Imitation of the Russian accent by Czech speakers

(in English) Foreign accent imitation is one of the strategies used in intentional voice disguise. This thesis focuses on imitation of the Russian accent in Czech language by Czech speakers and describes the imitated accent based on auditory and acoustic analysis. Both segmental and suprasegmental features of speech have been analysed based on the comparison of audio recordings of regular speech and speech with imitated Russian accent. The most frequent difference implemented by Czech speakers during the imitation task involved the change of duration of vowels in relation to the position of word stress and included both lengthening of stressed vowels and shortening of unstressed ones. Change of vowel quality has been performed mostly on the vowel [ɪ], resulting in a close vowel [i] or resembling [ɨ]. Consonantal deviations usually concerned Czech sounds [ɦ] and [r̝ ], and palatalization of lateral consonant [l]. Audio recordings of Czech imitators as well as Russian speakers were used in the perception test, in which participants had to judge the authenticity of foreign accent. Four out of ten imitators were rated by the majority of listeners as genuine non-native speakers, whereas two out of five Russian speakers were misjudged for imitators. The accent of successful imitators was characterised by...(česky) Jednou z používaných strategií maskování hlasu je imitace cizineckého přízvuku. Tato práce se zaměřuje na napodobování ruského přízvuku v češtině českými mluvčími a popisuje imitovaný přízvuk na základě poslechové a akustické analýzy. Na základě porovnání běžného projevu mluvčích a projevu s imitovaným ruským přízvukem byly analyzovány jak segmentální, tak i suprasegmentální jevy. Nejfrekventovanějším rozdílem mezi projevy byla změna trvání samohlásek v souvislosti s realizací slovního přízvuku, která se týkala jednak dloužení přízvučných vokálů, jednak krácení nepřízvučných vokálů. Kvalitativním změnám podlehla především samohláska [ɪ], místo níž bylo vyslovené zavřené [i], nebo se její artikulace blížila vokálu [ɨ]. Konsonantické odchylky zahrnovaly odlišnou výslovnost českých hlásek [ɦ] a [r̝ ] a palatalizaci laterálního konsonantu [l]. Zvukové nahrávky rodilých mluvčích češtiny imitujících ruský přízvuk a rodilých mluvčích ruštiny byly použity v percepčním testu, v němž posluchači posuzovali autenticitu cizineckého přízvuku. Čtyři z deseti imitátorů byli většinou posluchačů ohodnoceni jako autentičtí nerodilí mluvčí, zatímco dva z pěti ruských mluvčích byli chybně označeni za imitátory. Přízvuk úspěšných imitátorů se ve srovnání s ostatními mluvčími vyznačoval výrazně větším množstvím...Fonetický ústavInstitute of PhoneticsFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult

A model of prenatal acquisition of vowels

Humans learn much about their language while still in the womb. Prenatal exposure has been repeatedly shown to affect newborn infants' processing of the prosodic characteristics of native language speech. Little is known about whether and how prenatal exposure affects infants' perception of speech sound segments. Here we simulated prenatal learning of vowels in two virtual fetuses whose mothers spoke (slightly) different languages. The learners were two-layer neural networks and were each exposed to vowel tokens sampled from an existent five-vowel language (Spanish and Czech, respectively). The input acoustic properties approximated the speech signal that could possibly be heard in the intrauterine environment, and the learners' auditory system was relatively immature. Without supervision, the virtual fetuses came to warp the continuous acoustic signal into “proto-categories” that were specific to their linguistic environment. Both learners came to create two categorization patterns and did so in language-specific ways, primarily on the basis of the vowels' first-formant characteristics. Such prenatally formed proto-categories were not adult-like in that they entirely collapsed some of the native-language contrasts. At the same time, the categories reflected features of the adult language in that they were language-specific. These results can inspire future work on speech and language acquisition in real young humans.</p

A Model of Prenatal Acquisition of Vowels

Humans learn much about their language while still in thewomb. Prenatal exposure has been repeatedly shown to affectnewborn infants’ processing of the prosodic characteristics ofnative language speech. Little is known about whether and howprenatal exposure affects infants’ perception of speech soundsegments. Here we simulated prenatal learning of vowels intwo virtual fetuses whose mothers spoke (slightly) differentlanguages. The learners were two-layer neural networks andwere each exposed to vowel tokens sampled from an existentfive-vowel language (Spanish and Czech, respectively). Theinput acoustic properties approximated the speech signal thatcould possibly be heard in the intrauterine environment, andthe learners’ auditory system was relatively immature. Withoutsupervision, the virtual fetuses came to warp the continuousacoustic signal into “proto-categories” that were specific totheir linguistic environment. Both learners came to create twocategorization patterns and did so in language-specific ways,primarily on the basis of the vowels’ first-formantcharacteristics. Such prenatally formed proto-categories werenot adult-like in that they entirely collapsed some of the native-language contrasts. At the same time, the categories reflectedfeatures of the adult language in that they were language-specific. These results can inspire future work on speech andlanguage acquisition in real young humans

