A cross‐language study of range of voice onset time in the perception of initial stop voicing

1981 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 1261-1271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Keating ◽  
Michael J. Mikoś ◽  
William F. Ganong
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Language Study ◽  
Cross Language

A Cross-Language Study of Laryngeal-Oral Coordination Across Varying Prosodic and Syllable-Structure Conditions

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hoole ◽  
Lasse Bombien
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Structure Variation ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Underlying Representation ◽  
Language Study ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Over Time

Purpose The purpose of this study is to use prosodic and syllable-structure variation to probe the underlying representation of laryngeal kinematics in languages traditionally considered to differ in voicing typology (German vs. Dutch and French). Method Transillumination and videofiberendoscopic filming were used to investigate the devoicing gesture in German, Dutch, and French for material that compared, first, a strong versus weak prosodic condition and, second, singletons versus clusters (stop + /r/ and /l/). Results The results showed strengthening of the devoicing gesture in the strong prosodic condition and in the segmental context stop + /r/ for German and French but not for Dutch. In terms of timing (duration of oral occlusion, voice onset time, timing of peak glottal opening relative to stop release), French was intermediate between German and Dutch. Conclusions (a) The representation of French voiceless plosives requires an active specification for glottal spreading just as in German. (b) Static features are not well suited to capturing cross-language differences in voicing typology and changes in voicing specification over time.

Cross-language correspondences in the face of change: Phonetic independence versus convergence in two Korean-Mandarin bilingual communities

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-199
Author(s):  
Jessamyn Schertz ◽  
Yoonjung Kang ◽  
Sungwoo Han
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
The Face ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Bilingual Communities ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Over Time

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: We investigate the robustness of cross-language phonetic correspondences in two bilingual communities over time, focusing on whether corresponding sounds (e.g. Mandarin /s/ and Korean /s’/) remain coupled in the face of language change, or whether the categories diverge over time in younger, more proficient bilinguals. Design/Methodology/Approach: We quantify the extent of assimilation versus independence of categories across languages by comparing bilinguals’ production of place of articulation and laryngeal contrasts in Mandarin and Korean sibilants. Distinct language-internal changes were expected on each dimension. Data and analysis: 107 speakers varying in age (aged 19–83), gender, and dialect participated in the study. Acoustic measurements (center of gravity of frication, voice onset time) and statistical analyses were performed on a total of ~11,000 tokens. Findings/Conclusions: The extent of cross-language independence differed on the two dimensions. Corresponding segments across the two languages remained tightly coupled in terms of place of articulation, even in the face of change; on the other hand, a language-internal change in the Korean laryngeal contrast left corresponding Mandarin segments unaffected, resulting in divergence of originally corresponding categories. We also found unpredicted changes on each dimension, and these changes progressed concurrently in the two languages. Originality: The study of correspondences in the context of independent sound change provides a unique perspective from which to evaluate the robustness of cross-language interaction, and the parallel analysis of two separate dimensions in two communities adds to the generalizability of results. Significance/Implications: Most changes occurred concurrently in the two languages, suggesting that similar phonetic categories across languages can remain tightly coupled, even in highly proficient bilinguals where phonetic independence is expected. However, one of the primary expected changes (voice onset time merger in Korean) did not affect corresponding segments in Mandarin, indicating that the extent of cross-language independence in phonetic correspondences may differ even within the same population. We discuss potential reasons for the different results.

scholarly journals Leveraging the uniformity framework to examine crosslinguistic similarity for long-lag stops in spontaneous Cantonese-English bilingual speech

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khia A. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Phonetic Convergence ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
Cross Language

