Vowel Reduction in Kermanian Accent

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is investigating vowel reduction in Kermanian accent. Vowel reduction is a process which occurs in an unstressed syllable. It leads to change unstressed vowels and tend them to other vowels. In order to investigate vowel reduction in Kermanian accent, 6 male native speakers of Persian are participating which 3 of them are native speakers of Kerman and 3 others, speakers of standard Persian accent. The data included 12 words were recorded by a Shure microphone in the acoustic room of the linguistic department of Sharif University of Technology. Then duration, intensity, F1, F2, COG and f0 of the vowels were measured. The results show that duration, intensity and fundamental frequency of the vowels are less in Kermanian accent than in standard Persian accent. Also, the results of studying F1 and F2 of [æ, i, o] prove that these vowels in Kermanian accent are tending to center. So, this kind of vowel reduction in Kermanian accent is called centripetal

GENDER AND ACCENT IN THE PERCEPTION OF ENGLISH SYLLABIC CONSONANTS VS. SCHWA

[EN] This paper reports a study on the perception of English syllabic consonants vs. schwa in word fi nal position at discourse level. Our aim is to fi nd out whether gender and accent play a signifi cant role in the pereception of potential syllabic consonants, a topic which needs further research (see Takefuta & Black 1966; Bloom, Moore-Schoenmakers & Masataka 1999). Three females indentifi ed a schwa/syllabic consonant in 800 words uttered in specifi c contextx by 80 non-rhotic native newsreaders (40m/40f) from the BBC Learning English Website. The statistical procedures used were the contingency table analysis and Kendall's correlation coeffi cient. The study reveals that gender and accent do not perform a signifi cant role in the perception of this alternation. They were found not to infl uence the referees' perception, their degree of agreement being quite similar in the categories of each variable. The exploration of the schwa vs. syllabic consonant perception in terms of word position (within an utterance) and word emphasis is suggested.Arboleda Guirao, IDJ.; Monroy Casas, R. (2010). GENDER AND ACCENT IN THE PERCEPTION OF ENGLISH SYLLABIC CONSONANTS VS. SCHWA. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas. 5:17-28. doi:10.4995/rlyla.2010.750SWORD1728

Do people selectively interpret their schwa vs. syllabic consonant perception on the basis of their background, experience and expectations?

This paper reports a study which intends to find out whether the claim made by Vandeveer, Menefee and Sinclair (2006:7) that ¿people selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their [¿] background, experience, [¿] and expectations¿ (a cognitive bias known as selective perception) applies to the English syllabic consonant vs. schwa perception and, if so, to what extent. The data in Arboleda (2010) were subjected to further statistical analyses and there was also the acoustic analysis of a sample of speech sounds as well as the answers from three referees to a post-task questionnaire. Our results match Vandeveer et al. (2006) in that the listeners¿ background, experience (especially, their accent and phonetic experience, respectively) and expectations are related to the perception of this alternation, especially when it is difficult to discern between a syllabic vs. non-syllabic consonant production. A wider sample of referees with different sociolinguistic backgrounds would be useful in order to reach a more consistent conclusion.Arboleda Guirao, IDJ. (2012). Do people selectively interpret their schwa vs. syllabic consonant perception on the basis of their background, experience and expectations?. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas. 7:23-35. doi:10.4995/rlyla.2012.1122SWORD23357Alvarez, J. (1980). "Syllabic and Non-syllabic /l/ and /n/", Atlantis 2/1: 41-48.Arboleda, I. de J. (2010). Word Position and Emphasis in the Usage of English Syllabic Consonants. A Perceptual Account, Paper Presented at the International Congress of the Young Linguists Association (XXV Encounter). University of Valladolid, Spain.BBC Learning English Website (2009). From www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index. shtml [Retrieval Date: 17.03.2011].Berg, T. (1998). Linguistic Structure and Change: An Explanation from Language Processing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Brown, A. (Ed.) (1991). Teaching English Pronunciation. London: Routledge.Bybee, J. (2010). Language, Usage and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511750526Cohen, A. (1957). The Phonemes of English. Mouton: The Hague.Creswell, J. (2001). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. Sage: Los Angeles.Cruttenden, A. (2001). Gimson's Pronunciation of English. Sixth Edition Revised by Alan Cruttenden. London: Arnold.Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Fish, W. (2009). Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195381344.001.0001Gimson, A. (1970). An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. London: University of LondonPress.Monroy, R. (1980). La Pronunciación del Inglés RP para Hablantes de Español. Madrid: Paraninfo.O'Shaughnessy, D. (1981). "A Study of French Vowel and Consonant Durations", Journal of Phonetics 9: 385-406.Shaeffer, N. & Eichorn, N. (2001). "The Effects of Differential Vowel Prolongations on Perceptions of Speech Naturalness", Journal of Fluency Disorders 26/4: 335-348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0094-730X(01)00101-2Töft, Z. (2002). "The Phonetics and Phonology of Some Syllabic Consonants in Southern British English", ZAS Papers in Linguistics 28: 111-44.Van Bergem, D. (1993). "On the Perception of Acoustic and Lexical Vowel Reduction", Eurospeech '93: 677-680.Van Bergem, D. (1995). "Perceptual and Acoustic Aspects of Lexical Vowel Reduction, a Sound Change in Progress", Speech Communication 16/4: 329-358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0167-6393(95)00003-7Vandeveer, R.L., Menefee, M.L. & Sinclair, G. (2006). "Learning Outcomes: Perception" [Computer Software: PowerPoint], from http://www.google.es/search?hl=es&q=vandeveer%2C+menefee%2C+sinclair+2006+perception&btnG=Buscar&meta= [Retrieval Date: 14.04.2011]

