Language background influences the emergence of voice onset time production and perception.

Background/Aims: Previous research has shown that exposure to multiple foreign accents facilitates adaptation to an untrained novel accent. One explanation is that L2 speech varies systematically such that there are commonalities in the productions of nonnative speakers, regardless of their language background. Methods: A systematic acoustic comparison was conducted between 3 native English speakers and 6 nonnative accents. Voice onset time, unstressed vowel duration, and formant values of stressed and unstressed vowels were analyzed, comparing each nonnative accent to the native English talkers. A subsequent perception experiment tests what effect training on regionally accented voices has on the participant’s comprehension of nonnative accented speech to investigate the importance of within-speaker variation on attunement and generalization. Results: Data for each measure show substantial variability across speakers, reflecting phonetic transfer from individual L1s, as well as substantial inconsistency and variability in pronunciation, rather than commonalities in their productions. Training on native English varieties did not improve participants’ accuracy in understanding nonnative speech. Conclusion: These findings are more consistent with a hypothesis of accent attunement wherein listeners track general patterns of nonnative speech rather than relying on overlapping acoustic signals between speakers.

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Voice onset time production in Singapore English

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.3655052 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 130 (4) ◽

pp. 2520-2520

Author(s):

Priscilla Z. Liu

Keyword(s):

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

Time Production

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

Journal of the International Phonetic Association ◽

10.1017/s002510031700024x ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 173-197 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

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.

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A Bayesian model of voice‐onset time production.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.3384389 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 127 (3) ◽

pp. 1853-1853

Author(s):

Mark VanDam ◽

Noah Silbert

Keyword(s):

Bayesian Model ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

Time Production

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Voice onset time production in speakers with Alzheimer's disease

Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics ◽

10.1080/02699200701617266 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 21 (11-12) ◽

pp. 859-867 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Julie Baker ◽

Jack Ryalls ◽

Alejandro Brice ◽

Janet Whiteside

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

Time Production

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Voice onset time production and perception in apraxic subjects

Brain and Language ◽

10.1016/0093-934x(83)90048-2 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 329-339 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Jeannette Hoit-Dalgaard ◽

Thomas Murry ◽

Harriet G. Kopp

Keyword(s):

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

Time Production

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Preliminary Investigation of Voice Onset Time Production in Persons with Dysphagia

Dysphagia ◽

10.1007/pl00009601 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 169-175 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jack Ryalls ◽

Kristina Gustafson ◽

Celia Santini

Keyword(s):

Voice Onset Time ◽

Preliminary Investigation ◽

Onset Time ◽

Time Production

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Challenges in multi-language pronunciation teaching: A cross-linguistic study of Chinese students’ perception of voiced and voiceless stops

Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación ◽

10.5209/clac.65652 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 79 ◽

pp. 99-118

Author(s):

Liu Jiaqi ◽

Zeng Ting ◽

Lu Xiuchuan

Keyword(s):

Essential Role ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

Chinese Students ◽

Onset Time ◽

Language Education ◽

Language Background ◽

Linguistic Study ◽

Third Language ◽

Chinese University ◽

L1 And L2

This article reports on a cross-linguistic study of 58 Chinese students’ perception of voiced and voiceless stops in their third language (L3). The participants were Japanese, Russian, or Spanish major students in a Chinese university, who were beginner learners of these languages but who had all learned English as their second language (L2) for over 10 years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the L3 learners’ perceptual differences in the stop categories, and analyze the effects of the learners’ multi-language background on their perception of L3 stops. Results from the perception experiment showed that: 1) the value and range of voice onset time (VOT) play an essential role in Chinese students’ perception of voiceless stops; and 2) the pre-voicing during closure is the key to Chinese students’ perception of voiced stops. We attribute their difficulty in perceiving L3 voiceless stops to the similarity in the phonemic range of voiceless stops between the learners’ L3 and their L1 and L2, as this leads to confusion in perception. On the other hand, the dissimilarity between L3 voiced stops and those of L1 and L2 is conducive to the students’ perception of L3 voiced stops. Findings from this study provide empirical evidence for the effect of similarity and dissimilarity in speech sounds as proposed in earlier phonology acquisition theories, and they can also inform the pedagogy of multi-language education.

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