scholarly journals Interaction between Phrasal Structure and Vowel Tenseness in German: An Acoustic and Articulatory Study

2022 ◽  
pp. 002383092110648
Author(s):  
Malte Belz ◽  
Oksana Rasskazova ◽  
Jelena Krivokapić ◽  
Christine Mooshammer
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Boundary Effect ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Boundary Type ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Electromagnetic Articulography ◽  
Prosodic Boundary ◽  
Kinematic Measures

Phrase-final lengthening affects the segments preceding a prosodic boundary. This prosodic variation is generally assumed to be independent of the phonemic identity. We refer to this as the ‘uniform lengthening hypothesis’ (ULH). However, in German, lax vowels do not undergo lengthening for word stress or shortening for increased speech rate, indicating that temporal properties might interact with phonemic identity. We test the ULH by comparing the effect of the boundary on acoustic and kinematic measures for tense and lax vowels and several coda consonants. We further examine if the boundary effect decreases with distance from the boundary. Ten native speakers of German were recorded by means of electromagnetic articulography (EMA) while reading sentences that contained six minimal pairs varying in vowel tenseness and boundary type. In line with the ULH, the results show that the acoustic durations of lax vowels are lengthened phrase-finally, similarly to tense vowels. We find that acoustic lengthening is stronger the closer the segments are to the boundary. Articulatory parameters of the closing movements toward the post-vocalic consonants are affected by both phrasal position and identity of the preceding vowel. The results are discussed with regard to the interaction between prosodic structure and vowel tenseness.

scholarly journals Schwa-Elision und die Wortprosodie des Luxemburgischen

2017 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
François Conrad
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Stressed Syllable ◽  
The Third

In the young Germanic language Luxembourgish schwa can be dropped in the context before (and sometimes after) a sonorant and following a stressed syllable, e. g. Elteren > Elt_ren ‘parents’. The present paper describes schwa deletion from three perspectives: (1) the influ-ence of speech rate (allegro vs. lento speech), (2) the influence of the segments adjacent to schwa and (3) the prosodic structure of words. The results of an empirical investigation with 15 native speakers show that the deletion is very frequent in spoken Luxembourgish and that the two first aspects jointly account for the phenomenon. Regarding the third aspect, due to the loss of the vowel and hence of a syllable the predominance of the dactyl shifts towards the trochee, which constitutes the unmarked foot type in spoken Luxembourgish.

Speech Rate Is No Simple matter

1990 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey M. Derwing
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Pause Time ◽  
Short Film ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Articulation Rate ◽  
Simple Matter ◽  
Communicative Success

Speech rate (articulation rate and pauses) was examined for its relation to communicative success. Native English speakers (NSs) were paired with other NSs and with non-native speakers (NNSs). The subjects viewed a short film, the content of which they were to relay to their two partners independently. Communicative success was measured through comprehension questions addressed to the listeners at the completion of the task. Analyses indicated that although a slight majority of NSs slowed their speech rate for NNSs, they did not adjust articulation rate, but did significantly increase pause time. Neither speech rate nor articulation rate varied over the course of the narrations. Contrary to intuition, the subjects who successfully communicated the story to NNSs did not adjust their speech rate, while those who had difficulty communicating with NNSs increased pause time significantly. The implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions for further research are made.

The prosodic governance of surface phonetic variation: Support for an alternative approach III

Speech Timing ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 132-145
Author(s):  
Alice Turk ◽  
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Adjustment Mechanisms ◽  
Speech Motor

Effects of prosodic structure on surface phonetics are modeled in AP/TD in two ways: 1) via a set of PI and MuT adjustment mechanisms used to model lengthening effects at boundaries and on prominent syllables, and 2) via a hierarchy of coupled syllable, cross-word foot, and phrase oscillators, used to model poly-subconstituent shortening effects, and to control overall speech rate. These mechanisms are challenged by 1) findings presented in previous chapters that suggest that longer durations associated with boundaries and prominences are due to longer surface duration specifications, 2) findings presented here that show that polysyllabic shortening does not affect all words in an utterance, inconsistent with an oscillator-based mechanism that controls all aspects of any produced utterance, and 3) findings relating to speech rate presented in previous chapters which suggest that speech rate specifications relate to surface durations, rather than to planning oscillator frequencies. Patterns of speech timing presented in this chapter thus suggest that there are reasons to be uncertain whether periodicity is a major factor in speech motor control in typical speaking circumstances, and therefore call into question the use of suprasegmental oscillators.