While crosslinguistic influence is widespread in bilingual speech production, it is less clear which aspects of representation are shared across languages, if any. Most prior work examines phonetically distinct yet phonologically similar sounds, for which phonetic convergence suggests a cross-language link within individuals [1]. Convergence is harder to assess when sounds are already similar, as with English and Cantonese initial long-lag stops. Here, the articulatory uniformity framework [2, 3, 4] is leveraged to assess whether bilinguals share an underlying laryngeal feature across languages, and describe the nature of cross-language links. Using the SpiCE corpus of spontaneous Cantonese-English bilingual speech [5], this paper asks whether Cantonese-English bilinguals exhibit uniform voice-onset time for long-lag stops within and across languages. Results indicate moderate patterns of uniformity within-language—replicating prior work [2, 6]—and weaker patterns across languages. The analysis, however, raises many questions, as correlations were generally lower compared to prior work, and talkers did not adhere to expected ordinal VOT relationships by place of articulation. Talkers also retained clear differences for /t/ and /k/, despite expectations of similarity. Yet at the same time, more of the overall variation seems to derive from individual-specific differences. While many questions remain, the uniformity framework shows promise.

Cross-language analysis of stutterers' voice onset time

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 258
Author(s):  
N. Rezaei-Aghbash ◽  
S.P. Whiteside ◽  
P. Cudd
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
Cross Language

Voice onset time in bilingual German-Spanish children

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARGARET M. KEHOE ◽  
CONXITA LLEÓ ◽  
MARTIN RAKOW
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Period 2 ◽  
German Children ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Phonetic Realization ◽  
Language Influence

This study examines the acquisition of the voicing contrast in German-Spanish bilingual children, on the basis of the acoustic measurement of Voice Onset Time (VOT). VOT in four bilingual children (aged 2;0–3;0) was measured and compared to VOT in three monolingual German children (aged 1;9–2;6), and to previous literature findings in Spanish. All measurements were based on word-initial stops extracted from naturalistic speech recordings. Results revealed that the bilingual children displayed three different patterns of VOT development: 1. Delay in the phonetic realization of voicing: two bilingual children did not acquire long lag stops in German during the testing period; 2. Transfer of voicing features: one child produced German voiced stops with lead voicing and Spanish voiceless stops with long lag voicing; and 3. No cross-language influence in the phonetic realization of voicing. The relevance of the findings for cross-linguistic interaction in bilingual phonetic/phonological development is discussed.

scholarly journals Patterns of Short-Term Phonetic Interference in Bilingual Speech

Languages ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Šárka Šimáčková ◽  
Václav Podlipský
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Language Background ◽  
English Only ◽  
Co Activation ◽  
Global Language ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Switching Strategies

Previous research indicates that alternating between a bilingual’s languages during speech production can lead to short-term increases in cross-language phonetic interaction. However, discrepancies exist between the reported L1–L2 effects in terms of direction and magnitude, and sometimes the effects are not found at all. The present study focused on L1 interference in L2, examining Voice Onset Time (VOT) of English voiceless stops produced by L1-dominant Czech-English bilinguals—interpreter trainees highly proficient in L2-English. We tested two hypotheses: (1) switching between languages induces an immediate increase in L1 interference during code-switching; and (2) due to global language co-activation, an increase in L1-to-L2 interference occurs when bilinguals interpret (translate) a message from L1 into L2 even if they do not produce L1 speech. Fourteen bilinguals uttered L2-English sentences under three conditions: L2-only, code-switching into L2, and interpreting into L2. Against expectation, the results showed that English VOT in the bilingual tasks tended to be longer and less Czech-like compared to the English-only task. This contradicts an earlier finding of L2 VOT converging temporarily towards L1 VOT values for comparable bilingual tasks performed by speakers from the same bilingual population. Participant-level inspection of our data suggests that besides language-background differences, individual language-switching strategies contribute to discrepancies between studies.

"A cross-language study of decontextualized vocabulary comprehension in toddlerhood and kindergarten readiness": Correction to Friend et al. (2018).

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 1289-1289
Author(s):  
Margaret Friend ◽  
Erin Smolak ◽  
Yushuang Liu ◽  
Diane Poulin-Dubois ◽  
Pascal Zesiger
Keyword(s):  
Kindergarten Readiness ◽  
Language Study ◽  
Vocabulary Comprehension ◽  
Cross Language
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