consonants and consonant clusters is target-like. It also examines the social and linguistic factors (LoR, first and second language literacy) that play a role in the learnability of these sounds. Speech recordings were collected from 22 Omani female native Arabic speakers who interacted 1) with their FDHs and 2) with a native-speaking adult (the order was reversed for half of the participants), in both instances using a spot the difference task. A picture naming task was then used to collect data for production data by the same FDHs, while perception data consisted of an AX forced choice task. Results demonstrate the distinctiveness of FDH-directed speech from other speech registers. Neither simplification of complex sounds nor hyperarticulation of consonant contrasts were attested in FDH-directed speech, despite them being reported in other studies on FDS and IDS. We attribute this to the familiarity of the native speakers with their FDHs and the formulaic nature of their daily interactions. Expansion of vowel space was evident in this study, conforming with other FDS studies. Results from perception and production tasks revealed that FDHs fell short of native-like performance, despite the more naturalistic setting and regardless of LoR. L1 and L2 literacy played varying roles in FDHs’ phonological sensitivity and production of certain contrasts. The study is original is terms of showing that FDS is not an automatic outcome of interactions with L2 speakers and links these results with the unusual social setting