Vowel duration issue in Civili

The main goal of this article is to define the problem of vowel duration in Civili (H12a). It shows that the so-called Civili vowel-length desperately needs to be re-examined, because previous works on the sound system of this language hardly explain a number of phonological phenomena, such as vowel lengthening, on the basis of data at hand. Demonstrating the problem in question, the author first reviews previous works that all identify a vowel lengthening in Civili. From different analyses the complexity of the phenomenon is found out by observing differences from an analysis to another, and by regarding difficulties the different phonologists came up against. Then, the problem is also seen through the weakness of each analysis results. This eventually shows more aspects of the vowel duration issue, and leads the author to make a clear distinction between vowel length and vowel lengthening that can be all regarded as only vowel duration. Finally, the article shares a possible way for a solution through an experimental approach of the Civili sound system

Effects of deafness on acoustic characteristics of American English tense/lax vowels in maternal speech to infants

Recent studies have demonstrated that mothers exaggerate phonetic properties of infant-directed (ID) speech. However, these studies focused on a single acoustic dimension (frequency), whereas speech sounds are composed of multiple acoustic cues. Moreover, little is known about how mothers adjust phonetic properties of speech to children with hearing loss. This study examined mothers’ production of frequency and duration cues to the American English tense/lax vowel contrast in speech to profoundly deaf (N = 14) and normal-hearing (N = 14) infants, and to an adult experimenter. First and second formant frequencies and vowel duration of tense (/i/, /u/) and lax (/I/, /ʊ/) vowels were measured. Results demonstrated that for both infant groups mothers hyperarticulated the acoustic vowelspace and increased vowel duration in ID speech relative to adult-directed speech. Mean F2 values were decreased for the /u/ vowel and increased for the /I/ vowel, and vowelduration was longer for the /i/, /u/, and /I/ vowels in ID speech. However, neither acoustic cue differed in speech to hearing-impaired or normal-hearing infants. These results suggest that both formant frequencies and vowel duration that differentiate American English tense/lx vowel contrasts are modified in ID speech regardless of the hearing status of the addressee

Measuring vowel duration variability in native English speakers and polish learners

This paper presents a set of simple statistical measures that illustrate the difference between native English speakers and Polish learners of English in varying the length of vocalic segments in read speech. Relative vowel duration and vowel length variation are widely used as basic criteria for establishing rhythmic differences between languages and dialects of a language. The parameter of vocalic duration is employed in popular measures such as ΔV (Ramus et al. 1999), VarcoV (Dellwo 2006, White and Mattys 2007), and PVI (Low et al. 2000, Grabe and Low 2002). Apart from rhythm studies, the processing of data concerning vowel duration can be used to establish the level of discrepancy between native speech and learner speech in investigating other temporal aspects of FL pronunciation, such as tense-lax vowel distinction, accentual lengthening or the degree of unstressed vowel reduction, which are often pointed out as serious problems in the acquisition of English pronunciation by Polish learners. Using descriptive statistics (relations between personal mean vowel duration and standard deviation), the author calculates several indices that demonstrate individual learners' (13 subjects) scores in relation to the native speakers' (12 subjects) score ranges. In some tested aspects, the results of the two groups of speakers are almost cleanly separated, which suggests not only the existence of specific didactic problems but also their actual scale

Airflow in stop-vowel sequences of German

This study reports on the results of an airflow experiment that measured the duration of airflow and the amount of air from release of a stop to the beginning of a following vowel in stop vowel-sequences of German

The interaction of syllabification and voicing perception in american english

The current paper explores these two sorts of phonetic explanations of the relationship between syllabic position and the voicing contrast in American English. It has long been observed that the contrast between, for example, /p/ and /b/ is expressed differently, depending on the position of the stop with respect to the vowel. Preceding a vowel within a syllable, the contrast is largely one of aspiration. /p/ is aspirated, while /b/ is voiceless, or in some dialects voiced or even an implosive. Following a vowel within a syllable, both /p/ and /b/ both tend to lack voicing in the closure and the contrast is expressed largely by dynamic differences in the transition between the previous vowel and the stop. Here, vowel and closure duration are negatively correlated such that the /p/ has a shorter vowel and longer closure duration. This difference is often enhanced by the addition of glottalization to /p/. In addition to these differences, there are additional differences connected to higher-level organization involving stress and feet edges. To make the current discussion more tractable, we will restrict ourselves to the two conditions (CV and VC) laid out above

Some acoustic and articulatory correlates of phrasal stress in Spanish

All spoken languages show rhythmic patterns. Recent work with a number of different languages (English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and French) suggests that metrically (hierarchically) assigned stress levels of the utterance show strong correlations with the amount of jaw displacement, and corresponding F1 values. This paper examines some articulatory and acoustic correlates of Spanish rhythm; specifically, we ask if there is a correlation between phrasal stress values metrically assigned to each syllable and acoustic/articulatory values. We used video recordings of three Salvadoran Spanish speakers to measure maximum jaw displacement, mean F0, mean intensity, mean duration, and mid-vowel F1 for each vowel in two Spanish sentences. The results show strong correlations between stress and duration, and between stress and F1, but weak correlations between stress and both mean vowel intensity and maximum jaw displacement. We also found weak correlations between jaw displacement and both mean vowel intensity and F1

Speaker-sex discrimination for voiced and whispered vowels at short durations

Whispered vowels, produced with no vocal fold vibration, lack the periodic temporal fine structure which in voiced vowels underlies the perceptual attribute of pitch (a salient auditory cue to speaker sex). Voiced vowels possess no temporal fine structure at very short durations (below two glottal cycles). The prediction was that speaker-sex discrimination performance for whispered and voiced vowels would be similar for very short durations but, as stimulus duration increases, voiced vowel performance would improve relative to whispered vowel performance as pitch information becomes available. This pattern of results was shown for women’s but not for men’s voices. A whispered vowel needs to have a duration three times longer than a voiced vowel before listeners can reliably tell whether it’s spoken by a man or woman (∼30 ms vs. ∼10 ms). Listeners were half as sensitive to information about speaker-sex when it is carried by whispered compared with voiced vowels

Stressed vowel duration and phonemic length contrast

As far as phonemic length contrast is concerned, we observe a high degree of durational overlap between phonemically long and short vowels in monosyllabic CVC words (which is enforced by a greater pitch excursion), whereas in polysyllables the differences seem to be perceptually non-salient (>40 ms, cf. Lehiste 1970). This suggests that the differences in vowel duration are not significant enough to underlie phonological length contrast

Quantity distinction in the Hungarian vowel system - just theory or also reality?

According to most current theories, the Hungarian vowel system involves 14 vowels that correspond to seven vowel pairs, each differentiated by quantity. However, there are phenomena both on the phonological and the phonetic level which suggest that for low, mid, and high vowels a separate evaluation of the quantity opposition is necessary. In order to test this, we conducted a perception test, in which embedded and isolated vowels spoken by a native Hungarian speaker were to be identified by native listeners. The results show that the perception of vowel length and vowel quality (i.e. the formant structure) closely interacts in Hungarian. Low vowels, for which short and long realisations differ in quality, i.e. in vowel height, were seldom identified incorrectly. For embedded high vowels, duration was not obviously regarded as a crucial cue for identification by the subjects, nor were they clearly differentiated by the speaker. Mid vowels showed a mixed behaviour: they were differentiated regarding their duration and formant structure in production, however, this information was only partly used by the listeners. The fact that vowel quantity distinction in Hungarian is only maintained where there is a perceivable quality difference shows that the role of quantity is not as dominant as it has been regarded for long