bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Durational Correlates of Linguistic Rhythm Categories
Authors: Hoequist, Jr. Charles
Published: November 2009

Experimental investigations into the reality of impressionistic rhythm categories of language (stress-timing, syllable-timing and mora-timing) have usually tested extreme models of rhythm types. A comparative study of durational characteristics in Spanish (syllable-timed) and Japanese (mora-timed) confirm the absence of a strict isochronic rhythm but yield evidence fitting a less strict hypothesis of rhythm categories.
Vowel Distortion in Traumatic Dysarthria: A Formant Study
Authors: Zlegler W. , von Cramon D.
Published: November 2009

The frequencies of the first two formants of three German vowels in word context were determined by a formant tracking routine for 8 male subjects with closed head trauma. A centralized formant pattern was found to characterize vowel articulation in traumatic dysarthria. Different degrees of severity could be assessed and the process of recovery was described by the parameter ‘formant triangle area’. An interpretation in articulatory terms is given and the results are discussed in the light of articulatory models.
What is the Reference that Sound Durations are Compared with in Speech Perception?
Authors: Ventsov Anatoly V.
Published: November 2009

Speech segment durations are widely used as cues in the phonetic interpretation of speech (during its perception). To devise a system of quantitative rules for the automatic phonetic interpretation of natural speech it is necessary to know with what reference the speech sound duration is to be compared. An experiment with a specially arranged set of stimuli has shown that durations of adjacent sounds in an utterance, namely vowels, are used as the reference for word stress perception in Russian.
Über die Akustik des Vokalschalls im 18. Jahrhundert: der Euler-Lambert-Briefwechsel und Kratzenstein
Authors: Ungeheuer † Gerold
Published: November 2009

This paper deals with the discussion of vowel acoustics in the correspondence between Euler and Lambert, the two most important German-speaking physicists and mathematicians in the second half of the 18th century. It seems plausible that the prize question set by the St. Petersburg Academy for 1780 goes back to the problem treated in this correspondence and that it was even suggested by Euler himself. The dissertation which Kratzenstein handed in is therefore reviewed in relation to the physical knowledge of the 18th century as it manifests itself in this correspondence. This is followed by reflections on the philosophy of science. In order to gain a complete awareness of the prerequisites of modern acoustic phonetics the historical rethinking of its development is indispensable and is thus part of present-day phonetic research.
Pitch Period Detection and Chaining: Method and Evaluation
Authors: Schäfer-Vincent Kurt
Published: November 2009

An algorithm is presented which detects quasi-periodic parts in a given speech signal, and provides the fundamental frequency for these parts. The algorithm analyses the structure of the time-amplitude representation of the speech signal. It first determines potential ‘period-twins’ and then observes whether these period-twins are members of a ‘period-chain’. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated. The results are given as absolute and relative figures and are compared with other methods.
VOT im 19. Jahrhundert oder «Die Wiederkehr des Gleichen»
Authors: Braun Angelika
Published: November 2009

Up to now the concept of voice onset time (VOT) has been closely associated with the work of Lisker and Abramson. Evidence is presented here that the idea behind it – if not the name – is much older than commonly thought, in fact dating back to the turn of the century. The results of those early VOT measurements are presented and -with respect to Armenian – compared to those arrived at by Lisker and Abramson.
Vowel Intrinsic Pitch in Connected Speech
Authors: Ladd Robert , Silverman Kim E.A.
Published: November 2009

We investigated whether ‘intrinsic pitch’ (IP) effects occur in connected speech. Fundamental frequency differences between German high and low vowels were measured in two different experimental conditions: (1) a typical laboratory task in which a carrier sentence served as a frame for test vowels; (2) a paragraph reading task in which test vowels occurred in a variety of prosodic environments. By comparing test vowels in comparable segmental and prosodic environments, it was shown that the IP effect does occur in connected speech, but that the size of the differences between high and low vowel fundamental frequency is somewhat smaller than in carrier sentences. Some tentative hypotheses are presented concerning the influence of prosodic environment on the magnitude of IP differences.
Spectral and Perceptual Evidence for CV Coarticulation in Devoiced /si/ and /syu/ in Japanese
Authors: Beckman Mary , Shoji Atsuko
Published: November 2009

We examined the spectral and perceptual characteristics of devoiced /si/ and /syu/ syllables in Japanese. Measurements showed that the deleted vowel can color the spectrum of the [∫] in these syllables, although the mean influence is small. Perception tests showed that Japanese listeners can use this spectral coloring as a cue to the identity of the underlying vowel, although identification was substantially worse than in syllables where the /i/ or /u/ is maintained. These results suggest that a supposedly lower-level coarticulation between the fricative and the vowel can occur before a higher-level process deletes the vowel, contradicting the order implied by traditional accounts of speech as a translation of discrete phonological units.
Some Acoustic Aspects of Fundamental Frequency of CVC Utterances in Aphasia
Authors: Ryalls John H.
Published: November 2009

