Voice onset time production in Ecuadorian Spanish, Quichua, and Media Lengua

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Multidimensional Scaling ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Time Production ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Mixed Language

In Ecuador there exists a dynamic language contact continuum between Urban Spanish and Rural Quichua. This study explores the effects of competing phonologies with an analysis of voice onset time (VOT) production in and across three varieties of Ecuadorian highland Spanish, Quichua, and Media Lengua. Media Lengua is a mixed language that contains Quichua systemic elements and a lexicon of Spanish origin. Because of this lexical-grammatical split, Media Lengua is considered the most central point along the language continuum. Native Quichua phonology has a single series of voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, and /k/), while Spanish shows a clear voicing contrast between stops in the same series. This study makes use of nearly 8,000 measurements from 69 participants to (i) document VOT production in the aforementioned language varieties and (ii) analyse the effects of borrowings on VOT. Results based on mixed effects models and multidimensional scaling suggest that the voicing contrast has entered both Media Lengua and Quichua through Spanish lexical borrowings. However, the VOT values of voiced stops in Media Lengua align with those of Rural and L2 Spanish while Quichua shows significantly longer prevoicing values, suggesting some degree of overshoot.

Precision of voicing perceptual identification is altered in association with voice-onset time production changes

2019 ◽  
Vol 237 (9) ◽  
pp. 2197-2204
Author(s):  
Shunsuke Tamura ◽  
Kazuhito Ito ◽  
Nobuyuki Hirose ◽  
Shuji Mori
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Perceptual Identification ◽  
Time Production

Voice onset time as a perceptual cue in voicing contrast in Tulu language

2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parinitha Shetty ◽  
Rubia N. Sada ◽  
Ajith U. Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Voicing Contrast

Control of Voice-Onset Time in the Absence of Hearing

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1334-1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harlan Lane ◽  
Joseph S. Perkell
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Speech Breathing ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Critical Timing ◽  
Phonological Contrasts ◽  
And Control

The relation between partial or absent hearing and control of the voicing contrast has long been of interest to investigators, in part because speakers who are born deaf characteristically have great difficulty mastering the contrast and in part for the light it can cast on the role of hearing in the acquisition and maintenance of phonological contrasts in general. One of the phonetic characteristics that distinguish voiced from voiceless plosives in English (p/b, t/d, k/g) is voice onset time (VOT): the interval from plosive release to the onset of voicing of the following vowel. This article first reviews research on VOT anomalies in the speech production of prelingually and postlingually deaf speakers. Then it turns to studies of the mechanisms in speech breathing, phonation and articulation that underlie those anomalies. In both populations of speakers, there is a tendency for the difference between voiced and voiceless VOT to be reduced, to the point for many speakers that there is in effect a substitution of the voiced for the voiceless cognate. The separation of the cognate VOTs can be enhanced when some hearing is restored with a cochlear implant. Both populations also present anomalies in speech breathing that can hinder the development of intraoral pressures and transglottal pressure drops that are required for the production of the VOT contrast. Its successful management further requires critical timing among phonatory and articulatory gestures, most of which are not visible, rendering the VOT contrast a particular challenge in the absence of hearing.

Voice Onset Time in Thai Alaryngeal Speech

1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Weinberg ◽  
Jack Gandour ◽  
Soranee Holasuit Petty ◽  
Rochana Dardarananda
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Alaryngeal Speech ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Artificial Larynx

The perception and production of voicing contrast was investigated in utterances spoken by Thai alaryngeal speakers. Thai exhibits a three-category voicing distinction for bilabial (/b, p, p h /) and alveolar (/d, t, t h /) stops and a two-eategory distinction for velar (/k, k h /) stops. Voice onset time (VOT) was measured in word-initial stops of words produced in isolation by 2 Thai esophageal speakers and 1 Thai user of an electronic artificial larynx. These measurements were compared with published VOT values for the same words spoken by 5 normal Thai speakers. Both esophageal speakers were capable of signaling voicing distinctions for/b, d/and/p, t, k/. The electrolaryngeal speaker was able to signal/p, t, k/only. Thai alaryngeal speakers were generally unsuccessful in signaling/p h , t h , k h /. A cross-linguistic comparison to VOT in English suggests that no more than two voicing categories can be distinguished in these two forms of alaryngeal speech. Findings are interpreted to illustrate that the realization of stop voicing contrasts in alaryngeal speech depends on the number of voicing categories in a language, the relative positions of the voicing categories on the VOT continuum, and the form of alaryngeal speech.

scholarly journals Heritage language exposure impacts voice onset time of Dutch–German simultaneous bilingual preschoolers

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 598-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTJE STOEHR ◽  
TITIA BENDERS ◽  
JANET G. VAN HELL ◽  
PAULA FIKKERT
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Language Exposure

This study assesses the effects of age and language exposure on VOT production in 29 simultaneous bilingual children aged 3;7 to 5;11 who speak German as a heritage language in the Netherlands. Dutch and German have a binary voicing contrast, but the contrast is implemented with different VOT values in the two languages. The results suggest that bilingual children produce ‘voiced’ plosives similarly in their two languages, and these productions are not monolingual-like in either language. Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence between Dutch and German can explain these results. Yet, the bilinguals seemingly have two autonomous categories for Dutch and German ‘voiceless’ plosives. In German, the bilinguals’ aspiration is not monolingual-like, but bilinguals with more heritage language exposure produce more target-like aspiration. Importantly, the amount of exposure to German has no effect on the majority language's ‘voiceless’ category. This implies that more heritage language exposure is associated with more language-specific voicing systems.

A Bayesian model of voice‐onset time production.

2010 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 1853-1853
Author(s):  
Mark VanDam ◽  
Noah Silbert
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Time Production

Acquisition of the Voicing Contrast by Language-Delayed and Normal-Speaking Children

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. S. Bond ◽  
Howard F. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Normal Speaking

Voicing is a phonological contrast which emerges early in the speech of children. However, the acoustic correlates of the voicing contrast for stop consonants are fairly complex. In the initial position, voicing is cued primarily by the relative timing of articulatory versus laryngeal gestures. In the final position, the duration of the preceding vowel is associated with the voicing contrast of stop consonants. The purpose of this study was to examine the pattern of acquisition of the voicing contrast in the speech of ten children diagnosed as language-delayed in comparison with the acquisition of the voicing contrast by normal speaking children. The language-delayed and normal-speaking children were matched according to mean length of utterance (MLU) and placed in one of Brown's five developmental stages. Each participant was first given a short test, using natural speech, to determine his or her ability to identify minimal pairs differing in the voicing of stop consonants. Those who passed the test were recorded under standard recording conditions repeating 12 test words. The test words contrasted voiced and voiceless stop consonants in initial and final positions. Spectrograms of the three best productions of each word were used to examine voice-onset time for stops in initial position and preceding vowel duration for stops in final position. Although the language-delayed and normal-speaking children showed equivalent linguistic sophistication (as measured by MLU), the language-delayed children's control of the acoustic-phonetic details of the voicing contrast was less mature than that of the normal-speaking children.

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