Casual Speech Research Articles

Sociophonetic variation among Asian Americans: The role of ethnicity and style

The present study examined sociophonetic variation in a small sample of Asian Americans in Boston, Massachusetts (N = 8; 4f, 4m; Mage = 23) representing four ethnic groups—Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese. Analyzing these speakers’ English production in tasks eliciting both casual and careful speech, we focused on four linguistic features comprising features observed in New England and in certain Asian American groups. Three features (L/R-CONFLATION, L-VOCALIZATION, and R-DELETION) were coded auditorily and one (LOW BACK RAISING of /ɑ/ to /ɔ/) acoustically; the dataset included approximately 1500 tokens of each feature, for a total of around 6000 tokens. Mixed-effects modeling results on the casual speech data indicated that Ethnicity was a significant predictor (p's < .05) of the occurrence of L-VOCALIZATION (M = 86.6% overall) and R-DELETION (M = 8.5%), but not of L/R-CONFLATION (which did not occur at all) or LOW BACK RAISING (which did not clearly occur in F1 or F2). Preliminary analysis of the careful speech data showed lower rates of L-VOCALIZATION (M = 70.0%) and R-DELETION (M = 1.5%) than in casual speech and, again, no occurrence of L/R-CONFLATION or LOW BACK RAISING. These findings reveal similarities and differences in speech production among ethnically diverse Asian Americans, point to a possible role of style, and highlight the need for further investigation of phonetic variation within this community.

The Linguistic and Situational Features of WhatsApp Messages Among High School and University Canadian Students

WhatsApp messages can be such a rich source for creative and spontaneous language geared toward more individual expression. WhatsApping provides us with a unique view into language and is an interesting prototype for thinking about language use, the various functions of this variety and how it is used to render different kinds of meanings. This study aims to explore the linguistic features of text messaging’s communicative intent, content and context. Selected samples of messages were drawn from a high school student population in Canada who provided a corpus of 100 different texts already sent and/or received for personal, educational and professional purposes. The collected data were analyzed using Biber and Conrad’s qualitative approach to register, genre, and style analysis. The result is that people use clipped sentences in a free flow of casual speech and slang. While certain abbreviations have come into such common use, to the point of becoming standard, a wide array of individualistic variance in terms of style and language usage has emerged. It is concluded that avid texters, while appearing to greatly deviate from more traditional, standard written English, are a rich source for studying creative and spontaneous language adaptation of register, genre and text according to context and text users.

The Use of American and British Lexis in Brunei English

In pronunciation, influenced by American English, a shift in Brunei English can be observed in the increasing use of [r] in tokens such as car and heard particularly among younger speakers whose pronunciation may be influenced by American English. In contrast, older speakers tend to omit the [r] sound in these tokens as their pronunciation may be more influenced by British English. However, it is unclear whether American English has influenced the vocabulary of Brunei English speakers as the education system in Brunei favours British English due to its historical ties with Britain. This paper analyses the use of American and British lexical items between three age groups: 20 in-service teachers aged between 29 to 35 years old, 20 university undergraduates aged between 19 to 25 years old, and 20 secondary school students who are within the 11 to 15 age range. Each age group has 10 female and 10 male participants and they were asked to name seven objects shown to them on Power point slides. Their responses were recorded and compared between the age groups and between female and male data. The analysis is supplemented with recorded data from interviews with all 60 participants to determine instances of American and British lexical items in casual speech. It was found that there is a higher occurrence of American than British lexical items in all three groups and the interview data supports the findings in the main data. Thus, providing further evidence for the Americanisation of Brunei English and that Brunei English is undergoing change.

