The Perception of Speech Rhythm in Indian English and British English

Abstract

This chapter shows that the production differences between Indian English and British English in speech rhythm (documented in the previous chapter) are also relevant in the perception of speech. Even if differences in the production of speech rhythm between two varieties are large and significant, it is not a foregone conclusion that they play any role in the perception of speech. Extending previous research on the importance of segmental and supra-segmental cues in the perception of accent differences, a partially new technique will be introduced which consists of the selective transfer and suppression of segmental and supra-segmental cues. Utterances that were manipulated in this way are then used in two types of experiments. The first set of experiments consists of an accent identification task, where participants have to decide whether a speaker is of Indian or British origin. These experiments were designed to determine whether differences in speech rhythm (defined as variability in duration), in intonation or segmental differences are a stronger cue for accent identification. In the second set of experiments, participants have to focus on one of two simultaneous speakers. Here the research question is whether differences in speech rhythm, intonation or segmental differences help listeners more when trying to understand the target speaker. Overall, both types of experiments show that the difference in speech rhythm between Indian English and British English is perceptually relevant. Participants used speech rhythm as an acoustic cue to identify the origin of a talker, even if acoustic cues other than speech rhythm were suppressed. Talkers with a more syllable-timed rhythm were assigned significantly more often to the ‘Indian’ group than talkers with a more stress-timed rhythm, who, in turn, were assigned more frequently to the ‘British’ group.