3,426 research outputs found
Temporal Variability and Stability in Infant-Directed Sung Speech: Evidence for Language-specific Patterns.
In this paper, sung speech is used as a methodological tool to explore temporal variability in the timing of word-internal consonants and vowels. It is hypothesized that temporal variability/stability becomes clearer under the varying rhythmical conditions induced by song. This is explored crosslinguistically in German â a language that exhibits a potential vocalic quantity distinction â and the non-quantity languages French and Russian. Songs by non-professional singers, i.e. parents that sang to their infants aged 2 to 13 months in a non-laboratory setting, were recorded and analyzed. Vowel and consonant durations at syllable contacts of trochaic word types with ŠCVCV or ŠCVËCV structure were measured under varying rhythmical conditions. Evidence is provided that in German non-professional singing, the two syllable structures can be differentiated by two distinct temporal variability patterns: vocalic variability (and consonantal stability) was found to be dominant in ŠCVËCV structures whereas consonantal variability (and vocalic stability) was characteristic for ŠCVCV structures. In French and Russian, however, only vocalic variability seemed to apply. Additionally, findings suggest that the different temporal patterns found in German were also supported by the stability pattern at the tonal level. These results point to subtle (supra) segmental timing mechanisms in sung speech that affect temporal targets according to the specific prosodic nature of the language in question
Initial glottalization and final devoicing in polish English
This paper presents an acoustic study of the speech of Polish leaners of English. The experiment was concerned with English sequences of the type George often, in which a word-final voiced obstruent was followed by a word-initial vowel. Acoustic measurements indicated the degree to which learners transferred Polish-style glottalization on word-initial vowels into their L2 speech. Temporal parameters associated with the production of final voiced obstruents in English were also measured. The results suggest that initial glottalization may be a contributing factor to final devoicing errors. Adopting English-style âliaisonâ in which the final obstruent is syllabified as an onset to the initial vowel is argued to be a useful goal for English pronunciation syllabi. The implications of the experiment for phonological theory are also discussed. A hierarchical view of syllabic structures proposed in the Onset Prominence environment allows for the non-arbitrary representation of word boundaries in both Polish and English
Comparing voiced and voiceless geminates in Sienese Italian: what role does preaspiration play?
This paper compares the acoustic phonetic appearance of voiced & voiceless geminate stops in Sienese Italian. In our spontaneous speech data voiceless geminate stops are frequently preaspirated, which is an extremely rare phenomenon cross-linguistically. Preaspiration of voiceless stops has been associated in other languages with devoicing of voiced stops. We compare the acoustic appearance & duration of voiceless /VC:/ sequences (with & without preaspiration) with voiced /VC:/ sequences in our language. Results indicate that long voiced stops in Sienese Italian are often partially devoiced â a phenomenon that has not been reported previously for any variety of Italian. We suggest that preaspiration & devoicing are likely related, & attempt to provide an articulatory explanation as to why they occur
How do voiced retroflex stops evolve? Evidence from typology and an articulatory study
The present article illustrates that the specific articulatory and aerodynamic requirements for voiced but not voiceless alveolar or dental stops can cause tongue tip retraction and tongue mid lowering and thus retroflexion of front coronals. This retroflexion is shown to have occurred diachronically in the three typologically unrelated languages Dhao (Malayo-Polynesian), Thulung (Sino-Tibetan), and Afar (East-Cushitic). In addition to the diachronic cases, we provide synchronic data for retroflexion from an articulatory study with four speakers of German, a language usually described as having alveolar stops. With these combined data we supply evidence that voiced retroflex stops (as the only retroflex segments in a language) did not necessarily emerge from implosives, as argued by Haudricourt (1950), Greenberg (1970), Bhat (1973), and Ohala (1983). Instead, we propose that the voiced front coronal plosive /d/ is generally articulated in a way that favours retroflexion, that is, with a smaller and more retracted place of articulation and a lower tongue and jaw position than /t/
Consonantal F0 perturbation in American English involves multiple mechanisms.
