Articulatory insights into language variation and change: preliminary findings from an ultrasound study of derhoticization in Scottish English

<p>Scottish English is often cited as a rhotic dialect of English. However, in the 70s and 80s, researchers noticed that postvocalic /r/ was in attrition in Glasgow (Macafee, 1983) and Edinburgh (Romaine, 1978; Johnston and Speitel 1983). Recent research (Stuart-Smith, 2003) confirms that postvocalic /r/ as a canonical phonetically rhotic consonant is being lost in working-class Glaswegian speech. However, auditory and acoustic analysis revealed that the situation was more complicated than simple /r/ vs. zero variation. The derhoticized quality of /r/ seemed to vary socially; in particular male working class speakers often produced intermediate sounds that were difficult to identify. It is clear that although auditory and acoustic analysis are useful, they can only hint at what is going on in the vocal tract. A direct articulatory study is thus motivated.</p> <p>Instrumental phonetic studies that examine the vocal tract during the production of sustained rhotic consonants and in laboratory-based studies of American English /r/ have identified a complex relationship between articulation and acoustics, including articulatory differences with minimal acoustic consequences (starting with Delattre and Freeman, 1968). In other words, different gestural configurations can be used to generate a canonically rhotic consonant. A pilot study (Scobbie and Stuart-Smith, 2006) using Ultrasound Tongue Imaging (UTI) with a Scottish vernacular speaker revealed something rather different: the occurrence of a strong articulatory retroflex tongue motion, which generated little or no rhotic acoustic consequences because it was timed to occur after phonation had ceased, before pause. This tongue motion was found in a speaker who was weakly rhotic. Thus we may have a situation in which acoustic differences with a sociolinguistic function have, in some prosodic contexts, imperceptible articulatory differences in tongue position, though timing will vary. The situation of language variation and change in Scotland means that an articulatory/acoustic study is likely to give very different results to similar studies of rhotic speakers in the USA (Mielke, Twist, and Archangeli, 2006), and be particularly relevant to understanding social variation.</p> <p>Ultrasound is non-invasive and portable and therefore has great potential as an instrumental method for studying aspects of socially stratified variation: articulatory data can be physically collected in every-day social settings. However the technique requires refinement for effective use in recording locations outside the laboratory (e.g. in school, at home), and the potential impact of using the equipment on speech is not known. Gick (2002) suggest methods for fieldwork, but we are not aware of any study which attempts to quantify the effects of the technique on vernacular speakers.</p> <p>Ultrasound is non-invasive and portable and therefore has great potential as an instrumental method for studying aspects of socially stratified variation: articulatory data can be physically collected in every-day social settings. However the technique requires refinement for effective use in recording locations outside the laboratory (e.g. in school, at home), and the potential impact of using the equipment on speech is not known. Gick (2002) suggest methods for fieldwork, but we are not aware of any study which attempts to quantify the effects of the technique on vernacular speakers.</p&gt

A single case study of articulatory adaptation during acoustic mimicry

The distribution of fine-grained phonetic variation can be observed in the speech of members of welldefined social groups. It is evident that such variation must somehow be able to propagate through a speech community from speaker to hearer. However, technological barriers have meant that close and direct study of the articulatory links of this speaker-hearer chain has not, to date, been possible. We present the results of a singlecase study using an ultrasound-based method to investigate temporal and configurational lingual adaptation during mimicry. Our study focuses on allophonic variants of postvocalic /r/ found in speech from Central Scotland. Our results show that our informant was able to adjust tongue gesture timing towards that of the stimulus, but did not alter tongue configuration

Articulation therapy for children with cleft palate using visual articulatory models and ultrasound biofeedback

