bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Adaptive aggregation of regression models for music emotion recognition
Authors: Fukayama Satoru , Goto Masataka
Published: November 2016

We present a method for music emotion recognition which adaptively aggregates regression models. Music emotion recognition is a task to estimate how music affects the emotion of a listener. The approach works by mapping acoustic features into space that represents emotions. Previous research has centered on finding effective acoustic features, or applying a multi-stage regression to aggregate the results obtained by using different acoustic features. However, after training regression models, the aggregation happens in a fixed way and cannot be adapted to acoustic signals with different musical properties. We indicate that the most effective feature in estimation differs depending on what kind of emotion we are estimating, and propose a method that adapts the importance of each feature in estimating the emotion. We exploit the variance obtained with Gaussian process regression to measure the confidence of the estimated result from each regression model. The formula for aggregating results from different regression models is derived through the maximum likelihood estimation. We confirmed with an experiment comparing different aggregation approaches that our adaptive aggregation is effective in improving recognition accuracy.
Toward a real-time parametric percussion instrument based on a waveguide mesh
Authors: Smyth Tamara , Hsu Jennifer
Published: November 2016

In this work, we aim to create a real-time parametric percussion instrument in which tone quality and note duration may be controlled by the user. Though the well-known waveguide mesh can be used to model two-dimensional wave propagation on drum heads of different size/shape, with variable boundary conditions ultimately influencing rate of sound decay, the prohibitive computational cost of its time-domain implementation makes it unsuitable for real-time performance. Here, the square waveguide mesh, having variable size and parametric boundaries, is replaced by its (exactly) equivalent transfer function—the ratio of the output to the input when excited and tapped at its center. The transfer function is obtained by first generating a system of difference equations describing the output of scattering junction ports—a process that is simplified by the symmetry in the square mesh when excited and tapped at its center. The final transfer function is stored for various mesh sizes, with coefficients being represented symbolically as a function of boundary parameters that can be set (for example, according to desired note duration) during real-time performance.
Annoyance due to transportation noises in Vietnam
Authors: Nguyen Thulan , Yano Takashi , Nishimura Tsuyoshi , Sato Tetsumi
Published: November 2016

Though understanding differences in the community response to noise among countries is essential to an effective implementation of noise policies, very little noise annoyance data have been accumulated in countries outside Europe and North America. To contribute to Vietnamese and global noise policies, socio-acoustic surveys on the community response to transportation noise have been carried out in Vietnam since 2005. A total of around 9,900 responses were obtained from these surveys. In this paper, a method of drawing exposure-response curves for noise annoyance in Vietnam is presented. Representative exposure-response relationships are proposed for road traffic and aircraft noise annoyance in Vietnam and compared with those of Europe and Korea. The results show that the aircraft noise annoyance curve for Vietnam was slightly higher than the curve obtained by the EU but considerably lower than that for Korea. Vietnamese respondents were less annoyed by road traffic noise than respondents in Europe and Korea. The frequency of use and the attitude to motorbikes and airplanes were found to moderate noise annoyance in Vietnam. This study also shows a method to quantify the difference in the prevalence of annoyance measured by five-point verbal and 11-point numerical scales.
Community response to aircraft noise: A step-change study around Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport
Authors: Nguyen Linh T. , Nguyen Lan T. , Yano Takashi , Nishimura Tsuyoshi , Sato Tetsumi , Morinaga Makoto , Yamada Ichiro
Published: November 2016

A new terminal building in Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport (Vietnam) opened in December 2014 enhanced the capacity of serving more flights, entailing a step-change in aircraft noise exposure. Three social surveys were conducted around the airport in September 2014, March 2015, and September 2015 to study such a circumstance. Albeit the number of flights increased about 21-24% after the opening of the new terminal, aircraft noise exposure (Lden) stayed during the two first surveys (44, 45—66 dB) but increased in the last survey (49—69 dB). Also, noise level at particular sites varied considerably among surveys, especially at sites located near the airport. Curves of exposure—response relationships of three surveys were drawn by using logistic regression. The curve for the second survey fits on the first one with approximately 5% higher while the last survey’s curve is remarkably steeper than others. All three curves of this study located above and notably steeper than the curve of EU’s position paper, which means people in Hanoi were more annoyed than people in EU. One of the worth mentioning factors for causing these outcomes was the re-operation of the runways which was closed for maintenance since August to December 2014.
Centerline rumble strip sound level evaluation—Comparison of four designs
Authors: Braslau David , Terhaar Edward , Fleming Katie
Published: November 2016