A set of 9 CVC utterances were elicited five times each from a group of 5 anterior and 7 posterior aphasics. These spoken tokens were acoustically analyzed for the fundamental frequency of phonation and compared to tokens for a group of 7 normal control speakers. Statistical analyses revealed that anterior aphasics produced significantly higher average fundamental frequencies than did normal speakers, and that both groups of aphasics had significantly greater variability (both inter- and intraspeaker) in their fundamental frequency values than did normal speakers. A subset of these data was also analyzed for the period-to-period variation or ‘jitter’ of the acoustic waveform. Each group was significantly different from each other: posterior aphasics demonstrated the greatest period-to-period variation followed by anterior aphasics and then normal subjects. Some implications of this research are discussed.
Effects of Temporal Stimulus Properties on Perception of the [sl]-[spl] Distinction
Authors: Repp Bruno H.
Published: November 2009

Two studies investigated the influence of the independently varied durations of preceding and following signal portions on the amount of closure silence needed to perceive ‘splash’ rather than ‘slash’. Increases (or decreases) in the durations of the [s] and [l] acoustic segments had opposite effects which cancelled when the silent intervals were short (experiment 1), but yielded a net effect due to [s] duration when the silent intervals were long (experiment 2). These findings, which resolve a conflict between earlier results in the literature, are interpreted as reflecting a perceptual compensation for coarticulatory shortening of [s] before stop consonants, in conjunction with (possibly psychoacoustic) contrastive interactions between the perceived durations of adjacent acoustic segments. The results suggest that local temporal signal properties, as distinct from global perceived speaking rate, are an important factor in phonetic perception.
On the ‘Incomplete Neutralization’ of German Final Obstruents
Authors: Fourakis Marios , Iverson Gregory K.
Published: November 2009

Recent work in acoustic phonetics purports to show that neutralization of the voiced/voiceless contrast in final position in German is only apparent, because it is incomplete. Thus, a recent study shows that native speakers of German do regularly devoice word-final obstruents, but they also produce slightly longer vowels before the morphophonemically voiced obstruents (e.g. Rad ‘wheel’) than before the voiceless ones (e.g. Rat ‘advice’). However, our work replicating these studies indicates that the previously observed differences actually resulted from hypercorrect spelling pronunciation, and that in more natural linguistic contexts the neutralization is indeed complete.
Perception of Assimilation of Voice as a Function of Segmental Duration and Linguistic Context
Authors: van den Berg R.J.H. , Slis I.H.
Published: November 2009

The perception of assimilation of ‘voice’ in Dutch two-obstruent clusters across word boundaries was measured as a function of cluster duration. In an experiment employing synthetic speech stimuli the duration of the silent interval of the plosives and of the noise part of the fricatives was varied. The clusters were embedded in three types of linguistic context: sentences, words, and nonsense words. Longer durations gave rise to more ‘voiceless’ percepts, resulting in the perception of more ‘progressive assimilation’, at the expense of ‘regressive assimilation’ and ‘no assimilation’. Nonwords behaved slightly differently from sentences and words. The different response pattern for nonwords is ascribed to a different phonetic context rather than to lexical or phonological factors.
Coarticulation in Italian /VtV/ Sequences: A Palatographic Study
Authors: Farnetani Edda , Vagges Kyriaki , Magno-Caldognetto Emanuela
Published: November 2009

Patterns of linguopalatal contact during the production of intervocalic /t/ in different vowel contexts were examined by means of electropalatography, in order to assess the degree of dependency between tongue tip/blade and tongue body, the relative strength of anticipatory and carryover effects and their temporal extent. Results show that the coupling between tip and body of the tongue is rather loose: constraints imposed on tongue body by consonant production are described qualitatively and quantitatively. Carryover effects are stronger and more systematic than anticipatory effects: both can extend across the consonant. Results also indicate that coarticulatory effects depend on the identity of the vowel held constant and, to a lesser extent, on stress position. Some hypotheses are presented concerning articulatory goals and strategies in /VtV/ productions.
Further Experiments in the Perception of French Plosives
Authors: van Dommelen Wim A.
Published: November 2009

The present paper is a continuation of a previous study, in which several cues in French stop consonant perception were investigated. In a first series of experiments, identification of a stop as fortis versus lenis turned out to be influenced by whether the following consonant was a fricative or a plosive. Taking the results of this first series as a point of departure, the next experiment focussed on the possible masking influence of friction noise on the perception of a preceding stop. This hypothesis, however, was not confirmed by the outcome of the experiment. Two further experiments showed that periodicity in a stop plus stop cluster is assigned to the first or the second stop, depending on its position in the cluster, even when the first stop is not released. The general discussion places the results within a general frame of consonant perception in French.
The Perception of Lenis and Fortis Plosives in French
Authors: Kohler Klaus J.
Published: November 2009

