Validity of the Nasometer Measuring the Temporal Characteristics of Nasalization

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 506-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youkyung Bae ◽  
David P. Kuehn ◽  
Seunghee Ha
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
External Criterion ◽  
Temporal Characteristics ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Speech Segment ◽  
Rate Controlled ◽  
Nasal Consonant ◽  
Lincoln Park ◽  
Normal Adults

Objective: To examine the validity of the Nasometer (KayPENTAX, Lincoln Park, NJ) in measuring the temporal characteristics of nasalization by comparing the Nasometer measures to the measures from an external criterion procedure. Design: Speech samples consisted of three rate-controlled nonsense syllables, which varied in their vowel compositions: /izinizi/, /azanaza/, and /uzunuzu/. Acoustic data were recorded simultaneously through the Nasometer and an external criterion procedure (a specialized microphone set that collected acoustic signals separately for the nasal and oral channels). Speech segment durations measured from the two instrumental conditions were compared on the Nasometer display and the Computerized Speech Lab (KayPENTAX, Lincoln Park, NJ) display. Five durational variables were measured: total utterance duration, nasal onset interval, nasal consonant duration, nasal offset interval, and total nasalization duration. Participants: Fourteen normal adults who speak American English as their first language participated in the study. Results: No significant differences were found between the measures from the Nasometer and those from an external criterion procedure in all the durational variables pertinent to nasalization. Different vowels, however, yielded significantly different patterns in these durational variables, in which the low vowel /a/ context revealed significantly longer total nasalization duration than did the high vowel /i/ and /u/ contexts. Conclusions: The results suggest that the Nasometer can be used as a valid tool to measure the temporal characteristics underlying nasalization and confirm significant vowel effects on the temporal patterns of nasalization.

The neural timecourse of American English vowel discrimination by Japanese, Russian and Spanish second-language learners of English

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Valerie L. Shafer ◽  
Sarah Kresh ◽  
Kikuyo Ito ◽  
Miwako Hisagi ◽  
Nancy Vidal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Temporal Contrast ◽  
Asymmetrical Pattern ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) phoneme features and phonetic salience on discrimination of second language (L2) American English (AE) vowels. On a perceptual task, L2 adult learners of English with Spanish, Japanese or Russian as an L1 showed poorer discrimination of the spectral-only difference between /æ:/ as the oddball (deviant) among frequent /ɑ:/ stimuli compared to AE controls. The Spanish listeners showed a significant difference from the controls for the spectral-temporal contrast between /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ for both perception and the neural Mismatch Negativity (MMN), but only for deviant /ɑ:/ versus /ʌ/ (duration decrement). For deviant /ʌ/ versus /ɑ:/, and for deviant /æ:/ versus /ʌ/ or /ɑ:/, all participants showed equivalent MMN amplitude. The asymmetrical pattern for /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ suggested that L2 phonetic detail was maintained only for the deviant. These findings indicated that discrimination was more strongly influenced by L1 phonology than phonetic salience.

Variable stem-final fricative voicing in American English plurals: Different pa[ð ~ θ]s of change

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Plural Form ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Audio Data ◽  
Fricative Voicing

AbstractThis paper investigates analogical leveling in a small set of English nouns that have irregular plural forms. In these nouns, all of which end in a voiceless fricative, the fricative standardly voices in the plural (e.g., wolf–wol[v]es, path–pa[ð]s, house–hou[z]es). Using audio data from three large spoken corpora of American English, I demonstrate that this stem-final fricative voicing is variable and conditioned by a number of factors, most notably the identity of the stem-final fricative—with /f/-final lexemes (e.g., wolf), /θ/-final lexemes (e.g., path), and the /s/-final lexeme house all patterning differently in apparent time—and the frequency of a lexeme in its plural form. I argue that the way these two factors affect the variation is reminiscent of the patterns seen in children's first language acquisition errors, providing a potential source for the variation and underscoring the importance of considering morphophonological factors when accounting for patterns of change.

