scholarly journals Categorization of regional and foreign accent in 5- to 7-year-old British children

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Floccia ◽  
Joseph Butler ◽  
Frédérique Girard ◽  
Jeremy Goslin
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Old French ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
British English ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Vowel Formants ◽  
Better Than

This study examines children's ability to detect accent-related information in connected speech. British English children aged 5 and 7 years old were asked to discriminate between their home accent from an Irish accent or a French accent in a sentence categorization task. Using a preliminary accent rating task with adult listeners, it was first verified that the level of accentedness was similar across the two unfamiliar accents. Results showed that whereas the younger children group behaved just above chance level in this task, the 7-year-old group could reliably distinguish between these variations of their own language, but were significantly better at detecting the foreign accent than the regional accent. These results extend and replicate a previous study (Girard, Floccia, & Goslin, 2008) in which it was found that 5-year-old French children could detect a foreign accent better than a regional accent. The factors underlying the relative lack of awareness for a regional accent as opposed to a foreign accent in childhood are discussed, especially the amount of exposure, the learnability of both types of accents, and a possible difference in the amount of vowels versus consonants variability, for which acoustic measures of vowel formants and plosives voice onset time are provided.

Cross-Gender Differences in English/French Bilingual Speakers: A Multiparametric Study

2020 ◽  
pp. 003151252097351
Author(s):  
Erwan Pépiot ◽  
Aron Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Gender Difference ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Second Harmonic ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Intensity Difference ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Language And Gender ◽  
Vowel Formants ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
And Gender

The present study concerns speech productions of female and male English/French bilingual speakers in both reading and semi-spontaneous speech tasks. We investigated various acoustic parameters: average fundamental sound frequency (F0), F0 range, F0 variance ( SD), vowel formants (F1, F2, and F3), voice onset time (VOT) and H1-H2 (intensity difference between the first and the second harmonic frequencies, used to measure phonation type) in both languages. Our results revealed a significant effect of gender and language on all parameters. Overall, average F0 was higher in French while F0 modulation was stronger in English. Regardless of language, female speakers exhibited higher F0 than male speakers. Moreover, the higher average F0 in French was larger in female speakers. On the other hand, the smaller F0 modulation in French was stronger in male speakers. The analysis of vowel formants showed that overall, female speakers exhibited higher values than males. However, we found a significant cross-gender difference on F2 of the back vowel [u:] in English, but not on the vowel [u] in French. VOT of voiceless stops was longer in Female speakers in both languages, with a greater difference in English. VOT contrast between voiceless stops and their voiced counterparts was also significantly longer in female speakers in both languages. The scope of this cross-gender difference was greater in English. H1-H2 was higher in female speakers in both languages, indicating a breathier phonation type. Furthermore, female speakers tended to exhibit smaller H1-H2 in French, while the opposite was true in males. This resulted in a smaller cross-gender difference in French for this parameter. All these data support the idea of language- and gender-specific vocal norms, to which bilingual speakers seem to adapt. This constitutes a further argument to give social factors, such as gender dynamics, more consideration in phonetic studies.

What Makes Spanish-Accented English Sound Spanish-Accented? Acoustic Measures and Listener Cues

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Amee P. Shah
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Temporal Differences ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Closure Duration ◽  
Accented English ◽  
Temporal Measures

This study aimed to understand which acoustic parameters of Spanish-accented English are correlated with listeners’ perception of Spanish-accentedness. Temporal differences were analyzed in multisyllabic target words spoken in sentences by 22 Spanish speakers of English and five native speakers of American English (AE). Recordings were presented to AE listeners who judged the degree of accentedness on a 9-point scale. Spearman rank order correlation showed that the listeners’ ratings of degree of accentedness in sentences correlated strongly (r= +0.82) with those in words. Listeners’ ratings of accentedness correlated in varying degrees with various temporal measures, namely Overall word durations (+0.04 to +0.56), Stressed/unstressed vowel duration ratios (–0.01 to +0.35), Voice Onset Time of stops (+0.26 to +0.36), and, closure duration (+0.29 to +0.59). Results suggest that Spanish-accented English is characterized by systematic temporal differences from native AE, and that these temporal differences contribute to the perception of accentedness. Implications of findings in improving theoretical understanding and applied practices are discussed.

