Óvodások magánhangzóinak akusztikai jellemzői

Az anyanyelv-elsajátítás kutatása a hazai szakirodalomban igen frekventált téma, ám a gyermekek beszédprodukciójának akusztikai vizsgálata jelenleg még erősen sporadikus. A nemzetközi szakirodalomból ismert, hogy a gyermekek beszédében realizálódó magánhangzók alaphangja és formánsértékei a testméretbeli növekedés következtében nemenként változó tendenciában csökkenek, magánhangzóterük pedig (ezzel összefüggésben) lejjebb kerül, szűkül. Az akusztikai paraméterek értékének csökkenése azonban nyelvenként (is) változó mintázatot mutat, melyekről a magyar nyelvre eddig még nem rendelkezünk részletes vizsgálatokkal. A jelen kutatásban 8 iskola előtt álló gyermek (4 fiú, 4 lány) spontán beszédében megvalósuló vokálisok formáns- és időszerkezetét elemeztük és vetettük össze korábbi kutatások adataival. Eredményeink szerint a gyermekek formáns- és alaphangértékei jelentősen alacsonyabbak (magánhangzóterük így magasabb és tágabb) a felnőtteknél mérhetőeknél. A formáns- és alaphangértékek tekintetében részleges különbségeket találtunk a nemek között. A fonológiai hosszúsági oppozícióban álló párok egy része a gyermekeknél fonetikai időtartamában is jelentős mértékben elkülönült: az o–ó, u–ú, a–á, e–é mindkét nemnél, illetve az ö–ő a lányoknál. Az itt bemutatott eredmények további kutatásokkal kiegészítve mind a gyermekek nemenként eltérő fizikai érésével, mind az artikuláció motoros kontrolljának fejlődésével kapcsolatos tudásunkhoz is hozzájárulhatnak

¡Vaya valla! : Discriminación acústica de la lateral palatal y la aproximante palatal en posición intervocálica : Estudio piloto de muestras de habla espontánea

El yeísmo es un fenómeno que está avanzando en la comunidad hispanohablante. ¿Pero cuál es el grado de su avance? Tenemos atlas dialectales, pero lo que buscan son las peculiaridades, y sus datos provienen de pocos informantes. ¿Y si pudiéramos analizar el material de audio disponible en Internet, grabado para otro fin y en una situación espontánea? El objetivo de este estudio es experimentar herramientas de análisis acústico para discriminar entre las dos variantes mayoritarias enfrentadas en el fenómeno llamado yeísmo: la tradicional lateral palatal, y la moderna aproximante palatal. Lo novedoso de nuestra metodología es usar el ancho de banda, así como la intensidad del segundo formante como parámetros discriminatorios. En el pequeño corpus de muestras del presente trabajo, estos parámetros parecen permitir la discriminación de los sonidos en el caso de informantes femeninos

Variation in Nanchang Gan

Contemporary China is an ideal sociolinguistic setting for investigating the interaction between a national standard language and regional speech varieties. In this study, I focus on a quantitative analysis of phonological variation in Nanchang Gan, a sub-topolect spoken in a provincial capital in Southern China. Three variables included in the discussion are: (1) diglossic alternation between two syllable initials: [w] and [f]; (2) rusheng tonal merger: [5] and [2] merging to [5]; (3) loss of historical breathy voice. Results reveal that the three variables I examined differ in their rates/states of change as well as their availability to doing social work: the consonant initials variable ([w] → [f]) has reached a relatively stable stage, indexing an urban-rural division; the checked tonal variable indicates a merger in process (towards the high-pitch variant), the progress of which was best predicted by age and occupation; on the other hand, voice quality does not seem to perform any social work yet, as most of the inter-speaker variation in this variable can by accounted for in terms of sexual dimorphism. In addition, a closer look at individual employment of these three variables successfully captured some subtle information that escaped the examination by institutional social factors. Therefore, I suggest that each speaker has to be treated as an individual linguistic agent; personal history must be carefully and episodically examined along with the quantitative methods. Furthermore, the analysis of the tonal merger variable reveals that older speakers are more advanced in the process of merging than the younger generation. This is probably due to the pressure of socialization in a wider society during one's adulthood

Voice quality features in the production of pharyngeal consonants by Iraqi Arabic speakers

PhD ThesisThis study investigates nasalisation and laryngealisation in the production of pharyngeal consonants in Iraqi Arabic (IA) and as potential voice quality (VQ) settings of IA speakers in general. Pharyngeal consonants have been the subject of investigation in many studies on Arabic, primarily due to the wide range of variation in their realisation across dialects, including approximant, fricative, and stop variants. This is the first quantitative study of its kind to extend these findings to IA and to investigate whether any of the variants and/or VQ features are dialect- specific. The study offers a detailed auditory and acoustic account of the realisations of pharyngeal consonants as produced by nine male speakers of three Iraqi dialects: Baghdad (representing Central gelet), Basra (representing Southern gelet) and Mosul (representing Northern qeltu) (Blanc, 1964; Ingham, 1997). Acoustic cues of nasalisation and phonation types are investigated in isolated vowels, oral, nasal, and pharyngeal environments in order to unravel the source of the nasalised and laryngealised VQ percept and to establish whether their manifestations are categorical or particular to certain contexts. Results suggest a range of realisations for the pharyngeals that are conditioned by word position and dialect. Regardless of realisation, VQ measurements suggest that: 1- nasalisation increases when pharyngeals are adjacent to nasals, beyond what is expected of a nasal environment; 2- vowels neighbouring pharyngeals show more nasalisation than in oral environments; 3- vowels in pharyngeal contexts and isolation show more laryngealisation compared with nasal and oral contexts; 4- both nasals and pharyngeals show progressive effect of nasalisation, and pharyngeals show a progressive effect of laryngealisation; 5- /ħ/ shows more nasalisation but less laryngealisation effect on neighbouring vowels than /ʕ/; and 6- Baghdad speech is the most nasalised and laryngealised and Basra speech the least. These results coincide with observations on Muslim Baghdadi gelet having a guttural quality (Bellem, 2007). The study reveals that the overall percept of a nasalised and laryngealised VQ in IA is a local feature rather than a general vocal setting