This paper presents a re-evaluation of the data contained in two articles by W. van Dommelen published in Phonetica
40 (1983) and 42 (1985). It is argued that greater generalization is possible for lenis/fortis perception in French C1C2 stop-obstruent clusters. First of all, they follow single stops in that the extent of voicing in the whole cluster has the strongest cue value and that the release feature of C1 is also important; its absence results in less clearly defined response functions. This means, secondly, that stop-stop and stop-fricative sequences produce the same results when the characteristic plosive aspiration features are absent in the former and merged into the fricative in the latter. Thirdly, a fortis obstruent in second position heightens lenis perception in the preceding stop by auditory contrast, not by its phonological status.
L’intonation et l’organisation de l’énoncé
Authors: Rossi Mario
Published: November 2009

Syntactic theories of intonation assume that intonation is congruent to syntax. It is, however, in the cases where it is not that intonation can restructure an utterance and become informative. In a first stage, we identify the prosodic units which play a part in the organisation of utterances. In a second stage, we examine how intonation contributes to the linear and hierarchical structure of utterances. The functioning of prosodic units in semantic and pragmatic organisation of the sentence allows us to bring to light syntactic constraints. This method seems the best way to evaluate the respective interactions of intonation with syntax and pragmatics. These syntactic constraints constitute formal marks which justify the content of prosodic rules (syntactic, semantic, accentual and rhythmic) which make it possible to predict or explain the intonation of utterances.
A Perceptual Study of the Influence of Pitch on the Intelligibility of Sung Vowels
Authors: Scotto Di Carlo Nicole , Germain Aline
Published: November 2009

A perceptual study of the influence of pitch on the intelligibility of vowels was carried out using a corpus containing all 15 French vowels sung by a professional soprano across her entire voice range. Four untrained subjects underwent identification tests whose results show statistically that vowel intelligibility is inversely proportional to pitch. A perceptual analysis based on confusion matrices revealed that intelligibility drops rapidly starting at the middle register. Classification of the confusions showed that incorrectly identified vowels tend to be confused with [a], most certainly because the shape of the vocal tract when in the upper register corresponds to that of the vowel [a].
Modelling French Micromelody: Analysis and Synthesis
Authors: Di Cristo A. , Hirst D.J.
Published: November 2009

Research into microvariations of fundamental frequency (F₀) of speech (intrinsic and co-intrinsic effects) carried out on a large number of languages has brought to light universal tendencies which raise a number of problems, both from the point of view of perception and from that of production, for the interpretation and modelling of intonation. After a survey of these problems, experimental data for French are presented, concerning the intrinsic fundamental frequency (IF₀) of oral and nasal vowels and the co-intrinsic effect (CF₀) of consonants on the onset and pitch point of the F₀ of the following stressed vowels. It is shown that despite considerable intersubject variation, IF₀ differences between the classes of close, open and nasal vowels are significant in both prosodic contexts analysed, but that variations within these classes were not significant (except for the nasal vowels). The principal source of variation for the co-intrinsic effect (as has been observed in many languages) was the opposition voiced/voiceless for the preceding consonant. This effect was greater at the onset of the vowel (4 STs) than at the pitch point where it was comparable to the IF₀ effect (1 ST). A relative independence of the IF₀ and CF₀ effects was noted which tend either to combine or to cancel each other out depending on the phonetic context. A preliminary attempt to incorporate these effects into a synthetic model of intonation, by factoring out observed F₀ contours into segmental and suprasegmental components, suggests that unlike IF₀ and CF₀ effects of consonants, which intervene at a fairly late level of phonetic implementation, IF₀ effects of vowels are quite probably programmed at a higher level.
F₀ in the Production and Perception of Breathy Stops: Evidence from Hindi
Authors: Schiefer L.
Published: November 2009

This article deals with the acoustical and perceptual importance of F₀ perturbations in word-initial breathy CV syllables of Hindi. The first part is devoted to the acoustical analysis of F₀ onset, F₀ trajectory, average F₀ of the breathy and steady portion, and duration of the breathy portion. It is concluded from the results that (i) F₀ perturbations are a function of the place of articulation of the stop and/or tongue height and/or tongue position of the vowel; (ii) F₀ onset reflects the larynx height and/or the activity of extrinsic larynx muscles, and (iii) the F₀ trajectory represents the coarticulatory processes within the syllable. The importance of F₀ onset, F₀ trajectory, average F₀, and duration of the breathy portion for the perception of breathy stops is examined in the second part of this study. It is shown, for 8 CV conditions /É–ha É–he É–hi É–ho É–hu bhi dhi ghi/ that F₀ onset, F₀ trajectory, and the duration of the breathy portion play an important role in the perception of breathy CV syllables in Hindi.
F₀ Segmental Cues Depend on Intonation: The Case of the Rise after Voiced Stops
Authors: Silverman Kim
Published: November 2009

