Non-durational acoustic correlates of word-initial consonant gemination in Kelantan Malay: The potential roles of amplitude and f0

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-60
Author(s):  
Mohd Hilmi Hamzah ◽  
John Hajek ◽  
Janet Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Rare Word ◽  
Acoustic Correlates ◽  
Closure Duration ◽  
Disyllabic Words ◽  
Consonant Gemination ◽  
Manner Of Articulation ◽  
Magnitude Difference

This study reports on non-durational acoustic correlates of typologically rare word-initial consonant gemination in Kelantan Malay (KM) by focusing on two acoustic parameters – amplitude and f0. Given the unusual characteristics of the word-initial consonant contrast and its potential maintenance in domain-initial environments, this study sets to examine the extent to which amplitude and f0 can potentially characterise such a contrast in KM in addition to the cross-linguistically established acoustic correlate of closure duration. The production data involved elicited materials from sixteen KM native speakers. RMS and f0 values were measured at the start of the vowel following stops and sonorants produced in isolation (i.e. utterance-initial position) and in a carrier sentence (i.e. utterance-medial position). Results indicate that the consonant contrast is reflected in systematic differences in (i) vowel onset amplitude and f0 following the target consonant and (ii) the ratios of amplitude and f0 across two syllables of disyllabic words. There are also effects of utterance position, manner of articulation and voicing type on the magnitude of contrast between singletons and geminates with utterance-initial voiceless stops generally showing the greatest magnitude difference. The conclusion is drawn that the KM word-initial singleton/geminate consonant contrast can be associated with a set of acoustic parameters alongside closure duration.

scholarly journals Initial laryngeal neutralisation in Tyrolean

Phonology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Vietti ◽  
Birgit Alber ◽  
Barbara Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Closure Duration

In the Southern Bavarian variety of Tyrolean, laryngeal contrasts undergo a typologically interesting process of neutralisation in word-initial position. We undertake an acoustic analysis of Tyrolean stops in word-initial, word-medial intersonorant and word-final contexts, as well as in obstruent clusters, investigating the role of the acoustic parameters VOT, prevoicing, closure duration and F0 and H1–H2* on following vowels in implementing contrast, if any. Results show that stops contrast word-medially via [voice] (supported by the acoustic cues of closure duration and F0), and are neutralised completely in word-final position and in obstruent clusters. Word-initially, neutralisation is subject to inter- and intraspeaker variability, and is sensitive to place of articulation. Aspiration plays no role in implementing laryngeal contrasts in Tyrolean.

scholarly journals The acoustics of word-initial and word-internal voiced stops in Somali

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Sabrina Bendjaballah ◽  
David Le Gac
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Burst Duration ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Acoustic Correlates ◽  
Closure Duration ◽  
Production Experiment

This article seeks to determine the acoustic correlates of gemination in Standard Somali (Afroasiatic, Cushitic), in particular whether closure duration is the primary acoustic correlate distinguishing singleton and geminate stops, with immediate consequences for the analysis of word-initial strengthening. We provide an acoustic analysis of word-initial and word-internal voiced singletons as well as of their geminate counterparts on the basis of a production experiment conducted with four native speakers. Three temporal and four non-temporal acoustic properties of /b d ɡ/ and /bb dd ɡɡ/ are examined and systematically compared (closure duration, release burst duration, vowel duration; and closure amplitude, release amplitude, presence of a release burst, (de)voicing). We argue that the opposition between singleton and geminate voiced stops is primarily realized as the manner contrast approximant [β̞ ð̞ ɣ̞] vs. stop [b d ɡ]. Word-initially, Somali exhibits various peculiarities that are reminiscent of the cross-linguistically attested phenomenon of domain-initial strengthening. This article provides the first study of this phenomenon in Somali. We establish that word-initial /b d ɡ/ and word-medial /bb dd ɡɡ/ share the same closure duration, release burst duration, and vowel duration within the Prosodic Word. They also have a similar closure amplitude, and voicing properties. Moreover, the acoustic properties of word-initial /b d ɡ/ remain constant, and do not depend on their position in the prosodic hierarchy. On the basis of these results, the article also aims at providing new insights in the phonological representation of Somali geminates and word boundaries, and thus contributes to the understanding of word-initial strengthening in Somali.

scholarly journals Analyzing free variation with harmony – A case study of verb-cluster serialization

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-437
Author(s):  
Markus Bader
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Weighted Constraints ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Frequency Relationship ◽  
Zero Frequency ◽  
Free Variation