Genre et voix en arabe libanais: Le cas des femmes avec un oedème de Reinke

Purpose: Women with Reinke’s edema (RW) are often identified as men over the phone. For this reason, their masculine sounding voice is interesting for the study of gender stereotypes. The study’s objective is to verify their complaint and to understand the cues used in gender identification based on their voices.Methods: We verified, through a self-evaluation study, the perception of their own voice by RW. We compared the acoustic parameters of vowels and sentences produced by 10 RW to those produced by 10 men (NM) and 10 women (NW) with normal voices in Lebanese Arabic. We conducted two perception studies for the evaluation of RW, NM and NW voices by naïve listeners.Results: RW self-evaluated their voice as being masculine and their personality as being feminine. The acoustic parameters distinguishing RW voices concern pitch, spectral slope, harmonicity of the voicing signal and complexity of the spectral envelop. Naïve listeners (especially women) rate RW voices as “surely masculine” more often than they rate NW voices even in sentences.Conclusions: Listeners (especially women) rate RW’s gender as “surely masculine” more often than NW. These incorrect gender ratings are correlated with acoustic measures of voice quality. The most contributing parameters to gender perception are: F0, CPP, H1H2, HNR05, HNR15, and HNR25. This new data contributes to the understanding of the perception of gender in voice and will guide the rehabilitation plan of patients complaining of an ambiguous voice.Objectif : Les femmes avec oedème de Reinke (FR) sont souvent prises pour des hommes au téléphone. Ainsi, leurs voix masculines sont intéressantes pour l’étude des stéréotypes de genre dans la voix. L’objectif de cette étude est de vérifier leur plainte dans un cadre expérimental et de rechercher les paramètres acoustiques utilisés dans l’identification du genre en se basant sur leurs voix.Matériel et Méthode : Une étude d’auto-évaluation met en évidence la perception qu’ont les FR de leurs voix. Une étude de production compare les paramètres acoustiques de voyelles et de phrases produites par 10 FR avec ceux des productions de 10 femmes et de 10 hommes aux voix normales (FN et HN). Deux jurys naïfs évaluent le genre vocal des FR, FN et HN.Résultats : Les FR s’auto-évaluent comme ayant une voix masculine et une personnalité féminine. Les paramètres acoustiques qui permettent de distinguer les voix des FR sont liés à la fréquence fondamentale, à la pente spectrale, au ratio des harmoniques par rapport au bruit et à la complexité de l’enveloppe spectrale. Le jury naïf, surtout les femmes, jugent les voix des FR comme « sûrement masculines » plus souvent qu’elles ne jugent les voix des FN quelle que soit la production vocale.Conclusions : Les auditeurs et surtout les auditrices évaluent les FR comme ayant une voix « sûrement masculine » par rapport aux FN. Ce classement est corrélé à la F0 ainsi qu’à des paramètres acoustiques liés à la qualité vocale : CPP, H1H2, HNR05, HNR15 et HNR25. Ces nouvelles informations contribuent à la compréhension de la perception du genre dans la voix et pourraient guider la réhabilitation des personnes se plaignant d’ambiguïté du genre vocal

Voice quality of children and young people with Down's Syndrome and its impact on listener judgement

Background: Voice quality in Down's syndrome (DS) is accepted as unusual, often perceived as harsh and whispery with lower pitch and altered nasal resonance. Less is known about the resulting impact, particularly in relation to how children and young people with DS are accepted by their peers. Method: This is a quantitative study of the voice quality of children and young people with DS compared to age-matched typically-developing (TD) controls. Expert raters use the Vocal Profile Analysis Scheme to perceptually rate voice, which is compared to instrumental analysis of fundamental frequency, perturbation measures and spectral tilt. The impact of typical and atypical voice quality is evaluated in a study of listener judgments of character, ability, age, gender and social desirability using a specially designed semantic-differential questionnaire completed by special-needs and mainstream education staff and TD peers based on audio-recordings. Results: Perceptually, a number of features, including lip, tongue and jaw settings, pharyngeal constriction and respiratory support were found to be atypical compared to controls, whilst other features, notably phonation type and nasality, echoed typical patterns but were more severe in presentation in the speakers with DS. Contrary to hypotheses only spectral tilt differed significantly in instrumental analysis. All groups of raters judged the speakers with DS significantly more negatively than controls across all questionnaire parameters. TD peers showed a strong preference for the company of TD children over those with DS. Conclusions: Perceptual differences are evident in the voices of children with DS, but these are not always supported by instrumental findings, perhaps indicating that the constellation of differences give rise to more negative perception. Close agreement between education staff groups suggests that children with DS are no more disadvantaged by the perception of teachers in mainstream than in special-schools; however particular difficulties are highlighted for the development of friendships with TD peers.sub_shsunpub352_ethesesunpu