Intonational Structure Influences Perception of Contrastive Vowel Length: The Case of Phrase-Final Lengthening in Tokyo Japanese

2020 ◽  
pp. 002383092097184
Author(s):  
Jeremy Steffman ◽  
Hironori Katsuda
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Speech Signal ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Target Sound ◽  
Tokyo Japanese ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Prosodic Boundary

Recent research has proposed that listeners use prosodic information to guide their processing of phonemic contrasts. Given that prosodic organization of the speech signal systematically modulates durational patterns (e.g., accentual lengthening and phrase-final (PF) lengthening), listeners’ perception of durational contrasts has been argued to be influenced by prosodic factors. For example, given that sounds are generally lengthened preceding a prosodic boundary, listeners may adjust their perception of durational cues accordingly, effectively compensating for prosodically-driven temporal patterns. In the present study we present two experiments designed to test the importance of pitch-based cues to prosodic structure for listeners’ perception of contrastive vowel length (CVL) in Tokyo Japanese along these lines. We tested if, when a target sound is cued as being PF, listeners compensatorily adjust categorization of vowel duration, in accordance with PF lengthening. Both experiments were a two-alternative forced choice task in which listeners categorized a vowel duration continuum as a phonemically short or long vowel. We manipulated only pitch surrounding the target sound in a carrier phrase to cue it as intonational phrase final, or accentual phrase medial. In Experiment 1 we tested perception of an accented target word, and in Experiment 2 we tested perception of an unaccented target word. In both experiments, we found that contextual changes in pitch influenced listeners’ perception of CVL, in accordance with their function as signaling intonational structure. Results therefore suggest that listeners use tonal information to compute prosodic structure and bring this to bear on their perception of durational contrasts in speech.

scholarly journals Age Estimation in Foreign-accented Speech by Native and Non-native Speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-183
Author(s):  
Ksenia Gnevsheva ◽  
Daniel Bürkle
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Age Estimation ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Language Familiarity ◽  
Accented English

Current research shows that listeners are generally accurate at estimating speakers’ age from their speech. This study investigates the effect of speaker first language and the role played by such speaker characteristics as fundamental frequency and speech rate. In this study English and Japanese first language speakers listened to English- and Japanese-accented English speech and estimated the speaker’s age. We find the highest correlation between real and estimated speaker age for English listeners listening to English speakers, followed by Japanese listeners listening to both English and Japanese speakers, with English listeners listening to Japanese speakers coming last. We find that Japanese speakers are estimated to be younger than the English speakers by English listeners, and that both groups of listeners estimate male speakers and speakers with a lower mean fundamental frequency to be older. These results suggest that listeners rely on sociolinguistic information in their speaker age estimations and language familiarity plays a role in their success.

scholarly journals The Use of Vowel Length in Making Voicing Judgments by Native Listeners of English and Spanish: Implications for Rate Normalization

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 436-452
Author(s):  
Navin Viswanathan ◽  
Annie J. Olmstead ◽  
M. Pilar Aivar
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Typical Range

Among other characteristics, voiced and voiceless consonants differ in voice onset time (VOT; Lisker & Abramson, 1964). In addition, in English, voiced consonants are typically followed by longer vowels than their unvoiced counterparts (Allen & Miller, 1999). In Spanish, this relationship is less systematic (Zimmerman & Sapon, 1958). In two experiments, we investigated perceptual sensitivities of English and Spanish native speakers to following vowel length (VL) in categorizing syllables that ranged from a prevoiced bilabial stop [ba] to a long-lag bilabial stop [pa]. According to our results, English speakers show sensitivity to following vowels with VLs falling within an English-typical range (Experiment 1), but not when vowels are shorter and in a Spanish-typical range (Experiment 2). Interestingly, Spanish native speakers do not show sensitivity to following VL in either condition. These results suggest that VOT-VL tradeoffs in perception reflect phonological sensitivities of listeners and are not reducible to speech rate compensation.

