Online perception of glottalized coda stops in American English

In American English, voiceless codas /t/ and /p/ are often glottalized: They have glottal constriction that results in creaky voice on the preceding vowel. Previous claims suggest that such glottalization can serve to enhance /t/ or, more generally, voicelessness of coda stops. In this study, we examine the timecourse of word recognition to test whether glottalization facilitates the perception of words ending in voiceless /t/ and /p/, which is expected if glottalization is in fact enhancing. Sixty American English listeners participated in an eye-tracking study, where they heard resynthesized glottalized and non-glottalized versions of CVC English words ending in /p, t, b, d/ while looking at a display with two words presented orthographically. Target words were presented with a minimal pair differing in place of articulation (e.g., cop-cot), or voicing, (e.g., bat-bad, cap-cab). Although there is little evidence that glottalization facilitates recognition of words ending in /t/ or /p/, there is a strong inhibitory effect: Words ending in voiced stops are recognized more slowly and poorly when the preceding vowel was glottalized. These findings lend little support to a listener-driven, enhancement-based explanation for the occurrence of coda glottalization in American English. On the other hand, they suggest that glottalized instances of coda /t/ and /p/, but not of coda /d/ and /b/, are perceived as equally good variants of these sounds

Prevocalic t-glottaling across word boundaries in Midland American English

Rates of t-glottaling across word boundaries in both preconsonantal and prevocalic contexts have recently been claimed to be positively correlated with the frequency of occurrence of a given word in preconsonantal contexts (Eddington & Channer, 2010). Words typically followed by consonants have been argued to have their final /t/s glottaled more often than words less frequently followed by consonants. This paper includes a number of ‘internal’ and ‘external’ predictors in a mixed-effects logistic regression model and has two goals: (1) to replicate the positive correlation of the frequency of occurrence of a word in preconsonantal contexts (its ‘contextual frequency’) with its rates of t-glottaling in both preconsonantal and prevocalic contexts postulated by Eddington and Channer (2010), and (2) to quantify the factors influencing the likelihood of t-glottaling across word boundaries in Midland American English. The effect of contextual frequency has been confirmed. This result is argued to support a hybrid view of phonological storage and processing, one including both abstract and exemplar representations. T-glottaling has also been found to be negatively correlated with bigram frequency and speech rate deviation, while positively correlated with young age in female speakers.NCN; UMO-2017/26/D/HS2/0002711112313Laboratory Phonolog

Sociofonetická studie substituční glotalizace u rodilých mluvčích angličtiny

Glotální ráz, výslovnostní prvek, který býval v britské angličtině zatížen silným sociálním stigmatem, je nyní hojně užíván mluvčími napříč všemi společenskými vrstvami a tvoří součást většiny britských dialektů. Vůdčí role v šíření této formy se připisuje ženám, a je to právě asociace s ženskou mluvou, která ji povyšuje na sociálně prestižnější. Cílem této bakalářské práce je prozkoumat výskyt substituční glotalizace u rodilých mluvčích angličtiny, zejména v závislosti na vybraných sociolingvistických faktorech: pohlaví, věk a typ projevu. V teoretické rovině nabízí práce popis lingvistických a sociálních aspektů T-glotalizace. Zvláštní důraz je kladen na chování sociálních vlivů během jazykových změn. Prezentován je také přehled dosavadního výzkumu v této oblasti. Empirická část práce je založena na analýze 32 nahrávek rodilých mluvčích angličtiny. Výsledky studie potvrzují, že pohlaví, věk i typ projevu mají značný vliv na výskyt glotalizace. Skutečnost, že ženy z našeho vzorku iniciují její šíření, může naznačovat, že glotální ráz stále prochází jazykovou změnu.The glottal stop, previously labelled as a heavily stigmatized feature of British English pronunciation, has become widely spread across all social classes and the majority of British dialects. Young females are believed to be instrumental in leading the spread and causing the social re-evaluation of the feature. The aim of the present study is to analyze the occurrence of T-glottaling in the speech of British English speakers in relation to sociolinguistic factors, primarily age, gender and speaking style. The theoretical part provides a description of the linguistic and social aspects of T-glottaling. Particular attention is paid to the role of social factors in the process of language change. In addition, a brief overview of previous research is presented. The material for the empirical part of this study consists of 32 recordings of British English speakers. The analysis of the results reveals that gender, age and speaking style play a significant role in the frequency of occurrence of the glottal stop. Young females are shown to be the leaders of the spread of T-glottaling, which leads to the assumption that the language change is still in progress.Department of the English Language and ELT MethodologyÚstav anglického jazyka a didaktikyFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Acoustic analysis of spanish female deliberate creaky voice phonation

