Using a coupled-oscillator model of speech rhythm to estimate rhythmic variability in two Brazilian Portuguese varieties (CE and SP)

This paper presents preliminary results of a semi-automatic methodology to extract three parameters of a dynamic model of speech rhythm. The model attempts to analyze the production of rhythm as a system of coupled oscillators which represent syllabicity and phrase stress as levels of temporal organization. The estimated parameters are the syllabic oscillator entrainment rate (alpha), the syllabic oscillator decay rate (beta), and the coupling strength between the oscillators (w0). The methodology involves finding the <alpha, beta, w0> combination that minimizes the distance between natural duration contours and simulated contours generated using several combinations of the parameters. The distance between natural and model-generated contours was measured in two ways by comparing: (1) plain or overt syllable to syllable duration and (2) relative change along both contours.We applied this methodology to read speech produced by five speakers of the state of Ceará (CE) and eight speakers of the state of São Paulo (SP). Mean w0 and alpha values are compatible with the view that Brazilian Portuguese is a mixed-rhythm language. Results from two bayesian hierarchical regression models do not suggest a difference between SP and CE speakers, but indicate a difference between the two methods, with the relative change method generating lower alpha values and higher w0 values, and the reverse for the plain duration method.

Fluency-related Temporal Features and Syllable Prominence as Prosodic Proficiency Predictors for Learners of English with Different Language Backgrounds

Prosodic features are important in achieving intelligibility, comprehensibility, and fluency in a second or foreign language (L2). However, research on the assessment of prosody as part of oral proficiency remains scarce. Moreover, the acoustic analysis of L2 prosody has often focused on fluency-related temporal measures, neglecting language-dependent stress features that can be quantified in terms of syllable prominence. Introducing the evaluation of prominence-related measures can be of use in developing both teaching and assessment of L2 speaking skills. In this study we compare temporal measures and syllable prominence estimates as predictors of prosodic proficiency in non-native speakers of English with respect to the speaker’s native language (L1). The predictive power of temporal and prominence measures was evaluated for utterance-sized samples produced by language learners from four different L1 backgrounds: Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Hungarian. Firstly, the speech samples were assessed using the revised Common European Framework of Reference scale for prosodic features. The assessed speech samples were then analyzed to derive articulation rate and three fluency measures. Syllable-level prominence was estimated by a continuous wavelet transform analysis using combinations of F0, energy, and syllable duration. The results show that the temporal measures serve as reliable predictors of prosodic proficiency in the L2, with prominence measures providing a small but significant improvement to prosodic proficiency predictions. The predictive power of the individual measures varies both quantitatively and qualitatively depending on the L1 of the speaker. We conclude that the possible effects of the speaker’s L1 on the production of L2 prosody in terms of temporal features as well as syllable prominence deserve more attention in applied research and developing teaching and assessment methods for spoken L2.

Acoustic characteristics of resyllabification process in Korean

Purpose: This study aims to analyze acoustic characteristics of Korean words and nonwords according to resyllabification and meaningfulness.Methods: The experimental data consisted of 10 homonyms and 10 corresponding words. Computerized Speech Lab (CSL) 4150B was used in a quiet place for recording. Moreover, the randomized word list was presented to 20 subjects, and they were asked to read naturally as if they were talking comfortably to the subjects. The analysis program was Praat 6151 win 64bit (Boersma & Weenink, 2021). Pitch, intensity, and duration of the words and the first and the second syllables were measured, and the resyllabification liaison rules and resyllabification influenced them. To investigate acoustic characteristics according to resyllabification, independent sample t-test and multivariate test were conducted using SPSS 26 for the statistical processing of a syllable’s pitch, intensity, and duration changes.Results: First, there was a significant difference between the groups in post-syllable pitch ratio in words and nonwords, which was 40s–50s pitch change was greater than that of 20s–30s. Second, the post-syllable pitch ratio was a significant difference between gender groups and according to the effect of the liaison rule. Third, the post-syllable duration ratio showed a significant difference between age groups. The post-syllable pitch ratio was a significant difference according to the effect of the liaison rule.Conclusions: Therefore, when resyllabifications are generated by the liaison rule, the change of the post-syllable pitch can be explained by the focus prosody, and further research will be needed to establish a solid basis for this study.

The Prosody of Two-Syllable Words in French-Speaking Monolingual and Bilingual Children: A Focus on Initial Accent and Final Accent

This study examined the acoustic characteristics of disyllabic words produced by French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children, aged 2;6 to 6;10, and by adults. Specifically, it investigated the influence of age, bilingualism, and vocabulary on final-to-initial syllable duration ratios and on the presence of initial and final accent. Children and adults took part in a word-naming task in which they produced a controlled set of disyllabic words. Duration and maximum pitch were measured for each syllable of the disyllabic word and these values were inserted into mixed-effects statistical models. Results indicated that children as young as 2;6 obtained final-to-initial syllable duration ratios similar to those of adults. Young children realized accent on the initial syllable more often and accent on the final syllable less often than older children and adults. There was no influence of bilingualism on the duration and pitch characteristics of disyllabic words. Children aged 2;6 with smaller vocabularies produced initial accent more often than children with large vocabularies. Our findings suggest that early word productions are constrained by developmental tendencies favouring falling pitch across an utterance.