Abstract In German, a verb selected by another verb normally precedes the selecting verb. Modal verbs in the perfect tense provide an exception to this generalization because they require the perfective auxiliary to occur in cluster-initial position according to prescriptive grammars. Bader and Schmid (2009b) have shown, however, that native speakers accept the auxiliary in all positions except the cluster-final one. Experimental results as well as corpus data indicate that verb cluster serialization is a case of free variation. I discuss how this variation can be accounted for, focusing on two mismatches between acceptability and frequency: First, slight acceptability advantages can turn into strong frequency advantages. Second, syntactic variants with basically zero frequency can still vary substantially in acceptability. These mismatches remain unaccounted for if acceptability is related to frequency on the level of whole sentence structures, as in Stochastic OT (Boersma and Hayes2001). However, when the acceptability-frequency relationship is modeled on the level of individual weighted constraints, using harmony as link (see Pater2009, for different harmony based frameworks), the two mismatches follow given appropriate linking assumptions.

Perception of Vowels and Dental Consonants in Bangla Speech Processing

2013 ◽  
pp. 246-272
Author(s):  
Syed Akhter Hossain ◽  
M. Lutfar Rahman ◽  
Faruk Ahmed ◽  
M. Abdus Sobhan
Keyword(s):  
Speech Enhancement ◽  
Automatic Speech Recognition ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Problem Area ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Independent Manner

The aim of this chapter is to clearly understand the salient features of Bangla vowels and the sources of acoustic variability in Bangla vowels, and to suggest classification of vowels based on normalized acoustic parameters. Possible applications in automatic speech recognition and speech enhancement have made the classification of vowels an important problem to study. However, Bangla vowels spoken by different native speakers show great variations in their respective formant values. This brings further complications in the acoustic comparison of vowels due to different dialect and language backgrounds of the speakers. This variation necessitates the use of normalization procedures to remove the effect of non-linguistic factors. Although several researchers found a number of acoustical and perceptual correlates of vowels, acoustic parameters that work well in a speaker-independent manner are yet to be found. Besides, study of acoustic features of Bangla dental consonants to identify the spectral differences between different consonants and to parameterize them for the synthesis of the segments is another problem area for study. The extracted features for both Bangla vowels and dental consonants are tested and found with good synthetic representations that demonstrate the quality of acoustic features.

scholarly journals Prosodically Conditioned Consonant Duration in Djambarrpuyŋu

2019 ◽  
pp. 002383091982660
Author(s):  
Kathleen Jepson ◽  
Janet Fletcher ◽  
Hywel Stoakes
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Data Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Disyllabic Words ◽  
Phonological Phrase ◽  
Australian Languages ◽  
Segment Duration

Cross-linguistically, segments typically lengthen because of proximity to prosodic events such as intonational phrase or phonological phrase boundaries, a phrasal accent, or due to lexical stress. Australian Indigenous languages have been claimed to operate somewhat differently in terms of prosodically conditioned consonant lengthening and strengthening. Consonants have been found to lengthen after a vowel bearing a phrasal pitch accent. It is further claimed that this post-tonic position is a position of prosodic strength in Australian languages. In this study, we investigate the effects of proximity to a phrasal pitch accent and prosodic constituent boundaries on the duration of stop and nasal consonants in words of varying lengths in Djambarrpuyŋu, an Australian Indigenous language spoken in northeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Our results suggest that the post-tonic consonant position does not condition longer consonant duration compared with other word-medial consonants, with one exception: Intervocalic post-tonic consonants in disyllabic words are significantly longer than word-medial consonants elsewhere. Therefore, it appears that polysyllabic shortening has a strong effect on segment duration in these data. Word-initial position did not condition longer consonant duration than word-medial position. Further, initial consonants in higher-level prosodic domains had shorter consonant duration compared with domain-medial word-initial consonants. By contrast, domain-final lengthening was observed in our data, with word-final nasals preceding a pause found to be significantly longer than all other consonants. Taken together, these findings for Djambarrpuyŋu suggest that, unlike other Australian languages, post-tonic lengthening is not a cue to prosodic prominence, whereas prosodic domain-initial and -final duration patterns of consonants are like those that have been observed in other languages of the world.

Same difference? L1 influence in the use of initial adverbials in English novice writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanne Van Vuuren ◽  
Janine Berns
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Transfer Effect ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour

Abstract This paper examines the use of clause-initial adverbials in English novice writing. Previous research has identified frequent use of such adverbials as characteristic of Dutch EFL writing. Our contrastive corpus analysis of novice writing by Dutch and Francophone learners as well as native speakers allows us to determine whether this use of initial adverbials is (a) a V2 transfer effect, (b) a general interlanguage feature, independent of learners’ L1, or (c) a characteristic of novice writing in general, holding true for both native and non-native writers. We will show that both learner groups are ‘equally different’ from the native-speaker novice writers in their frequent use of initial adverbials, but appear to have distinct underlying reasons for this linguistic behaviour: Francophone writers place adverbials in initial position more often for stylistic purposes, while Dutch writers have a stronger tendency to use initial adverbials for local discourse linking.

