scholarly journals Articulatory correlates of the voicing contrast in alveolar obstruent production in German

2005 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Stressed Syllable ◽  
Electromagnetic Articulography ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Contact Patterns ◽  
Phonological Rule ◽  
Stressed Position

This work investigates laryngeal and supralaryngeal correlates of the voicing contrast in alveolar obstruent production in German. It further studies laryngealoral co-ordination observed for such productions. Three different positions of the obstruents are taken into account: the stressed, syllable initial position, the post-stressed intervocalic position, and the post-stressed word final position. For the latter the phonological rule of final devoicing applies in German. The different positions are chosen in order to study the following hypotheses: 1. The presence/absence of glottal opening is not a consistent correlate of the voicing contrast in German. 2. Supralaryngeal correlates are also involved in the contrast. 3. Supralaryngeal correlates can compensate for the lack of distinction in laryngeal adjustment. Including the word final position is motivated by the question whether neutralization in word final position would be complete or whether some articulatory residue of the contrast can be found. Two experiments are carried out. The first experiment investigates glottal abduction in co-ordination with tongue-palate contact patterns by means of simultaneous recordings of transillumination, fiberoptic films and Electropalatography (EPG). The second experiment focuses on supralaryngeal correlates of alveolar stops studied by means of Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) simultaneously with EPG. Three German native speakers participated in both recordings. Results of this study provide evidence that the first hypothesis holds true for alveolar stops when different positions are taken into account. In fricative production it is also confirmed since voiceless and voiced fricatives are most of the time realised with glottal abduction. Additionally, supralaryngeal correlates are involved in the voicing contrast under two perspectives. First, laryngeal and supralaryngeal movements are well synchronised in voiceless obstruent production, particularly in the stressed position. Second, supralaryngeal correlates occur especially in the post-stressed intervocalic position. Results are discussed with respect to the phonetics-phonology interface, to the role of timing and its possible control, to the interarticulatory co-ordination, and to stress as 'localised hyperarticulation'.  

scholarly journals Initial laryngeal neutralisation in Tyrolean

Phonology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Vietti ◽  
Birgit Alber ◽  
Barbara Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Closure Duration

In the Southern Bavarian variety of Tyrolean, laryngeal contrasts undergo a typologically interesting process of neutralisation in word-initial position. We undertake an acoustic analysis of Tyrolean stops in word-initial, word-medial intersonorant and word-final contexts, as well as in obstruent clusters, investigating the role of the acoustic parameters VOT, prevoicing, closure duration and F0 and H1–H2* on following vowels in implementing contrast, if any. Results show that stops contrast word-medially via [voice] (supported by the acoustic cues of closure duration and F0), and are neutralised completely in word-final position and in obstruent clusters. Word-initially, neutralisation is subject to inter- and intraspeaker variability, and is sensitive to place of articulation. Aspiration plays no role in implementing laryngeal contrasts in Tyrolean.

Acquisition of the Voicing Contrast by Language-Delayed and Normal-Speaking Children

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. S. Bond ◽  
Howard F. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Normal Speaking

Voicing is a phonological contrast which emerges early in the speech of children. However, the acoustic correlates of the voicing contrast for stop consonants are fairly complex. In the initial position, voicing is cued primarily by the relative timing of articulatory versus laryngeal gestures. In the final position, the duration of the preceding vowel is associated with the voicing contrast of stop consonants. The purpose of this study was to examine the pattern of acquisition of the voicing contrast in the speech of ten children diagnosed as language-delayed in comparison with the acquisition of the voicing contrast by normal speaking children. The language-delayed and normal-speaking children were matched according to mean length of utterance (MLU) and placed in one of Brown's five developmental stages. Each participant was first given a short test, using natural speech, to determine his or her ability to identify minimal pairs differing in the voicing of stop consonants. Those who passed the test were recorded under standard recording conditions repeating 12 test words. The test words contrasted voiced and voiceless stop consonants in initial and final positions. Spectrograms of the three best productions of each word were used to examine voice-onset time for stops in initial position and preceding vowel duration for stops in final position. Although the language-delayed and normal-speaking children showed equivalent linguistic sophistication (as measured by MLU), the language-delayed children's control of the acoustic-phonetic details of the voicing contrast was less mature than that of the normal-speaking children.