Results of sound level monitoring of four alternative centerline sinusoidal rumble strip designs are discussed: a single strip 14 inches wide and a double strip of two 8 inch wide strips 4 inches apart each with depths—3/8 inch or ½ inch. These results supplement those presented at the Pittsburgh 2015 meeting (3aNS5). Tests were performed at 60 mph with three different vehicles—passenger car, pickup truck, and a six-wheel heavy maintenance truck. One-third octave band sound levels were taken 50 and 75 feet from the edge of the roadway, as well as inside the vehicle. Digital audio recordings were also taken. The single 14 inch design with ½ inch depth was recommended for implementation by MnDOT since it provided good driver feedback but less exterior noise than the other designs for passenger cars but also good results for pickup trucks, a significant portion of the vehicle fleet. Based upon an evaluation of alternative rumble strips by motorcycles and bicycles at the MnROAD test facility, the single strip was also found more desirable. However, it was recommended that, in areas where there is extreme sensitivity to exterior rumble strip noise, the shallower 3/8 inch design would still provide adequate driver feedback.
Higway traffic noise effects on annoyance
Authors: Ongel Aybike , Ilicali Mustafa , Oguz Didem , Ogutmen Betul , Guvenc Tolga , Sayar Nurten
Published: November 2016

Noise pollution has been a major issue in the last decade. Noise was shown to cause adverse health effects including noise-induced hearing impairment, annoyance, sleep disturbance, and cardiovascular diseases. Transportation noise has been the most common one among all noise sources in urban areas. A study has been initiated in Istanbul, Turkey in order to evaluate the effects of highway noise on annoyance and myocardial infarction. A total of 2000 surveys will be conducted in 6 hospitals in Istanbul. The highway noise levels are obtained from the noise maps prepared by Environmental Protection Department of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. This manuscript presents the highway noise exposure levels in Istanbul and early findings regarding the annoyance effects of highway traffic noise.
Multilevel modeling of recent community noise annoyance surveys
Authors: Hayward Maurice E. , Rathsam Jonathan , Wilson D. K. , Nykaza Edward T. , Wayant Nicole M.
Published: November 2016

Large scatter in community noise annoyance survey data has recently been linked to systematic variations in noise tolerance. We hypothesize that noise tolerance is related to secondary factors, including environmental (e.g., population density, ambient noise) and attitudinal (e.g., noise sensitivity). If noise tolerance and secondary factors can be linked, the secondary factors provide a means to generalize noise annoyance from surveyed communities to non-surveyed communities. This approach would be useful for generalizing annoyance caused by quiet supersonic flight or military blast noise from a limited number of surveyed communities to other locations. A simple multilevel modeling approach (D.K. Wilson, et al. “Community noise annoyance: Connecting regression methodologies and theoretical models,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 139(4), 1983 (2016)) offers a useful framework to study the relationship between noise tolerance and secondary factors. The framework has already been applied to historic survey data on transportation noise annoyance. However, the historic surveys contain limited secondary factor information. This presentation applies the multilevel modeling approach to two recent community surveys about which more secondary factors are known. The first survey was conducted on a community exposed to quiet sonic booms. The second survey was conducted on multiple communities exposed to military blast noise.
Individual differences in judging the annoyance of the sounds of helicopters
Authors: Luz George A. , Miller Nicholas P.
Published: November 2016

A rarely used procedure for studying aviation noise annoyance is asking people ro rate indiviidual aircraft events experienced in their homes. Our study employs this procedure with five subjects who self-identified as “highly annoyed” by helicopters. Subjects lived within 400 m of each other. Flights were recorded at three homes over a 10 day survey period during which subjects registered their judgments on a cell phone app with which a subject initiated a survey by tapping “hear a helicopter.” Questions included location (indoors/outdoors), window position (open/closed), annoyance (5 pt scale), loudness (3 pt scale), and house rattles (3 pt scale). Recordings corresponding to completed surveys were analyzed for ASEL, CSEL, subjective and objective duration, loudness, loudness level, fluctuation strength, and roughness. Stepwise regression was used to find the most robust predictors of annoyance. The data confirmed the importance of ASEL and/or measures of loudness as predictors. Compared with in-home observers in a 1983 study at Oklahoma City Airport, these subjects showed a sharp increase in high annoyance when the SEL exceeded 90 dBA.
Influence of visual information presentation method and sound presentation method on subjective evaluation of boat traffic noise
Authors: Hosono Suguru , Muto Kenji , Tokunaga Yasunobu
Published: November 2016

Information on the acoustic environment such as the engine noise of cruising boat on the canal is necessary for town planning. Miyagawa has investigated the influence of the visual of a sound source on an impression of the sound. The study has evaluated the shift on the impression of the sound by the visual stimulus. We focus on human subjective evaluation of the noise stimulus of moving source in this study. Our objective is to clarity the influence of visual information on the subjective evaluation of one moving boat noise. In this experiment, we examined the subjective evaluation of the moving source comparison between the stimulus of the sound and the stimulus of the sound and visual in the case of moving boat noise. This experiment used a 24-inch monitor, a headphone, or loudspeakers. The sound pressure level of 42–70 dB. As the result, the value of subjective evaluation was decreased by the moving source of loud boat noise, in the case of visual information of the moving boat.
Large eddy simulations of acoustic waves generated from hot and cold supersonic jets at Mach 2.0
Authors: Nakano Hiroaki , Nonomura Taku , Oyama Akira , Mamori Hiroya , Fukushima Naoya , Yamamoto Makoto
Published: November 2016