Existen diferentes ajustes o mecanismos laríngeos para producir la voz creaky, cualidad de voz que combina un sonido similar a una crepitación laríngea con frecuencia fundamental. 40 hablantes españolas de entre 20 a 35 años de edad, variedad centropeninsular, graban muestras de voz creaky y voz modal sin haber recibido entrenamiento previo. Se utiliza el programa informático Praat para extraer las siguientes medidas acústicas de la voz modal de cada una de las hablantes y de su correspondiente voz creaky: la diferencia en hercios entre ambas F0 y la diferencia en decibelios entre los dos primeros armónicos (H1-H2) y entre el primer armónico y el de mayor amplitud del tercer formante (H1-A3). Los resultados obtenidos revelan que la totalidad de las hablantes efectúan un descenso de la F0 modal. En cambio, la diferencia entre H1-H2 para la voz creaky es positiva para un 28% y la diferencia entre H1-A3 resulta ser positiva para un 55% de las hablantes, alejándose ambos valores de los considerados prototípicos. Por último, se observan tres grupos diferenciados de ajustes laríngeos atendiendo al valor de descenso de F0 y a la diferencia entre H1-H2.Creaky voice is a phonation type that can be produced by different laryngeal settings which are still under research. Forty young European Spanish female speakers with no previous training, recorded some samples in modal and creaky voice. Acoustic measures were extracted and analyzed using the Praat software in order to classify different phonatory strategies to produce a creaky voice. At first, we analyzed the F0 values for modal and creaky voice and secondly, we focused on the amplitude difference between the first and the second harmonic (H1-H2) and between the first harmonic and the one with the highest amplitude of the third formant (H1-A3). The results revealed: the female speakers produced the creaky voice phonation by lowering their modal F0, 28% of the speakers showed a positive amplitude between H1-H2 and 55% of speakers had also a positive result between H1-A3. These harmonics measures are contrary to the literature. Finally, considering the F0 rate decreasing value and H1-H2 amplitude difference, we discovered three different groups of phonatory strategies that must be analyzed conducting further experiments

From categories to gradience: Auto-coding sociophonetic variation with random forests

The time-consuming nature of coding sociophonetic variables that are typically treated as categorical represents an impediment to addressing research questions around these variables that require large volumes of data. In this paper, we apply a machine learning method, random forest classification (Breiman, 2001), to automate coding (categorical prediction) of two English sociophonetic variables traditionally treated as categorical, non-prevocalic /r/ and word-medial intervocalic /t/, based on tokens’ acoustic signatures. We found good performance for binary classifiers of non-prevocalic /r/ (Absent versus Present) and medial /t/ (Voiced versus Voiceless), but not for medial /t/ with a six-way coding distinction (largely due to some codes being sparsely represented in the training data). This method also yields rankings of acoustic measures in terms of importance in classification. Beyond any individual measures, this method generates probabilistic predictions of variation (classifier probabilities) that represent a composite of the acoustic cues fed into the model. In a listening experiment, we found that not only did classifier probabilities significantly capture gradience in trained listeners’ perceptions of rhoticity, they better predicted listeners’ perceptions than individual acoustic measures. This method thus represents a new approach to reconciling the categorical and continuous dimensions of sociophonetic variation

Acoustic parameters of the speech signal and their intra- and interindividual variability in Czech