An Analysis on Speech Styles Used by English Lecturers

The objectives of this research were to (1) find out the types of speech styles used by English lecturers in teaching-learning process and (2) explore the impact of lecturers’ speech style on the students’ attitude towards the lesson. The method of this research was a qualitative descriptive research. There were 2 lecturers and 30 students of 4th semester as the participants of this research. The data were obtained through observation checklist, interview, and video/audio recording. The data from audio recording were transcribed into written form to be analyzed. The result of this research showed that there were 4 speech styles were used by the English lecturer such as formal style, consultative style, casual style, and intimate style. The lecturers used 2 to 4 speech style in teaching-learning process. The impact of lecturer speech style on the students’ attitude towards the lesson, based on the result of the observation and the interview with the students, can be concluded: first, the use of formal speech style did not make the students participate actively and enthusiastically in the lesson even though some students feel that the use of formal style in teaching-learning process could give them more lesson on the language and some feel it is easier to understand the lesson. It is because they felt anxious about the grammatical error that may occur when they speak. Second, the use of consultative style motivated the students to learn more because they felt challenging when the teacher asked them their prior knowledge or opinion regarding the lesson material. The students also participate actively in the class discussion because they think when their lecturers ask them questions; their lecturer is testing their knowledge and ability. It is also stimulated by the belief about effective students is the one who participate actively in the class. Third, the students participate actively and enthusiastically when the lecturer used casual speech style because they do not have to be anxious of the grammar when they speak. The students feel relax and comfortable because the language that is used by the lecturer is the language that they used every day. Fourth, the use of intimate speech style got the students participate actively in the class and got more interested in the lesson. This speech style made the students felt relax and comfortable in the lesson because they felt a close lecturer-students relationship.

Influence of clear speech on F0 patterns of Mandarin lexical tones

When communication becomes difficult, a talker may take on a form of communication known as clear speech (Keerstock & Smilijanic, 2019; Picheny et al., 1985). Little is known, however, about clear-speech modifications in tone languages (Zeng, 2017). This study showed how native Mandarin speakers modulate F 0 in tone words through increased variation, raised F 0 onset and offset. Participants read twenty-four sentences varied in four target tones, three times. Sentences were presented in two blocks: casual speech condition (as if talking to friends) and clear speech condition (as if communicating to someone with hearing loss). Data analysis of seven speakers suggested that effects of clear speech on F 0 contours were tone-dependent. As compared with casual speech, in clear speech, F 0 contours of high level (T1), mid-rising (T2), and high-falling (T4) tones were higher within the same tonal context; in contrast, F 0 contours of the low-dipping tone (T3) were lower preceding T1 and T4. F 0 range, onset F 0, and offset F 0 were greater in clear speech mode across most tonal environments. Additional data of eleven speakers has been collected to examine preliminary results and discuss findings in terms of signal-enhancement in clear speech production of lexical tones.

Korean speakers hyperarticulate vowels in polite speech*

In line with recent attention to the multimodal expression of politeness, the present study examined the association between polite speech and acoustic features through the analysis of vowels produced in casual and polite speech contexts in Korean. Fourteen adult native speakers of Seoul Korean produced the utterances in two social conditions to elicit polite (professor) and casual (friend) speech. Vowel duration and the first (F1) and second formants (F2) of seven sentence- and phrase-initial monophthongs were measured. The results showed that polite speech shares acoustic similarities with vowel production in clear speech: speakers showed greater vowel space expansion in polite than casual speech in an effort to enhance perceptual intelligibility. Especially, female speakers hyperarticulated (front) vowels for polite speech, independent of speech rate. The implications for the acoustic encoding of social stance in polite speech are further discussed.

On Yearning, Love, and Community: Consequences of Casual Speech

As the number of students pursuing asynchronous education and learning experiences in online platforms and forums continues to grow, it is increasingly important to pause and reflect on the nature of language commonly—and often reflexively—used in these online spaces. Because online, asynchronous classroom discussion forums constitute the environment in which many of my “everyday conversations” occur (as well as those of the millions of students taking online courses), my thoughts turn often to implications and opportunities in these virtual spaces. Feminist scholars, including bell hooks, offer numerous ways and opportunities to do so. In this article, meaning and interpretation associated with the word “love” as both a concept and a vocabulary term are explored from a variety of perspectives and lenses. In particular, this article explores the role and impact of casual speech and related terminology, including “love”—both figuratively and literally—in online asynchronous classrooms.

First Person Expressions Used by Teenage Girl Characters in Shōjo Manga

This paper compares possible uses of self-designating terms among similar types of fictional characters in works included in a shōjo manga corpus. The use of first-person terms by similar types of fictional characters is viewed with regard to the role of an individual character in a given narrative and the categorization of a singular use of self-reference terms as a yakuwarigo type/sub-type. The data suggest that the overall variety in the use of individual first-person expressions in shōjo manga is relatively low – the most frequently used expressions were watashi and atashi – and the utilization of role language to signal a specific character type was, in fact, very limited. However, the use of watashi by the shōjo manga protagonists corresponds to Shibamoto-Smith’s (2004) findings regarding the first-person use by romance heroines. The frequent use of uchi by certain characters should not be classified as yakuwarigo but rather implies a very casual speech act performed by a character who can be perceived as active, lively and vigorous.

