The effects of larynx height on vowel production are mitigated by the active control of articulators
We report that, indeed, larynx height does affect the accuracy of reproducing the target vowels and the distinctness of the produced vowel system, that there is a “sweet spot” of larynx positions that are optimal for vowel production, but that nevertheless, even extreme larynx positions do not result in a collapsed or heavily distorted vowel space that would make speech unintelligible. Together with other lines of evidence, our results support the view that the vowel space of human languages is influenced by our larynx position, but that other positions of the larynx may also be fully compatible with speech. (Source: Journal of Phonetics)
Source: Journal of Phonetics - February 28, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Influence of speaking style adaptations and semantic context on the time course of word recognition in quiet and in noise
This study examines the effects of different listener-oriented speaking styles and semantic contexts on online spoken word recognition using eyetracking. In Experiment 1, different groups of listeners participated in a word-identification-in-noise and in a pleasantness-rating task. Listeners heard sentences with high- versus low-predictability semantic contexts produced in infant-directed speech, Clear Speech, and Conversational Speech. Experiment 2 (in silence) and 3 (in noise) investigated the time course of visual fixations to target objects when participants were listening to different speaking styles and contexts. Res...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - February 16, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Influence of within-category tonal information in the recognition of Mandarin-Chinese words by native and non-native listeners: An eye-tracking study
This study investigates how within-category tonal information influences native and non-native Mandarin listeners’ spoken word recognition. Previous eye-tracking research has shown that the within-category phonetic details of consonants and vowels constrain lexical activation. However, given the highly dynamic and variable nature of lexical tones, it is unclear whether the within-category phonetic details of lexical tones would similarly modulate lexical activation. Native Mandarin listeners and proficient adult English-speaking Mandarin learners were tested in a visual-world eye-tracking experiment. The target word cont...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - February 15, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Transferring perceptual cue-weighting from second language into first language: Cues to voicing in Russian speakers of English
Publication date: March 2019Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 73Author(s): Olga DmitrievaAbstractDoes second language experience affect first language perception? The present paper addresses this question in a study of bilingual cue weighting with a focus on perceptual cues that are of markedly different importance for the corresponding monolingual groups. The study investigates the use of vowel duration and glottal pulsing duration as cues to stop voicing by adult Russian speakers of English, long-term residents of the USA, (n = 37, average age 38.8 years), as well as a control group of monolingual Russians, recr...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - February 12, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Realization and representation of Nepali laryngeal contrasts: Voiced aspirates and laryngeal realism
In this study we push laryngeal realist theory in a new direction – to segments proposed to be specified for both [voice] and [spread] features – a combination which poses challenges to the current diagnostics. To do so, we analyze acoustic data from Nepali, an Indic (a.k.a. Indo-Aryan) language with a single class of stops described as both voiced and aspirated. We apply the same criteria and diagnostics used in laryngeal realism. We find support for the proposed representation, with a caveat that the [voice] feature appears ‘stronger’ than [spread]. (Source: Journal of Phonetics)
Source: Journal of Phonetics - February 9, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Socio-indexical phonetic features in the heritage language context: Voiceless stop aspiration in the Calabrian community in Toronto
This study examines cross-generational transmission of a sociophonetic variable in a heritage language context. Voiceless stop aspiration is a sociophonetic variable in Calabrian Italian, indexing socio-cultural values about the speaker’s social and geographical origin. We investigate the production of voiceless stops by three generations of Calabrian Italians (immigrants and the next two generations) in Toronto, via acoustic and auditory analysis of nearly 5000 tokens from conversational speech in Calabrian Italian. Both Italian and English use long-lag VOT, but they differ in its phonological distribution: long-lag VOT...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - February 6, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Acoustic correlates of breathy sonorants in Marathi
Publication date: March 2019Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 73Author(s): Kelly Harper BerksonAbstractBreathy voiced sonorant consonants are typologically rare, more so than other non-modal sonorants (e.g. voiceless sonorants, which are widely attested in language families like Tibeto-Burman and Otomanguean). Similarly, they are more vulnerable to diachronic loss than voiceless sonorants (e.g. in Tibeto-Burman). The acoustic correlates of breathiness in sonorants have not been thoroughly investigated, and a question arises as to whether there is a tie between their acoustics and their typology: does the acoustic encodi...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - January 23, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Development of tonal discrimination in young heritage speakers of Cantonese