Strong acoustic waves are generated from the rocket plumes in the supersonic jet condition. The acoustic waves are significantly affected by temperature of jets. In this study, we perform large eddy simulations of the acoustic waves generated from the hot and cold jets. The temperature ratio of chamber to ambient air is set to be 4.0 and 1.0 for the hot and cold jets, respectively. Mach waves are radiated from the region close to the nozzle exit. In the hot jet case, we confirmed that the shorter potential core length, the larger angle of Mach waves, and the higher sound pressure level, as compared with those in the cold jet case.
Quantitative evaluation of the acoustic waves generated by a supersonic impinging jet
Authors: Kato Daisuke , Nonomura Taku , Oyama Akira
Published: November 2016

Strong acoustic waves are generated when rocket launch. The accurate prediction of these acoustic waves are important for the design of the rocket launch site because the acoustic waves possibly damage the payload. However, it is difficult for numerical simulation to predict accurately because the numerical simulation overestimatesthe strength of acoustic wave by several decibels compared to that observed in the experiment. The objective the present study is to obtain the knowledge for quantitative evaluation of the acoustic waves generated from supersonic impinging jet. According to the free jet studies, the reason for difference between numerical simulations and experiments in acoustic field is considered to be turbulence intensity in nozzle exit. Thus, the flow inside the nozzle is calculated, together with the turbulent disturbance is added to the boundary layer. In the numerical simulation, three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved with the high resolution shock capturing scheme (WCNS). The effects of the acoustic field on nozzle internal inflow condition of supersonic impinging jet are maninly discussed.
Noise measurements of the F-35C on an aircraft carrier flight deck
Authors: Abouzahra Nourhan K. , Wall Alan T. , McKinley Richard L. , Swayne Billy J. , Smith Michael J. , Aubert Allan C.
Published: November 2016

In 2015, scientists from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in collaboration with other teams performed noise measurements of the F-35C aircraft aboard a Nimitz-class carrier. The purpose of the measurements was to quantify the crewmembers’ exposure to noise. The measurements were taken using hand-held noise recorder systems, and the recording engineers shadowed actual locations of crew. The near-field noise levels caused by aircraft are reported in the areas experienced by crew on board aircraft carriers. High noise levels can interfere with communications and may pose a risk for hearing loss. These data represent a unique measurement; the previous measurement of aircraft noise from catapult launches and wire arrestments aboard a carrier occurred more than 15 years ago.
Better-ear glimpsing with symmetrically-placed interferers in bilateral cochlear implant users
Authors: Hu Hongmei , Dietz Mathias , Ewert Stephan D.
Published: November 2016

For a frontal speaker in spatially symmetrically placed maskers, normal hearing (NH) listeners can use an optimal “better-ear glimpsing” strategy selecting time-frequency segments with favorable signal-to-noise ratio in either ear. It was shown that for a monaural signal, obtained by an ideal monaural better-ear mask (IMBM), NH listeners can reach similar performance as in the binaural condition, but interaural phase differences at low frequencies can further improve performance. In principle, bilateral cochlear implant (BiCI) users could use a glimpsing strategy; however, they cannot exploit (temporal fine structure) interaural phase differences. Here, speech reception thresholds of NH and BiCI listeners were measured in two symmetric maskers (±60°; speech-shaped stationaty noise, non-sense speech, single talker) using head-related transfer functions and headphone presentation or direct stimulation in BiCI listeners. Furthermore, a statistically independent masker in each ear, diotic presentation with IMBM processing, and a noise vocoder based on the BiCI electrodogram was used in NH. Results indicate that NH with vocoder and BiCI listeners show a strongly reduced binaural benefit in the ±60° condition relative to the co-located condition when compared to NH. However, both groups greatly benefit from IMBM processing (as part of the CI stimulation strategy). Individual differences are compared.
Comparison between individualization methods of spatialization for bone conducted sound in navigation task for walking subjects
Authors: Fujise Akiko , Paradiso Joseph A.
Published: November 2016

Recent work in human-machine interaction and audiology has indicated the effectiveness of using spatialized bone conduction (BC) hearing in augmented reality (AR) environments. For broader applications, individualization methods are preferred, as they require simpler computation and measurement, despite the fact that spatial hearing for BC is not yet well investigated at individual levels. Accordingly, this study examines different individualization techniques for spatial audio using BC applied to a navigation task with a moving virtual sound object in external noise, which simulates a common situation in AR environments. The tested methods include one based on individually measured head-related transfer functions (HRTFs), generic HRTFs, and a modified version based on these. Subjects are instructed to follow a virtual sound source presented from the BC headphones while walking. The virtual sound source is updated so that the source is located ahead of the subject according to the subject’s location and head rotation tracked by the motion capture system. The subjects’ performance are evaluated as the error of the subjects’ actual path from the simulated pathway. Results are discussed on the comparison between individualization methods and in regards to recent reports on sound localization in BC hearing without the listener’s body movement.
A new radial flexible acoustic metamaterial plate
Authors: Gao Nansha
Published: November 2016