Native language influences on the production of second-language prosody

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evia Kainada ◽  
Angelos Lengeris
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Prosodic Feature ◽  
Pitch Level ◽  
F0 Contour

This study examined native language (L1) transfer effects on the production of second-language (L2) prosody by intermediate Greek learners of English, specifically the set of tonal events and their alignment, speech rate, pitch span and pitch level in English polar questions. Greek uses an L* L+H- L% melody giving rise to a low–high–low f0 contour at the end of the polar question that does not resemble any of the contours used by native speakers in English polar questions. The results showed that the Greek speakers transferred the full set of Greek tonal events into English associating them with stressed syllables, and consistently placed the focus on the verb. The Greek speakers also anchored the peak of the phrase accent in polar questions around the midpoint of the stressed vowel across L1/L2 despite using longer vowel durations in L2. At the same time, their productions deviated from L1 forms in terms of speech rate (slower in L2), pitch span (narrower in L2) and pitch level (lower in L2), indicating that even when learners adopt an L1 prosodic feature in their L2, they still produce interlanguage forms that deviate from L1.

PROSODIC TRANSFER IN LEARNER AND CONTACT VARIETIES

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Gabriel ◽  
Elena Kireva
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
First Language ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Prosodic Transfer ◽  
Variability Index ◽  
Castilian Spanish ◽  
Similar Rhythm

A remarkable example of Spanish-Italian contact is the Spanish variety spoken in Buenos Aires (Porteño), which is said to be prosodically “Italianized” due to migration-induced contact. The change in Porteño prosody has been interpreted as a result of transfer from the first language (L1) that occurred when Italian immigrants learned Spanish as a second language (L2; McMahon, 2004). This article aims to examine if and to what extent prosodic features that are typical of Italian show up in Porteño and in L2 Castilian Spanish produced by Italian native speakers. Specifically, we investigated speech rhythm and the realization of yes-no questions in Porteño and L2 Castilian Spanish in comparison to Italian and L1 Castilian Spanish. We hypothesized that Italian, Porteño, and L2 Castilian Spanish would exhibit similar rhythm patterns, showing high values for the percentage of vocalic material, the variation coefficient of vocalic intervals, and the speech-rate-normalized pairwise variability index for vowels as well as high frequencies of rising prenuclear accents, with the peak located at the end of the syllable (L+H*) and falling final contours in yes-no questions, in contrast to Castilian Spanish. The results confirm our predictions for speech rhythm but not entirely for the intonation of yes-no questions.

scholarly journals Prosodic Structure Shapes the Temporal Realization of Intonation and Manual Gesture Movements

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 850-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núria Esteve-Gibert ◽  
Pilar Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Temporal Coordination ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Focus Condition ◽  
Manual Gesture ◽  
Prosodic Boundary ◽  
Pointing Gesture

Purpose Previous work on the temporal coordination between gesture and speech found that the prominence in gesture coordinates with speech prominence. In this study, the authors investigated the anchoring regions in speech and pointing gesture that align with each other. The authors hypothesized that (a) in contrastive focus conditions, the gesture apex is anchored in the intonation peak and (b) the upcoming prosodic boundary influences the timing of gesture and intonation movements. Method Fifteen Catalan speakers pointed at a screen while pronouncing a target word with different metrical patterns in a contrastive focus condition and followed by a phrase boundary. A total of 702 co-speech deictic gestures were acoustically and gesturally analyzed. Results Intonation peaks and gesture apexes showed parallel behavior with respect to their position within the accented syllable: They occurred at the end of the accented syllable in non–phrase-final position, whereas they occurred well before the end of the accented syllable in phrase-final position. Crucially, the position of intonation peaks and gesture apexes was correlated and was bound by prosodic structure. Conclusions The results refine the phonological synchronization rule (McNeill, 1992), showing that gesture apexes are anchored in intonation peaks and that gesture and prosodic movements are bound by prosodic phrasing.

scholarly journals Multiple scansions in loanword phonology: evidence from Cantonese

Phonology ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Signal ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
Loanword Phonology ◽  
Phonological System

In loanword phonology we seek to uncover the processes by which speakers possessing one phonological system perceive, apply native representational constraints on, and ultimately produce forms which have been generated by a different phonological system. We are interested in how speakers instantiate segmental and prosodic structure on an input which may or may not abide by native rules. Crucial to this assumed strategy is the idea that loanwords do not come equipped with their own phonological representation. For any phonetic string, it is only native speakers for whom a fully articulated phonological structure is present; as we will see, the input to loanword phonology is merely a superficial non-linguistic acoustic signal. Thus as host-language speakers perceive foreign forms in accordance with their indigenous phonological system, they instantiate native phonological representations on the acoustic signal, fitting the superficial input into the native phonological system as closely as possible.

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