Articulatory Features Research Articles

Rephonologisation of English loanwords in Kinshasa Lingala through the epenthesis process: An optimality theoretic approach

This article investigates through optimality theory how English loanwords are modified through the epenthesis process in accordance with the phonotactic requirements of Kinshasa Lingala. It therefore examines the restructuring of English loanwords which have consonant clusters and codas in their syllables by inserting vowels between consonants in the clusters and at the end of closed syllables to make them conform to the phonotactic constraints of Kinshasa Lingala. The study employed a qualitative research approach in which the data were collected through document analysis, and verified using structured interviews with two native speakers of Kinshasa Lingala. The findings demonstrate that loanword rephonologisation in Kinshasa Lingala is mainly governed by the syllable structure constraints found in optimality theory. In addition, the epenthetic vowels used to break up consonant clusters are determined by the place of articulation features of either the first consonant or the vowel in the following syllable, while the coda is resolved by inserting a vowel that shares the place of articulation features with the preceding consonant. The study concludes that the goal of the vowel epenthesis process is to preserve the canonical CV syllable structure by breaking consonant clusters and opening up closed syllables in loanwords in accordance with the phonotactic constraints of the recipient language.

The Effect of Using Real-Time Magnetic Resonance Imaging on the Perception of EFL Vowels

This study investigated the influence of real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtMRI) videos as an innovative tool for enhancing learners' perception of English vowel sounds among Arabic-speaking learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Utilizing a pretest-intervention-posttest design, the study involved forty participants who were equally divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group received targeted perception-based instruction that incorporated rtMRI videos, delivered in three weekly sessions of thirty minutes each. In contrast, the control group underwent a similar instructional approach but without the use of rtMRI technology. To assess learners' progress, two tests were administered during both the pretest and posttest phases. The first test focused on the subjects' ability to associate vowel sounds with their corresponding articulatory features, while the second test evaluated their overall perception of vowel sounds. Analysis of the post-test results revealed significant improvements in the vowel-feature association test exclusively for the experimental group. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Reconsidering the Reliance on Functional Load: The Role of Phonetic Distance in Predicting L2 Segmental Substitutions

Much research agrees that Functional Load (FL), i.e., the extent to which a phoneme pair distinguishes between different words in a language, is a useful feature to consider in prioritizing phoneme pairs for pronunciation instruction in the second language (L2) classroom. However, FL measures are not always easy to access and are often calculated according to different principles, whereas other more easily observable features exist, including Phonetic Distance (PD), or the degree of physiological similarity between phones in a phoneme pair. One way to evaluate features and their interrelatedness is to use them in a linear mixed effects regression (LMER) model to predict the rate of observed L2 substitutions that are actually made in speech. This study examines the relationship between two measures of FL (Brown, 1988; Gilner & Morales, 2010) and an estimate of PD we devised from 22 unique articulatory features of vowels and consonants in their ability to predict substitutions in the L2-ARCTIC dataset (Zhao et al. 2018) while accounting for other sources of variation. It was found that even when PD had a resolution of only 2 points, it was highly associated with variance in substitution rates, but that the best model included FL and PD measures together. This finding suggests that PD may also be an important consideration when deciding which phoneme pairs to prioritize in L2 instruction.

ПРОФЕССОР Қ.ЖҰБАНОВ ЖӘНЕ ҚАЗАҚ ТІЛІНІҢ ФОНЕТИКАСЫ МӘСЕЛЕЛЕРІ

Articles, theses and major scientific works of Professor K.K. Zhubanov cover many topics. This is explained by the fact that K.K. Zhubanov was a scientist who worked in all areas of Kazakh linguistics. The main emphasis of his scientific research is made on the issues of phonetics, including the sounds of the Kazakh language, their classification by the way of sounding, acoustic and articulatory features of sounds, their terminology, Kazakh language curricula and teaching methods. Especially important are the scientific conclusions of the scientist in the field of phonetics, such as determination of the quantity and quality of sounds of the Kazakh language, their classification, valuable remarks on the sounding of vowel and consonant sounds, analysis of types and features of vowel sounds by the way of their formation, description of types and characteristics of consonant sounds, as well as the study of the laws of synharmonism, their types and features. K.K. Zhubanov approached these questions with his own scientific view, paying special attention to specific linguistic data. The article deals with Professor K.K. Zhubanov's views on phonetics and his importance in Kazakh linguistics. In particular, the peculiarities of classification of linguistic sounds, types of Kazakh language sounds and their phonetic characteristics on the basis of specific examples are analysed in detail.