Nasalization Amplitude-Timing Characteristics of Speakers With and Without Cleft Palate

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youkyung Bae
Keyword(s):  
Cleft Palate ◽  
Model Fit ◽  
Temporal Domain ◽  
Temporal Relationships ◽  
Practical Guidelines ◽  
Rate Controlled ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Nasal Consonant ◽  
Accuracy Rates ◽  
Nasal Resonance

Objectives: To examine the amplitude-temporal relationships of acoustic nasalization in speakers with a range of nasality and to determine the extent to which each domain independently predicts the speaker’s perceived oral-nasal balance. Design: Rate-controlled speech samples, consisting of /izinizi/, /azanaza/, and /uzunuzu/, were recorded from 18 participants (14 with repaired cleft palate and 4 without cleft palate) using the Nasometer. The mean nasalance of the entire mid-vowel–nasal consonant–vowel (mid-VNV) sequence (amplitude-domain) and the duration of the nasalized segment of the mid-VNV sequence (temporal-domain) were obtained based on nasalance contours. Results: Strong linear and vowel-dependent relationships were observed between the 2 domains of nasalization (adjusted R2 = 71.5%). Both the amplitude- and temporal-domain measures were found to reliably predict the speaker’s perceived oral-nasal balance, with better overall model fit and higher classification accuracy rates observed in /izinizi/ and /uzunuzu/ than in /azanaza/. Despite poor specificity, the temporal-domain measure of /azanaza/ was found to have a strong correlation with the participants’ Zoo passage nasalance scores ( rs = .897, p < .01), suggesting its potential utility as a severity indicator of perceived nasality. Conclusions: With the use of relatively simple speech tasks and measurements representing the amplitude and temporal domains of nasalization, the present study provided practical guidelines for using the Nasometer in assessing patients with oral-nasal resonance imbalance. Findings suggest that both domain measures of nasalization should be examined across different vowel contexts, given that each domain may provide clinically relevant, yet different, information.

scholarly journals A multivariate spatial analysis of vowel formants in American English

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Grieve ◽  
Dirk Speelman ◽  
Dirk Geeraerts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
American English ◽  
Western United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Vowel Formant ◽  
Multivariate Spatial Analysis ◽  
Vowel Formants ◽  
Vowel Shift

This paper presents the results of a multivariate spatial analysis of thirty-eight vowel formant variables measured in 236 cities from across the contiguous United States, based on the acoustic data from the Atlas of North American English. The results of the analysis both confirm and challenge the results of the Atlas. Most notably, while the analysis identifies similar patterns as the Atlas in the West and the Southeast, the analysis finds that the Midwest and the Northeast are distinct dialect regions that are considerably stronger than the traditional Midland dialect region identified in the Atlas. The analysis also finds evidence that a vowel shift is actively shaping the language of the Western United States.

Acoustic Sources of Accent in Second Language Japanese Speech

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaori Idemaru ◽  
Peipei Wei ◽  
Lucy Gubbins
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Acoustic Measurements ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Chinese Speakers

This study reports an exploratory analysis of the acoustic characteristics of second language (L2) speech which give rise to the perception of a foreign accent. Japanese speech samples were collected from American English and Mandarin Chinese speakers ( n = 16 in each group) studying Japanese. The L2 participants and native speakers ( n = 10) provided speech samples modeling after six short sentences. Segmental (vowels and stops) and prosodic features (rhythm, tone, and fluency) were examined. Native Japanese listeners ( n = 10) rated the samples with regard to degrees of foreign accent. The analyses predicting accent ratings based on the acoustic measurements indicated that one of the prosodic features in particular, tone (defined as high and low patterns of pitch accent and intonation in this study), plays an important role in robustly predicting accent rating in L2 Japanese across the two first language (L1) backgrounds. These results were consistent with the prediction based on phonological and phonetic comparisons between Japanese and English, as well as Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. The results also revealed L1-specific predictors of perceived accent in Japanese. The findings of this study contribute to the growing literature that examines sources of perceived foreign accent.

