Perception of Glottalization in Varying Pitch Contexts Across Languages

Glottalization is often associated with low pitch in intonation languages, but evidence from many languages indicates that this is not an obligatory association. We asked speakers of German, English and Swedish to compare glottalized stimuli with several pitch contour alternatives in an AXB listening test. Although the low F0 in the glottalized stimuli tended to be perceived as most similar to falling pitch contours, this was not always the case, indicating that pitch perception in glottalization cannot be predicted by F0 alone. We also found evidence for cross-linguistic differences in the degree of flexibility of pitch judgments in glottalized stretches of speech. Index Terms: prosody, voice quality, perception, glottalizatio

Perception of Glottalization in Varying Pitch Contexts in Mandarin Chinese

Although glottalization has often been associated with low pitch, evidence from a number of sources supports the assertion that this association is not obligatory, and is likely to be language-specific. Following a previous study testing perception of glottalization by German, English, and Swedish listeners, the current research investigates the influence of pitch context on the perception of glottalization by native speakers of a tone language, Mandarin Chinese. Listeners heard AXB sets in which they were asked to match glottalized stimuli with pitch contours. We find that Mandarin listeners tend not to be influenced by the pitch context when judging the pitch of glottalized stretches of speech. These data lend support to the idea that the perception of glottalization varies in relation to language-specific prosodic structure.casl[1] Gordon, M. & P. Ladefoged (2001). Phonation types: a crosslinguistic overview. Journalof Phonetics 29: 383-406. [2] Gerratt, B.R. & J. Kreiman (2001). Toward a taxonomy of nonmodal phonation. Journal of Phonetics 29: 365-381. [3] Catford, J.C. (1964). Phonation types: the classification of some laryngeal components of speech production. In: Abercrombie, D. et al. (eds.) In honour of Daniel Jones, London: Longmans, pp. 26-37. [4] Blomgren, M., Y. Chen, M.L. Ng, & H.R. Gilbert (1998). Acoustic, aerodynamic, physiologic, and perceptual properties of modal and vocal fry registers. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 103(5): 2649-2658. [5] Gussenhoven, C. (2004). The phonology of tone and intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [6] Pierrehumbert, J. & D. Talkin (1992). Lenition of /h/ and glottal stop. In Papers in Laboratory Phonology II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 90-117. [7] Pierrehumbert, J. (1995). Prosodic effects on glottal allophones. In: Fujimura, O., Hirano, M. (eds.), Vocal fold physiology: voice quality control. Singular Publishing Group, San Diego, pp. 39- 60. [8] Dilley, L., S. Shattuck-Hufnagel, & M. Ostendorf (1996). Glottalization of word-initial vowels as a function of prosodic structure. Journal of Phonetics 24: 423-444. [9] Redi, L. & S. Shattuck-Hufnagel (2001). Variation in the realization of glottalization in normal speakers. Journal of Phonetics 29: 407-429. [10] Henton, C. & A. Bladon (1988). Creak as a socio-phonetic marker. In Hyman, L.M. & C.N. Li (eds.) Language, Speech and Mind: studies in honor of Victoria A. Fromkin. London, pp. 3- 29. [11] Huffman, M.K. (2005). Segmental and prosodic effects on coda glottalization. Journal of Phonetics 33: 335-362. [12] Ogden, R. (2001). Turn transition, creak and glottal stop in Finnish talk-in-interaction. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 31: 139-152. [13] Ogden, R. (2004). Non-modal voice quality and turn-taking in Finnish. In Couper-Kuhlen, E & Ford, C. (eds.) Sound patterns in interaction: cross-linguistic studies from conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 29-62. [14] Bissiri, M. P., M.L. Lecumberri, M. Cooke & J. Vol_n, (2011). The role of word-initial glottal stops in recognizing English words. Proceedings of Interspeech 2011, Florence, Italy, pp. 165-168. [15] Kohler, K. J. (1994). Glottal stops and glottalization in German. Phonetica 51: 38-51. [16] Ding, H., O. Jokisch & R. Hoffmann (2004). Glottalization in inventory construction: a cross-language study. Proceedings of ISCSLP 2004, Hong Kong, pp. 37-40. [17] Chao, Y.R. (1968). A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley, University of California Press. [18] Ding, H. & J. Helbig (1996). Sprecher- und kontextbedingte Varianz des dritten Vokaltones in chinesischen Silben - eine akustische Untersuchung. Proceedings of DAGA 1996, Bonn, Germany, pp. 514-515. [19] Silverman, D. (1997). Laryngeal Complexity in Otomanguean Vowels. Phonology 14: 235-261. [20] Frazier, M. (2008). The interaction of pitch and creaky voice: data from Yucatec Maya and cross-linguistic implications. UBC Working Papers in Linguistics: Proceedings of Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the Americas (WSCLA), pp. 112-125. [21] N_ Chasaide, A. & C. Gobl (2004). Voice quality and f0 in prosody: towards a holistic account. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Speech Prosody, Nara, Japan, pp. 189-196. [22] Bissiri, M.P. & M. Zellers (2013). Perception of glottalization in varying pitch contexts across languages. Proceedings of Interspeech 2013, Lyon, France, pp. 253-257. [23] Boersma, P. & D. Weenink (2013). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Available http://www.praat.org/. [24] Liu, S. & A.G. Samuel (2004). Perception of Mandarin lexical tones when F0 information is neutralized. Language and Speech 47(2): 109-138. [25] Lee, C.-Y., L. Tao & Z.S. Bond (2008). Identification of acoustically modified Mandarin tones by native listeners. Journal of Phonetics 36: 537-563.pub4421pu