POLITENESS/IMPOLITENESS IN CONFLICT DIALOGICAL DISCOURSE: PROSODY ASPECT

The given article presents an experimental phonetic investigation, which deals with a comprehensive analysis of English-language formal and informal conflict dialogues. It focuses on the study of various types of the investigated conflict dialogues intonational structure.The basic criteria of the practical material classification are: 1) the degree of relations formality between the collocutors and 2) politeness/impoliteness. According to these criteria the investigated conflict dialogues were classified as formal polite, formal impolite, informal polite and informal impolite. The recorded speech was investigated with the help of computer and statistical analyses which allowed to reveal those elements of prosody which actualize politeness/impoliteness in various types of the investigated conflict dialogues. The prosodic means that most clearly differentiate the investigated dialogical units are the pitch and intensity range, the pitch peaks, the average syllable duration, the average duration of the emphatic centre, the pause volume, types of pauses between the key remarks. The pitch and intensity peaks that coinside with the emphatic centre of a dialogical unity are greatly important for actualizing emphasis. The speech of collocutors who try to remain polite in a formal conflict situation is characterised by a normal tempo with the tendency to slowing down, a mid loudness, a mid pitch range that is due to the formal and official speech situation that forces the interlocutors to follow status subordination. An impolite formal conflict is characterized by a greater degree of emotionality than a polite formal one, as collocutors do not always follow the rules and standards of a formal situation behaviour being rude and harsh with their speech partners. At the prosodic level it is expressed by a faster tempo, a greater loudness and a wider pitch range than in the polite formal communication. The polite informal conflict communication is more emotional and natural than the polite formal one, but less emotional and natural than the impolite informal one. On the one hand the informal situation gives complete freedom to choose emotions and ways of their realization but on the other hand the desire to be polite in order not to offend the speech partner forces the collocutors to restrain their negative feelings in the polite formal conflict communication. The impolite informal conflict is the most emotional and uncontrolled. Expressiveness and uncontrollability in the impolite informal conflict are caused by the the speech situation informality, unwillingness and no need to restrain, complete freedom of choice of verbal and nonverbal means. At the prosodic level this type of conflict interaction is characterised by a high loudness, an accelerated tempo and a wide pitch range of the voice. The conducted research enabled us to state that conflict dialogical discourse represents a peculiar type of speech with a specific prosodic structure.

Units of processing in perceptual normalization for speaking rate

Because speaking rates are highly variable, listeners must use cues like phoneme or sentence duration to scale or normalize speech across different contexts. Scaling speech perception in this way allows listeners to distinguish between temporal contrasts, like voiced and voiceless stops, even at different speech speeds. It has long been assumed that this normalization or adjustment of speaking rate can occur over individual phonemes. However, phonemes are often undefined in running speech, so it is not clear that listeners can rely on them for normalization. To evaluate this, we isolate two potential processing units for speaking rate normalization---the phoneme and the syllable---by manipulating phoneme duration in order to cue speaking rate, while also holding syllable duration constant. In doing so, we show that changing the duration of phonemes both with unique acoustic signatures (/k\textscripta/) and overlapping acoustic signatures (/w\textsci/) results in a speaking rate normalization effect. These results suggest that even absent clear acoustic boundaries within syllables, listeners can normalize for rate differences on the basis of individual phonemes.

Speech Metrics and Samples That Differentiate Between Nonfluent/Agrammatic and Logopenic Variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia

Purpose Of the three currently recognized variants of primary progressive aphasia, behavioral differentiation between the nonfluent/agrammatic (nfvPPA) and logopenic (lvPPA) variants is particularly difficult. The challenge includes uncertainty regarding diagnosis of apraxia of speech, which is subsumed within criteria for variant classification. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a variety of speech articulation and prosody metrics for apraxia of speech differentiate between nfvPPA and lvPPA across diverse speech samples. Method The study involved 25 participants with progressive aphasia (10 with nfvPPA, 10 with lvPPA, and five with the semantic variant). Speech samples included a word repetition task, a picture description task, and a story narrative task. We completed acoustic analyses of temporal prosody and quantitative perceptual analyses based on narrow phonetic transcription and then evaluated the degree of differentiation between nfvPPA and lvPPA participants (with the semantic variant serving as a reference point for minimal speech production impairment). Results Most, but not all, articulatory and prosodic metrics differentiated statistically between the nfvPPA and lvPPA groups. Measures of distortion frequency, syllable duration, syllable scanning, and—to a limited extent—syllable stress and phonemic accuracy showed greater impairment in the nfvPPA group. Contrary to expectations, classification was most accurate in connected speech samples. A customized connected speech metric—the narrative syllable duration—yielded excellent to perfect classification accuracy. Discussion Measures of average syllable duration in multisyllabic utterances are useful diagnostic tools for differentiating between nfvPPA and lvPPA, particularly when based on connected speech samples. As such, they are suitable candidates for automatization, large-scale study, and application to clinical practice. The observation that both speech rate and distortion frequency differentiated more effectively in connected speech than on a motor speech examination suggests that it will be important to evaluate interactions between speech and discourse production in future research.

Acoustic analysis of prosodic features of lexical stress in Brazilian Portuguese

The current work revisits the prosodic characteristics of the Brazilian Portuguese (PB) lexical stress, matching an acoustic approach and sociolinguistic corpus. We analyze here speech samples of 6 native speakers of PB, from Pará, stratified into sex and having a high educational level. The corpus is formed of three random repeats of 21 words, being 7 by lexical stress, inserted in a vehicle phrase (Eu digo _____ devagar). As the 3 syllables of each word were analyzed, the final corpus is composed of 1134 tokens (3 kinds of lexical stress x 7 words x 3 syllables x 3 repetitions x 6 speakers). In order to validate the hypothesis, the mean fundamental frequency (F0) was calculated in semitone and the intensity (dB) taken in the nuclear element of each syllable. Duration (ms) was measured considering the whole syllable. The data demonstrate that duration is the most robust physical parameter in the distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables. The pre-tonic syllables, in the case of the paroxytones and oxytones, register the greatest number of F0 variations. The intensity was not a robust parameter in the characterization of lexical stress in BP.