Visual biofeedback tools, such as Electropalatography (EPG), are recommended for assessing and treating speech sound disorders (SSDs) associated with Cleft Palate (CP). However, EPG is not suitable for all clients, due to dependencies on stable dentition and timing of palatal repair. Ultrasound is becoming increasingly popular for its use in treating SSDs, with no reports on its dependency on structure of the vocal tract. However its clinical application in the CP population remains to be tested. We compared Visual Articulatory Models (VAMs) with Ultrasound for the treatment of SSDs in two children with repaired submucous CP. Both children received two blocks of therapy each with eight sessions, with the first block using VAMs and the second using ultrasound. Results showed that both children improved overall, with more improvement found in the first block of therapy using VAMs

How fluent is the fluent speech of people who stutter? A new approach to measuring kinematics with ultrasound

AM deposited 2020-06-22We present a new approach to the investigation of dynamic ultrasound tongue imaging (UTI) data, applied here to analyse the subtle aspects of the fluency of people who stutter (PWS). Fluent productions of CV syllables (C = /k/; V = /, i, /) from three PWS and three control speakers (PNS) were analysed for duration and peak velocity relative to articulatory movement towards (onset) and away from (offset) the consonantal closure. The objective was to apply a replicable methodology for kinematic investigation to speech of PWS in order to test Wingate's Fault-Line hypothesis. As was hypothesised, results show comparable onset behaviours for both groups. Regarding offsets, groups differ in peak velocity. Results suggest that PWS do not struggle initiating consonantal closure (onset). In transition from consonantal closure into the vowel, however, groups appear to employ different strategies expressed in increased variation (PNS) versus decreased mean peak velocity (PWS).casl30pub4219pub3-

On the Tail of the Scottish Vowel Length Rule in Glasgow

One of the most famous sound features of Scottish English is the short/long timing alternation of /i u ai/vowels, which depends on the morpho-phonemic environment, and is known of as the Scottish Vowel Length Rule (SVLR). These alternations make the status of vowel quantity in Scottish English (quasi-)phonemic but are also susceptible to change, particularly in situations of intense sustained dialect contact with Anglo-English. Does the SVLR change in Glasgow where dialect contact at the community level is comparably low? The present study sets out to tackle this question, and tests two hypotheses involving (1) external influences due to dialect-contact and (2) internal, prosodically-induced factors of sound change. Durational analyses of /i u a/ were conducted on a corpus of spontaneous Glaswegian speech from the 1970s and 2000s, and four speaker groups were compared, two of middle-aged men, and two of adolescent boys. Our hypothesis that the development of the SVLR over time may be internally constrained and interact with prosody was largely confirmed. We observed weakening effects in its implementation which were localised in phrase-medial unaccented positions in all speaker groups, and in phrase-final positions in the speakers born after the Second World War. But unlike some other varieties of Scottish or Northern English which show weakening of the Rule under a prolonged contact with Anglo-English, dialect contact seems to be having less impact on the durational patterns in Glaswegian vernacular, probably because of the overall reduced potential for a regular, everyday contact in the West given the different demographies

Facilitators and “deal breakers”: a mixed methods study investigating implementation of the goal setting and action planning (G-AP) framework in community rehabilitation teams