Perception of pitch in glottalizations of varying duration by German listeners

Previous studies have shown that glottalization is not necessarily perceived as lower pitch but that pitch perception in glottalization can be influenced by the different size of prosodic domains relevant in the native language of the listener. Speakers of intonation languages were influenced by the preceding pitch context when judging the pitch of longer creaky voice stretches, while speakers of pitch-accent or tone languages were not. The current study investigates pitch perception by German listeners in glottalized stretches of speech whose duration varied along a 10-step continuum. We found that the duration of the glottalized stretches affected the categorization of the stimuli, and that the German listeners were not influenced by the preceding pitch context, unlike in a previous study on longer stretches of glottalization of constant duration. Possibly shorter stretches of glottalization are interpreted as segmental word-boundary phenomena rather than as intonation.casl691pub3945pu

Comparison of forced-alignment speech recognition and humans for generating reference VAD

This present paper aims to answer the question whether forced-alignment speech recognition can be used as an alternative to humans in generating reference Voice Activity Detection (VAD) transcriptions. An investigation of the level of agreement between automatic/manual VAD transcriptions and the reference ones produced by a human expert was carried out. Thereafter, statistical analysis was employed on the automatically produced and the collected manual transcriptions. Experimental results confirmed that forced-alignment speech recognition can provide accurate and consistent VAD labels.caslpub4422pu

Providing a nurse-led complex nursing INtervention FOcused on quality of life assessment on advanced cancer patients: The INFO-QoL pilot trial.

PURPOSE Unmet needs for advanced-disease cancer patients are fatigue, pain, and emotional support. Little information is available about the feasibility of interventions focused on patient-reported outcome measurement developed according to the Medical Research Council (MRC) Framework in advanced-disease cancer patients. We aimed to pilot a nurse-led complex intervention focused on QoL assessment in advanced-disease cancer patients. METHODS The INFO-QoL study was based on an exploratory, nonequivalent comparison group, pre-test-post-test design. Study sites received either the INFO-QoL intervention or usual care. Adult advanced-disease cancer patients admitted to hospice inpatient units that gave their informed consent were included in the study. Subjects were 187 patients and their families and 19 healthcare professionals. We evaluated feasibility, acceptability, and patients' outcomes using the Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale. RESULTS Nineteen healthcare professionals were included. The mean competence score increased significantly over time (p < 0.001) and the mean usefulness score was high 8.63 (±1.36). In the post-test phase, 54 patients were allocated to the experimental unit and 36 in the comparison unit. Compared to the comparison unit, in the experimental unit anxiety (R2 = 0.07; 95% CI = -0.06; 0.19), family anxiety (R2 = 0.22; 95% CI = -0.03; 0.41), depression (R2 = 0.31; 95% CI = -0.05; 0.56) and sharing feelings (R2 = 0.09; 95% CI = -0.05; 0.23), were improved between pre-test and post-test phase. CONCLUSIONS The INFO-QoL was feasible and potentially improved psychological outcomes. Despite the high attrition rate, the INFO-QoL improved the quality and safety culture for patients in palliative care settings

Deutsche Prosodie im Vergleich zum Italienischen und anderen Sprachen: Wortbetonung und Glottalisierungen