Dialogic ItAlian: the creation of a corpus of Italian spontaneous speech

In recent decades, the interest in speech sciences for casual conversations has increased, and researchers have begun to investigate the characteristics of spontaneous and casual speech in different languages, such as German, Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Czech. These types of investigations are based on novel spontaneous speech corpora that allow the systematic research on large amounts of data and contribute to understand the empirical dimension of phonological competence. In this paper we present a new speech corpus of spontaneous Italian based on dialogic interactions (DIA - Dialogic ItAlian), representing the language variety spoken by both native and non-native speakers in a bilingual community. After discussing some of the methodological and theoretical issues concerning the role of speech corpora in the study of language variation, we illustrate how the corpus was created, from data collection to the construction of a database. We then offer an exploratory investigation on some indicators of spontaneity.

Intelligibility of face-masked speech depends on speaking style: Comparing casual, clear, and emotional speech

This study investigates the impact of wearing a fabric face mask on speech comprehension, an underexplored topic that can inform theories of speech production. Speakers produced sentences in three speech styles (casual, clear, positive-emotional) while in both face-masked and non-face-masked conditions. Listeners were most accurate at word identification in multi-talker babble for sentences produced in clear speech, and less accurate for casual speech (with emotional speech accuracy numerically in between). In the clear speaking style, face-masked speech was actually more intelligible than non-face-masked speech, suggesting that speakers make clarity adjustments specifically for face masks. In contrast, in the emotional condition, face-masked speech was less intelligible than non-face-masked speech, and in the casual condition, no difference was observed, suggesting that ‘emotional’ and ‘casual’ speech are not styles produced with the explicit intent to be intelligible to listeners. These findings are discussed in terms of automatic and targeted speech adaptation accounts.

The Lightness of English Copula Be

The purpose of this research is twofold: firstly, it is to clarify the syntactic and semantic status of the copula be; secondly, it is to see how much light the copula be and argue that the copula be is light enough to be a null copula at the position of a light verb v of vP without a specifier. I argue that the copula be is an impoverished category and the lightness of copula be is a pure instantiation of a functional head v, in which a little v introduces verbal predicates as well as external arguments. The proposal in this paper is supported by synchronic and diachronic data. The optional existence of the null copula in synchronic grammatical diversities like child acquisition, standard English casual speech, journal headlines, rhetoric, and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is discussed to prove the lightness of copula be. Diachronically, the grammaticalization shows that the null copula can be a by-product of copularization in the unidirectionality of grammaticalization in English.

Schwa Deletion in Word-Initial Syllables of Polysyllabic Words

This study aims to analyse factors that could influence schwa deletion in word-initial syllables of polysyllabic words in continuous French speech. Both phonological and extralinguistic factors were considered: number of consonants, post-lexical context, speech style, sex and profession. Three large corpora covering different speech styles were explored using forced alignment with optional schwa variants. Formal journalistic ESTER corpus, conversational journalistic ETAPE corpus and casual speech NCCFr corpus were used in this study. We observe that schwa tends to be deleted more for 2C-words than for 3C-words. Words preceded by a consonant or a pause tend to prevent schwa deletion whereas words preceded by a vowel tend to facilitate schwa deletion. The less formal the speech style is, the more schwas are deleted. Males tend to delete schwas more frequently than females. Interestingly, journalists tend to delete more schwas than politicians in our data.

Acoustic correlates of English clear speech produced by native Korean speakers

Monolingual clear speech is acoustically distinct from casual speech and can aid speech perception (Picheny et al., 1986; Smiljanic and Bradlow, 2005) but little is known about the acoustic properties of clear speech produced by non-native speakers. The current study aims to determine whether Korean non-native speakers of English modify their speech the same way native English speakers do when asked to speak clearly. A group of native Korean speakers residing in the United States (14 recorded to date) and a group of native speakers of English (9 recorded to date) were instructed to read a list of common English words (e.g., beat) using casual and clear speaking styles. The findings showed the effect of speaking style for every acoustic measurement: vowel duration, mean pitch, pitch range, positive and negative VOT, onset f0, and vowel space. With the exception of mean pitch, there were no significant interactions between group and speaking mode, indicating that Korean speakers implemented these acoustic parameters in L2 clear speech similarly to native speakers. Only for mean pitch, the degree of change associated with clear speech was greater for English speakers than for Korean speakers.