An acoustic comparison of English monophthongs and diphthongs produced by Australian and Thai speakers

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimiko Tsukada
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
First Language ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Temporal Characteristics ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Phonetic Categories ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Asian Languages

This study investigated acoustic-phonetic characteristics of English vowels (four monophthongs /I æ ~ %/ and two diphthongs /eI o~/) spoken by native speakers of Australian English (AusE, n = 6) and Thai (T, n = 15). The Thai speakers had lived in Australia for an average of 3.2 years. While the Thai speakers did not differ significantly from the AusE speakers in their vowel quality for monophthongs, they were more dissimilar in their production of diphthongs. Specifically, the Thai speakers produced English diphthongs with less formant movement, a phenomenon widely reported for speakers of various other Southeast Asian languages. Differences between the Thai and AusE groups reached statistical significance for the female speakers. As for temporal characteristics, the Thai speakers produced significantly shorter monophthongs, but not diphthongs, than did AusE speakers. As a result, the ratio of monophthongs to diphthongs was much smaller for the Thai (0.53) than for the AusE group (0.72). It appeared that the Thai speakers equated the English diphthongs /eI/ and /o~/ with the long vowels /e˜/ and /o˜/, respectively, in their first language (L1) Thai. Further, their production of the diphthongs may be related to a large number of diphthongs in the Thai vowel inventory, which may encourage its speakers to substitute existing L1 categories for English diphthongs rather than forming authentic, new phonetic categories.

Galician coda restrictions and plural clusters

Linguistics ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1433-1460
Author(s):  
Sonia Colina ◽  
Miquel Simonet
Keyword(s):  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
Production Experiment ◽  
Nasal Consonant ◽  
The Right

Abstract The present study investigates the phonology and phonetics of Galician post-vocalic velar nasals. Galician has very strict coda restrictions – it does not allow for complex codas. One exception to this restriction is found in the plurals of words ending in a nasal consonant, which add /s/ to the “right” of a noun or adjective: man ‘hand’, mans ‘hands’; pan ‘bread’, pans ‘breads’. The present study puts forward a proposal, initially based on synchronic, formal phonological grounds, according to which post-vocalic, pre-/s/ nasals in plural forms are not nasal stops, but nasal glides. Their nature as nasal glides allows for their syllabification in the nucleus rather than in the coda, thus preserving (i.e., not violating) the restriction on complex codas. This proposal is then tested with a production experiment based on quantitative acoustic data. The acoustic study reveals indeed a difference in the degree of weakening of post-vocalic nasals, with pre-/s/ nasals in the plural forms showing a significantly higher degree of weakening than pre-/s/ nasals in the singular forms. The article concludes with an Optimality-Theoretic analysis of the phonological facts.

scholarly journals Does SAE have /flap/? Evidence from Canadian Raising and Vowel Durations

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany Dickerson
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Free Ride ◽  
Language User

In American English, /t/ and /d/ neutralize to flaps intervocalically: write ∼ writer and ride ∼ rider. There also exist words which contain ambiguous surface flaps that do not alternate, for example, the name Ryder. Does the language user treat this flap like an allophone of /t/ or /d/ (as predicted by the Free Ride Principle), or as an independent segment (as predicted by Lexicon Optimization)? To investigate this question, acoustic data from elicited (Experiment 1) and spontaneous (Experiment 2) speech are analyzed. Voiceless consonants cause the vowel preceding them to be shorter and trigger Canadian Raising. Therefore, if language users treat non-alternating flaps as allophones of /t/, the vowel durations and F1 trajectories of the vowels in these two environments will be similar to each other and different from before flapped /d/, and vice versa if language users treat non-alternating flaps as allophones of /d/. If language users treat non-alternating flaps as different than both the flap allophones of /t/ and /d/, vowel durations and F1 will be different in all three environments. Results show that the durations and F1 trajectories of the vowels in the three environments are all different from each other, providing evidence for Lexicon Optimization. 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document