Acoustic analysis of Zhuang long and short vowels

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-201
Author(s):  
Xuewen Zhou

The contrast of long and short vowels and the acoustic features and physiological rules of long vowels in Hongshuihe (lit. Red Water River) dialect of Zhuang are investigated in this paper. The results show that in isolated words read at normal speed, there are evident differences in the durations of long and short vowels. But different vowels behave differently. Due to phonetic physiology, when long vowels are pronounced, the tongue is higher for high vowels, lower for low vowels, more front for front vowels and more back for back vowels. The pitch and power of short vowels are higher than for corresponding long vowels. Finally, physiological explanations for the above phenomena are given.

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hawkins

The Jakobsonian system of binary distinctive features is based on the premise that, as far as vowels are concerned, their articulation, and the resulting acoustic effects, are not distributed randomly over the available articulatory or acoustic space, but are organized into systems of binary contrasts, so that for example (in articulatory terms) a set of front vowels will be matched by a corresponding set of back vowels, a set of high vowels by a set of mid or low vowels, and so on. There will thus be a certain symmetry in the distribution of such vowels, either in their positions on a vowel quadrilateral, or in a similar schematic shape such as the five-vowel triangle.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2.16) ◽  
pp. 98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahesh K. Singh ◽  
A K. Singh ◽  
Narendra Singh

This paper emphasizes an algorithm that is based on acoustic analysis of electronics disguised voice. Proposed work is given a comparative analysis of all acoustic feature and its statistical coefficients. Acoustic features are computed by Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) method and compare with a normal voice and disguised voice by different semitones. All acoustic features passed through the feature based classifier and detected the identification rate of all type of electronically disguised voice. There are two types of support vector machine (SVM) and decision tree (DT) classifiers are used for speaker identification in terms of classification efficiency of electronically disguised voice by different semitones.  


Behaviour ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 124 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 207-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideki Sugiura

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.


Author(s):  
Nathaniel Ziv Stern ◽  
Jonathan North Washington

This paper examines the phonetic correlates of the (phonological) vowel length contrast in Kyrgyz to address a range of questions about the nature of this contrast, and also explores factors that affect (phonetic) duration in short vowels. Measurement and analysis of the vowels confirms that there is indeed a significant duration distinction between the Kyrgyz vowel categories referred to as short and long vowels. Preliminary midpoint formant measurements show that there may be some accompanying spectral component to the length contrast for certain vowels, but findings are not conclusive. A comparison of F0 dynamics and spectral dynamics through long and short vowels does not yield evidence that some long vowels may in fact be two heterosyllabic short vowels. Analysis shows that duration is associated with a vowel’s presence in word-edge syllables in Kyrgyz, as anticipated based on descriptions of word-final stress and initial prominence. However, high vowels and non-high vowels are found to consistently exhibit opposite durational effects. Specifically, high vowels in word-edge syllables are longer than high vowels in medial syllables, while non-high vowels in word-edge syllables are shorter than non-high vowels in medial syllables. This suggests either a phenomenon of durational neutralisation at word edges or the exaggeration of durational differences word-medially, and is not taken as a case of word-edge strengthening. Proposals for how to select from between these hypotheses in future work are discussed.


Author(s):  
Takeshi Miyazaki ◽  
◽  
Mitsunori Mizumachi ◽  
Katsuyuki Niyada

This paper aims at investigating acoustic features, which can objectively explain breathiness and roughness of elderly speech, respectively. In this paper, acoustic analysis was carried out using word sequences, which were uttered by 153 male speakers in the age range of between 20 and 89 years old. Concerning the breathiness, we confirmed that elderly breathy voices caused energy lift in higher frequency region over 4 kHz in average power spectra during the stationary parts in the uttered vowels. Concerning roughness, we observed the slight fluctuations, which synchronized with vocal cord vibration, in amplitude spectra during stationary parts of vowels. Based on acoustic analysis results, we propose physical parameters for measuring breathiness and roughness, respectively. In this paper, listening tests were carried out to quantitatively give the subject degrees of breathiness and roughness, respectively. It was confirmed that the proposed physical parameters had correlation with each of subjective degrees. Relationships between age and acoustic characteristics of breathiness and roughness were investigated using the proposed parameters. It is confirmed that the degree of breathiness and roughness increased in proportion to age, especially in age ranges over 60 years old.