This paper presents the low frequency acoustic properties of a new proposed acoustic metamaterial, which is arranged under axial coordinate. Band structures, transmission spectra, and eigenmode displacement fields are different from previous acoustic metamaterial structures. Numerical calculation results show that first order band gap of radial flexible acoustic metamaterial plate is below 100 Hz. Multiple vibrations coupling mechanism is proposed to explain the low frequency band gaps. Radial flexible acoustic metamaterial plate can restrain low frequency vibration, which can potentially be applied to infrasound protection, generate filters, and design acoustic devices.
Experimental measurement of the Willis coupling coefficient in a one-dimensional system
Authors: Muhlestein Michael B. , Sieck Caleb F. , Wilson Preston S. , Haberman Michael R.
Published: November 2016

The primary objective of acoustic metamaterial research is to design subwavelength systems that behave as effective materials with novel acoustical properties. Willis coupling is one such property. Initially described by J. R. Willis [Wave Motion 3, pp. 1-11 (1981)], subwavelength structural asymmetry and/or nonlocal effects couple the stress-strain relation to the momentum-velocity relation. This coupling is absent in typical materials. While various theoretical models have predicted the existence of Willis coupling, experimental observation of Willis coupling has not, to our knowledge, been reported in the literature. We present here the first experimental evidence of Willis coupling in a one-dimensional unit cell consisting of a 0.12-mm-thick polyimide membrane under tension, a 5.9-mm-thick layer of air, and a perforated sheet of 0.45-mm-thick paper (perforation surface fraction 0.48, circular holes 3.1 mm in diameter). The properties of the unit cell were extracted using reflection and transmission data measured in a plane-wave impedance tube operating in the long-wavelength limit relative to the unit cell dimensions. The measured material properties, including the Willis coupling coefficient, are in good agreement with the properties predicted using a transmission line model. [Work supported by ONR.]
Experimental realization of acoustic double zero index metamaterials
Authors: Shi Chengzhi , Dubois Marc , Zhu Xuefeng , Wang Yuan , Zhang Xiang
Published: November 2016

Acoustic double zero index metamaterial with simultaneous zero density and infinite bulk modulus induced by Dirac cone at the Brillouin zone center provide a practical solution for applications. The resulted finite impedance of this metamaterial can be designed to match with surrounding materials. However, such metamaterial consists of scatterers with lower sound speed than the matrix, which is fundamentally challenging for air acoustics because the sound speed in air is among the lowest in nature. Here, we experimentally realize double zero index metamaterial by periodically varying waveguide thickness, which modulates the speed sound of high order waveguide mode. With proper designed dimensions of the scatterers, a Dirac cone at 18.7 kHz formed by the degeneracy of one monopolar and two dipolar modes at the Brillouin zone center is obtain. The monopolar mode modulates the bulk modulus and the dipolar modes modulate the density, resulting in simultaneous zero density and infinite bulk modulus. In our experiment, a point source is mounted at the center of our metamaterial sample. The double zero index metamaterial collimates the wave emitted from the point source to a planar wavefront at 18.7 kHz. This point source in a pure waveguide emits cylindrical wave. The experimental result shows that the amplitude of the collimated plane wave is confined within 11±1 degrees, closed to the theoretical limit 10.6 degrees.
Acoustic phonetic study of phonemes and tonemes of spoken Punjabi language
Authors: Agrawal Shyam S. , Bansal Shweta , Saran Shambhu , Singh Amritpal
Published: November 2016

Punjabi language is one of the important languages among 22 official languages in India. It is spoken by about 105 million people in India. The present paper describes a study and results of detailed acoustic analysis of vowels, consonantal phonemes and tonemes as spoken by the speakers of Malwai dialect of Punjabi language. A database of 1500 words containing all the phonemes and tonemes, selected from a text corpus of 300,000 words were used for the study. These words were recorded and segmented by usingsignal processing tools to analyze the samples of speech. Fundamental frequency, first three formants, and bandwidths for nasal and non-nasal vowels were measured. For the study of consonants, duration of sub-phonemic segments such as occlusion, burst, and VOT have been computed and compared. Special features of tonemes have been studied and compared with non-tonal phonemic segments. Tones are fully phonemic and words with similar spellings are distinguished by varying tones: low, mid, and high and corresponding accent marks. It has been observed that intonation plays a significant role in the discrimination of phonemes and tonemes. These results can be used to create PLS and phonetic dictionary of Punjabi speech.
The effect of context on the articulation of harmonic vowels in Assamese: An ultrasound study
Authors: Archangeli Diana , Yip Jonathan
Published: November 2016