Two different models of the influence of the stop voicing on F₀ are identified. The more widely accepted of the two, called the rise-fall dichotomy, claims that F₀ falls after voiceless stops but rises after voiced stops, and that the direction of post-release F₀ is contextually invariant. The alternative model, referred to as the no-rise view, arose from recent production studies. It claims that the onset frequency of post-release F₀ is raised after all stops, though only relatively little if they are phonologically voiced. More importantly, it sees F₀ contours as a combination of segmental perturbations added onto a smooth underlying intonation contour. Consequently the direction of post-release F₀ depends not only on segmental phonetic features but also on the prosodic structure. In three perceptual experiments utilising computer-synthesised intervocalic bilabial stops, opposing predictions of the two models are tested by embedding falling, level, and rising perturbations in different intonational environments. In each experiment the predictions of the no-rise view are supported and those of the rise-fall dichotomy are falsified. The conclusion drawn is that investigations of segmental phonetics can give rise to misleading results unless the accompanying prosodic structure is also taken into account.
The Perception of Quantity in Icelandic
Authors: Pind Jörgen
Published: November 2009

Numerous studies, both in speech production and perception, have found that the acoustic representation of speech segments is heavily context-dependent. In particular the durations of speech sounds do not have fixed values but vary depending on their immediate context, speech tempo etc. In spite of this variability, the perceiver usually perceives correctly what the speaker intended to say. Two theoretical accounts have been given of this fact. On the one hand it has been postulated that the listener perceives correctly by taking into account the context of the speech segment he hears (the theory of normalization). Another view is that speech sound variability is primarily a surface phenomenon, and that invariants can be found in the speech wave on a closer analysis (the theory of constancy). The present study investigates the merits of these theories in the context of Icelandic speech perception. The experimental results show that normalization plays only a minor role in the perception of quantity in Icelandic.
A Search for Durational Rules in a Real-Speech Data Base
Authors: Carlson R. , Granström B.
Published: November 2009

The durational properties of consonants have been studied for Swedish and English. The use of quantity in Swedish demands an expansion of the rule structure proposed by Klatt. The Swedish study has been done in the context of a speech data base of read sentences. There are considerable problems in administering such data bases, both to transcribe and segment the speech and to easily access stored material. We report how speech is transcribed and segmented semiautomatically. The transcription is generated by the text-to-phonetic component of our synthesis system. The same rule structure is used for accessing the data. Durational data is collected and compared to models directly during the data base search.
Linguistic and Developmental Effects on the Production and Perception of Stop Consonants
Authors: Flege James Emil , Eefting Wieke
Published: November 2009

This study examined production and perception of the contrast between /t/ –/d/ by subjects differing in native language and age. Acoustic analysis revealed that native speakers of English realized word-initial /t/ with significantly longer VOT values (approximately 85 ms) than native speakers of Spanish (approximately 19 ms). Native English and Spanish adults realized /t/ with VOT values that were non-significantly longer than those of 9-year-olds of the same native language background. Native English adults prevoiced /d/ more often than English children, but Spanish adults and children realized /d/ with lead VOT values in nearly every instance. In a labelling task, the native English speakers showed steeper identification functions, and category boundaries at significantly longer VOT values, than age-matched native Spanish subjects. The boundaries of both the native English and Spanish adults occurred at significantly longer VOT values than those of children who spoke the same language. Three possible explanations are offered for the effect of age on stop voicing judgments: the auditory processing of acoustic parameters associated with stops changes with age; listeners require an increasingly long VOT interval to perceive /t/ as they get older because they produce /t/ with somewhat longer VOT values; listeners ‘attune’ their perception to optimally match the stops they hear.
Stress Patterns in Dutch (Compound) Adjectives: Acoustic Measurements and Perception Data
Authors: van Heuven Vincent J.
Published: November 2009

Under the so-called culminative definition of stress, present-day linguists hold the view that within one word or larger domain only one syllable can bear the stress. This is in contrast with the classical (British-English) phonetic tradition which allows the occurrence of two strong stresses within certain words, which are then called ‘double-stressed’. Moreover, precisely the class of double-stressed words was said to be subject to rhythmic variation (or ‘stress clash’). The present paper purports to find acoustic and perceptual evi’dence that may allow us to choose between these competing proposals, comparing the behaviour of Dutch adjectives with canonically rising, falling, and double-stress patterns, in spoken contexts that should bear out the predicted rhythmic changes in double-stressed words. Our results argue against a strictly culminative definition of stress.
Speech Act and Tonal Pattern in Standard Chinese: Constancy and Variation
Authors: Gårding Eva
Published: November 2009

This paper is a study of how speech act (statement, question, focus) influences some tonal patterns in Standard Chinese. The material presents four tonal patterns in five speech acts produced three times each by 4 speakers. To limit the size of comparisons, one of the speakers is analyzed first, the others are then compared with him. The analysis of constant and varying features in the interaction of speech act and tonal pattern uses a model of intonation described elsewhere. The results indicate that Chinese prosody shares with other languages a number of general features which were taken as a basis for the model.
Preaspiration and the Voicing Contrast in Lule Sami
Authors: Engstrand Olle
Published: November 2009