Linking or delinking of ideas?

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia Navarro Gil ◽  
Helena Roquet Pugès
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
American University ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Argumentative Texts ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds

Abstract This paper explores the use of adversative Linking Adverbials (LAs) in the academic writing of advanced English Foreign Language (EFL) learners with different linguistic backgrounds. The learner corpus used in this study consists of 50 argumentative texts, which are contrasted with a native corpus: the American university students’ corpus (LOCNESS). Liu’s (2008) comprehensive list of adversative LAs has been used for the analysis. Findings reveal that both non-native (NNS) and native speakers of English (NS) use similar types of adversative LAs, but NNS place them regularly in sentence- and sometimes in paragraph- initial position, which often results in punctuation issues and misuse. A total of 9 LAs were found to be overused (e.g., nevertheless) and underused (e.g., actually) by NNS. The analysis performed according to L1 has yielded unexpected results in terms of preference, frequency, and placement of adversative LAs. The so-called ‘teaching effect’ is considered one of the main factors influencing the learners’ choices.

Temporal and Acoustic Correlates in Vocal Exchange of Coo Calls in Japanese Macaques

Behaviour ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 124 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 207-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideki Sugiura
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Short Interval ◽  
Japanese Macaques ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Acoustic Correlates ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Female Japanese Macaques ◽  
Two Populations ◽  
Do So

AbstractVocal exchanges of coo calls in female Japanese macaques were observed in two populations. Temporal patterns of occurrence of these vocalizations during vocal interaction were studied by analyzing inter-call intervals between two consecutive coos. When the second call was uttered by a different caller from the first (DC sequence), most of the second calls occurred at intervals shorter than approximately 0.8 sec, and the remaining ones at intervals longer than approximately 0.8 sec. These results indicate that the second coos of DC sequence are of two different types, and that second calls separated by short intervals may occur in response to the first call, whereas second calls separated by a relatively longer interval may occur independently of the preceding call. When an animal responds to a coo given by another, she appears to do so within a certain period of time. When two consecutiove calls were uttered by the same caller (SC sequence), the second coos rarely occurred within 0.8 sec, but mostly at longer intervals. These results suggest that when an animal utters a coo spontaneously, it remains silent for a short interval and when no response occurs, she is likely to give further coos addressing groups members. Acoustic analysis of two consecutive coos in DC sequence showed that the second coos given by a different caller and occurring within 0.8 sec significantly correlated with those of first coos with respect to several acoustic parameters. This correlation was not observed when coos occurred at intervals of more than 0.8 sec. This phenomenon was confirmed by a playback experiment. The results suggest the possibility that an animal is able to alter acoustic features of responding coos and matches those of preceding coos.

scholarly journals The acquisition of English stress by Québec Francophones

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia ◽  
Natália Brambatti Guzzo
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Control Data ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Canadian French ◽  
Acoustic Correlates ◽  
Ultimate Attainment

In this chapter, we report the results of two production experiments, one in Canadian French (CF) and one in English, aimed at examining how advanced CF L2ers produce English stress. In other words, our focus is not on language development (i.e. whether learners actually acquire stress in English), but rather on ultimate attainment in L2 acquisition (i.e. how native speakers and advanced learners compare vis-à-vis stress production). In order to evaluate whether L2ers’ rhythmic patterns mirror native English patterns, we compare L2ers’ production with control data, focusing on three possi- ble acoustic correlates of prominence: duration, pitch (F0) and intensity. To verify whether L2ers transfer acoustic cues or rhythmic patterns from their first language (L1) into the L2, we also analyse how prominence is produced by L2ers in their L1.

scholarly journals Reduction of the nasal diphthong in the word ‘não’ and the initial position of the intonational syntagma

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Caio Castro ◽  
Carolina Serra ◽  
Dinah Callou
Keyword(s):  
Initial Boundary ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Acoustic Correlates

In this paper, we analyze the different oral productions of the adverb não ‘no’ in two Brazilian Portuguese varieties. On the initial boundary of the intonational phrase, the nasal diphthong of the negation adverb can be reduced, which may lead to a phonological cliticization process. This process can be explained through phonological restrictions, as well the acoustic correlates of accent in Portuguese. The statistical, perceptive and auditory results indicate different phonological status for both functional words on the first position of the intonational phrase.

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