Human Voice: Legal Protection Challenges

Focused on the phenomenon of human voice, the paper purports to develop approaches to legal protection of ordinary people's voices and those of artists as the technologies for sound synthesis, music and vocal performance are becoming more sophisticated. It was demonstrated the problem of legal protection of human voice has become especially pressing one in the context of artificial neural networks such as vocaloid designed for sound synthesis and voice cloning. The study provides a systemic arrangement of legally meaningful knowledge of human voice useful for the development of legal provisions to protect this personal good. The legal substance of vocal impersonation as a way to simulate and manipulate a synthesized voice was explored. Theoretically applicable legal constructs for protection of voice and computerized cloning technologies were analyzed. A trend to use copyright rather than patent for protecting vocaloid-like generative neural networks and other technological solutions for vocal synthesis was identified. The concept of voice was critically analyzed to propose a viable legal provision for its protection. The primary and auxiliary features of the concept of voice were parametrized for possible use in disputes on the legitimacy of voice cloning or vocal impersonation. The concept of vocal identity of ordinary people and artists was proposed for legal protection of this personal good as a set of performative sonic features including the basic parameters of singing voice as well as acoustic-phonetic and articulatory features of vocalization. A comprehensive legal and technological methodology for the protection of vocal identity was proposed.

Similar phonemes create interference in the serial recall task

ABSTRACT The mechanisms underlying forgetting have been central to theorising about verbal short-term and working memory, and the importance of interference as opposed to decay continues to be vigorously debated. Here, we present two experiments to evaluate the nature and locus of phonological interference as a source of forgetting in serial recall. In these experiments, we replicate studies showing that repetition of phonemes across items impairs recall of the later list item, even with visual presentation and typed recall. In addition, we manipulate the degree of phonemic overlap between a target word and preceding words in the list, and demonstrate that consonants that are only similar, as opposed to identical, to each other can interfere with the recall of other list items. Taken together, the experiments suggest that the primary factor driving phonological interference is the similarity of the articulatory features of the phonemes.

Using articulatory feature detectors in progressive networks for multilingual low-resource phone recognitiona).

Systems inspired by progressive neural networks, transferring information from end-to-end articulatory feature detectors to similarly structured phone recognizers, are described. These networks, connecting the corresponding recurrent layers of pre-trained feature detector stacks and newly introduced phone recognizer stacks, were trained on data from four Asian languages, with experiments testing the system on those languages and four African languages. Later adjustments of these networks include the use of contrastive predictive coding layers at the inputs to those networks' recurrent portions. Such adjustments allow for performance differences to be attributed to the presence or absence of individual feature detectors (for consonant place/manner and vowel height/backness). Some of these differences manifest after feature-level comparisons of recognizer outputs, as well as through considering variations and ablations in architecture and training setup. These differences encourage further exploration of methods to reduce errors with phones having specific articulatory features as well as further architectural modifications.

What R Mandarin Chinese /ɹ/s? - acoustic and articulatory features of Mandarin Chinese rhotics.

Rhotic sounds are well known for their considerable phonetic variation within and across languages and their complexity in speech production. Although rhotics in many languages have been examined and documented, the phonetic features of Mandarin rhotics remain unclear, and debates about the prevocalic rhotic (the syllable-onset rhotic) persist. This paper extends the investigation of rhotic sounds by examining the articulatory and acoustic features of Mandarin Chinese rhotics in prevocalic, syllabic (the rhotacized vowel [ɚ]), and postvocalic (r-suffix) positions. Eighteen speakers from Northern China were recorded using ultrasound imaging. Results showed that Mandarin syllabic and postvocalic rhotics can be articulated with various tongue shapes, including tongue-tip-up retroflex and tongue-tip-down bunched shapes. Different tongue shapes have no significant acoustic differences in the first three formants, demonstrating a many-to-one articulation-acoustics relationship. The prevocalic rhotics in our data were found to be articulated only with bunched tongue shapes, and were sometimes produced with frication noise at the start. In general, rhotics in all syllable positions are characterized by a close F2 and F3, though the prevocalic rhotic has a higher F2 and F3 than the syllabic and postvocalic rhotics. The effects of syllable position and vowel context are also discussed.

