Spontaneous Voice Gender Imitation Abilities in Adult Speakers

Background The frequency components of the human voice play a major role in signalling the gender of the speaker. A voice imitation study was conducted to investigate individuals' ability to make behavioural adjustments to fundamental frequency (F0), and formants (Fi) in order to manipulate their expression of voice gender. Methodology/Principal Findings Thirty-two native British-English adult speakers were asked to read out loud different types of text (words, sentence, passage) using their normal voice and then while sounding as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ as possible. Overall, the results show that both men and women raised their F0 and Fi when feminising their voice, and lowered their F0 and Fi when masculinising their voice. Conclusions/Significance These observations suggest that adult speakers are capable of spontaneous glottal and vocal tract length adjustments to express masculinity and femininity in their voice. These results point to a “gender code”, where speakers make a conventionalized use of the existing sex dimorphism to vary the expression of their gender and gender-related attributes

Ultimate attainment in late second language acquisition: Phonetic and grammatical challenges in advanced Dutch–English bilingualism

The present article provides an exploration of ultimate attainment in second language (L2) and its limitations. It is argued that the question of maturational constraints can best be investigated when the reference population is bilingual and exposed on a regular basis to varieties of their first language (L1) that show cross-linguistic influence. To this end, 20 advanced Dutch–English bilinguals are compared to 9 English native speakers immersed in a Dutch environment. All participants are teachers or students of English at a Dutch institution of higher education. The populations are shown to be at similar global proficiency levels. Two phonetic variables (voice onset time or VOT and vowel discrimination) and one grammatical variable (verb phrase ellipsis), which are assumed to present particular challenges to Dutch learners of English, are explored, and speakers are furthermore rated for their global nativeness. The findings show no differences between populations on VOT but some variance on the production of a vowel that has no correlate in Dutch (the English trap vowel). However, all but one of the L2ers are rated outside the range of the natives on perceived foreign accent. There are also differences between groups where acceptance of different sentence types with verb phrase ellipsis are concerned. We interpret these findings to indicate that there are areas of L2 knowledge and production that are persistently difficult to acquire even under circumstances that are highly favourable for L2 acquisition. </jats:p

The perception of prosodic prominence

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Phosphate Glasses

This chapter is dedicated to the studies on phosphate glasses, from their fundamental aspects to their most relevant applications of today. P2O5-based glasses have experienced a continuously increasing number of published works in the last decades and still they possess a bright potential. Their sometimes intricate structure has made its study a quite relevant field for the Glass Science community which attracts more and more researchers. And, on the other hand, the associated difficulties in their preparation on a large scale have led to the development of specific methods, such as those used for the melting of Nd-laser glasses. They are particularly known to have a low chemical durability, though the progress in the optimization of their composition demonstrates that can be very competitive and, in this respect, we will also pay attention to the improvement of their properties as a result of their nitridation. The structure and main physico-chemical properties of phosphate glasses will be reviewed, highlighting the most relevant and well-known applications existing nowadays, such as sealing and laser glasses, biomedical, as solid electrolytes or for the storage of wastes.F. Muñoz thanks funding from projects MAT2013-48246-C2-1-P from MINECO of Spain and I-link+0959 from CSIC. I. Ahmed would like to acknowledge the Faculty of Engineering, Advanced Materials Research Group, University of Nottingham, for provision of studentship funds