Der Begriff der Prosodie wird h\ue4ufig als Synonym f\ufcr Intonation verwendet, hingegen vertritt Firth (1948) eine breitere Auffassung von Prosodie: Er stellt die Prosodien als parallel zur phonematischen Struktur der Sprache verlaufende Spuren dar und bef\ufcrwortet eine Analyse, die die Interaktionen zwischen segmentalen und suprasegmentalen Eigenschaften der gesprochenen Sprache betrachtet. Laut Firth geh\uf6ren zu den Prosodien neben z.B. Betonung und Akzent auch durch Junktur der Silben bedingte Ph\ue4nomene wie Gemination, Aspiration und Glottalverschluss. Den Glottalverschluss bezeichnet Firth als junction prosody des Deutschen (s. Firth 1948, S.143-144). In diesem Sinne stellen wir in diesem Beitrag von uns durchgef\ufchrte experimentelle Untersuchungen zu zwei relevanten prosodischen Ph\ue4nomenen des Deutschen im Vergleich zum Italienischen und anderen Sprachen vor: zur Wortbetonung morphologisch komplexer W\uf6rter und zu Glottalisierungen, inbesondere wortinitialer Vokale (Kohler 1994). Der erste Teil unseres Beitrags befasst sich mit der Produktion und Perzeption der Wortbetonung deutscher morphologisch komplexer W\uf6rter durch italienische Deutschlernende und mit einem Aussprachetrainingsexperiment zur Wortbetonung. Solche prosodischen Trainingsma fnahmen sollten h\ue4ufiger eingesetzt werden, denn sie beeinflussen auch die segmentalen Aspekte der Aussprache positiv (Missaglia 1999). Im Aussprachetraining h\uf6rten die Lernenden die eigenen \uc4u ferungen nach Resynthese der Dauer der Phone, der Intensit\ue4t und der Grundfrequenz als Feedback, die so die korrekte Wortbetonung darstellten. Diese Art von Feedback war effektiver f\ufcr das Erlernen der Wortbetonung als das Feedback aus den nat\ufcrlichen \uc4u ferungen einer deutschen Muttersprachlerin. Im zweiten Teil unseres Beitrags stellen wir zwei unterschiedliche Funktionen der Glottalisierungen im Deutschen vor: als Intonationsmerkmal und als Markierung von Wortgrenzen. Wir haben Perzeptionsexperimente zur Wahrnehmung von Glottalisierungen durch deutsche MuttersprachlerInnen im Vergleich mit MuttersprachlerInnen anderer Sprachen durchgef\ufchrt. Schlie flich werden wir k\ufcnftige Untersuchungen zu Glottalisierungen im deutsch-italienischen Sprachvergleich besprechen. Firth, J. R. (1948). Sounds and prosodies. In: Transactions of the Philological Society, S. 127\u2013152. Kohler, K. J. (1994). Glottal stops and glottalization in German, Phonetica 51: 38-51, 1994. Missaglia, F. (1999). Phonetische Aspekte des Erwerbs von Deutsch als Fremdsprache durch italienische Muttersprachler. Wissenschaftliche Buchhandlung Theo Hector, Frankfurt am Main

Annäherung der Distanz zwischen dem Deutschen und anderen Sprachen: die phonetische Konvergenz

Mit dem Begriff phonetische Konvergenz wird die Annäherung der Aussprache zweier Kommunikationspartner:innen bezeichnet. Sie erfolgt hauptsächlich automatisch und unbewusst und wurde für eine große Vielfalt von sowohl prosodischen als auch segmentalen phonetischen Eigenschaften akustisch gemessen. Unser Beitrag fokussiert auf die Ergebnisse der bestehenden Studien zur phonetischen Konvergenz zwischen Deutschmuttersprachler:innen und Muttersprachler:innen des Französischen, Englischen, Spanischen und Polnischen und zielt speziell auf die Faktoren ab, die dieses Phänomen auslösen

Correlati sovraglottici della sonorit\ue0 in toscano: dati acustici ed elettropalatografici