This experiment investigates the role of voice offset time (the durational aspect of preaspiration), closure duration and voice onset time as phonetic carriers of the voiced-voiceless contrast in Lule Sami word-medial stop consonants. Spectrographic measurements were made on speech samples produced by 7 subjects. The subjects belong to two roughly homogeneous dialect groups. For one of the groups, voice offset time provides a reliable phonetic expression of the voicing feature; for the other group, this relationship is less clear-cut. When observed across subjects, stop closure duration is not consistently related to the voiced-voiceless contrast. Finally, the voice onset time parameter is irrelevant to the contrast.
Durational Patterns of Lule Sami Phonology
Authors: Engstrand Olle
Published: November 2009

Four experiments have been conducted to explore durational patterns underlying various aspects of Lule Sami phonology. Experiment 1 (1 subject) demonstrates clear-cut durational correlates of the elaborate quantity system in the language. Experiment 2 (2 subjects) shows that vowel and consonant quantity determines syllable duration in connected speech, and that the number of syllables determines the duration of stress-groups. Thus, perceived speech rhythm is not based on physical isochrony with respect to those units. Experiment 3 (7 subjects) investigates durational correlates of a grammatically functional process known as grade alternation. Grade alternation conditions vowel epenthesis. The epenthetic vowels are found to be syllabic and thus to increase word length (number of syllables in the word). Unexpectedly, syllable duration then turns out to be positively correlated with word length. This, however, seems to be a particular effect of grade alternation since, as shown in experiment 4 (1 subject), Lule Sami recognizes the general tendency for syllable duration to correlate negatively with word length.
Domain-Final Lengthening and Foot-Level Shortening in Spoken English
Authors: Rakerd Brad , Sennett William , Fowler Carol A.
Published: November 2009

The literature describes two kinds of durational influence on the syllables of an utterance. They are a lengthening of syllables before many syntactic boundaries (‘domain-final lengthening’) and a shortening of stressed syllables followed by unstressed syllables (‘foot-level shortening’). In the present study we examined the relationship between these two timing phenomena. In particular, we examined the possibility that syntactic boundaries at which lengthening occurs delimit the domains over which foot-level shortening is realized. To test this hypothesis, we varied the syllabic structure of metrical feet spanning word boundaries that either coincided with a noun-phrase (NP)/verb-phrase (VP) boundary or did not. Comparison of stressed syllable durations in these conditions failed to confirm the hypothesis. Instead, unstressed syllables shortened stressed syllables by the same duration across an NP/VP boundary as within a phrase. Our findings suggest that the two effects are independent. The finding that foot-level shortening spans finally lengthened syntactic boundaries is discussed in relation to theories of the shortening effect.
Some Acoustic and Aerodynamic Characteristics of Pharyngeal Consonants in Iraqi Arabic
Authors: Butcher Andrew , Ahmad Kusay
Published: November 2009

The articulation of pharyngeal consonants in Arabic is still not fully understood. The production of these sounds by a small group of speakers of an Iraqi dialect was analysed by means of acoustic and aerodynamic techniques. It was found that both /ħ/ and /?/ could be said to be produced by a constriction in the pharynx (whereby the possibility of epiglottal involvement cannot be excluded), but that laryngeal tension may also play an important role. Vowels preceded or followed by pharyngeals have lowered and centralized allophones. High rates of airflow for /ħ/ may be facilitated by lowering the velum. Both sounds could be regarded as approximants, formed in a region of the vocal tract where true fricatives are very difficult to produce.
Palatoglossus Activity during Nasal/Nonnasal Vowels of Hindi
Authors: Dixit Prakash , Bell-Berti Fredericka , Harris Katherine S.
Published: November 2009