Ease of Articulation in Selecting First Names

Investigating the ease of articulation in selecting names contributes to emphasizing the effect of articulatory features on speech perception and production. It explains why some names are distinctive among multi-semantic references and sociocultural dominance and are more likely appropriate for one sex than the other. This study explores how distinctive features of phonemes subconsciously derive our conception of first names, regardless of rich meanings or morphological endings. It argues that all selected names demonstrate articulatory-easy phonemes. Sex distinction is assumed to attribute phonemes of easier configurations to characterize girl names more than boy names. By inspecting a sample that exhibited no feminine suffixes or compounding structures, the study analyzed the phonemic components based on the articulatory-ease module. The findings justified equivalent preference of boy names and girl names to the ease of bilabial, coronal, voiceless features, and disyllabic structures. However, interest in names with easier anterior coronal sonorants, posterior distributed strident and glottal dominated the selected girl names in line with sound symbolism. Moreover, prominent everlasting names indicated a mechanism of articulatory ease that identified one essential unit to develop a unique smooth flow of phonemes. The distinctive characteristic features of this unit marked sex distinction and determined popularity. KEYWORDS articulatory mechanism, articulatory module, conserving effort, distinctive features, prominent names, sound symbolism

Audio–visual deepfake detection using articulatory representation learning

Audio–visual deepfake detection using articulatory representation learning

Speech's syllabic rhythm and articulatory features produced under different auditory feedback conditions identify Parkinsonism

Diagnostic tests for Parkinsonism based on speech samples have shown promising results. Although abnormal auditory feedback integration during speech production and impaired rhythmic organization of speech are known in Parkinsonism, these aspects have not been incorporated into diagnostic tests. This study aimed to identify Parkinsonism using a novel speech behavioral test that involved rhythmically repeating syllables under different auditory feedback conditions. The study included 30 individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 30 healthy subjects. Participants were asked to rhythmically repeat the PA-TA-KA syllable sequence, both whispering and speaking aloud under various listening conditions. The results showed that individuals with PD had difficulties in whispering and articulating under altered auditory feedback conditions, exhibited delayed speech onset, and demonstrated inconsistent rhythmic structure across trials compared to controls. These parameters were then fed into a supervised machine-learning algorithm to differentiate between the two groups. The algorithm achieved an accuracy of 85.4%, a sensitivity of 86.5%, and a specificity of 84.3%. This pilot study highlights the potential of the proposed behavioral paradigm as an objective and accessible (both in cost and time) test for identifying individuals with Parkinson's disease.

La referencia lingüística y la decolonización de los nombres propios en las lenguas de señas

The subject of the proper name is the subject of reference. Proper names are paradigmatic examples because they refer to unique entities in the world (uniqueness). In sign languages, there are gestural expressions that identify people in deaf communities and are distinguished from the spelling of their name given in Latin alphabet. Studies on this topic have described the signed proper name according to hand configurations and its other articulatory characteristics, according to some general principles about the significance of having the proper name in the community and how it functions. However, almost no mention is made of the basic concepts involved in the theoretical formulation of names and uniqueness. In this paper, we argue that descriptions of this topic are deliberately simplistic and reductionist, not because there is a desire to marginalize sign languages, but because we have been historically conditioned to act this way. From a decolonial critique and an anti-representationalist perspective of language, we show the controversies that shape the issue of proper names and propose an integrated view that advances in the deconstruction of polarizations and false dichotomies in the linguistic and identity discourse.

Speech emotion recognition based on bi-directional acoustic–articulatory conversion

Speech emotion recognition based on bi-directional acoustic–articulatory conversion

Articulatory Characteristics of Secondary Palatalization in Romanian Fricatives

Articulatory Characteristics of Secondary Palatalization in Romanian Fricatives

Visual scanning patterns of a talking face when evaluating phonetic information in a native and non-native language.

When comprehending speech, listeners can use information encoded in visual cues from a face to enhance auditory speech comprehension. For example, prior work has shown that the mouth movements reflect articulatory features of speech segments and durational information, while pitch and speech amplitude are primarily cued by eyebrow and head movements. Little is known about how the visual perception of segmental and prosodic speech information is influenced by linguistic experience. Using eye-tracking, we studied how perceivers' visual scanning of different regions on a talking face predicts accuracy in a task targeting both segmental versus prosodic information, and also asked how this was influenced by language familiarity. Twenty-four native English perceivers heard two audio sentences in either English or Mandarin (an unfamiliar, non-native language), which sometimes differed in segmental or prosodic information (or both). Perceivers then saw a silent video of a talking face, and judged whether that video matched either the first or second audio sentence (or whether both sentences were the same). First, increased looking to the mouth predicted correct responses only for non-native language trials. Second, the start of a successful search for speech information in the mouth area was significantly delayed in non-native versus native trials, but just when there were only prosodic differences in the auditory sentences, and not when there were segmental differences. Third, (in correct trials) the saccade amplitude in native language trials was significantly greater than in non-native trials, indicating more intensely focused fixations in the latter. Taken together, these results suggest that mouth-looking was generally more evident when processing a non-native versus native language in all analyses, but fascinatingly, when measuring perceivers' latency to fixate the mouth, this language effect was largest in trials where only prosodic information was useful for the task.