Background: High quality goal setting in stroke rehabilitation is vital, but challenging to deliver. The G-AP framework (including staff training and a stroke survivor held G-AP record) guides patient centred goal setting with stroke survivors in community rehabilitation teams. We found G-AP was acceptable, feasible to deliver and clinically useful in one team. The aim of this study was to conduct a mixed methods investigation of G-AP implementation in diverse community teams prior to a large-scale evaluation. Methods: We approached Scottish community rehabilitation teams to take part. Following training, G-AP was delivered to stroke survivors within participating teams for 6 months. We investigated staff experiences of G-AP training and its implementation using focus groups and a training questionnaire. We investigated fidelity of G-AP delivery through case note review. Focus group data were analysed using a Framework approach; identified themes were mapped into Normalisation Process Theory constructs. Questionnaire and case note data were analysed descriptively. Results: We recruited three teams comprising 55 rehabilitation staff. Almost all staff (93%, 51/55) participated in G-AP training; of those, 80% (n = 41/51) completed the training questionnaire. Training was rated as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ by almost all staff (92%, n = 37/41). G-AP was broadly implemented as intended in two teams. Implementation facilitators included - G-AP ‘made sense’; repetitive use of G-AP in practice; flexible G-AP delivery and positive staff appraisals of G-AP impact. G-AP failed to gain traction in the third team. Implementation barriers included - delays between G-AP training and implementation; limited leadership engagement; a poor ‘fit’ between G-AP and the team organisational structure and simultaneous delivery of other goal setting methods. Staff recommended (i) development of training to include implementation planning; (ii) ongoing local implementation review and tailoring, and (iii) development of electronic and aphasia friendly G-AP records. Conclusions: The interaction between G-AP and the practice setting is critical to implementation success or failure. Whilst facilitators support implementation success, barriers can collectively act as implementation “deal breakers”. Local G-AP implementation efforts should be planned, monitored and tailored. These insights can inform implementation of other complex interventions in community rehabilitation settings

Season, storage and extraction method impact on the phytochemical profile of Terminalia ivorensis

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the laboratory technical staff of the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Robert Gordon University (especially Stephen Williamson and Chris Fletcher) and University of Aberdeen, the Analytical Department of Rowett Institute (especially Gary J. Duncan) for their support. Funding Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for providing funding for the studies.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

UltraPhonix: das Erlernen von artikulatorischen Gesten mit Ultraschall-Biofeedback

Item also deposited in University of Strathclyde (Strathprints) repository on 23 June 2017, available at: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/61081In einer Interventionsstudie mit 20 Kindern wird die Effektivität von visuellem Ultraschall-Biofeedback in der Therapie verschiedener Sprechstörungen untersucht. Die Studie umfasst mehrere standardisierte Tests, um die Sprach- und Sprechfähigkeiten der Kinder vor, während und nach der sprachtherapeutischen Intervention (in multiplen Baselineerhebungen) zu erheben. Alle Teilnehmer waren zum Zeitpunkt der ersten Aufnahme zwischen 6 und 15 Jahren alt und wiesen Sprachentwicklungsstörungen mit einer persistierenden Symptomatik auf der phonologisch-phonetischen Ebene auf, die sich in einer Vielzahl von Konsonant- und Vokalfehlern widerspiegelten. Die Produktion der Ziellaute wurde an Übungsitems trainiert und deren Genauigkeit anhand von ungeübten Wörtern (Kontrollitems) beobachtet und ausgewertet. Klinisch bedeutende Verbesserungen direkt im Anschluss und drei Monate nach Beendigung der Ultraschall-Biofeedback-Therapie werden im Vergleich zur den Aufnahmen vor Therapiebeginn vorgestellt.https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/39701casl10pub4751pu

Covert contrast and covert errors in persistent velar fronting

Special Issue on Covert ContrastsThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics on 09/09/2016, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2016.1209788Acoustic and articulatory studies demonstrate covert contrast in perceptually neutralised phonemic contrasts in both typical children and children with speech disorders. These covert contrasts are thought to be relatively common and symptomatic of phonetic speech disorders. However, clinicians in the speech therapy clinic have had no easy way of identifying this covertness. This study uses ultrasound tongue imaging to compare tongue contours for /t/and /k/in seven children with persistent velar fronting. We present a method of overlaying tongue contours to identify covert contrast at the articulatory level. Results show that all seven children, contrary to expectations, produced both /t/and /k/with near-identical tongue shapes showing no evidence of covert contrast. However, further analysis of one of the participants showed highly variable tongue shapes for /t/and /k/, including retroflex productions of both. Although not phonologically conditioned, this covert error is evidence of speech disorder at the phonetic level.This work was funded by grants EP/I027696/1(Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK) and ETM/402 (Chief Scientist Office, Scotland).casl31pub4523pub