Lo studio dei correlati sovraglottici della sonorit\ue0 nella produzione di occlusive e fricative ha mostrato che le strategie del controllo motorio a livello di articolatori orali cambiano in dipendenza del fatto se la consonante sia prodotta con o senza vibrazione delle corde vocali, essenzialmente per garantire il soddisfacimento dei requisiti aerodinamici della sonorit\ue0 (cf. tra gli altri, Westbury 1983, Dagenais et al. 1994, L\uf6fqvist &amp; Gracco 1994, Moen et al. 2001, Fuchs &amp; Perrier 2003, Fuchs et al. 2009, Liker &amp; Gibbon 2013, Skarnitzl 2013). Ad esempio, l'allargamento attivo della cavit\ue0 orale necessario ad impedire l'aumento della pressione orale (onde mantenere il differenziale di pressione trans-glottica richiesto per la vibrazione delle corde vocali) si materializza, nella produzione di /d/ da parte di tedescofoni, in un abbassamento della mandibola, una posizione dell'apice della lingua inizialmente pi\uf9 bassa e poi pi\uf9 arretrata, un contatto linguo-palatale meno esteso e una durata acustica minore, rispetto alla produzione di /t/ (Fuchs &amp; Perrier 2003). Gli studi mettono per\uf2 in evidenza una variabilit\ue0 legata al luogo di costrizione del gesto consonantico (anteriori, posteriori) e soprattutto al tipo di occlusione realizzata (completa, come nelle occlusive, oppure incompleta, come nelle fricative). Infatti, nella produzione delle fricative sonore, l'allargamento della cavit\ue0 orale nella parte posteriore del cavo orale \ue8 compensato da un ampliamento della costrizione nella parte anteriore necessario ad incrementare la turbolenza dell\u2019aria e la conseguente integrit\ue0 acustica del segmento (Liker e Gibbon 2013, Fuchs et al. 2009). Inoltre non \ue8 chiaro se gli effetti varino anche da lingua a lingua, ad esempio Dagenais et al. (1994) hanno trovato un maggiore contatto linguo-palatale per /d/ rispetto a /t/ per parlanti di inglese americano, mentre Moen et al. (2001) hanno riscontrato un maggiore contatto della /t/ in norvegese. Lo scopo di questo studio \ue8 analizzare i correlati sovraglottici della sonorit\ue0 in plosive, fricative e affricate di una variet\ue0 toscana di italiano, tramite l'analisi di dati acustici, elettropalatografici (EPG) ed ecografici linguali (UTI). Viene considerata la produzione di /t, d/, /tt, dd/, /s, z/ /B, C/, /tts, ddz/, /ttB, ddC/, nonch\ue9 dei nessi /st, zd/ in due contesti vocalici simmetrici, /a/ e /i/.L'originalit\ue0 dello studio consiste principalmente in due fattori. Il primo riguarda la variet\ue0 di lingua presa in considerazione, che permette di analizzare l'opposizione di sonorit\ue0 in un'ampia serie di consonanti linguali anteriori: occlusive scempie e geminate, fricative scempie sia alveolari che palatali (si noti che /B/ scempia non \ue8 sistematicamente presente in variet\ue0 di italiano diverse dal toscano), affricate geminate sia alveolari che palatali. Il secondo riguarda l'inclusione delle affricate, che costituiscono un campo ancora inesplorato interlinguisticamente, ma particolarmente importante, a nostro avviso, per la comprensione dei tradeoffs aerodinamici-articolatori qui studiati, poich\ue9 sono prodotte con una fase occlusiva seguita da una fase fricativa. L'analisi dei due nessi /st, zd/ ha lo scopo di mettere a fattore anche l'elemento temporale di tale successione di fasi articolatorie. Presenteremo i risultati dell\u2019analisi di tre parlanti femmine di area pisano-livornese, con riferimento esclusivamente al contesto /aCa/: verranno discussi i risultati relativi alla durata acustica dei foni e alle variazioni del contatto linguo-palatale in termini di antero-posteriorit\ue0 ed estensione mediosagittale del contatto (Fontdevila et al. 1994), mentre si proporranno alcune riflessioni metodologiche sull'uso di UTI per la caratterizzazione degli aspetti dinamici della produzione consonantica (gesto di chiusura e gesto di apertura). Attivit\ue0 svolte in conformit\ue0 al progetto di ricerca dal titolo "Disturbi motori nel parlato e biofeedback visivo: simulare i movimenti articolatori in 3D" finanziato dalla Fondazione Pisa nell'ambito del bando 2016. Bibliografia J.R. Westbury (1983). \u201dEnlargement of the supraglottal cavity and its relation to stop consonant voicing\u201d, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 73(4), 1322-1336. P.A. Dagenais, L.C. Lorendo &amp; M.J. McCutcheon (1994). \u201cA study of voicing and context effects upon consonant linguapalatal contact patterns\u201d, Journal of Phonetics 22, 225-238. A. L\uf6fqvist &amp; V.L.Gracco (1994). \u201dTongue body kinematics in velar stop production: influences of consonant voicing and vowel context\u201d, Phonetica 51, 52-67. I. Moen, H.G. Simonsen, M. Huseby, &amp; J. Grue (2001). \u201cThe relationship between intraoral air pressure and tongue-palate contact during the articulation of Norwegian /t/ and /d/\u201d, Eurospeech CD-ROM. paper 265. S. Fuchs &amp; P. Perrier (2003). \u201cAn EMMA/EPG study of voicing contrast correlates in German\u201d. In Daniel Recasens &amp; Maria J. Sol\ue9, Proceedings of the ICPhS, 1057-1060. S. Fuchs, J. Brunner &amp; A. Busler (2009). \u201cTemporal and spatial aspects concerning the realizations of the voicing contrast in German alveolar and postalveolar fricatives\u201d. Advances in Speech Language Pathology 9(1), 90-100. M. Liker &amp; F. Gibbon (2013). \u201cDifferences in EPG contact dynamics between voiced and voiceless lingual fricatives\u201d. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43(1), 49-64. R. Skarnitzl (2013). \u201cAsymmetry in the Czech Alveolar Stops: An EPG Study\u201d. Phonetica Pragensia 13, 101-112. J. Fontdevila, M.D. Pallares, D. Recasens (1994). \u201cThe contact index method of electropalatographic data reduction\u201d, Journal of Phonetics 22, 141-154