Using naive listener imitations of native speaker productions to investigate mechanisms of listener-based sound change

This study was designed to test whether listener-based sound change-listener misperception (Ohala, 1981, 1993) and perceptual cue re-weighting (Beddor, 2009, 2012)-can be observed synchronically in a laboratory setting. Co-registered articulatory data (degree of nasalization, tongue height, breathiness) and acoustic data (F1 frequency) related to the productions of phonemic oral and nasal vowels of Southern French were first collected from four native speakers, and the acoustic recordings were subsequently presented to nine Australian English naive listeners, who were instructed to imitate the native productions. During these imitations, similar articulatory and acoustic data were collected in order to compare the articulatory strategies used by the two groups. The results suggest that the imitators successfully reproduced the acoustic distinctions made by the native speakers, but that they did so using different articulatory strategies. The articulatory strategies for the vowel pair /a/-/a/ suggest that listeners (at least partially) misperceived F1-lowering due to nasalization and breathiness as being due to tongue height. Additional evidence supports perceptual cue re-weighting, in that the naive imitators employed nasalance less, and tongue height more, in order to obtain the same F1 nasal-oral distinctions that the native speakers had originally produced

SINGING PORTUGUESE NASAL VOWELS: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING NASALITY IN BRAZILIAN ART SONGS

The articulation of Portuguese nasalized vowels poses some articulatory problems accompanied by negative acoustic effects for the performance of Brazilian art songs. The main objective was to find strategies that permit the singer to conciliate an idiomatic pronunciation of these vowels with a well-balanced resonance, a desirable quality in classical singing. In order to devise these strategies, the author examined sources dealing with nasalized vowels from varied perspectives: acoustic properties of vowel nasalization, phonetic and phonological aspects ofBrazilian Portuguese (BP), historical views on nasality in singing, and recent vocal pedagogy research. In addition to the overall loss of sonority, the main effect of nasalization is felt mainly in the first formant (F1) region of oral vowels, due to the introduction of nasal formants and antiformants, and to shifts in the tongue posture. Several sources report the existence of a nasality contour in BP, by which a nasalized vowel starts with an oral phase and transitions gradually to a nasal phase. The author concludes that the basic approach to sing nasalized vowels in BP is (1) to find the tongue posture corresponding to the oral vowel congener (the “core vowel”), and (2) to adjust the nasality contour in such a way that the oral portion remains prominent in order to keep the resonance balance consistent during the emission of the vowel. Once the core vowel is determined, standard vowel modification choices can be made according to voice type and the musical context in which the vowel is being sung. Some challenging excerpts from Brazilian art songs are examined, with suggestions for the application of the discussed strategies

Perception of Vowel Nasality Contrast in Brazilian Portuguese

Vowel nasality is the most controversial phonological aspect of Brazilian Portuguese. Scholars suggest the oral-nasal vowel distinction may not exist. A consonant-like nasal resonance presence at the vowel’s right edge (the nasal appendix) might make nasal vowels the product of a contextual vowel nasalization rule. Others suggest that the appendix is a byproduct of a velum lowering gesture misalignment, so, nasal vowels are distinctive due to vowel-inherent differences in nasality and quality. Since two opposing conclusions can be reached by examining nasal vowels production, we seek a new source of evidence in listeners’ perception of these vowels.This dissertation examines how Brazilian Portuguese listeners perceive vowel nasality, to shed light on the phonological status issue. The production study measured oral, nasal and nasalized vowels formants, and acoustic nasality to establish acoustic profiles. The rating perceptual experiment tested whether Brazilian Portuguese listeners treat potentially contrastive vowel nasality as a coarticulatory product of the appendix, i.e., perceptual compensation. The identification experiment tested whether they can identify a word based on vowel alone.Results show that participants did not perceptually compensate for vowel nasality and identified words based solely on vowels. However, accuracy was much lower than expected. Two factors played a role in accuracy: vowel quality and appendix presence. Accuracy was higher when vowels were different in terms of vowel quality, as attested by differences in the production study; nasal answers increased when vowels were followed by the appendix, regardless of nasality type. The oral-nasal vowel contrast in Brazilian Portuguese is considered mainly a vowel quality contrast, caused by change in quality due to oral-nasal resonance interactions in nasal vowels. The perceptual distinction is clear in the low and the mid-front vowels, where vowel production shows quality differences, but not in the mid-back or high vowels, where quality differences are small. The appendix increased nasality judgement; it is thought that at least some part of the contrast lies with it. We conclude that vowel nasality in Brazilian Portuguese is phonologized and some vowels are phonemic. However, we cannot say whether phonologization is still ongoing, or whether it is halted by the appendix

Die Organisation von Konsonantenclustern und CVC-Sequenzen in zwei portugiesischen Varietäten

Wie lässt sich die Tatsache erklären, dass zwischen den Sprechern ein und derselben Sprache so häufig Missverständnisse entstehen können wie im Fall des europäischen und brasilianischen Portugiesisch? Und weshalb ist das Verhältnis asymmetrisch, d.h. wie können Sprecher einer Varietät mehr Schwierigkeiten haben als die der anderen? Das vorliegende Buch analysiert solche variationistischen Gegebenheiten im Rahmen der Artikulatorischen Phonologie mit den Mitteln der modernen Phonetik und zeigt, wie das Zusammenspiel von Produktion und Wahrnehmung die unterschiedlichen Lautmuster der beiden Varietäten bestimmt und die Weltsprache Portugiesisch spaltet

Die Organisation von Konsonantenclustern und CVC-Sequenzen in zwei portugiesischen Varietäten

Wie lässt sich die Tatsache erklären, dass zwischen den Sprechern ein und derselben Sprache so häufig Missverständnisse entstehen können wie im Fall des europäischen und brasilianischen Portugiesisch? Und weshalb ist das Verhältnis asymmetrisch, d.h. wie können Sprecher einer Varietät mehr Schwierigkeiten haben als die der anderen? Das vorliegende Buch analysiert solche variationistischen Gegebenheiten im Rahmen der Artikulatorischen Phonologie mit den Mitteln der modernen Phonetik und zeigt, wie das Zusammenspiel von Produktion und Wahrnehmung die unterschiedlichen Lautmuster der beiden Varietäten bestimmt und die Weltsprache Portugiesisch spaltet