The production of English front vowels by Spanish speakers: A study of vowel duration based on vowel tenseness and consonant voicing.

2010 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 2489-2489
Author(s):  
Kirsten R. Todt
Keyword(s):  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Consonant Voicing

scholarly journals Measures of speech rhythm and the role of corpus-based word frequency: a multifactorial comparison of Spanish(-English) speakers

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Harris ◽  
Stefan Th. Gries
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
Multiple Metrics ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
The Impact

In this study, we address various measures that have been employed to distinguish between syllable and stress- timed languages. This study differs from all previous ones by (i) exploring and comparing multiple metrics within a quantitative and multifactorial perspective and by (ii) also documenting the impact of corpus-based word frequency. We begin with the basic distinctions of speech rhythms, dealing with the differences between syllable-timed languages and stress-timed languages and several methods that have been used to attempt to distinguish between the two. We then describe how these metrics were used in the current study comparing the speech rhythms of Mexican Spanish speakers and bilingual English/Spanish speakers (speakers born to Mexican parents in California). More specifically, we evaluate how well various metrics of vowel duration variability as well as the so far understudied factor of corpus-based frequency allow to classify speakers as monolingual or bilingual. A binary logistic regression identifies several main effects and interactions. Most importantly, our results call the utility of a particular rhythm metric, the PVI, into question and indicate that corpus data in the form of lemma frequencies interact with two metrics of durational variability, suggesting that durational variability metrics should ideally be studied in conjunction with corpus-based frequency data.

Incomplete neutralization in African American English: The case of final consonant voicing

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlie Farrington
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Phonological Contrast ◽  
Glottal Stop ◽  
Conversational Interviews ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Consonant Voicing

AbstractIn many varieties of African American English (AAE), glottal stop replacement and deletion of word-final /t/ and /d/ results in consonant neutralization, while the underlying voicing distinction may be maintained by other cues, such as vowel duration. Here, I examine the relationship between vowel duration, final glottal stop replacement, and deletion of word-final /t, d/ to determine whether the phonological contrast of consonant voicing is maintained through duration of the preceding vowel. Data come from conversational interviews of AAE speakers in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington, DC. Results indicate that glottalization and deletion of word-final /t/ and /d/ are widespread across the speakers in the analysis. Additionally, the duration of vowels is significantly longer before underlying /d/ than /t/ for consonant neutralized contexts, thus showing that duration, normally a secondary cue to final voicing, may be becoming a primary cue in AAE.

Developmental Use of Vowel Duration as a Cue to Postvocalic Stop Consonant Voicing

1982 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Ellen Krause
Keyword(s):  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Developmental Study ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Production Experiment ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Vowel Lengthening ◽  
Consonant Voicing

This developmental study investigated vowel duration as a cue to postvocalic consonant voicing. Ten trials of six test words, spoken by 10 3-year-olds, 10 6-year-olds, and 10 adults, all with normal language and articulation and hearing, were analyzed. A significant interaction between the speaker's age and the voicing feature of the postvocalic consonant was found on measures of total vowel duration. The duration of vowels preceding voiceless stops was similar across ages, but vowel duration preceding voiced stops decreased sharply with age. In addition, decreased variability of vowel duration was observed with increasing age. Consideration is given to processes of exaggerated vowel lengthening and vowel shortening to describe children's acquisition of this voicing cue. The same subjects and stimulus words used in the production experiment were used in a previous perception experiment. Qualitative comparisons between the production and perception data revealed parallel refinement in the use of vowel duration as a function of age.

Conflicting and Cooperating Cues

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Eilers ◽  
D. K. Oller ◽  
Richard Urbano ◽  
Debra Moroff
Keyword(s):  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Extended Duration ◽  
Infant Perception ◽  
Relative Salience ◽  
Consonant Voicing