Seeing to understand better? The interplay between cognitive traits and nonverbal visual cues in L2 video comprehension

Seeing to understand better? The interplay between cognitive traits and nonverbal visual cues in L2 video comprehension

Improving Second Language Vowel Production With Hand Gestures Encoding Visible Articulation: Evidence From Picture‐Naming and Paragraph‐Reading Tasks

AbstractThis study investigates whether audiovisual phonetic training with hand gestures encoding visible or nonvisible articulation features has a differential impact on learning second language sounds. Ninety‐nine Catalan–Spanish bilingual students were trained to differentiate English /æ/ and /ʌ/, which differ in the visible lip aperture and nonvisible tongue position, with training involving no gestures, gestures representing the lip aperture, or gestures representing the tongue position. Before, immediately after, and 1 week after the training, participants’ perception of the targets was assessed through a word‐identification task, and their production was tested through paragraph‐reading, picture‐naming, and word‐imitation tasks. Although all participants improved in perception and production, the lip hand gesture was more effective in adjusting lip aperture than the other two conditions in the paragraph‐reading and picture‐naming tasks. These results suggest that hand gestures encoding visible rather than nonvisible articulation features are more effective for improving second language pronunciation.

BiLSTM-CNN with fixed weight approach for tracking speech articulatory features

Speech production is a complex sequential process which involve the coordination of various articulatory features. Among them tongue being a highly versatile active articulator responsible for shaping airflow to produce targeted speech sounds that are intellectual, clear, and distinct. This paper presents a novel approach for predicting tongue and lip articulatory features involved in a given speech acoustics using a stacked Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) architecture, combined with a one-dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for post-processing with fixed weights initialization. The proposed network is trained with two datasets consisting of simultaneously recorded speech and Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) datasets, each introducing variations in terms of geographical origin, linguistic characteristics, phonetic diversity, and recording equipment. The performance of the model is assessed in Speaker Dependent (SD), Speaker Independent (SI), corpus dependent (CD) and cross corpus (CC) modes. Experimental results indicate that the proposed model with fixed weights approach outperformed the adaptive weights initialization with in relatively minimal number of training epochs. These findings contribute to the development of robust and efficient models for articulatory feature prediction, paving the way for advancements in speech production research and applications.

Speech Sounds Production, Narrative Skills, and Verbal Memory of Children with 22q11.2 Microdeletion.

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), the most frequent microdeletion syndrome in humans, is related to a high risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. About 95% of patients with 22q11.2DS have speech and language impairments. Global articulation, story generation, and verbal memory tests were applied to compare articulatory characteristics of speech sounds, spontaneous language abilities, and immediate verbal memory between four groups of Serbian-speaking children: patients with 22q11.2DS, children with clinical presentation of 22q11.2DS that do not have the microdeletion, children with non-syndromic congenital heart defects, and their peers with typical speech-sound development. The obtained results showed that children with this microdeletion have impaired articulation skills and expressive language abilities. However, we did not observe weaker receptive language skills and immediate verbal memory compared to healthy controls. Children with 22q11.2DS should be considered a risk category for the development of speech-sound pathology and expressive language abilities. Since speech intelligibility is an instrument of cognition and adequate peer socialization, and language impairment in school-aged children with 22q11DS might be an indicator of increased risk for later psychotic symptoms, patients with 22q11.2 microdeletion should be included in a program of early stimulation of speech-language development immediately after diagnosis is established.

Sound symbolism in manual and vocal responses: phoneme-response interactions associated with grasping as well as vertical and size dimensions of keypresses

It has been shown that reading the vowel [i] and consonant [t] facilitates precision grip responses, while [ɑ] and [k] are associated with faster power grip responses. A similar effect has been observed when participants perform responses with small or large response keys. The present study investigated whether the vowels and consonants could produce different effects with the grip responses and keypresses when the speech units are read aloud (Experiment 1) or silently (Experiment 2). As a second objective, the study investigated whether the recently observed effect, in which the upper position of a visual stimulus is associated with faster vocalizations of the high vowel and the lower position is associated with the low vowel, can be observed in manual responses linking, for example, the [i] with responses of the upper key and [ɑ] with lower responses. Firstly, the study showed that when the consonants are overtly articulated, the interaction effect can be observed only with the grip responses, while the vowel production was shown to systematically influence small/large keypresses, as well as precision/power grip responses. Secondly, the vowel [i] and consonant [t] were associated with the upper responses, while [ɑ] and [k] were associated with the lower responses, particularly in the overt articulation task. The paper delves into the potential sound-symbolic implications of these phonetic elements, suggesting that their acoustic and articulatory characteristics might implicitly align them with specific response magnitudes, vertical positions, and grip types.