scholarly journals Phonological contrast and phonetic variation: The case of velars in Iwaidja

Language ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 578-617
Author(s):  
Jason A. Shaw ◽  
Christopher Carignan ◽  
Tonya G. Agostini ◽  
Robert Mailhammer ◽  
Mark Harvey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Phonological Contrast

scholarly journals Phonological contrast and phonetic variation: The case of velars in Iwaidja: Supplementary material

Language ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Shaw ◽  
Christopher Carignan ◽  
Tonya G. Agostini ◽  
Robert Mailhammer ◽  
Mark Harvey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Phonological Contrast ◽  
Supplementary Material

scholarly journals Phonetic Variation Modeling and a Language Model Adaptation for Korean English Code-Switching Speech Recognition

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2866
Author(s):  
Damheo Lee ◽  
Donghyun Kim ◽  
Seung Yun ◽  
Sanghun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Language Model ◽  
Reduction Rate ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Target Domain ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Language Model Adaptation ◽  
Imbalanced Training Data ◽  
Lm Adaptation

In this paper, we propose a new method for code-switching (CS) automatic speech recognition (ASR) in Korean. First, the phonetic variations in English pronunciation spoken by Korean speakers should be considered. Thus, we tried to find a unified pronunciation model based on phonetic knowledge and deep learning. Second, we extracted the CS sentences semantically similar to the target domain and then applied the language model (LM) adaptation to solve the biased modeling toward Korean due to the imbalanced training data. In this experiment, training data were AI Hub (1033 h) in Korean and Librispeech (960 h) in English. As a result, when compared to the baseline, the proposed method improved the error reduction rate (ERR) by up to 11.6% with phonetic variant modeling and by 17.3% when semantically similar sentences were applied to the LM adaptation. If we considered only English words, the word correction rate improved up to 24.2% compared to that of the baseline. The proposed method seems to be very effective in CS speech recognition.

Cognate similarity and intervocalic /d/ production in Riverense Spanish

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692199680
Author(s):  
Michael Gradoville ◽  
Mark Waltermire ◽  
Avizia Long
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Acoustic Measurements ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects Model ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Phonetic Realization

Aims and objectives: While previous research has shown that phonetic variation in language contact situations is affected by whether a word has a cognate in the contact language, this paper aims to show that such an effect is not monotonic. According to the usage-based model, items in memory are organized according to similarity, thus we anticipated that formally more similar cognates would show a stronger cognate effect. Methodology: This variationist sociophonetic study investigates the relationship between cognate similarity and phonetic realization. We examined this relationship in the bilingual community of Rivera, Uruguay, in which both Portuguese and Spanish are spoken with regularity. Specifically, we focused on intervocalic /d/, which in monolingual Spanish is realized as an approximant [ð̞] or phonetic zero, but in monolingual Brazilian Portuguese is produced as a stop [d] or, in most varieties, an affricate [ʤ] before [i]. Data and analysis: We analyzed a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews of the Spanish spoken in Rivera. Acoustic measurements were taken from approximately 60 tokens each from 40 different speakers. Using a linear mixed-effects model, we examined the relationship between several predictors and the degree of constriction of intervocalic /d/. Findings/conclusions: While there is an overall frequency effect whereby more frequent words exhibit less constriction of intervocalic /d/, as both frequency and cognate similarity increase, less constriction of intervocalic /d/ obtains. Therefore, frequent cognates in Portuguese that have very similar forms affect the production of intervocalic /d/ more so than other cognates. Originality: No previous study has demonstrated that the cognate effect on phonetic variation in a situation of language contact is regulated by form similarity between cognate pairs. Significance/implications: The data support the usage-based model in that similar cognates have more lexical connections and can therefore show greater influence on phonetic realization than can cognates that share less phonetic material.

Indigenization in a downgraded continuum: Ideologies behind phonetic variation in Namibian Afrikaans

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Stell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
African Country ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Standard Models

AbstractThis study generally looks at indigenization in languages historically introduced and promoted by colonial regimes. The case study that it presents involves Namibia, a Subsaharan African country formerly administered by South Africa, where Afrikaans was the dominant official language before being replaced by English upon independence. Afrikaans in Namibia still functions as an informal urban lingua franca while being spoken as a native language by substantial White and Coloured minorities. To what extent does the downranking of Afrikaans in Namibia co-occur with divergence from standard models historically located in South Africa? To answer this question, the study identifies variation patterns in Namibian Afrikaans phonetic data elicited from ethnically diverse young urban informants and links these patterns with perceptions and language ideologies. The phonetic data reveal divergence between Whites and Non-Whites and some convergence among Black L2 Afrikaans-speakers with Coloured varieties, while suggesting that a distinctive Black variety is emerging. The observed trends generally reflect perceived ethnoracial distinctions and segregation. They must be read against the background of shifting inter-group power relations and sociolinguistic prestige norms in independent Namibia, as well as of emergent ethnically inclusive Black urban identities.