Effects of face masks and speaking style on audio-visual speech perception and memory

Though necessary, protective mask wearing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic presents communication challenges. Speech produced through these masks is quieter, muffled, and lacks important visual cues for listeners. The present study examines how such loss of visual information and signal degradation affects intelligibility and auditory memory of non-native speech. Additionally, we examined whether clear speaking style can alleviate some perceptual difficulty for masked speech. One non-native English speaker recorded short, educationally relevant video clips in three conditions: casual speech without a mask, and casual and clear speech with a mask. In an online study, native English listeners were presented with 15 video clips in each of the three mask / style conditions and transcribed what they heard. Following each condition, listeners answered questions about the content of the clips. Word recognition and memory accuracy will be analyzed. Detailed acoustic analyses will be conducted to assess how face masks and speaking style affect speech production. The results will allow us to quantify speech communication challenges arising from the widespread use of masks. The findings will have implications for communication in classrooms and hospitals where listeners have to understand teachers and healthcare providers, often time non-native speakers, through their protective barriers.

Co-variation, style and social meaning: The implicational relationship between (h) and (ing) in Debden, Essex

AbstractThis paper demonstrates that the differing social meanings held by linguistic features can result in an implicational relationship between them. Rates of (h) and (ing) are investigated in the casual speech of sixty-three speakers from a community with Cockney heritage: Debden, Essex. The indexicalities of h-dropping in Debden (signalling Cockney) are superordinate to and incorporate the indexicalities of g-dropping (working-class, “improper”), resulting in an implicational relationship. H-dropping implies g-dropping, but g-dropping can occur independently of h-dropping. This occurs in terms of co-variation at the between-speaker level and clustering effects at the within-speaker level which is measured through a novel approach using the number of phonemes as the denomination of distance. The features’ differing social meaning are also related to rates of change. Young speakers are shifting away from linguistic features which index Cockney heritage (h-dropping; the [-Iŋk] variant of -thing words) in favor of more general, southeastern, working-class norms (g-dropping).

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTUITIVE-IMITATIVE APPROACH FOR TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN INDONESIA VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Pronunciation involves far more than individual sounds. Word stress, sentence stress, intonation, and word linking all influence the sound of spoken English, not to mention the way we often slur words and phrases together in casual speech. English pronunciation involves too many complexities for learners to strive for a complete elimination of accent, but improving pronunciation will boost self-esteem, facilitate communication, and possibly lead to a better job or least much respect in the workplace. This research aimed at investigating the effect of Intuitive-Imitative Approach in teaching pronunciation. The participants of this research were the second-year students of Indonesia Vocational High School in amount of 40 students. This research applied pre-experimental method. The instruments of this research were pre-test and post-test in oral test. The result of this research finally showed that the students’ pronunciation of post-test score was higher than the students’ pre-test score. Meanwhile, the result of t­-test showed that the difference was significant where value of the t-test was greater than the value of the t-table (20.17 ≥ 2.069). Thus, it can be concluded that the use of Intuitive-Imitative Approach is effective to use in teaching pronunciation. So that, by applying this method in learning pronunciation, the teacher are hoped to be more creative to enrich their selected word by choosing the unique words to stimulate students and present them an enjoyable, relax, and understandable way in learning process.

