English Vowels Research Articles

A phono-ethnic story of Nigerian English: As told by high vowels

This study explores the role of dialect-contact among developing L2 phonologies, and the influence of L1 ± ATR system on L2 English tense/lax vowels, using the under-documented Ebira English spoken in Nigeria as an exemplar. The variety presents an interesting precedent due to its differential historical contact with Yoruba English, starting in the early colonial periods, and Hausa English, becoming more prominent in the past three decades. This is relevant because the two dialects differ in degree of acoustic distinction of the tense-lax high vowel pairs, with Yoruba English being reported as having a merger, and Hausa English reported as having differentiation. Framed by theories of L2 speech and evolutionary approaches to language change, sociophonetic procedures are deployed to measure the high front and back vowels in Ebira English, as well as assess the trajectory of sociolinguistic variation within the variety. If it is the case that increased contact with Hausa English in the past three decades is influencing Ebira English vowels, a shift in apparent time away from merger and towards distinction would be expected. This would also be the case if the ± ATR distinction in Ebira have substrate effects on the realisation of English tense/lax vowels. The evidence of contrast between the high front (FLEECE & KIT) and back (GOOSE & FOOT) vowels thus confirm these predictions, while variation in the system is further indicated by gender and linguistic contexts.

Perceptual assimilation of British English vowels to Spanish monophthongs and diphthongs.

This study examined the perceived similarity between Standard British English vowels and Spanish vowels, including Spanish diphthongs, not usually considered in studies on cross-language categorization. Twenty-nine Spanish speakers performed two perceptual assimilation tasks that differed in the number of response alternatives provided, that is, including or excluding diphthongs. The participants also performed an L1 vowel identification task. The results showed that Spanish listeners consistently perceived English diphthongs as closer to Spanish diphthongs than to Spanish monophthongs, with comparatively high assimilation scores. These results emphasize the need to include diphthongs in cross-language comparisons and second-language acquisition studies involving languages like Spanish.

– Arabic, English, Turkish vowels – comparative studying

This study aims to investigate the characteristics of Turkish vowel sounds, contrast them with Arabic vowel sounds and show similarities and differences between the vowel sounds of the two languages by testing them against the International Cardinal Vowels System which is a system designed by Daniel Jones to describe English vowels. Therefore, the research must test Arabic and Turkish The study reveals many drawbacks for considering English as the grounds on which measuring is carried out. This is due to the fact that English is not a phonetic language there is no conformity between what is spoken and what is written in many aspects. To investigate this, the study starts with an introduction, which highlights the peculiarities of the Turkish language in the harmony of its sounds, and its uniqueness in the presence of written symbols for vowel sounds in both forms: emphatic and non emphatic. three headlines discuss the similarities and differences between Arabic and Turkish in terms of emphatics and non- emphatics, vowel lengthening, deletion, metathesis, shortening vowels, and syllable structure of these languages. The conclusion shows the need for a new international cardinal vowel system. It also contains a practical result based on the findings of the research. Then, a list of sources and references follows

Accurate Computation of Vocal Tract Filter Parameters Using a Hybrid Genetic Algorithm

ABSTRACTThis paper reports an original technique for accurately estimating the parameters of human vocal tract filters for vowels in English for speech processing applications such as voice recognition. In this paper, the vocal tract filter design problem is reformulated as a general nonlinear optimization problem and solved using a hybrid Genetic Algorithm (GA). The hybrid GA computes a rough estimate of the global minimum using GA and refines using computationally cheap local search. Issues that are of concern in digital filtering such as achieving stability and overcoming finite precision effects are addressed. The objective function for optimization used in this paper is formulated in terms of poles and zeros of the filters to avoid ill-conditioning and to take advantage of symmetries in the location of poles and zeros. Simulation results indicate that the approach presented in this paper provides a close fit in terms of mean square error between the experimental and designed filters.

Bit and beat are heard as the same: Mapping the vowel perceptual patterns of Greek-English bilingual children

It has been previously proposed that small native vowel inventories impede the acquisition of foreign language vowels that come from larger inventories. The present study aims to investigate how the already-formed Greek phonological system is modified after the perception of the English vowels in a non-naturalistic environment and to what extent Greek speakers are able to discriminate challenging English vowel contrasts. Also, it aims to examine if learning experience enhances sensitivity to acoustical information of the foreign language vowels. The study relies on the theoretical framework of the Perceptual Assimilation Model-Second Language (PAM-L2). For developing predictions about the perception of the English vowels by Greek speakers, the vowel spaces of both Greek and English native speakers were investigated; 3 native speakers of Greek and 3 native speakers of English produced vowels in their native language. 26 Greek learners of English as a foreign language in Cyprus with an age that varied from 8 to 12 years participated in the perceptual study. Learners were divided into two groups according to their proficiency level in English. The participants took an identification test in order to determine how English vowels were assimilated to the listeners’ native phonological categories and then they were tested in an AXB discrimination task in order to investigate to what extent they are able to discriminate English vowel contrasts. The results showed that several pairs of two or more English vowels were assimilated to a single Greek phonological category. Furthermore, the discrimination test showed poor to moderate discrimination accuracy for both groups regarding the English vowel contrasts, yet differences in the discrimination accuracy of the contrasts between the novice and the more advanced group of learners were minimal; only the English/e/-/ɜː/contrast was discriminated slightly better by the advanced learners. Thus, learners with a higher proficiency level did not generally perceive the English vowels better than learners with a lower proficiency level, signifying that perception of foreign language vowels is not merely a matter of amount of exposure to the foreign stimuli. Conclusions are drawn about the interference of native Greek with the learning of English vowels and the acquisition of the foreign language stimuli in a classroom environment.