Global Foreign Accent and Voice Onset Time Among Japanese EFL Speakers

1999 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Riney ◽  
Naoyuki Takagi
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Foreign Accent

Acoustic Measures of Stutterers' and Nonstutterers' Fluency in Two Speech Contexts

1986 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Charles Healey ◽  
Peter R. Ramig
Keyword(s):  
Oral Reading ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Reading Condition

The purpose of this study was to compare stutterers' and nonstutterers' fluency during multiple productions of two dissimilar speech contexts. Twenty-two adult stutterers were matched within 1 year of age to 22 nonstutterers. Spectrographic analyses were performed on subjects' five consecutively fluent productions of a simple isolated phrase and a phrase extracted from an oral reading passage. Measures of fluent voice onset time (VOT), and vowel, consonant, and total phrase durations were calculated from the five repetitions of each phrase. From the isolated phrase, there were a total of five fluent durational measures (i.e., one VOT, two vowel, one consonant, & one phrase duration). For the phrase taken from the oral reading passage, six fluent measures were obtained (i.e., one VOT, three vowel, one consonant, & one phrase duration). Results demonstrated that only one of the five measurements taken during the isolated phrase condition was significantly different between the groups. Three of the six measures obtained from the phrase taken from the oral reading condition revealed significant between-group differences. No group differences were associated with the repetitions of either phrase for any of the dependent measures for both groups. These findings suggest that the length and complexity of the speech tasks used to obtain acoustic measures of stutterers' fluency play an important role in the discovery of differences between the fluency of the two groups.

Temporal Acoustic Measures of Dysarthria Associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

1987 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Caruso ◽  
Estelle Klasner Burton
Keyword(s):  
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Monosyllabic Words ◽  
Intelligible Speech ◽  
Broadband Sound ◽  
Lateral Sclerosis

The purpose of this study was to investigate stop-gap duration, voice onset time (VOT), and vowel duration in intelligible speakers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Broadband sound spectrograms were used to measure 8 normal and 8 ALS speakers' intelligible speech productions of monosyllabic words containing word-initial stop-plosive consonants (/p, t, k, b, d, g/). Significant differences were found between the two groups for both vowel duration and stop-gap duration; moreover, correlational analysis indicated that the ALS speakers, as a group, exhibited a direct relationship between stop-gap and vowel durations associated with productions of /t/ and /k/. No significant differences were found between the two talker groups for VOT. Results will be related to the neuroanatomical and physiological mechanisms involved in dysarthric (ALS) speech.

scholarly journals Acquisition outcomes across domains in adult simultaneous bilinguals with French as weaker and stronger language

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
TANJA KUPISCH ◽  
TATJANA LEIN ◽  
DAGMAR BARTON ◽  
DAWN JUDITH SCHRÖDER ◽  
ILSE STANGEN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
The Other ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Relative Vulnerability

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the adult grammars of French simultaneous bilingual speakers (2L1s) whose other language is German. Apart from providing an example of French as heritage language in Europe, the goals of this paper are (i) to compare the acquisition of French in a minority and majority language context, (ii) to identify the relative vulnerability of individual domains, and (iii) to investigate whether 2L1s are vulnerable to language attrition when moving to their heritage country during adulthood. We include two groups of German-French 2L1s: One group grew up predominantly in France, but moved to Germany during adulthood; the other group grew up predominantly in Germany and stayed there. Performance is compared in different domains, including adjective placement, gender marking, articles, prepositions, foreign accent and voice onset time. Results indicate that differences between the two groups are minimal in morpho-syntax, but more prominent in pronunciation.

scholarly journals Voice onset time and global foreign accent in German–French simultaneous bilinguals during adulthood

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 732-749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatjana Lein ◽  
Tanja Kupisch ◽  
Joost van de Weijer
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Childhood Environment ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Voice

Aims and objectives: In this study, we investigated crosslinguistic influence in the phonetic systems of simultaneous bilinguals (2L1s) during adulthood. Methodology: Specifically, we analyzed the voice onset time (VOT) of the voiceless stop /k/ in the spontaneous speech of 14 German–French bilinguals who grew up in France or Germany. We looked at both languages, first comparing the groups, second comparing their VOT to their global accent. Data and analysis: The material consisted of interviews, lasting for about half an hour. Findings/conclusions: Most 2L1s showed distinct VOT-ranges in their two languages, even if they were perceived to have a foreign accent in the minority language of their childhood environment. We conclude that the phonetic systems of 2L1s remain separate and stable throughout the lifespan. However, the 2L1s from France had significantly shorter VOTs in German than the 2L1s from Germany, and their speech was overall more accented. These findings are discussed with respect to the role of intra- and extra-linguistic factors. Originality: Our study adds a new perspective to existing VOT studies of bilinguals by using naturalistic speech data and by comparing two groups of 2L1s who have the same language combination but grew up in different countries, which allows us to evaluate the impact of their childhood environment on VOT development. Significance/implications: Language exposure during childhood seems to be beneficial for pronunciation during adulthood.

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