Hyper-articulation effects in Korean glides by heritage language learners

Aims and objectives: Hyper-articulation effects in glide sounds and heritage production are unexplored areas. Thus, this study examines how the Korean glide /we/ is phonetically implemented in hyper-articulated speech by English-speaking heritage learners of Korean. Language-specific fundamental frequency (F0) patterns and methodological issues involving inconsistent data in heritage research are also addressed. Methodology: Korean-American students enrolled in an intermediate-low Korean language course for Korean heritage students at a university in the US read four isolated sentences, once in casual speech and once in hyper-articulated (or clear) speech. They repeated this sequence five times. Data and analysis: The syllable duration of the glide more than doubled and the upward transitional feature of /w/ was significantly expanded with a steeper slope in clear speech compared to casual speech. The expansion of vowel space of /e/ in clear speech was also attested for second formant (F2). Although pitch did not vary between the two speaking styles at syllable onset or vowel midpoint, it exhibited a significant increase at syllable offset in clear speech. The strong intra- and inter-speaker variations frequently observed in heritage language research were not found in this study. Conclusions: The results generally echo the hyper-articulated speech changes observed in native Korean speakers. The pitch pattern outcomes suggest that heritage learners’ enhancement corresponds more to that of their heritage language than their dominant language. Although the data generally supports the idea that heritage learners’ enhancement strategies emulate those of native speakers in terms of exaggerated acoustic features, the same is not true regarding absolute acoustic values; their acoustic values are more exaggerated than native speakers’ in clear speech. Originality and implications: The findings present new hyper-articulation effects regarding glide sounds and an additional enhancement strategy of end-of-syllable pitch raising in hyper-articulated speech. This study also suggests that controlling for confounding population variables mitigates the methodological challenges of heritage language research.

New Dialect Formation Through Language Contact

The situation of sustained contact between Spanish and English in Miami during the past half century provides a rare opportunity to study contact-induced language change in an ecological context in which speakers of the immigrant language (i.e., Spanish) have become the numerical majority. The study reported here is designed to track the phonetic and prosodic influences of Spanish on the variety of English emerging among second-generation Miami-born Latinx speakers of various national origin backgrounds by examining a suite of variables shown in prior studies to exhibit Spanish substrate influence in other regional contexts. We examine two kinds of phonetic variables in the English spoken by 20 second-generation Latinx and 5 Anglo white speakers: (1) prosodic rhythm and (2) vowel quality. Prosodic rhythm was quantified using Low and Grabe’s Pairwise Variability Index (nPVI); results show that Miami-born Latinx speakers are significantly more syllable-timed in casual speech than Miami-born Anglo white speakers. Significant vocalic differences were also observed, with Latinx speakers producing lower and more backed tokens of [æ] in prenasal and nonprenasal positions and more backed tokens of [u].

Assessing the accuracy of existing forced alignment software on varieties of British English

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of the performance and usability of automatic speech processing tools on six different varieties of English spoken in the British Isles. The tools used in the present study were developed for use with Mainstream American English, but we demonstrate that their forced alignment functionality nonetheless performs extremely well on a range of British varieties, encompassing both careful and casual speech. Where phone boundary placement is concerned, substantial errors in alignment occur infrequently, and although small displacements between aligner-placed and human-placed phone boundaries are found regularly, these will rarely have a significant effect on measurements of interest for the researcher. We demonstrate that gross phone boundary placement errors, when they do arise, are particularly likely to be introduced in fast speech or with varieties that are radically different from Mainstream American English (e.g. Scots). We also observe occasional problems with phonetic transcription. Overall, we advise that, although forced alignment software is highly reliable and improving continuously, human confirmation is needed to correct errors which can displace entire stretches of speech. Nevertheless, sociolinguists can be assured that the output of these tools is generally highly accurate for a wide range of varieties.

Clear versus casual consonant identification by hearing-impaired and normal-hearing listeners

ABSTRACT Hearing-impaired (HI) listeners who benefit from hearing-aid use in quiet often continue to have difficulty understanding speech in noise. Requesting talkers to speak clearly is one strategy to overcome this deficit. Paradoxically, one feature of clear speech is a shift to higher frequencies, which may move speech energy into a frequency range that is inaudible or more distorted for some HI listeners. Casual (or conversational) speech, on the other hand, may shift speech energy into a lower frequency range that is more audible or less distorted. This study examined the intelligibility of 21 amplified, casually- and clearly-spoken, US English coda consonants in nonsense syllables for 10 normal-hearing (NH) and 17 HI listeners. Most clear-speech consonants yielded higher recognition scores as expected. However, certain phonological processes common in casual speech, such as palatalization of higher frequency alveolar into lower frequency postalveolar consonants, generated significantly higher scores than their clear counterparts for some HI listeners in noise. These results have implications for coaching conversational partners of aided HI listeners. For the military, talkers can be instructed how to speak to Service members with hearing loss or in noisy environments.