Tongue root (TR) harmony in Assamese affects high back vowels and mid vowels (Mahanta 2007). The description (based on perception and limited acoustic measurements) is that Assamese shows the following five properties.—Constrast: TR contrasts in monosyllabic words. — [bel] “bell” vs. [bɛl] “stupid person”—Harmony: Vowels agree with a following vowel, e.g., triggered by suffixes. — [nomori] “not-die.non-finite” vs. [nɔmɔra] “not-die.habitual.non-finite”—CC-blocking: Harmony crosses one consonant only, no harmony in __CCi vs. harmony in __Ci. — [bɔnti] “lamp” vs. [nomori] “not-die.non-finite"—N-blocking: There is no harmony in [….ɔNi…] (*[…oNi…], N = any nasal). — [kʰɔmir] “leavening agent” vs. [nomori] “not-die.non-finite"—Idiosyncrasy: /a/, which otherwise does not harmonize, appears as [e]/[o] before an idiosyncratic set of suffixes. — [kɔpal] “destiny” vs. [kopolija] “destined.” This ultrasound study explores Assamese vowel articulation to determine the nature of tongue position in different harmonic contexts, based on data collected in Assam from 10 subjects. Limitations of ultrasound technology prevented a clear image of the tongue root; indirect measures based on tongue dorsum height and backness are used instead. Results confirm perceptual/acoustic descriptions, showing a contrast in tongue position in all contexts: (i) Contrast, (ii) Harmony, (iii) CC-blocking, (iv) N-blocking, and (v) Idiosyncrasy.
An acoustic analysis of morphological glottalization in Hul’q’umi’num’ Salish
Authors: Baetscher Kevin M.
Published: November 2016

Glottalization is lexically contrastive for both obstruents and resonants in Hul’q’umi’num’ Salish. Glottalization of resonants is also a morphological process involved in the marking of progressives forms, among others. In these forms, all non-initial resonants (but not obstruents) become glottalized. This study investigates the question of whether the glottalization involved in the formation of progressives is a process that affects resonants locally, or whether glottalization as a feature is applied to the whole word. To this end, the glottal pulse periods of vowels in progressive forms have been measured and compared to modal schwas, to see whether glottalization in these words applies to vowels, as well. The results are negative and thus support the hypothesis that morphological glottalization (at least of progressive forms in Hul’q’umi’num’) applies to resonants only, as opaque as this may appear from a phonological point of view.
Contextual place neutralization of nasal codas in Taiwanese Mandarin: An Elecrtomagentic Articulography Study
Authors: Chang Yuehchin , Yeh Yi
Published: November 2016

It has long been noted that /in/ and /iŋ/ are neutralized to either [in] or [iŋ] in Taiwanese Mandarin. This study aims at investigating this phenomenon and more generally, coarticulatory patterns of VN rimes ([an] and [aŋ] here) from articulatory perspectives. Kinematic data from two speakers were collected using an NDI Wave. Regarding /in/ vs. /iŋ/, a principle components analysis (PCA) was conducted to see if a specific flesh point is more positively (or negatively) related to the distinction of the tongue contours. For the female speaker, Tongue Tip (TT)-height is most positively correlated, whereas Tongue Dorsum (TD)-height is most positively correlated for the male speaker. Regarding the nasal rimes with /a/, TD-height is most positively correlated for the male speaker, while TT-backness is most negatively correlated for the female speaker. The main findings are: (i) the contextual neutralization of place contrasts in nasal codas is not articulatorily confirmed, that is, the phenomenon in question is better characterized as incomplete neutralization, (ii) there is inter-speaker variation in the implementation of articulatory gestures and (iii) “anomalous” tongue shapes are found in the production of [iŋ], suggesting that the actual coarticulatory patterns within VN rimes are more complicated than previously thought. These obtained data will also be compared with the acoustic and airflow data reported in our previous studies.
The vowel system of Nasa Yuwe
Authors: Demolin Didier , Amelot Angélique , Crevier-Buchman Lise , Rojas Tulio , Diaz Esteban
Published: November 2016

Nasa Yuwe (sometimes referred as Paes) is a language spoken in Colombia. The vowel system has four vowels timbers [i, e, a, u] that can be oral or nasal (short and long); breathy, breathy nasal; glottal, glottal nasal. This makes a total of 32 contrastive vowels. This study examines the acoustic and articulatory characteristics of each type of vowel. Data come from synchronized acoustic, EGG and fiberscopic measurements. A special focus is given to the acoustic and articulatory features of breathy and glottal vowels. The breathy character appears in the last part of the vowel. This is realized by a slightly wider opening between the vocal folds or by an aperture between the arytenoids. The glottal character of the vowels also appears at the end. The data clearly show that glottal vowels are different from a laryngalized counterpart. Spectrographic and EGG observations show irregularities towards the end glottal vowels. These are followed by a closure or a stricture made either at the glottis or in the epilaryngeal tube. Fiberscopic and EGG data show that there is a glottal closure at the end of these vowels. This closure precedes a closure of the ventricular bands.
A nasograph and fibrescopic analysis of nasal diphtongs in Brazilian Portuguese
Authors: Demasi Rita , Amelot Angélique , Crevier-Buchman Lise , Demolin Didier
Published: November 2016