This study uses the Perceptual Assimilation Model for Suprasegmentals (PAM-S) (So & Best, 2008, 2010), supported by the assumptions of the L2 Intonation Learning theory (LILt, Mennen, 2015), to investigate how young heritage speakers of Cantonese living in the United States acquired Cantonese tones. Sixty-seven heritage speakers, aged 5–11, were tested on their perception of Cantonese tonal contrasts using an ABX discrimination task. They were compared to 64 peers aged 5–12 in Hong Kong, where Cantonese is spoken as the majority language but English is also acquired from a young age. Two pairs of tones were tested: Ton...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - January 23, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Influence of L2 English phonotactics in L1 Brazilian Portuguese illusory vowel perception
This study examines potential changes to L1 (Brazilian Portuguese, BP) perception of phonotactic structure as a function of L2 (English) experience. Syllables with a coda stop violate syllable structure constraints in BP, but are licit in English. As a result, BP monolinguals perceive an illusory /i/ after an illicit coda (e.g., ob/i/ter ‘to obtain’). To understand the effects on L1 perception when the L2 phonology allows a syllabic structure that is illicit in the L1, we tested 15 L1 speakers of BP in an L2 English immersion setting. In separate BP and English sessions, participants completed an explicit metalinguisti...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - January 23, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Editorial Board
Publication date: January 2019Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 72Author(s): (Source: Journal of Phonetics)
Source: Journal of Phonetics - January 20, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Obituary: Arthur S. Abramson
Publication date: January 2019Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 72Author(s): D.H. Whalen (Source: Journal of Phonetics)
Source: Journal of Phonetics - January 20, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Native speech plasticity in the German-English late bilingual Stefanie Graf: A longitudinal study over four decades
Publication date: March 2019Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 73Author(s): Esther de LeeuwAbstractThe purpose of this study was to expose the trajectory of native speech plasticity in the context of late bilingualism through analysis of spontaneous speech of Stefanie Graf (SG) over four decades.With regard to segmental variables, results showed a significant lowering of F2 in /l/, suggesting darkening of the German lateral under the influence of English as a second language (L2). F2 significantly increased in /i/, indicating a more front pronunciation, as predicted due to English L2 acquisition. There was also a signifi...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - January 11, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Perception of Vietnamese back vowels contrasting in rounding by English listeners
Publication date: March 2019Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 73Author(s): Irina A. ShportAbstractThe perception of back vowels contrasting in rounding has not previously been examined in major theoretical frameworks of cross-language speech perception. In two experiments, Southern U.S. English speakers naïve to the contrast categorized the Vietnamese vowels [u o ɯ ɤ] in terms of their native vowel categories and identified oddball vowels in triads representing the contrasts [u]-[o], [ɯ]-[u], [ɯ]-[ɤ], and [o]-[ɤ]. The relationship between vowel categorization and discrimination was more accurately predicted when ...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - January 9, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Emergent data analysis in phonetic sciences: Towards pluralism and reproducibility
Publication date: March 2019Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 73Author(s): Timo B. Roettger, Bodo Winter, Harald BaayenAbstractThis special issue introduces a series of papers that make available new methods to the phonetic and linguistic community and reflect upon existing data analysis practices. In our introduction, we highlight three themes that we consider pressing issues in data analysis and that run across the contributions to this special issue: the difference between exploratory and confirmatory analyses, different approaches to statistical inference, and the analysis of multidimensional multivariate speech dat...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - January 1, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Voice onset time and beyond: Exploring laryngeal contrast in 19 languages
Publication date: January 2019Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 72Author(s): Taehong Cho, D.H. Whalen, Gerard DochertyAbstractIn this special collection entitled Marking 50 Years of Research on Voice Onset Time and the Voicing Contrast in the World’s Languages, we have compiled eleven studies investigating the voicing contrast in 19 languages. The collection provides extensive data obtained from 270 speakers across those languages, examining VOT and other acoustic, aerodynamic and articulatory measures. The languages studied may be divided into four groups: ‘aspirating’ languages with a two-way contrast (English, ...
Source: Journal of Phonetics - December 12, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