scholarly journals TRANSFERABILITY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF L1 RULES IN CATALAN-ENGLISH INTERLANGUAGE

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juli Cebrian
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Joint Effect ◽  
English Word ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Limited Effect ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
Phonological Feature ◽  
Very High

This paper examines the interference of L1 neutralization rules in the acquisition of a marked L2 phonological feature. More specifically, it presents results from a study of the acquisition of the voicing contrast in English word-final obstruents by native speakers of Catalan. The voicing contrast in final position in Catalan is neutralized by voicing or devoicing rules, depending on the environment. The results of an experiment testing the production of target final obstruents in different environments indicate a very high incidence of devoicing, which confirms the prevalence of final devoicing in second language acquisition and points to the joint effect of transfer and universal tendencies. In contrast with devoicing, the results reveal a more limited effect of the L1 voicing rules. It is argued that this difference is due to an effect of word integrity in the interlanguage that restricts the domain of application of the transferred rules.

scholarly journals The Role of Prosody in the Identification of Persian Sentence Types: Declarative or Wh-question?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohreh Shiamizadeh ◽  
Johanneke Caspers ◽  
Niels O. Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
Frequency Code ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

AbstractIt has been reported that prosody contributes to the identification of utterances which lack lexico-syntactic indicators of interrogativity but do have characteristic prosodic correlates (e.g. Vion and Colas 2006. Pitch cues for the recognition of yes-no questions in French. Journal of Psycholinguistics Research 35. 427–445). In Persian wh-in-situ questions, the interrogativity device (the wh-phrase) does not move to the sentence-initial position, and the pre-wh part is characterized by specific prosodic correlates (Shiamizadeh et al. 2016. Do Persian native speakers prosodically mark wh-in-situ questions? Manuscript submitted for publication). The current experiment investigates the role of prosody in the perception of Persian wh-in-situ questions as opposed to declaratives. To this end, an experiment was designed in which Persian native speakers were asked to choose the correct sentence type after hearing only the pre-wh part of a sentence. We hypothesized that prosody guides perception of wh-in-situ questions independent of wh-phrase type. The results of the experiment corroborate our hypothesis. The outcome is discussed in terms of Ohala´s frequency code, and Bolinger´s claim about the universal dichotomous association between relaxation and declarativity on the one hand and tension and interrogativity on the other hand.

scholarly journals The production of the English stop voicing contrast by Arab L2 speakers of English

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 434-444
Author(s):  
Mohd Hilmi Hamzah ◽  
Ahmed Elsayed Samir Madbouly ◽  
Hasliza Abdul Halim ◽  
Abdul Halim Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Acoustic Parameter ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Phonological Contrast ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
Speech Learning

The English voiceless stop /p/ and voiced stop /ɡ/ are absent in the consonant inventory of Arabic. This difference provides a fertile ground for empirical research in L2 speech learning among Arab L2 speakers of English. The current study, therefore, aims to explore the English stop voicing contrast as produced by Arab native speakers. Focusing on Voice Onset Time (VOT) as an acoustic parameter, the study seeks to examine the extent to which (1) Arab L2 speakers of English maintain the English stop voicing contrast for /p-b/ and /k-ɡ/, and (2) the L2 VOT continuum by Arab L2 speakers follows or deviates from the L1 VOT continuum in English. The acoustic phonetic experiment involved elicited materials of /p-b/ and /k-ɡ/ from four male native speakers of Arabic. The tokens were recorded in isolation (utterance-initial position) and in a carrier sentence (utterance-medial position). The data were then acoustically analysed following standard segmentation, annotation and measurement criteria. Results reveal that the Arab L2 speakers can, to a large extent, maintain the English stop voicing contrast across all places of articulation, with voiced stops usually being produced with “normal” negative VOT (prevoicing) and voiceless stops usually being produced with “normal” positive VOT and also accompanied with aspiration in the long-lag region. There are also exceptional cases of “abnormal” negative VOT (prevoicing) for voiceless stops and “abnormal” positive VOT (devoicing) for voiced stops, with an extremely larger number of devoiced tokens for voiced stops in comparison to prevoiced tokens for voiceless stops. The results accord well with the Speech Learning Model’s prediction that phonetically “new” sounds are relatively easier to learn than phonetically “similar” sounds. The conclusion is drawn that languages sharing the same sound contrast may exhibit different phonetic implementations in marking a phonological contrast.

scholarly journals Transfer of Learning: What Does It Tell Us About Speech Production Units?

