Segmental versus prosodic predictors of perceived accentedness

Abstract

Previous work has identified both segmental and prosodic influences on the perceived foreign accentedness of non-native speakers, but their relative contributions remain poorly understood, in part because they are often investigated independently. In this study, both segmental and prosodic properties of word-length stimuli were assessed. Native English-speaking listeners rated the accentedness of trochaic English words produced by talkers from four language backgrounds: Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish. Each token’s deviation from native English productions was quantified for two segmental properties (VOT and vowel quality) and three prosodic properties (ratios of duration, intensity, and f0 across the two syllables). For each language background, a linear mixed-effects regression model was created to predict accentedness ratings from the phonetic deviations, and the significance of each fixed effect was examined. In each model, the significant predictors included both segmental and prosodic propertie...