Prior electromyographic (EMG) research reveals a lack of agreement as to the role of the palatoglossus muscle in speech. Some reports have concluded that it bears primary responsibility for lowering the velum and that it actively controls velar lowering on nasal sounds in speech, whereas others have concluded that it acts to assist in the tongue-body movements associated with the production of back vowels and linguavelar articulations. To clarify these conflicting claims, EMG recordings were obtained from the palatoglossus (as well as the levator palatini) muscle of a native speaker of Hindi who produced CVC nonsense and meaningful syllables containing a nasal or nonnasal vowel in a symmetric consonantal environment. The results showed the following: Palatoglossus activity for the central and back nasal and nonnasal vowels was moderately to considerably higher than for the front nasal and nonnasal vowels. The levels of palatoglossus activity for the back rounded nasal vowels and for the front nasal vowel /ε/ were comparable to those for the corresponding nonnasal vowels, while in all other vowels, the nasal vowels exhibited relatively higher levels of palatoglossus activity than their nonnasal counterparts. In all nonnasal vowels, the increase in palatoglossus activity occurred simultaneously with strong levator palatini activity. On the other hand, in nasal vowels, the increase in palatoglossus activity and the decrease in levator palatini activity were virtually synchronous for the front nasal vowels, while the increase in palatoglossus activity began much earlier than the decline in levator palatini activity for the central and back nasal vowels. This difference in temporal relationship between palatoglossus activation and levator suppression for different vowel types is important since it unambiguously supports the ‘gate-pull’ model (that is, active velar lowering) for the production of front nasal vowels whereas in the case of central and back vowels, nasal and nonnasal, the palatoglossus appears to be primarily involved in moving the tongue-body.
Kinematic Characteristics of Postvocalic Labial Stop Consonants Produced by Children and Adults
Authors: Smith Bruce L. , McLean-Muse Ann
Published: November 2009

It has been commonly observed in the speech of English-speaking adults and children that vowels are longer when they precede voiced versus voiceless final obstruents. However, less is known about articulatory characteristics of such productions, particularly in the case of children. The present study investigated kinematic properties of children’s and adults’ productions of labial stop consonants in postvocalic position. Acoustic measures of the same segments were also obtained. It was observed that for all three groups of children and the adults, closing gestures into [p] occurred more rapidly than did closing gestures into [b]; however, there was a tendency for the difference between [p] and [b] closing velocities to increase with age. Possible relationships between acoustic and kinematic factors were also explored.
‘Metrical’ Factors in the Scaling of Sentence-Initial Accent Peaks
Authors: Ladd D.R. , Johnson Catherine
Published: November 2009

Past studies of declination make contradictory claims about the relationship between the length of an utterance and the height of its first accent peak (P1): Some find a large increase in P1 with increased length, others find little or no increase. A possible explanation for this contradiction is that large increases in P1 occur when the first major constituent of the sentence increases from one accented item to more than one, but not as a function of overall length alone. In an experiment, 1 of 2 speakers behaved in the way just outlined; data from the 2nd speaker supported the more general hypothesis that ‘metrical’ constituent structure is relevant to P1.
A Multidimensional Scaling Study of Esophageal Vowels
Authors: Fox Robert Allen , Trudeau Michael D.
Published: November 2009

A multidimensional scaling experiment was conducted to determine the perceptual structure of 11 American English vowels produced by a competent esophageal speaker. Estimates of perceptual distance among these vowels were obtained using a 9-point similarity/dissimilarity scale and were analyzed using an individual differences scaling algorithm (INDSCAL). A three-dimensional perceptual space was produced. The three perceptual dimensions corresponded to tongue advancement, vowel height, and rhotacization. These three dimensions were then correlated with selected bark scale transformed acoustic vowel measurements. The perceptual dimensions 1–3 corresponded most closely to F3-F2, F1-F₀, and F3, respectively. Little difference was found between the perceptual structure of esophageal vowels and laryngeal vowels, although it is suggested that the correlation between some of the acoustic measures (such as F₀) and the perceptual dimensions may change as a function of individual speaker differences due to postsurgical capabilities (anatomical and physiological) and/or method of voice restoration.
Prediction of Velum Movement from Phonological Specifications
Authors: Vaissière J.
Published: November 2009

The vertical movement of a sample point of the velum surface in sentences uttered by 2 speakers of English has been investigated. The temporal patterns of velum movement were approximated with a series of rules. Our findings suggest (1) that the feature [ ± nasal] alone fails to explain velum height movement patterns; (2) that there are no target values for the velum for vowels (at least in the material under investigation), (3) that prosodic or configurational factors such as intrasyllabic position and stress patterns strongly influence velum height, the speed of velum movement, and the timing of velum gestures, and (4) that the strategies used by the 2 speakers are different with respect to control of movement velocity. We propose a suprasegmental feature [ ± strong] to account for observed movement patterns, including timing relations between velum raising and lowering gestures and articulatory gestures of consonantal articulators such as the lips and the tongue tip.
Some Notes on Syllable Structure in Articulatory Phonology
Authors: Browman Catherine P. , Goldstein Louis
Published: November 2009

Two approaches to seeking stable patterns in the gestural organization of speech are examined: local organization (individual gestures coordinated with other individual gestures) and global organization (gestures forming larger conglomerates). Articulatory evidence from American English words with a variety of initial consonants and clusters shows that syllable-initial consonants form a global organization (indexed by a metric we term the C-center) that is coordinated with the syllable’s vowel gesture. For syllable-final consonants, however, the evidence suggests that a local organization is employed: The first postvocalic consonant gesture is coordinated with the vowel gesture. Implications of these different styles of organization for the perceptual and phonological structure of speech are discussed.
Articulatory Timing and the Prosodic Interpretation of Syllable Duration
Authors: Edwards Jan , Beckman Mary.E
Published: November 2009