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 1613-1625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiphaine Caudrelier ◽  
Jean-Luc Schwartz ◽  
Pascal Perrier ◽  
Silvain Gerber ◽  
Amélie Rochet-Capellan
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Serial Order ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Control Research ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Speech Motor

Purpose Words, syllables, and phonemes have each been regarded as basic encoding units of speech production in various psycholinguistic models. The present article investigates the role of each unit in the interface with speech articulation, using a paradigm from motor control research. Method Seventy-six native speakers of French were trained to change their production of /be/ in response to an auditory feedback perturbation (auditory–motor learning). We then assessed the magnitude of learning transfer from /be/ to the syllables in 2 pseudowords (/bepe/ and /pebe/) and 1 real word (/bebe/) as well as the aftereffect on the same utterance (/be/) with a between-subjects design. This made it possible to contrast the amplitude of transfer at the levels of the utterance, the syllable, and the phoneme, depending on the position in the word. Linear mixed models allowed us to study the amplitude as well as the dynamics of the transfer and the aftereffect over trials. Results Transfer from the training utterance /be/ was observed for all vowels of the test utterances but was larger to the syllable /be/ than to the syllable /pe/ at word-initial position and larger to the 1st syllable than to the 2nd syllable in the utterance. Conclusions Our study suggests that words, syllables, and phonemes may all contribute to the definition of speech motor commands. In addition, the observation of a serial order effect raises new questions related to the connection between psycholinguistic models and speech motor control approaches.

Yugan Khanty Phonetic Features Based on the Experimental Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
Timofey V. Timkin
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Resonant Frequencies ◽  
R Programming Language ◽  
Main Technique ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
R Programming ◽  
The Right ◽  
Formant Analysis

The paper deals with the phonetics of Yugan idiom of Surgut Khanty. The research is a part of the project aimed at describing Surgut Khanty phonetics. The Yugan idiom has significant differences from the Tromyegan idiom described before. The analysis is based on the data collected during the expedition to the settlement Ugut in 2019. The experimental part includes 130 words list read out three times by four native speakers from different traditional settlements on the Malyi Yugan river and on the Bolshoi Yugan river. The research was conducted using experimental techniques: Praat, Emu-SDMS software. The main technique was a formant analysis that deals with resonant frequencies in vowel spectra to obtain data on articulation features. Statistical evaluations and visualization were established via R programming language. We found differences between the Malyi Yugan river and the Bol’shoi Yugan river idioms. 12 vowel phonemes were found in the Malyi Yugan idiom. Compared to the Tromyegan system the phoneme /ɔ/ (traditionally /ȯ̆/) is absent. It was replaced by /ɛ/ (traditionally /ȧ̆/) or /o/ (traditionally /ŏ/). The phoneme u̇ described in previous literature on the topic disappeared and was replaced by /iː/. The Bolshoi Yugan vowel system includes these phonemes and also diphthongs [ui], [ɔɛ]. They appear after [k] where etimological u̇, ȯ̆ used to be. They probably are the realizations of the phonemes /iː/, /ɛ/ in the position after labialized k, which has become a phoneme. Non-initial [w] is reported to be specific Jugan feature and appears to have parallels in Tromyegan idiom too. It is an evidence for the rearranging of the Surgut idioms. In this pronunciation type /w/ is realized as a labial approximant in an initial position and after not-rounded vowels in a non-final position. After not-rounded vowels in a final position it comes as an initial-voiced fricative evoking preceding vowel diphthongization. After rounded vowels it is labiovelar [γʷ] or non-syllabic [ʊ] (before consonants). This pronunciation type is similar to the Tromyegan type, but it differs from the Pim type where /w/ comes as a labial approximant consistently. The disappearance of labial fricatives is a new phenomenon which has not been described properly. Territorial and social factors for this process are given. The Malyi Yugan speakers use lateral fricatives /ł/, /ʎ̥/ and the Bolshoi Yugan speakers replace it by /t/, /c͡c̦/. In the settlement Ugut where Bolshoi and Malyi Yugan natives contact in Russian-spoken environment both variants are used with t-pronunciation evaluated by speakers as new and declining from the ‘'right’ speech.