This paper examines velum movements during the production of front and back nasal diphtongs [ẽĩ], [ãõ] in Brazilian Portuguese. Velum movements were measured with a female speaker from Sao Paulo using a nasograph and fibrescopic video-recordings synchronized with acoustic recordings. The nasal diphthongs were always situated at the end of a syllable in real words containing nasal diphthongs. Contrasting oral diphthongs were also recorded for comparison. Our results show that there is a nasal appendix the end of the nasal diphthongs. This is made by a contact between the tongue dorsum and the velum. These observation are based on nasograph and fibrescopic data. They confirm previous measurements made by EMA and aerodynamic measurements with the same subject. This appendix is sometimes perceived as a short velar nasal consonant. The duration of nasal appendix is slightly different when front and back nasal diphthongs are compared. Data also show that the lowering of the Velum occurs gradually for a nasal diphthong. This can start at any time during the first part of the diphthong.
Velar flutter does not Occur on Persian radico-uvular /G/ sound: Case reports
Authors: Eshghi Marziye , Zajac David J.
Published: November 2016

Nasal turbulence with velar flutter is an obligatory symptom that occurs during production of high-pressure sounds due to a partially closed velopharyngeal (VP) port. A small VP gap creates air-pressure high enough to set the marginal edges of the velum into vibration. The flutter component is characterized spectrally by low frequencies (Zajac & Preisser, 2015) and vibratory activity through auto-correlation functions (Eshghi et al., 2015). In this study, two speech-language pathologists independently listened to the audio recordings of stops produced by two Persian-speaking children (1 male, 8 yrs and 1 female, 9 yrs) with repaired cleft palate. Speech samples consisted of Persian plosives including /p, b, t, d, k, g, G/. The two listeners achieved 100% agreement that velar flutter occurred on all stops except /G/, a voiced radico-uvular sound. Spectral evaluation indicated characteristics of flutter were present during all stops except for /G/. It is hypothesized that tissue vibration was inhibited during the production of /G/ due to the the tongue making contact with the posterior part of the soft palate and/or uvula. The findings provide cross-linguistic evidence in support of tissue vibration (velar flutter) rather than displacement of mucous (bubbling) as the primary perceptual component of nasal turbulence.
Voiceless vowels in Miyako
Authors: Ford Catherine , Tucker Benjamin V. , Ono Tsuyoshi
Published: November 2016

The present study investigates the nature of vowel devoicing in Miyako, a Ryukyuan language spoken on remote Japanese islands near Taiwan. High vowels in Japanese are commonly described as being devoiced after voiceless consonants in two environments: 1) before a voiceless consonant, 2) at the end of a word (Shibatani 1990). Being a Japonic language, Miyako is also described as having a similar phenomenon but devoices all vowels in its phonemic inventory /i, ɨ, ɑ, u/ (Hayashi 2013). Data from several speakers suggests that there may be cases of vowel deletion as well. Current data suggest vowel deletion between two voiceless consonants, creating the potential for consonant clusters in Miyako—something that is said not to occur in Japanese. The acoustic nature of voiceless vowels in Miyako is investigated using both elicited data and discourse data. Data were collected from the Ikema Island community, limiting data to the Ikema dialect. Data were analyzed in Praat to determine whether potential voiceless vowels are indeed devoiced or deleted. The present investigation contributes to our overall understanding of the nature of vowel devoicing/deletion in a highly under-documented language Miyako and Ryukyuan languages in general.
Oral/nasal airflow during Japanese stop consonants
Authors: Fujimoto Masako , Kataoka Reiko
Published: November 2016

Voiced obstruents have inherent susceptibility for devoicing due to the Aerodynamic Voicing Constraints (AVC), and the susceptibility is higher for geminate obstruents than singletons. As a way to investigate how Japanese speakers realize the contrast between the [ + /-voice] contrast in obstruents, we examined oral and nasal airflow patterns during intervocalic voiced and voiceless stops, in singletons and geminates. The results showed asymmetry between single and geminate stops in realization of the stop voicing contrast. Airflow pattern clearly differentiates voiced vs. voiceless contrast in singletons, but the airflow patterns are similar in geminates. Acoustic signals also shows the same asymmetry between the singletons and geminates. The observed convergence—clear voicing contrast in singletons vs. the lack of the contrast in geminates both in air flow and acoustic signals indicate neutralization of the voiced geminates into voiceless ones. Our results support the idea of phonetic bases in phonological patterning of voicing neutralization in Japanese geminate stops.
Pitch accent and vocal effort in Japanese
Authors: Iwai Ryota , Lee Ho-Young
Published: November 2016

It is implicitly assumed that each mora is pronounced with similar vocal effort in Japanese. Our intuition, however, is that the first or second mora is pronounced with the greatest vocal effort. This paper aims to verify this observation by analyzing vocal effort parameters CPP and H1-A3. We prepared two sets of real words and two sets of nonce words, each set consisting of 3 two mora words, 4 three mora words and 5 four mora words, varying the position and existence of pitch accent. Twelve subjects aged 21-39 participated in the recording. They read randomized test words 6 times. The result of the H1-A3 measurement shows that the first mora is significantly pronounced with the greatest vocal effort irrespective of the place and existence of pitch accent. The results of the CPP measurement show that the initial accented mora is pronounced with the greatest vocal effort, and that the second mora is pronounced with greater vocal effort than the first one if the first mora is not accented. The non-initial moras of three or four mora words are pronounced with similar vocal effort if the third or fourth mora is accented or a test word is unaccented.
Acoustic characteristics of liquid geminates in Japanese
Authors: Morimoto Maho
Published: November 2016

