Coarticulation of inherent fundamental frequency levels between syllables

In Advanced Standard Copenhagen (ASC) Danish the inherent Fo level differences between high and low vowels are of an order of magnitude comparable to that of the Fo deflection in the stress groups. In theory, this could imply that the intended stress distribution in an utterance might be perceived incorrectly, since the inherent Fo level variation could distort the linguistically relevant Fo pattern in the stress groups. It was hypothesized that such distortion is compensated for by coarticulation of inherent Fo levels between syllables. Experiments carried out to test this hypothesis showed that Fo level in one vowel is consistently influenced by vowel height in the preceding syllable, being higher after a high than after a low vowel. There seems to be no consistent influence from the succeeding vowel. The greatest amount of compensation is found in the first posttonic vowel in the stress group, and it occurs whether the consonant between the two vowels is a sonorant (m) or a voiceless fricative (f). Formant measurements of first posttonic ɑ showed that the formant frequencies are influenced (although slightly) by both the preceding and the following vowels. An explanation of the discrepancy between the manner in which vowel quality (and hence tongue body position) and the manner in which Fo is influenced by adjacent vowels is attempted in terms of a spring-mass model describing the relation between the tongue body and the laryngeal structures

Global and local fundamental frequency variation and larynx height: Some preliminary observations

The paper presents data on the relation between fundamental frequency declination and larynx height, and between the stress determined fundamental frequency variation and larynx height. The results can be summarized as follows: a) Fo declination seems to be accompanied by a concomitant declination of larynx height, b) the Fo rise from stressed to the first posttonic syllable in Standard Danish is accompanied by two different patterns of larynx height variation: in one the larynx rises, in the other it lowers. The findings are discussed in the light of theories for the production of Fo

Perceptual compensation for segmentally conditioned fundamental frequency perturbation

The paper deals with the role of two types of segmentally conditioned fundamental frequency (Fo) perturbation in speech perception, i.e. the differences in Fo between high and low vowels and the effect of prevocalic obstruent voicing on Fo. The literature relevant to this issue is reviewed, and the results of a supplementary experiment on Fo as a cue to vowel identity are reported. On this basis three major points are made: (1) Although the pitch of vowels is influenced psychoacoustically by their spectral shape, this effect is too small to be of any significant importance in speech perception. (2) The two types of Fo perturbation are not treated differently in the speech perception process, and (3) irrespective of type, the segmentally conditioned Fo variation can function as a cue both to segment identity and to the identity of prosodic categories, depending on the actual demands upon the speech perception system

The influence of tongue height on the perception of vowel duration in Danish

No abstrac

Identification and discrimination of vowel duration

The identification and discrimination of vowel duration was investigated. The experimental results could not be unambiguously interpreted in favour of either categorial or continuous perception of the acoustic variable under study. Furthermore, the subjects' response bias in the discrimination test was examined. It turned out that the number of "false alarms" (i.e. "different" responses to pairs of physically identical stimuli) varied in a systematic manner, being considerably higher near the phoneme boundary (as established by identification tests) than within the phoneme areas. It is attempted to explain the systematic variation of response bias in terms of Fujisaki and Kawashima's model of the decision process in discrimination tasks

Variation in inherent Fo level differences between vowels as a function of position in the utterance and in the stress group

The inherent Fo level differences in the vowels u and ɑ were examined in a material which made it possible to vary the position of the vowels in the utterance, keeping their position in the stress group constant, and vice versa. The main finding was that the inherent Fo level differences were statistically significant in both stressed and unstressed syllables throughout the material, but in stressed vowels the differences were larger than in the unstressed ones. The effect of position in the utterance and stress group can be summarized as follows: In vowels in stressed position the differences tend to decrease through the utterance, in vowels in first posttonic position they (surprisingly) increase, and in second posttonic position they do not seem to vary systematically with the position in the utterance. Apart from the differences being larger in stressed than in unstressed syllables, there seems to be no effect in the unstressed vowels from their position in the stress group

The effect of consonant type on fundamental frequency and larynx height in Danish

Fundamental frequency (Fo) and larynx height were measured in words of the type 'CV:fi where the initial consonant varied in both manner and place of articulation. The main findings were a clear effect of voicing in the obstruents [f] and [v] on both Fo and larynx height in the following vowel, a small but consistent effect of aspiration on Fo but not on larynx height in the following vowel, and an effect of place of articulation on larynx height which was not, however, reflected in Fo

Intrinsic fundamental frequency of Danish vowels

In a number of languages the intrinsic Fo of vowels has been reported to be positively correlated with tongue height. Measurements of the fundamental frequencies of Danish vowels showed a similar correlation to exist in Danish. The Fo differences between high and low vowels were greatest in long vowels in stressed position, but also short vowels in unstressed position differed with respect to intrinsic Fo, although to a much lesser degree. The hypotheses advanced to account for the intrinsic Fo differences are briefly outlined, and discussed in relation to the results of the present and other similar experiments

Fundamental frequency and larynx height in sentence and stress groups

The paper reports experiments investigating a) the relation between larynx height and the slow overall fundamental frequency movement (declination) in sentences of varying length and type, and b) the relation between larynx height and Fo in the prosodic stress group. The aim of the experiments was to see in general to what extent the extrinsic laryngeal muscles could be assumed to be involved in the production of Fo, and as part of this to consider more specifically the question whether the fundamental frequency declination is actively controlled by the speaker in a linguistically purposeful manner, or whether - as has been suggested - it is an automatic consequence of the functioning of the pulmonic system. The results can be summarized as follows: In declarative sentences an overall decline was observed for Fo as well as for larynx height, and for both the slope of declination varied with sentence length, being steeper in short than in long sentences. In interrogative sentences Fo as well as larynx height showed either no decline or a slight rise over the sentence. These results are taken to indicate that Fo declination is actively controlled by the speaker, and it is suggested that it may be attributed primarily to the activity of the extrinsic laryngeal muscles. In the stress group the relation between larynx height and Fo seems to be far more complex, showing patterns which vary both among speakers and (to a lesser degree) within the individual speaker, and which have to be explained as the result of an intricate interaction of the activity of both intrinsic and extrinsic laryngeal muscles

Intrinsic vowel F0, the size of vowel inventories and second language acquisition

The phenomenon of intrinsic vowel F0 (IF0), in which high vowels exhibit higher F0 than low vowels, has been widely attested in languages of the world. Most often, IF0 is regarded as an automatic, physiologically determined phenomenon, whereas some claim that IF0 is a controlled feature, introduced to enhance vowel contrasts. This paper presents new evidence on this issue by means of a cross-linguistic investigation of the influence of vowel inventory size on IF0 and a study of IF0 in second language (L2) acquisition. IF0 was measured in three language varieties: Arabic (a language with 3 vowels), Dutch (a 12-vowel system), and Dutch spoken by native Arabic-speaking learners. IF0 was significantly larger in Dutch than Arabic, but did not differ significantly between Arabic and Dutch produced by L2 learners. No spectral differences between the corresponding vowels of the three language varieties were found. While confirming the universality of IF0, these results also suggest that the size of IF0 may be language-specific, depending on the need to enhance vowel contrasts. Thus, these results agree well with a mixed physiological-enhancement account, which assumes that IF0 is physiologically determined, but also at least in part the effect of an interacting, controlled mechanism