Vowel reduction and loss: challenges and perspectives

This introduction gives an overview of a workshop on vowel reduction and loss held at SLE 2017 and the resulting papers collected here. It also discusses the present state of research on vowel reduction and loss in a number of perspectives and outlines the main themes dealt with throughout the course of this special issue

Factores externos en la percepción de las consonantes silábicas y la schwa en inglés

Este artículo trata la percepción de las consonantes silábicas y la schwa inglesas en posición final de palabra a nivel discursivo. El hecho de que estos fonemas estén presentes constantemente en el habla (Trask 1996) y la falta de estudios centrados en su percepción (ver, sin embargo, van Bergem, 1995) hacen que esta investigación sea necesaria. Los informantes del estudio fueron 80 locutores de noticias nativos de habla no-rótica (40 hombres y 40 mujeres) de la BBC Learning English website (2009). Tres mujeres oyentes desconocedoras de los propósitos del estudio tenían que decidir si percibían schwa o consonante silábica en 800 palabras. Los datos fueron analizados con la ayuda de SPSS. Los procedimientos estadísticos empleados fueron tests de ji-cuadrado y coeficientes de concordancia de Kendall. Los resultados revelaron que el énfasis de palabra está asociado estadísticamente con la percepción de las consonantes silábicas y la schwa y los jueces emplean distintos criterios de evaluación en función de la posición de la palabra.This paper deals with the perception of English syllabic consonants vs. schwa finally in a word at discourse level. The fact that these phonemes are constantly present in speech (Trask 1996) and the lack of studies which focus on their perception (see, however, van Bergem 1995) make further exploration eligible. The informants for this study were 80 non-rhotic native newsreaders (40 males and 40 females) taken from the BBC Learning English website (2009). Three female listeners not knowledgeable about the purposes of the study had to decide whether they perceived a schwa or a syllabic consonant in 800 words. The data were analysed with the help of SPSS. The statistical procedures used were chi-square tests and Kendall’s coefficients of concordance. Results revealed that word emphasis is statistically associated with the perception of syllabic consonants and schwa and the referees employ different assessment criteria in terms of word position

Toward a needs-based architecture for 'intelligent' communicative agents: speaking with intention

The past few years have seen considerable progress in the deployment of voice-enabled personal assistants, first on smartphones (such as Apple’s Siri) and most recently as standalone devices in people’s homes (such as Amazon’s Alexa). Such ‘intelligent’ communicative agents are distinguished from the previous generation of speech-based systems in that they claim to offer access to services and information via conversational interaction (rather than simple voice commands). In reality, conversations with such agents have limited depth and, after initial enthusiasm, users typically revert to more traditional ways of getting things done. It is argued here that one source of the problem is that the standard architecture for a contemporary spoken language interface fails to capture the fundamental teleological properties of human spoken language. As a consequence, users have difficulty engaging with such systems, primarily due to a gross mismatch in intentional priors. This paper presents an alternative needs-driven cognitive architecture which models speech-based interaction as an emergent property of coupled hierarchical feedback-control processes in which a speaker has in mind the needs of a listener and a listener has in mind the intentions of a speaker. The implications of this architecture for future spoken language systems are illustrated using results from a new type of ‘intentional speech synthesiser’ that is capable of optimising its pronunciation in unpredictable acoustic environments as a function of its perceived communicative success. It is concluded that such purposeful behavior is essential to the facilitation of meaningful and productive spoken language interaction between human beings and autonomous social agents (such as robots). However, it is also noted that persistent mismatched priors may ultimately impose a fundamental limit on the effectiveness of speech-based human–robot interaction

Acoustic characteristics of vowel reduction in the Spanish of Bogota (Colombia)

