Earbuds: A Method for Analyzing Nasality in the Field

Existing methods for collecting and analyzing nasality data are problematic for linguistic fieldworkers: aerodynamic equipment can be expensive and difficult to transport, and acoustic analyses require large amounts of optimally-recorded data. In this paper, a highly mobile and low-cost method is proposed. By connecting low impedance earbuds into a microphone jack of a recording device and placing one earbud immediately below one nostril while keeping the other earbud by the mouth, it is possible to capture the relative intensity of sound exiting the nasal and oral cavities. The two channels can then be normalized to assess the relative prominence of nasality and orality in a given speech sound. This method can not only be used to establish whether nasality is present in a speech signal, but it can also provide information about the timing and duration of nasal gestures. As such, it is an ideal tool for collecting high-quality nasality data in the field.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

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

Phonetics in the Field

it seems generally the case that little detail on specifically phonetic matters is provided in a typical grammar, nor is there much use of phonetic techniques to provide insights on other matters, such as adding precision to observations of phonological alternations or testing whether supposed syntactic ambiguities are actually disambiguated at the phonetic level. While syntactic patterns are documented with example sentences, often from natural discourse or texts, the phonetic facts are rarely if ever documented by the presentation of hard evidence. In order to see if this impression was justified a survey of twenty grammars published or submitted as doctoral dissertations in the period of a dozen years from 1989 to 2000 was conducted

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

An acoustic and aerodynamic study of stops in tonal and non-tonal dialects of Korean

ABSTRACT This study investigates the acoustic and aerodynamic properties of well&ndashknown three&ndashway distinction of Korean voiceless stops in two dialects, which differ in their tonal systems: non&ndashtonal Seoul Korean (standard Korean) and tonal South Kyungsang Korean (spoken in Southern part of Korea). Several issues are addressed in the current study: (i) the acoustic cues (e.g. VOT, f0, H1&ndashH2) that each dialect mainly uses to distinguish the three Korean stops, (ii) the effect of f0 as a function of distinguishing three stop categories and as a function of distinguishing the High vs. Low tonal contrasts in the tonal South Kyungsang dialect, (iii) dialectal variation in aerodynamic area (e.g., oral airflow, oral air pressure) as well as acoustic area. These issues are examined with 16 Korean speakers, eight Seoul Korean and eight South Kyungsang Korean speakers. Along with the results replicating previous findings, the experimental results report several noteworthy new findings. First, the acoustic and aerodynamic pattern differently in the two dialects; Seoul speakers primarily use f0 as an acoustic cue for three laryngeal gestures of Korean stops, while South Kyungsang speakers are more likely to use VOT as a main acoustic cue. Second, the use of tonal contrasts to distinguish High vs. Low tone for South Kyungsang speakers makes f0 an unreliable acoustic cue for the three Korean stops. Third, the dialectal differences on VOT to mark the three laryngeal distinctions support the notion of the diachronic transition that the VOT difference between the lenis and aspirated stops is decreasing over the past 50 years. Finally, the results of aerodynamic study make it possible to postulate the articulatory state. Hence, based on the acoustic and aerodynamic results, this study suggests the possible phonological representations in the two dialects which differ in their tonal systems

Strategies for analyzing tone languages

This paper outlines a method of auditory and acoustic analysis for determining the tonemes of a language starting from scratch, drawing on the author’s experience of recording and analyzing tone languages of north-east India. The methodology is applied to a preliminary analysis of tone in the Thang dialect of Khiamniungan, a virtually undocumented language of extreme eastern Nagaland and adjacent areas of the Sagaing Division Myanmar (Burma). Following a discussion of strategies for ensuring that data appropriate for tonal analysis will be recorded, the practical demonstration begins with a description of how tone categories can be established according to their syllable type in the preliminary auditory analysis. The paper then uses this data to describe a method of acoustic analysis that ultimately permits the representation of pitch shapes as a function of absolute mean duration. The analysis of grammatical tones, floating tones and tone sandhi are exemplified with Mongsen Ao data, and a description of a perception test demonstrates how this can be used to corroborate the auditory and acoustic analysis of a tone system. *This paper is in the series How to Study a Tone Language, edited by Steven Bird and Larry HymanNational Foreign Language Resource Cente

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationBitburger Platt, spoken in the Eifel region of western Germany, exhibits a merger of the Standard German (d) and (t) sounds, the reflexes of West Germanic *6 and *d, respectively. A chain shift yielded the modern Standard German variants. Biburger Platt, however, did not follow through with the first phase of this shift; rather, the two sounds were merged into [d] in the dialect (Veith, 1999). As an example, the Standard German phrase du tust ‘you do (cognate to English thou doest)' is realized in Bitburger Platt as [dou dej s]. Bitburg is a town where many (if not most) residents are undergoing or have recently undergone a transition from a home-based, agrarian lifestyle to one requiring a commute to an urban center and more contact with nonlocals. Such a transition has been shown by other studies (Hofmann, 1963, Besch, 1981, Lenz, 2003) to go hand-in-hand with language shift, specifically a shift from the use of base dialects (basilects) to regional colloquial varieties that lie on a continuum between the base dialect and the standard and exhibit features of both. The effects of situational and social factors on one's language use have long been attested. Labov (1963, 1966) mainstreamed the discipline of studying such variation in language, but others before his time showed awareness of it as well (Vietor, 1875, Wegener, 1891). A sociolinguistic study can reveal much about a particular speech community, ranging from qualitative information on the community's attitudes toward their language to quantifiable data that reveal how the individual community members actually speak. This study focuses heavily on the latter, specifically investigating correlations between participants' age, gender, and recording situation and their articulation of the alveolar stop consonants (d) and (t). Participants first took part in recorded interviews with me, and then in a conversation with a close friend or family member, during which I was not present. Their recordings were subsequently searched for all tokens with Standard German (d) and (t) correspondences in initial and medial position. Those tokens in initial position underwent analysis for voice onset time (VOT) and harmonic difference (H1-H2), both proven to be acoustic correlates to fortis/lenis contrasts (Lisker and Abramson, 1964, Jessen, 1996). Medial tokens underwent analysis for the parameter of closure duration, also shown to be a fortis/lenis correlate. Results indicate that participants show an overwhelming preference for merged variants in conversational speech - the indicator of dialecticity. In interview speech, however, the fortis/lenis contrast is maintained by all but the older men, a likely consequence of changing linguistic norms in the community

The Phonetics and Phonology of Nyagrong Minyag, an Endangered Language of Western China.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

A Comprehensive Review of Intensity and Its Linguistic Applications

Every speech sound that human beings produce or perceive is a composite of three independent, yet interdependent correlates, i.e., F0/pitch, intensity, and duration. Koffi (2019) provided a comprehensive review of F0 and its various correlations. In this paper, the focus is on intensity and its linguistic applications. Various terms related to intensity are first examined and explained. Thereafter, its psychoacoustic properties are highlighted and discussed from the standpoint of the Critical Band Theory (CBT) and Just Noticeable Difference (JND) thresholds. Intensity measurements from 55 speakers of Central Minnesota English (CMNE) are used to illustrate the aforementioned concepts. Later in the paper, Equation 4 is used to derive sonority indices that are firmly grounded in the physics of speech. It is argued that these indices are better suited to account for the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) and the Minimal Sonority Distance Parameter (MSDP) than the arbitrary sonority indices commonly used in phonological analyses