A number of different prosodic effects (e. g. intonation-phrase-final position, the presence of stress or accent) increase syllable duration, as conventionally measured by the spacing of abrupt energy transitions in the acoustic signal. However, different prosodic contrasts may have different influences on syllable-internal articulatory organization. The present study examined the time course of vowel-related opening and closing mandibular gestures in four different prosodic contexts. For some prosodic effects, such as intonation-phrase-final lengthening, longer acoustic durations were associated with a disproportionate lengthening of the latter part of the vocalic gesture. By contrast, the presence of nuclear stress was associated with a more even distribution of lengthening throughout the syllable. These results suggest that the rhythmic effects of different prosodic contrasts cannot be adequately modelled in terms of millisecond values or durational ratios for acoustic segments. It is proposed that a suitable phonological representation of the rhythms of stress and phrasing might describe them as the time course of a syllable’s phonetic sonority.
Motor Programs and Hierarchical Organization in the Control of Rapid Speech
Authors: Sternberg Saul , Knoll Ronald L. , Monsell Stephen , Wright Charles E.
Published: November 2009

We provide a summary of our recent research on the control of rapid action sequences in speech production, emphasizing findings about the advance planning and hierarchical organization of such utterances. The effects of number of elements in the utterance (its ‘length’) and other factors on maximum production rates of short utterances lead us to infer that a ‘motor program’ for the whole utterance, prepared in advance, controls the execution of each of its ‘units’. Findings from studies of typewriting as well as speech production have led us to a model in which the performance of each unit is controlled by two processes arranged in sequence: one (subprogram selection) whose duration increases linearly with sequence length, and the other (command) whose duration depends on type of unit. Quantitative aspects of the production of utterances composed of different types of element suggest that the action unit in speech is the stress group or metrical foot. The virtual identity of the timing of word and nonword utterances implies that the utterance program is sufficiently detailed so it can be executed without reference to learned routines for words stored elsewhere in memory. We review our search for properties of performance that are suggested by the model: First, the time from a reaction signal to the first unit (the latency) increases linearly with utterance length. Second, the maximum length utterance controlled by one program depends on unit size. Third, the effect of utterance length on production timing is localized (intermittent), rather than affecting all parts of the articulatory stream. And fourth, the effect of utterance length on production timing appears in just one epoch per unit.
Phonetic Analysis of the Stød in Standard Danish
Authors: Fischer-Jørgensen Eli
Published: November 2009

This paper presents an acoustic and physiological analysis of the Danish ‘stød’ with an introduction on its phonological role and distribution. The stød is a prosodic feature bound to definite syllables in certain word types and connected to the latter part of the syllable. Phonetically it is a phonation type related to creaky voice. The first part of the syllable is characterized acoustically by a higher pitch level and often a higher intensity level than syllables without stød, and by a relatively high subglottal pressure and airflow, thus generally by a relatively high expenditure of energy. In the second part, the stød phase proper, there is a considerable decrease in intensity, particularly in the lower part of the spectrum and, for the majority of the speakers, a noticeable decrease in fundamental frequency, and/or aperiodicity. Moreover the airflow is low, and inverse filtering shows a longer closure time in each vibration. There is also a slight decrease in subglottal pressure, and all speakers have a constriction of the vocal folds and often of the ventricular folds as well, but with large interindividual variation as to the degree of constriction. On the boundary between the first and the second phase most speakers have a strong contraction of the vocalis and lateralis muscles, obviously preparing for the glottal constriction of the second phase. The author cannot follow Svend Smith in concluding that a sudden contraction and relaxation of the respiratory muscles resulting in a quick rise and fall in subglottal pressure constitutes the primary factor. There is, rather, an independent contraction of a number of muscles, and neither the high pitch at the beginning nor the fall in pitch and intensity in the second phase can be explained by the subglottal pressure contour. The high pitch level at the beginning may be explained by activity in the cricothyroid, and the decrease in pitch and the low intensity in the second phase is probably due to constriction of the glottis, although the fact that the decrease in intensity starts rather early raises some problems. Finally the question of the origin of the stød is discussed briefly. It is suggested that the stød in Danish perhaps originated from a reinforcement of the first syllable in combination with reduction and loss of a following syllable in Common Scandinavian. The reinforcement may have been accompanied by a rise in pitch, so that developments in different directions (involving stød or tonal accents) were possible.
Aspects of Final Consonant Production in American English by Nonnative Speakers
Authors: Schmidt Anna Marie
Published: November 2009