In this study, we revisit consonantal perturbation of F0 in English, taking into particular consideration the effect of alignment of F0 contours to segments and the F0 extraction method in the acoustic analysis. We recorded words differing in consonant voicing, manner of articulation, and position in syllable, spoken by native speakers of American English in both statements and questions. In the analysis, we compared methods of F0 alignment and found that the highest F0 consistency occurred when F0 contours were time-normalized to the entire syllable. Applying this method, along with using syllables with nasal consonants as the baseline and a fine-detailed F0 extraction procedure, we identified three distinct consonantal effects: a large but brief (10-40âms) F0 raising at voice onset regardless of consonant voicing, a smaller but longer-lasting F0 raising effect by voiceless consonants throughout a large proportion of the following vowels, and a small lowering effect of around 6âHz by voiced consonants, which was not found in previous studies. Additionally, a brief anticipatory effect was observed before a coda consonant. These effects are imposed on a continuously changing F0 curve that is either rising-falling or falling-rising, depending on whether the carrier sentence is a statement or a question
Bilingual Preschoolers â Speech is Associated with Non-Native Maternal Language Input
Published online: 11 Nov 2018Bilingual children are often exposed to non-native speech through their parents. Yet, little is known about the relation between bilingual preschoolersâ speech production and their speech input. The present study investigated the production of voice onset time (VOT) by Dutch-German bilingual preschoolers and their sequential bilingual mothers. The findings reveal an association between maternal VOT and bilingual childrenâs VOT in the heritage language German as well as in the majority language Dutch. By contrast, no input-production association was observed in the VOT production of monolingual German-speaking children and monolingual Dutch-speaking children. The results of this study provide the first empirical evidence that non-native and attrited maternal speech contributes to the often-observed linguistic differences between bilingual children and their monolingual peers
Intelligibility of Sung Vowels: The Effect of Consonantal Context and the Onset of Voicing
Background:
Studies addressing the identification of sung vowels concern
mainly the effect of the fundamental frequency (f0) and conclude
that correct vowel identification decreases with increasing
pitch. In one experiment, the impact of consonantal environment
on the intelligibility of the vowels in high-pitched singing was
also studied. The results of that experiment showed positive
effect of the consonantal environment. This finding is in line
with results that had been reported for speech in an earlier
study. However, the data on singing are not as transparent as
the authors suggest, and there are some conditions in the
experiment that could also be controlled for more strictly.
Therefore, the effect of the dynamic acoustic information
encoded in the formant transitions at high fundamental
frequencies is still an open question.
Objectives:
The aim of the present study was to redesign and extend the
above-mentioned experiment to test whether the phonetic context
and the onset of the vowel uttered in isolation (namely the
onset of voicing) have a positive effect on vowel
identification.
Methods:
For this purpose, a vowel identification test was carried out.
The stimuli included three Hungarian vowels /aË iË uË/ in three
conditions (in /bVb/ context, in isolation and with eliminated
onset) at seven different fundamental frequencies from 175 to
988 Hz (F3, B3, F4, B4, F5, B5, and speech). The stimuli were
produced by one professional soprano singer.
Results:
The results show that consonantal context does not specify vowel
identity in singing as clearly as it has been demonstrated for
spoken utterances. In addition, no effect of vowel onset (ie,
the onset of voicing) was found. Recognition percentages seemed
only to be dependent on f0 and vowel quality.
Conclusions:
The unexpected results lend themselves to two possible
explanations: the reduction of the consonants and the
undersampling of the formant transitions
Contributions of temporal encodings of voicing, voicelessness, fundamental frequency, and amplitude variation to audiovisual and auditory speech perception
Auditory and audio-visual speech perception was investigated using auditory signals of invariant spectral envelope that temporally encoded the presence of voiced and voiceless excitation, variations in amplitude envelope and F-0. In experiment 1, the contribution of the timing of voicing was compared in consonant identification to the additional effects of variations in F-0 and the amplitude of voiced speech. In audio-visual conditions only, amplitude variation slightly increased accuracy globally and for manner features. F-0 variation slightly increased overall accuracy and manner perception in auditory and audio-visual conditions. Experiment 2 examined consonant information derived from the presence and amplitude variation of voiceless speech in addition to that from voicing, F-0, and voiced speech amplitude. Binary indication of voiceless excitation improved accuracy overall and for voicing and manner. The amplitude variation of voiceless speech produced only a small increment in place of articulation scores. A final experiment examined audio-visual sentence perception using encodings of voiceless excitation and amplitude variation added to a signal representing voicing and F-0. There was a contribution of amplitude variation to sentence perception, but not of voiceless excitation. The timing of voiced and voiceless excitation appears to be the major temporal cues to consonant identity. (C) 1999 Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(99)01410-1]
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