Japanese contrasts consonant length. Much research has been done on the acoustic characteristics of obstruent geminates in Japanese, identifying the constriction duration as the primary acoustic correlate. The ratios of the duration of the consonants and the surrounding vowels have also been investigated, and it was pointed out that the ratios differ from some other languages with distinctive consonant length, such as Italian. The present study examines the acoustics of liquid geminates in Japanese. Phonological phenomena in Japanese such as verb inflection demonstrate that the language dislikes liquid geminates. However, while not as common as obstruent or nasal geminates, liquid geminates are not impossible; they are present in certain loanwords and emphatic expressions. I report on the acoustic correlates of liquid geminates focusing on consonant sonority and consonant-vowel ratio, in three environments controlled for vowel quality and pitch-accent position: namely, loanwords (mostly from Italian and Arabic), emphatic forms of adjectives (e.g., karai “spicy” > karrai) and emphatic forms of onomatopoeic expressions (e.g., garagara “expresses emptiness” > garragara), pronounced by three native speakers of Tokyo dialect of Japanese in laboratory settings.
Acoustics of phonation types and tones in Santiago Laxopa Zapotec
Authors: Adler Jeffrey M. , Morimoto Maho
Published: November 2016

Zapotec languages are known for their complex tonal and phonation systems. Fieldwork in Santiago Laxopa Zapotec (SLZ), an undocumented language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico, suggests the implementation of six tones (high, mid, low, high-falling, mid-falling and rising) and four phonation types (modal, creaky, checked and breathy). We report on the reliability of acoustic measures such as (H1-H2) and (H1-A1), which have previously been reported to characterize phonation types. Spectral measurements including H1, H2 (first and second harmonics), A1 (amplitude of F1) and A2 (amplitude of F2) are taken from vowels in near minimal pairs controlled for tones and quality. We also report on the relative implementation of tone and phonation. Silverman (1997) argues that languages with contrastive tone and phonation optimize the realization of laryngeal events such that non-modal vowels have a modal portion where the tonal event is implemented. We discuss if Silverman’s predictions are borne out in SLZ.
Durational and spectral differences in Thai diphthongs and final glides
Authors: Man-khongdi Phongphat , Onsuwan Chutamanee , Tantibundhit Charturong
Published: November 2016

Acoustic analysis was conducted to compare Thai monophthongs /i, ii, Ɯ, ƜƜ, u, uu, a, aa/, diphthongs /ia, Ɯa, ua/, and vowel-to-glides (vowel + /j/or /w/) in terms of duration, formant frequency, and spectral rate of change (TLroc). Preliminary results from multiple repetitions of 30 target monosyllabic words (from 3 males) show that durational values of long monophthongs are approximately two times as long as the short counterparts. The diphthong onsets (/i/, /Ɯ/, /u/) and offsets (/a/) as part of diphthongs appear to be more centralized than when they occur in monophthongs. Syllables with final glides appear to be longer than those with other final consonants, reducing length differences between syllables with short and long vowels. Interestingly, not only that Thai diphthongs and vowel-to-glides differ in their articulatory trajectories, but they appear to differ in terms of duration and TLroc values. Average duration of diphthongs is shorter than that of vowel-to-glides. TLroc of diphthongs is on average higher than that of long-vowel-to-glides, but lower than short-vowel-to-glides. Taken together, our preliminary results suggest and agree with the notion that transition of diphthongs is usually slower and more gradual than that of vowel-to-glides.
The phonological preparation unit in the production of English words by Korean learners
Authors: Oh Sujin , Han Jeong-Im
Published: November 2016

This study investigated how speakers of two languages differing in phonological preparation unit in planning spoken words encode a functional unit of their second language (L2). It was shown that the first phoneme of a word is a functional unit in English, whereas Korean has a strong syllable but not onset phoneme effects. Two groups of native Korean speakers depending on their length of residence in English-speaking countries were asked to name pictures in English, and the names shared the same onsets, rhymes, or had nothing systematically in common. The results showed that 1) no onset effect was shown regardless of length of residence, suggesting that L2 learners’ phonological preparation unit is influenced by their native language functional unit; and 2) there was a rhyme interference effect regardless of length of residence, probably due to lexical competition. However, upon close inspection of the results of individual speakers, L2 learners are able to attend to the target language unit if they are extensively exposed to L2 phonology.
Contact effects on voice-onset time in Patagonian Welsh
Authors: Sleeper Morgan
Published: November 2016

