Evaluation of a synthesized Spanish accent

Abstract

English speakers' perception of a synthetic sentence with a moderate Spanish accent was reported on previously [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 77, S9 (1985)]. It was found that an increased number of cues caused significantly higher ratings, and formant frequency perturbation of full vowels was the strongest cue signaling accentedness. The present research investigated perception of newly synthesized strong and moderate accents, manipulating F0, VOT of syllable‐initial voiceless stops, duration of sentence‐medial stressed vowels, and formant frequency for full and reduced vowels. For each condition, the accented sentences were paired with the standard sentence in four randomizations. Forty‐two English speakers rated how different each accented sentence was from the standard sentence and indicated confidence in their judgments. It was found that the synthetic English sentence was reliably rated for cue modifications indicative of a moderate Spanish accent; an increase in number of cues resulted in perception of increased accentedness and higher confidence ratings for both accents; F0 and formant frequency perturbation in full vowels were the most prominent cues signaling moderate Spanish accent, and their presence resulted in higher confidence ratings.