Advanced nanoantenna for photovoltaics

In this paper an advanced nanoantenna was proposed. The aim of the work is a theoretical analysis of the construction of the proposed nanoantenna. It was shown that proposed nanoantenna has more than 2 times less reactive resistance than the monopole antenna. The area occupied by the proposed nanoantenna compared with monopoly antenna increases only twice

International convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination: implementation in the Russian Federation after the International Court of Justice case against Georgia

Due to the international reputation and several procedural hearings in the International Court of Justice Russian Federation is seen to the international community as the authoritarian state, which allows the violations of human rights and ethnic discrimination not only inside its state but also in neighbour countries during military conflicts. It is reflected in the case with Georgia about the ethnic violations form Russian Federation side on the Russo-Georgian war 2008. This study aims to determine how qualitatively Russian Federation is trying to implement recommendations of the International Court of Justice in discrimination cases and how it is implemented the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination into its legal system

Електродинаміка багатодіапазонної антени

This paper presents a method for determining the multiband antenna radiation pattern, which is based on the fractal Serpinski antenna. The method is based on a conditional subdivision radiating structures at elementary radiators. Next to find the currents in each elementary site of triangular. The next step is to find a component of the area of electric field. At the end, a summation of the components of the electric field of all the triangles in a point observation.В работе представлен метод определения диаграммы направленности многодиапазонной антенны, которая основана на фрактальной антенне Серпинского. Метод основан на условном разбиении излучающей структуры на элементарные излучатели. Далее на нахождении токов в каждой элементарной треугольной площадке. Следующим шагом является нахождение составляющей напряженности электрического поля площадки. На конец, в суммировании составляющих электрического поля от всех треугольников в точке наблюдения.В роботі представлений метод визначення діаграми спрямованості багатодіапазонної антени, котра основана на фрактальній антені Серпинського. Метод оснований на умовному розбитті випромінюючої структури на елементарні випромінювачі та в подальшому на відшукуванні струмів в кожній елементарній трикутній площадці. Наступним кроком є відшукування складової напруженості електричного поля площадки, і в подальшому в підсумовуванні складових електричного поля від усіх трикутників в точці спостереження

Development of a circular polarized fractal antenna

The article presents the results of analytical work, computer modeling, and experimental studies of the fractal antenna of circular polarization. The antenna is a flat structure parallel to the screen. The phase shifts necessary for the operation of the antenna are provided by delay lines. The antenna operates in the frequency range of 902 ... 928 MHz, an experimental study of its characteristics was performed in the same range

Typology of mistakes made by Russian-speaking foreign students in written communication

The bachelor thesis deals with the typology of interference errors of students, whose native language is Russian, and analyses the texts of respondents who have achieved B1and B2 level according to the CEFR which are available online in MERLIN corpus. After a brief introduction to the issue of interlingual interference and an overview of the selected differences between Czech and Russian, which are the source of interference errors, the results of the error analysis are presented. Errors are divided into categories and classified by the frequency of occurrence, and statistical data are compared between B1 and B2 level respectively

Imitation of the Russian accent by Czech speakers

(in English) Foreign accent imitation is one of the strategies used in intentional voice disguise. This thesis focuses on imitation of the Russian accent in Czech language by Czech speakers and describes the imitated accent based on auditory and acoustic analysis. Both segmental and suprasegmental features of speech have been analysed based on the comparison of audio recordings of regular speech and speech with imitated Russian accent. The most frequent difference implemented by Czech speakers during the imitation task involved the change of duration of vowels in relation to the position of word stress and included both lengthening of stressed vowels and shortening of unstressed ones. Change of vowel quality has been performed mostly on the vowel [ɪ], resulting in a close vowel [i] or resembling [ɨ]. Consonantal deviations usually concerned Czech sounds [ɦ] and [r̝ ], and palatalization of lateral consonant [l]. Audio recordings of Czech imitators as well as Russian speakers were used in the perception test, in which participants had to judge the authenticity of foreign accent. Four out of ten imitators were rated by the majority of listeners as genuine non-native speakers, whereas two out of five Russian speakers were misjudged for imitators. The accent of successful imitators was characterised by..