The doctoral thesis focuses on the variability of a wide range of acoustic parameters of the speech signal in the Czech language. It summarizes the methodological approaches applied in previous studies on the acoustic characteristics of speech and presents a comprehensive analysis of intra-speaker and inter-speaker variability of an extensive set of selected parameters through original experiments conducted using a unified speech material. The individual experiments examined acoustic parameters that characterize fundamental frequency, vowel formants, short- and long-term frequency spectrum, and the temporal domain of speech, employing a total of 61 metrics. The variability of all parameters was observed within an individual's speech during one type of utterance as well as in relation to speaking style, with recordings of both read and spontaneous speech from thirty speakers being analyzed. Based on the experimental results, information regarding the distribution of parameter values in both speaking styles within the given population was obtained. In the final experiment, a comprehensive analysis of all investigated parameters was conducted, focusing on their mutual relationships and their contribution to the overall variability of the speech signal. The results of this comprehensive analysis...Disertační práce se zaměřuje na variabilitu široké škály akustických parametrů řečového signálu v češtině. Shrnuje metodologické postupy aplikované v dosa- vadních studiích při zkoumání akustických charakteristik řeči a předkládá také souhrnnou analýzu intraindividuální a interindividuální variability obsáhlého souboru vybraných parametrů prostřednictvím vlastních experimentů provede- ných s využitím jednotného řečového materiálu. V rámci dílčích experimentů jsou parametrizovány základní frekvence, vokalické formanty, krátkodobé a dlouho- dobé frekvenční spektrum a temporální rovina řeči, a to pomocí celkem 61 metrik. U všech parametrů byla sledována proměnlivost v řeči mluvčího v rámci jednoho typu projevu a také v závislosti na mluvním stylu; sledovány byly nahrávky čte- ného a spontánního projevu třiceti mluvčích. Na základě výsledků experimentů byly rovněž získány informace o distribuci hodnot sledovaných parametrů v obou mluvních stylech u dané populace. V rámci závěrečného experimentu byla prove- dena souhrnná analýza všech zkoumaných parametrů zaměřená na jejich vzá- jemné souvislosti a jejich podíl na celkové variabilitě řečového signálu. Výsledky této souhrnné analýzy ukazují, že pro akustickou variabilitu řečového signálu jsou určující zejména parametry krátkodobého i dlouhodobého...Institute of PhoneticsFonetický ústavFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult

Online perception of glottalized coda stops in American English

In American English, voiceless codas /t/ and /p/ are often glottalized: They have glottal constriction that results in creaky voice on the preceding vowel. Previous claims suggest that such glottalization can serve to enhance /t/ or, more generally, voicelessness of coda stops. In this study, we examine the timecourse of word recognition to test whether glottalization facilitates the perception of words ending in voiceless /t/ and /p/, which is expected if glottalization is in fact enhancing. Sixty American English listeners participated in an eye-tracking study, where they heard resynthesized glottalized and non-glottalized versions of CVC English words ending in /p, t, b, d/ while looking at a display with two words presented orthographically. Target words were presented with a minimal pair differing in place of articulation (e.g., cop-cot), or voicing, (e.g., bat-bad, cap-cab). Although there is little evidence that glottalization facilitates recognition of words ending in /t/ or /p/, there is a strong inhibitory effect: Words ending in voiced stops are recognized more slowly and poorly when the preceding vowel was glottalized. These findings lend little support to a listener-driven, enhancement-based explanation for the occurrence of coda glottalization in American English. On the other hand, they suggest that glottalized instances of coda /t/ and /p/, but not of coda /d/ and /b/, are perceived as equally good variants of these sounds

Online perception of glottalized coda stops in American English

In American English, voiceless codas /t/ and /p/ are often glottalized: They have glottal constriction that results in creaky voice on the preceding vowel. Previous claims suggest that such glottalization can serve to enhance /t/ or, more generally, voicelessness of coda stops. In this study, we examine the timecourse of word recognition to test whether glottalization facilitates the perception of words ending in voiceless /t/ and /p/, which is expected if glottalization is in fact enhancing. Sixty American English listeners participated in an eye-tracking study, where they heard resynthesized glottalized and non-glottalized versions of CVC English words ending in /p, t, b, d/ while looking at a display with two words presented orthographically. Target words were presented with a minimal pair differing in place of articulation (e.g., cop-cot), or voicing, (e.g., bat-bad, cap-cab). Although there is little evidence that glottalization facilitates recognition of words ending in /t/ or /p/, there is a strong inhibitory effect: Words ending in voiced stops are recognized more slowly and poorly when the preceding vowel was glottalized. These findings lend little support to a listener-driven, enhancement-based explanation for the occurrence of coda glottalization in American English. On the other hand, they suggest that glottalized instances of coda /t/ and /p/, but not of coda /d/ and /b/, are perceived as equally good variants of these sounds