This paper describes the production of word-final, utterance-medial /t, d/ in American English by native speakers and by three groups of nonnative speakers of English. Twenty-four nonnative subjects, whose native languages include Arabic, Korean, Spanish, and Thai, were rated by native English speakers as having no accent, a mild accent, or a medium to heavy accent in English. Measurement of five tokens each of /t/ and /d/ for each speaker and for 6 native English speakers were compared. Neither the Americans nor any of the nonnative groups significantly differentiated /t/ from /d/ by closure duration. As strength of accent rating increased, mean closure duration tended to increase. Also, as strength of accent rating increased, implementation of manner of stop consonant production (including flapping and aspirated versus nonaspirated release) tended to change. Results suggest that both duration and the ability to produce a number of durationally different release options in English may affect the degree of perceived foreignness.
Acoustics and Phonology of Complex Tone Sandhi
Authors: Rose Phil
Published: November 2009

This paper presents a detailed acoustic and auditory description of the kind of complex tone sandhi found in the Northern Wu dialects of Chinese. Mean fundamental frequency, amplitude and duration values from many tokens of 1 native speaker of Zhenhai dialect are used to show how the acoustical characteristics of the 6 citation tones can be related to the 20 different forms in disyllabic lexical sandhi. Three phonetically motivated processes are demonstrated in this relationship: stress effects; paradigmatic replacement of pitch and phonation type features on the second syllable, and intrinsic effects associated with the intervocalic consonant, and phonation rate and duration of the first syllable.
Intrinsic F₀ in Tense and Lax Vowels with Special Reference to German
Authors: Fischer-Jørgensen Eli
Published: November 2009

The main purpose of this paper is to show that the observation which is the starting point for almost all attempts at explaining intrinsic fundamental frequency (intrinsic F₀) in vowels, i.e. that it is correlated with vowel height (interpreted as tongue height), does not hold if short lax vowels are included, since they have a considerably lower tongue height but practically the same F₀ as their corresponding tense counterparts. Section 1 contains a discussion of some explanations of intrinsic F₀ and vowel height and a short exposition of its connection with other vowel features. Section 2 gives a survey of the properties of tense and lax vowels based on data from the phonetic literature. Section 3 reports on an investigation of German tense and lax front unrounded vowels, including duration, tongue height, jaw opening, vertical lip opening, formant frequencies, and F₀. Section 4 contains a discussion of various possible explanations of the results.
Do Voice Recordings Reveal whether a Person Is Intoxicated? A Case Study
Authors: Johnson Keith , Pisoni David B. , Bernacki Robert H.
Published: November 2009

In this report we consider the possibility that speech analysis techniques may be used to determine whether an individual was intoxicated at the time that a voice recording was made, and discuss an analysis of the speech produced by the captain of the Exxon Valdez recorded at several points around the time of the accident at Prince William Sound, Alaska. A review of previous research on the effects of alcohol and other effects on speech production suggests that it may be possible to attribute a certain, unique pattern of changes in speech to the influence of alcohol. However, the rate of occurrence of this pattern or the reliability of a decision based on observations such as these is not known. Acoustic-phonetic analysis of a small number of tokens of Captain Hazelwood’s speech recorded before, during and after the accident revealed a number of changes in speech behavior which are similar to the pattern of changes observed in previous laboratory-based research on the effects of alcohol on speech production. We conclude with a discussion of the limitations in making inferences concerning the state of the speaker upon the basis of phonetic data and then discuss several possible explanations of the pattern of change found in the recordings of Captain Hazelwood.
The Effect of Speaking Rate on Evidence for Utterance-Final Lengthening
Authors: Berkovits Rochele
Published: November 2009

The effect of differences in speaking rate on the duration of key words in phrase-final and sentence-final positions was investigated in order to reexamine the absence of utterance-final lengthening in Hebrew. Two native speakers of Hebrew read the original sentences at a relatively slow rate of speaking and at a relatively fast speaking rate. Whereas at the faster rate of speaking, key words in sentence-final position were longer than those in phrase-final position, no evidence for utterance-final lengthening surfaced at the slower rate of speaking. Lengthening in phrase-final position at the slower speaking rate was more than twice that in sentence-final position and occurred independently of pausing. The masking of utterance-final lengthening by phrase-final lengthening at the slower rate of speaking accounts for the original finding of cross-language differences in final lengthening. A relatively small number of pauses were produced following the phrase-final key word at the slower speaking rate, and phrase-final lengthening as a function of a slower tempo was independent of pausing. No differences were found between the magnitude of utterance-final lengthening and lengthening at a slower rate of speaking, indicating that the two processes exert a similar effect on duration.
Predicting the Structure of Phonological Systems
Authors: Beddor Patrice Speeter
Published: November 2009

Do the phonological predictions derived from phonetic models impose restrictions on the definition of’possible phonological system’? This question is addressed by examining the spectral integration model of vowel perception. The output of the model is investigated under a series of phonetic manipulations and translated into a set of phonological predictions, which are then compared against cross-linguistic patterns in vowel processes and inventories. It is argued that, despite the serious constraints on predictive power imposed by language-specific aspects of phonetic and phonological structure, phonetic models such as the spectral integration model enable us to define the set of phonetically motivated phonological phenomena.