Este artículo analiza la reducción fonética de las vocales en el español de Bogotá(Colombia). El principal objetivo es comparar los efectos del estilo de habla (hablaleída vs. habla no leída), el acento y el tipo de vocal (/i, e, a, o, u/) sobre laduración, los formantes vocálicos (F1- F2) y la distancia euclidiana. Los resultadosindican que las átonas /e, o, u/ tienen menor duración y un F1 más bajo en habla noleída que las vocales tónicas producidas en habla leída. La vocal central /a/ serealiza fonéticamente como una vocal abierta [a], una medio abierta [ɐ] o unacentral media [ә]. Las tónicas /a/ y /o/ presentan una ligera posteriorización,mientras que las tónicas /e/ y /u/ se anteriorizan. En general, la vocal cerrada /i/permaneció estable en las diferentes condiciones experimentales analizadas.This article examines phonetic vowel reduction in the Spanish of Bogota(Colombia). The main objective is to compare the influence of speech condition(read vs. unread speech), stress and vowel type (/i, e, a, o, u/) on duration, F1 andF2 frequencies, and the euclidian distance. Results show that unstressed vowels /e,o, u/ are shorter and have a lower first formant in unread speech than stressedvowels produced in read speech. /a/ is variably realized as an open vowel [a], acentral near-open vowel [ɐ] or a schwa [ә]. The stressed vowels /a/ and /o/ areslightly backed, and the stressed /e/ and /u/ are slightly fronted. The high vowel /i/remains somewhat stable in the experimental conditions studied

Phonetic Realisation and Phonemic Categorisation of the Final Reduced Corner Vowels in the Finnic Languages of Ingria

Individual variability in sound change was explored at three stages of final vowel reduction and loss in the endangered Finnic varieties of Ingria (subdialects of Ingrian, Votic and Ingrian Finnish). The correlation between the realisation of reduced vowels and their phonemic categorisation by speakers was studied. The correlated results showed that if V was pronounced > 70%, its starting loss was not yet perceived, apart from certain frequent elements, but after > 70% loss, V was not perceived any more. A split of 50/50 between V and loss in production correlated with the same split in categorisation. At the beginning of a sound change, production is, therefore, more innovative, but after reanalysis, categorisation becomes more innovative and leads the change. The vowel a was the most innovative in terms of loss, u/o were the most conservative, and i was in the middle, while consonantal palatalisation was more salient than labialisation. These differences are based on acoustics, articulation and perception

ACOUSTIC CORRELATES OF LEXICAL STRESS IN NATIVE SPEAKERS OF UYGHUR AND L2 LEARNERS

Some syllables are louder, longer and stronger than other syllables at the lexical level. These prominent prosodic characteristics of certain syllables are captured by suprasegmental features including fundamental frequency, duration and intensity. A language like English uses fundamental frequency, duration and intensity to distinguish stressed syllables from unstressed syllables; however, a language like Japanese only uses fundamental frequency to distinguish the stressed syllables from unstressed syllables. This study investigates the stress pattern of Uyghur, a Turkic language, as produced by native and non-native speakers. The first three experiments provide a detailed phonetic analysis in order to determine the acoustic cues to stress in Uyghur. In Experiment 1, six disyllabic minimal pairs (e.g., A-cha, a-CHA), contrasting in location of stress, were produced by five native Uyghur speakers with three repetitions in a fixed sentence context. In order to generalize the results from the small set of minimal pairs in the first experiment, Experiment 2 examined the initial syllable of disyllabic nouns that contrasted in first-syllable stress (e.g., DA-ka, da-LA) while syllabic structure (CV versus CVC) was also manipulated. In both experiments, average fundamental frequency, syllable duration, and average intensity were collected in accented and unaccented syllables. The results from both experiments showed that there were significant differences in duration and intensity between stressed and unstressed syllables, with the intensity differences moderated by syllable structure. No difference was found in fundamental frequency. Experiment 3 investigated the role of F0 in lexical stress. Experiment 3 focused on the interaction between sentential intonation and lexical stress in which the declarative assertion sentence (falling F0) and the declarative question sentence (rising F0) were used. The results confirmed the previous experiments. No interaction between sentential intonation and lexical stress indicated that the obtained duration effect was due to lexical stress. There were no effects of fundamental frequency or intensity in terms of stress. While previous studies have classified Uyghur as a pitch-accent and a stress-accent language, the present acoustic data suggest that native speakers make no use of pitch cues to signal stress in Uyghur. Previous research has focused on the acquisition of lexical stress by non-native speakers of English. This study also examined the acquisition of lexical stress by English learners of Uyghur. Five highly advanced English learners of Uyghur produced the six minimal pairs and disyllabic nouns contrasting in the first syllables. The stimuli that were produced by L2 learners were the same as in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. Highly advanced Uyghur learners used duration as a cue and did not use fundamental frequency and intensity as stress cues. The results indicated that native-like lexical stress can be acquired at the high advanced level