Processing instruction on the Spanish passive with transfer-of-training effects to anaphoric and cataphoric reference contexts

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Transfer Of Training ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Processing Instruction ◽  
Training Effects ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Linguistic Item ◽  
L2 Learners

AbstractTransfer-of-training effects with processing instruction have recently been reported in the literature. That is, L2 learners receive processing instruction on one particular linguistic item and, as a consequence of instruction, learners' performance improves not only on the particular linguistic item but on other linguistic items as well. The present study examines processing instruction on the Spanish passive, the word order of which places the patient in the grammatical role of subject in sentence initial position and the agent as the object of a preposition in sentence final position. The purpose of the study is to determine whether learners transfer the training they receive on processing the word order of passive sentences to their processing of sentences with anaphoric reference, specifically, accusative case pronouns for which the word order is O

The role of prosodic structure in the formation of English blends

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
SABINE ARNDT-LAPPE ◽  
INGO PLAG
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Stress Pattern ◽  
Minor Importance ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Theoretical Level ◽  
Stressed Syllable

This article investigates a variety of ways in which prosodic factors influence blend structure in English. Recent approaches no longer consider blends unpredictable, but the role of stress in blend formation has not been investigated in detail yet. This article addresses this problem, focusing on the role of stress in determining the switchpoint of the two bases in the blend, and on the question of what determines the stress pattern of the blend. We investigate these questions using experimentally derived forms, coined by native speakers on the basis of carefully controlled word pairs as stimuli. The results demonstrate that the length of the blend, the location of the switchpoint, and the stress of the blend are crucially determined by stress properties of the two base words of the blend, above all by those of the second word. At a theoretical level, the most important single finding is that preservation of the stress of the second word may happen independently of preservation of segmental material of the stressed syllable (e.g. préstitant from prestígious + dóminant). In contrast to stress, and contrary to earlier claims, syllabic constituency is shown to be of minor importance for switchpoint location. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. On a methodological level, our results show that experimentally elicited blends constitute a valid and highly useful resource for research on blend structure.

The Role of Visibility in Silent Speech Tongue Movements: A Kinematic Study of Consonants

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Annette Glotfelty ◽  
William F. Katz
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Electromagnetic Articulography ◽  
Dyadic Communication ◽  
Silent Condition ◽  
Kinematic Study ◽  
Repeated Measures Analysis ◽  
Tongue Movements ◽  
Silent Speech

Purpose To better understand the role of tongue visibility in speech, this study compared the spatiotemporal patterns of silent versus audible speech for lingual consonants of American English. Kinematic data were obtained for articulatory features assumed to be visually salient, including tongue movement (anterior displacement and midsagittal area), lip aperture, and consonant duration. Method Electromagnetic articulography was used to measure 11 native speakers' productions of five consonants (/ɡ/, /w/, /ɹ/, /l/, and /ð/), selected to represent a continuum of tongue visibility. Nonword consonant–vowel syllables were elicited during a procedure designed to convey a dyadic communication environment. A method of kinematic-based consonant segmentation was developed for data processing, and results were analyzed with repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results Findings indicated increased consonant duration and lip aperture in the silent condition (vs. audible) for all five consonants. Tongue forward displacement was slightly greater in the silent condition, compared to audible, for all consonants except /ɡ/, the only consonant without a visible tongue component. In addition, the extent of tongue forwarding in silent speech corresponded with the degree of tongue visibility. Conclusion During silent speech, talkers increased their lip aperture and consonant duration and tended to shift their tongues forward for the most visible lingual consonants, suggesting that talkers may be aware at some level of the need to increase articulatory visibility of the tongue in the presence of an interlocutor during adverse speech conditions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document