Intraspeaker Priming across the New Zealand English Short Front Vowel Shift

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110530
Author(s):  
Dan Villarreal ◽  
Lynn Clark
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Repetition Effect ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Repetition Effects ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Vowel Shift ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Linguistic Material

A growing body of research in psycholinguistics, corpus linguistics, and sociolinguistics shows that we have a strong tendency to repeat linguistic material that we have recently produced, seen, or heard. The present paper investigates whether priming effects manifest in continuous phonetic variation the way it has been reported in phonological, morphological, and syntactic variation. We analyzed nearly 60,000 tokens of vowels involved in the New Zealand English short front vowel shift (SFVS), a change in progress in which trap/dress move in the opposite direction to kit, from a topic-controlled corpus of monologues (166 speakers), to test for effects that are characteristic of priming phenomena: repetition, decay, and lexical boost. Our analysis found evidence for all three effects. Tokens that were relatively high and front tended to be followed by tokens that were also high and front; the repetition effect weakened with greater time between the prime and target; and the repetition effect was stronger if the prime and target belonged to (different tokens of) the same word. Contrary to our expectations, however, the cross-vowel effects suggest that the repetition effect responded not to the direction of vowel changes within the SFVS, but rather the peripherality of the tokens. We also found an interaction between priming behavior and gender, with stronger repetition effects among men than women. While these findings both indicate that priming manifests in continuous phonetic variation and provide further evidence that priming is among the factors providing structure to intraspeaker variation, they also challenge unitary accounts of priming phenomena.

Cross-dialectal diversity in Mukrī Kurdish I: Phonological and phonetic variation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Hiwa Asadpour
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Sociological Factors ◽  
Triggering Factors ◽  
And Shifts

Abstract This article provides a comparative overview of phonological and phonetic differences of Mukrī Kurdish varieties and their geographical distribution. Based on the examined data, four distinct varieties can be distinguished. In each variety area, different phonological patterns are analyzed according to age, gender, and social groups in order to establish cross-regional and cross-generational developments in relation to specific phonological distributions and shifts. The variety regions which are examined in the present article include West Mukrī (representing an archaic form of Mukrī), Central Mukrī (representing a linguistically peripheral dialect), East Mukrī (representing mixed archaic and peripheral dialect features), and South Mukrī (sharing features of both Mukrī and Ardałānī). The study concludes that variation in the Mukrīyān region depends on phonological developments, which in turn are due to geographical and sociological factors. Moreover, contact-induced change and internal language development are also established as triggering factors distinguishing regional variants.

Acoustic and Kinematic Correlates of Heterosyllabicity in Different Phonological Contexts

2022 ◽  
pp. 002383092110657
Author(s):  
Chiara Celata ◽  
Chiara Meluzzi ◽  
Chiara Bertini
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Structure Data ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Phonological Contrast ◽  
Consonant Gemination ◽  
Production Dynamics ◽  
Kinematic Properties

We investigate the temporal and kinematic properties of consonant gemination and heterosyllabic clusters as opposed to singletons and tautosyllabic clusters in Italian. The data show that the singleton versus geminate contrast is conveyed by specific kinematic properties in addition to systematic durational differences in both the consonantal and vocalic intervals; by contrast, tautosyllabic and heterosyllabic clusters differ significantly for the duration of the consonantal interval but do not vary systematically with respect to the vocalic interval and cannot be consistently differentiated at the kinematic level. We conclude that systematic variations in acoustic vowel duration and the kinematics of tongue tip gestures represent the phonetic correlates of the segmental phonological contrast between short and long consonants, rather than of syllable structure. Data are only partly consistent with the predictions of both moraic and gesture-based models of the syllable about the effects of syllable structure on speech production dynamics and call for a more gradient view of syllabification.

PHONOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR EXEMPLAR STORAGE OF MULTIWORD SEQUENCES

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Bybee
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Word Boundaries ◽  
High Frequency Words

Phonological evidence supports the frequency-based model proposed in the article by Nick Ellis. Phonological reduction occurs earlier and to a greater extent in high-frequency words and phrases than in low-frequency ones. A model that accounts for this effect needs both an exemplar representation to show phonetic variation and the ability to represent multiword combinations. The maintenance of alternations conditioned by word boundaries, such as French liaison, also provides evidence that multiword sequences are stored and can accrue representational strength. The reorganization of phonetic exemplars in favor of the more frequent types provides evidence for some abstraction in categories beyond the simple registration of tokens of experience.

scholarly journals Language contact within the speaker: Phonetic variation and crosslinguistic influence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khia A. Johnson ◽  
Molly Babel
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Recent Model ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Language Influence

A recent model of sound change posits that the direction of change is determined, at least in part, by the distribution of variation within speech communities (Harrington, Kleber, Reubold, Schiel, & Stevens, 2018; Harrington & Schiel, 2017). We explore this model in the context of bilingual speech, asking whether the less variable language constrains phonetic variation in the more variable language, using a corpus of spontaneous speech from early Cantonese-English bilinguals (Johnson, Babel, Fong, & Yiu, 2020). As predicted, given the phonetic distributions of stop obstruents in Cantonese compared to English, intervocalic English /b d g/ were produced with less voicing for Cantonese-English bilinguals and word-final English /t k/ were more likely to be unreleased compared to spontaneous speech from two monolingual English control corpora (Pitt, Johnson, Hume, Kiesling, & Raymond, 2005; Swan, 2016). Cantonese phonology is more gradient in terms of voicing initial obstruents (Clumeck, Barton, Macken, & Huntington, 1981; W. Y. P. Wong, 2006) than permitting releases of final obstruents, which is categorically prohibited Bauer & Benedict (2011); Khouw & Ciocca (2006). Neither Cantonese-English bilingual initial voicing nor word-final stop release patterns were significantly impacted by language mode. These results provide evidence that the phonetic variation in crosslinguistically linked categories in bilingual speech is shaped by the distribution of phonetic variation within each language, thus suggesting a mechanistic account for why some segments are more susceptible to cross-language influence than others in studies of mutual influence.

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