2005 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimmo Vähätalo ◽  
Juha-Pertti Laaksonen ◽  
Henna Tamminen ◽  
Olli Aaltonen ◽  
Risto-Pekka Happonen

OBJECTIVE: The effects of the genioglossal muscle advancement on phonetic quality of speech were studied analyzing the acoustic features of vowel sounds. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: The study group consisted of 5 men suffering from partial upper airway obstruction during sleep. To prevent tongue base collapse, genioglossal muscle advancement was made with chin osteotomy without hyoid myotomy and suspension. The speech material consisted of 8 vowels produced in sentence context repeated 10 times before the operation, and 10 days and 6 weeks after the operation. The acoustic features of vowels were analyzed. RESULTS: The operation had no significant effects on vowel quality. Only for 2 of the subjects the pitches changed systematically due to the operation. CONCLUSION: According to the acoustic analysis, genioglossal muscle advancement with chin osteotomy has no effects on vowel production. Some short-term changes were observed, but these changes were highly individual. SIGNIFICANCE: The operation seems to have no potential to change vowel production.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-60
Author(s):  
Sireemas MASPONG ◽  
Pittayawat PITTAYAPORN

Abstract In an attempt to study the length distinction of high vowels in Sukhothai Thai, this research compares an analysis of the graphemic system and spelling variations found in the Sukhothai inscriptions with the phonemes in Proto-Southwestern Tai (PSWT) and donor languages of the loanwords. The result indicates that short and long high vowels in PSWT behave differently in phonemic-graphemic mapping. Short vowels are mapped with ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ whereas long vowels with ⟨ī⟩, ⟨ï̄⟩, and ⟨ū⟩. In addition, the existing spelling variations are limited to specific kinds of words, namely: open-syllable words, loanwords, and function words, all of which are susceptible to variation in spelling. These findings attest to the existence of length contrast in Sukhothai Thai.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
KELLY MILES ◽  
IVAN YUEN ◽  
FELICITY COX ◽  
KATHERINE DEMUTH

AbstractEnglish has a word-minimality requirement that all open-class lexical items must contain at least two moras of structure, forming a bimoraic foot (Hayes, 1995).Thus, a word with either a long vowel, or a short vowel and a coda consonant, satisfies this requirement. This raises the question of when and how young children might learn this language-specific constraint, and if they would use coda consonants earlier and more reliably after short vowels compared to long vowels. To evaluate this possibility we conducted an elicited imitation experiment with 15 two-year-old Australian English-speaking children, using both perceptual and acoustic analysis. As predicted, the children produced codas more often when preceded by short vowels. The findings suggest that English-speaking two-year-olds are sensitive to language-specific lexical constraints, and are more likely to use coda consonants when prosodically required.


Author(s):  
Yulia Nenasheva ◽  

The cognitive-discursive approach used in experimental research helps to reveal specific behavior of language units which is conditioned by particular characteristics of the immediate communicative situation. The cognitive aspect of this approach describes how the human mind works to adapt speech production processes to ever-changing conditions of communicative activity, which results in changes of the functions of language units used in these processes. Since, either in oral or written forms, texts are the material result of this activity, acoustic analysis helps to evaluate the character of modifications of sound sequences as well as to define their intonation structure that facilitates the performance of utterances in discourse. Corpus analysis helps to evaluate pragmatic factors that maintain speech production processes and to describe their influence in the usage of language units. The relevance of the research lies in the need to have a better understanding and a more thorough description of the behavior of intonation language units in discourse as well as its correlation to the cognitive processes in speech production. With this goal in mind, the author applies the cognitive-discursive approach to experimental phonetic research of intonation in discourse. The paper presents the results of examining the process of “hybridization” of direct imperative utterances, identifying types of such “hybridization,” and looking at conditions of speakers’ activity which accompany this “hybridization.” Using the methodology of experimental discourse analysis, the author shows how functional variability of this particular language unit in specific discourse environments can lead to significant changes in the intentional meaning of the unit, i. e., to imperative utterances acting as interjections. In specific discourse environments, accompanied by marked emphasis in the semantic structure of the utterances and constrained by psycho-physiological thresholds and limitations of information processing mechanisms, speech production processes form a “hybrid” which combines characteristics of both a direct imperative and an interjection. This “hybridization” can be complete or partial. The “hybrid” maintains the illocutionary force of an imperative utterance due to its formulaic syntactic structure and intonation, characterized by less variation than that of an interjection, and the intonation of such units complies with the codified intonation standard of the English language. At the same time, its acoustic features correspond to the acoustic features of 1st and 2nd type interjections: “hybrids” that correspond to 1st type interjections consist of rare sounds and sound sequences, while “hybrids” that correspond to 2nd type interjections retain their sound structure completely or partially.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document