The effect of physical appearance and accent on the elicitation of vowel hyperarticulation by British English native speakers in speech to foreigners

Abstract

Speech aimed at infants and foreigners has been reported to include the physical exaggeration of vowels, that is vowel hyperarticulation. Although infants have been demonstrated to experience hyperarticulated vowels in speech directed at them, little research has been done on whether vowel hyperarticulation occurs as a result of foreign appearance, foreign accent or as a consequence of both looking and sounding foreign. The present study explored if appearance and speech separately affect the native speakers’ hyperarticulation. Fifty-two White British adult speakers communicated with one of four different confederate groups (2 types of appearance x 2 types of accent) to solve three modified versions of the DiapixUK tasks. Results indicate that not appearance but speech had an effect on native speakers’ production of vowels. Specifically, vowel space was significantly larger in speech directed to foreign-accented individuals than to individuals with native accent irrespective of their physical appearance. The acquired samples of hyperarticulatory speech will be used in perceptual identification and clarity tasks to ascertain which speech samples help native speakers to understand speech better.