Three experiments were conducted to ascertain the relative salience of two cues for final consonant voicing in infants and adults. Experiment 1 was designed to investigate infant perception of periodicity of burst, vowel duration, and the two cues combined in a cooperating pattern. Experiment 2 was designed to examine infant perception of these same cues but in a conflicting pattern, that is, with extended duration associated with the voiceless final plosive. Experiment 3 examined perception of the stimuli from Experiments 1 and 2 with adult subjects. Results indicate that in both adults and infants combined cues facilitate discrimination of the phonemic contrast regardless of whether the cues cooperate or conflict. The three experiments taken together do not support a phonetic interpretation of conflicting/cooperating cues for the perception of final stop consonant voicing. Potential psychoacoustic explanations are discussed.

scholarly journals Prosody and its application to forensic linguistics

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Harris ◽  
Stefan Th. Gries ◽  
Viola G. Miglio
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Potential Application ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Ensemble Methods ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Forensic Linguistics ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
New Information

This article describes three studies in prosody and their potential application to the field of forensic linguistics. It begins with a brief introduction to prosody. It then proceeds to describe Miglio, Gries, & Harris (2014), a comparison of prosodic coding of new information by bilingual Spanish-English speakers and monolingual Spanish speakers. A description of Harris & Gries (2011) follows. This study compares the vowel duration variability of bilingual Spanish-English speakers and monolingual Spanish speakers, and touches upon corpus-based frequency effects and differences in linguistic aptitude between the two speaker groups. Finally, a portion of anongoing study is described (Harris in preparation). This section describes the use of prosodic variables and ensemble methods (or methods that use multiple learning algorithms) to classify languages, even in the case of impoverished data. All three experiments have implications and applications to the field of forensic linguistics, which are touched upon in each respective section and discussed in a more in-depth manner in the final section of this article. Furthermore, the applications of these methods to forensic linguistics are discussed in light of best practices for forensic linguistics, as outlined in Chaski (2013).

Effects of Syllable Affiliation and Consonant Voicing on Temporal Adjustment in a Repetitive Speech-Production Task

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 826-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Repetition Rate ◽  
Temporal Patterns ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Timing Constraints ◽  
Temporal Consistency ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Production Experiment ◽  
Consonant Voicing

This paper presents the results of an acoustic speech-production experiment in which speakers repeated simple syllabic forms varying in consonantal voicing in time to a metronome that controlled repetition rate. Speakers exhibited very different patterns of tempo control for syllables with onsets than for syllables with codas. Syllables with codas exhibited internal temporal consistency, leaving junctures between the repeated syllables to take up most of the tempo variation. Open syllables with onsets, by contrast, often exhibited nearly proportional scaling of all of the acoustic portions of the signal. Results also suggest that phonemic use of vowel duration as a cue to voicing acted to constrain temporal patterns with some speakers. These results are discussed with respect to possible models of local temporal adjustment within a context of global timing constraints.

Perception/Production Relationships in the Development of the Vowel Duration Cue to Final Consonant Voicing

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark E. Lehman ◽  
Donald J. Sharf
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Category Boundary ◽  
Pairwise Comparisons ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Synthesized Speech ◽  
Boundary Width ◽  
Response Consistency ◽  
Correct Discrimination ◽  
Percentage Correct ◽  
Consonant Voicing

The purposes of this study were to assess: (a) the development of identification and discrimination in children for the vowel duration cue to final consonant voicing and (b) the perception/production relationships in children for the vowel duration cue to final consonant voicing. Subjects were 30 children divided equally into three age groups, and 10 adults. Productions consisted of 15 repetitions of two target syllables (beet, bead) analyzed acoustically for vowel duration. From these were calculated category boundary, category separation, and variability in production for each subject. Perceptual data were collected using a synthesized speech continuum that varied vowel duration. Identification responses were used to calculate category boundary, category separation (slope/boundary width) and variability (response consistency) for each subject. Mean percentage correct discrimination was derived by using two-step and three-step two-pair same-different paradigms. The results were as follows: (a) category boundary and category separation in production were adult-like by 8 years of age, (b) variability in production was not adult-like by 10 years of age, (c) perception categorization (category boundary and category separation) was adult-like at 5 years of age, (d) perceptual consistency was not adult-like until 10 years of age, (e) percentage correct discrimination was not adult-like by 10 years of age, (f) correlations between comparable perception and production measures were nonsignificant, and (g) a pairwise comparisons analysis indicated that perception was consistently more advanced than production.

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