The effects of language contact extend well beyond lexical borrowings and can include morphosyntactic, phonetic, and phonological changes over time (Thomason & Kaufman 1998). One especially common outcome of long-term contact is phonetic transfer (Matras 2009:222). The Welsh spoken in Patagonia, in close contact with Spanish for the past 150 years, offers one potential example: Jones (1984) observes that younger Patagonian Welsh speakers may be developing unaspirated voiceless stops /p t k/ as a result of Spanish contact. This paper explores this hypothesis through a quantitative study of voice-onset time (VOT) of the Welsh voiceless stops /p t k/ in contemporary conversational speech data from Patagonia and Wales, from male and female speakers in three age groups (0-29, 30-59, and 60 + ). Results show that the tendencies reported by Jones (1984) have held true, and in fact have generalized to become a feature of Patagonian Welsh for speakers of all ages: Patagonian speakers produce the Welsh stops /p t k/ with significantly shorter VOT values than speakers from Wales. These results shed light on an important distinguishing phonetic feature of this understudied variety of Welsh, as well as the dynamics of language contact in action.
A preliminary ultrasound study of apical consonants in stressed and unstressed position in Arrernte
Authors: Tabain Marija
Published: November 2016

In this study, we present ultrasound data from four female speakers of the Australian language Arrernte. We focus on the apical consonants—alveolar /t n l/ and retroflex /ʈ ɳ ɭ/—in stressed and unstressed position. Previous articulatory results for the Arrernte stops using electropalatography and electro-magnetic articulography (for two of the speakers in the current study) showed that the tongue is most retracted for the retroflex in unstressed prosodic context, but that both apicals have a more advanced tongue position in stressed context. In addition, jaw position was highest for the alveolar in stressed position, and lowest for the retroflex in unstressed position. Current ultrasound results show that the rear-most portion of the tongue is consistently further back for the retroflex in unstressed position. This result confirms our previous conclusion that the most prototypical retroflex is the one found in the weaker prosodic position. By contrast, the stressed retroflex has a more forward position of the rear-most portion of the tongue, while the stressed and unstressed alveolar consonants show varying patterns depending on speaker and on manner class. Results are discussed in light of the variability that is often found for apical articulations in Australian languages.
Implosives in Jakarta Indonesian
Authors: Tanaka Yu
Published: November 2016

Some Jakarta Indonesian speakers produce implosives as allophones of the voiced stops /b/ and /d/. Implosives are typically characterized by increasing voicing amplitude during closure, shorter closure duration and/or creaky phonation of the following vowel, but their actual realization shows much variation across languages (see Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996; Lindau 1984). This study investigates the acoustic properties of Indonesian implosives. Thirty-three native speakers of Jakarta Indonesian were recorded. Each speaker produced one hundred words with initial /b/, /d/ or /p/ in different vowel contexts (e.g. /baik/, /biru/) embedded in carrier phrases. A trained phonetician judged whether each case of /b/ and /d/ in their speech was imploded or not. I measured the voicing amplitude and duration of each target stop and the creakiness of the following vowel by means of harmonic amplitude differences such as H1-H2 (Keating et al. 2010). A preliminary analysis reveals that stops judged as implosives generally had more increasing voicing amplitude than those judged as modal plosives. The former also had a shorter duration and their following vowels had relatively low H1-H2 and H1-A2 values, which indicates creakier phonation. The analysis also shows that implosivization is more likely to occur before a non-high back vowel.
Voice onset time in Cantonese women across the menstrual cycle
Authors: Li Chi Him
Published: November 2016

This study explores the relationship between voice onset time (VOT) and the menstrual cycle in Cantonese women from Hong Kong. While researchers have investigated how fertility may be related to voice pitch, its connection with VOT is much less understood, let alone that in the non-English speaking population. To fill this gap, a production experiment is conducted to look at VOT in eight Cantonese women at two phases of their menstrual cycle (Day 1—5: low estrogen and progesterone level; Day 18—25: high estrogen and progesterone level). Target words contrast in place of articulation (/p, t, k/) and tone (High vs. Low). Results show that VOT is longer during the high fertility phase, in line with previous studies. Subsequently, voice quality of the speech data will be analyzed using standard measures (e.g., H1-H2, H1-A1, jitter, shimmer, and harmonicity) to shed light on how longer VOT may be associated with other feminine phonatory strategies. These results are discussed in relation to current theories of vocal attractiveness.
A sociophonetic study of the effect of gender on emphatic-plain contrast in Jordanian Arabic
Authors: Alzoubi Abdulaziz
Published: November 2016

Mixed results are reported in the literature concerning the status of gender, as social factor, as a predictor of the degree of emphatic-plain contrast in Jordanian Arabic. The present study argues that these mixed results could be an outcome paying no or little attention to demographic factors, more specifically; the original regional dialect subjects belonged to before settling in Jordanian cities. The present study examines the effect of gender, in Amman City, on the realization of emphasis in the emphatic coronals /tʕ/ and /sʕ/ and their plain counterparts /t/ and /s/. The study depended on the first three formants of vowels adjacent to the target sounds after normalization for sex differences, Center of Gravity for target sounds, and Voice Onset Time (VOT) for the stops, as the acoustic cues of emphasis. The results from the mixed model, with “speaker” and “word” as random effect, indicated that gender is a reliable predictor of emphasis in Amman City as evident by the results from the first three vowel formants and stops’ VOT; while both males and females maintained a significant difference between emphatic and plain sounds, males maintained a greater emphatic-plain contrast than females.