English Vowels and Consonants Mispronunciation of the Seventh President of Republic of Indonesia in His Official English Speeches and Its Influencing Factors

This research aimed to find out the mispronunciation of English vowels and consonants of the seventh president of Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Joko Widodo in his official English speeches based on the standard of British English Received Pronunciation (RP) and the factors influencing his English vowels and consonants mispronunciation. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. In collecting data, the researchers used observation method with non-participatory technique (Sudaryanto, 2015). In analyzing the data, the researchers used articulatory identity method (Sudaryanto, 2015). It was found that the consonant sounds /θ/, /ð/, /v/, /z/, /ʃ/ were pronounced incorrectly, the vowel sounds/ə/, /ɒ/, /ɛ/, /i/, /e/, /ɪ/ were pronounced inconsistently, and the diphthong sounds /ɪə/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/ and /aʊ/ were pronounced incorrectly. The consonant sound /l/ in the middle of the word was not pronounced. The consonant sound /j/ in the middle of the word is omitted. The consonant sounds /g/, /tʃ/, and /r/ were pronounced the same as the spelling. The consonant sounds /t/, /s/, /k/ at the end of the words were omitted. The letter y sounded /ɪ/ at the end of the word was pronounced as /e/. The diphthong sounds /ɪə/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/ and /aʊ/ were pronounced as /ɪ/, /ʌ/, /ɛ/, /ə/, /e/, and /ͻ/. The factors influencing the mispronunciation of English vowel and consonant sounds were mother tongue interference, sound system differences between Indonesian and English, the influence of spelling on pronunciation, educational background, and environmental background.

A Contrastive Analysis of Persian and English Vowels and Consonants

Abstract The study presents a contrastive analysis of two distinct sound systems, namely, those of Persian and English. It provides a descriptive analysis and a contrastive study of consonants and vowels of these languages, expatiating on the similar and dissimilar features of the two sound systems. Dissimilarities are especially important since they may result in production of deviant sounds by foreign language learners.

Pitch trajectories of English vowels produced by American men, women, and children

Pitch trajectories reflect a continuous variation of vocal fold movements over time. This study examined the pitch trajectories of English vowels produced by 139 American English speakers, statistically analyzing their trajectories using the Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). First, <italic>Praat </italic>was used to read the sound data of <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B5">Hillenbrand <italic>et al</italic>. (1995)</xref>. A pitch analysis script was then prepared, and six pitch values at the corresponding time points within each vowel segment were collected and checked. The results showed that the group of men produced the lowest pitch trajectories, followed by the groups of women, boys, then girls. The density line showed a bimodal distribution. The pitch values at the six corresponding time points formed a single dip, which changed gradually across the vowel segment from 204 to 193 to 196 Hz. The normality tests performed on the pitch data rejected the null hypothesis. Nonparametric tests were therefore conducted to discover the significant differences in the values among the four groups. The GAMMs, which analyzed all the pitch data, produced significant results among the pitch values at the six corresponding time points but not between the two groups of boys and girls. The GAMMs also revealed that the two groups were significantly different only at the first and second time points. Accordingly, the methodology of this study and its findings may be applicable to future studies comparing curvilinear data sets elicited by experimental conditions.

Pitch trajectories of English vowels produced by American men, women, and children

Pitch trajectories reflect a continuous variation of vocal fold movements over time. This study examined the pitch trajectories of English vowels produced by 139 American English speakers, statistically analyzing their trajectories using the Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). First, <italic>Praat </italic>was used to read the sound data of <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B5">Hillenbrand <italic>et al</italic>. (1995)</xref>. A pitch analysis script was then prepared, and six pitch values at the corresponding time points within each vowel segment were collected and checked. The results showed that the group of men produced the lowest pitch trajectories, followed by the groups of women, boys, then girls. The density line showed a bimodal distribution. The pitch values at the six corresponding time points formed a single dip, which changed gradually across the vowel segment from 204 to 193 to 196 Hz. The normality tests performed on the pitch data rejected the null hypothesis. Nonparametric tests were therefore conducted to discover the significant differences in the values among the four groups. The GAMMs, which analyzed all the pitch data, produced significant results among the pitch values at the six corresponding time points but not between the two groups of boys and girls. The GAMMs also revealed that the two groups were significantly different only at the first and second time points. Accordingly, the methodology of this study and its findings may be applicable to future studies comparing curvilinear data sets elicited by experimental conditions.

The creation of a new vowel category by adult learners after adaptive phonetic training

Native Japanese speakers often perceive English vowels based on their duration, whereas native speakers use spectral cues (formant frequencies). The current study examined whether 23 Japanese adult learners of English could create a new vowel category along the spectral dimension after phonetic training with the English vowels /i/-/ɪ/ as in beat and bit. As in previous training studies, the Japanese trainees improved their ability to categorize the vowels in tokens included in the training, and were able to generalize to novel tokens and talkers. A cue-weighting task confirmed that the Japanese trainees categorized the vowels based on temporal cues before training, presumably because vowel duration is used phonologically in Japanese. While 12 of the Japanese trainees still relied on vowel duration to distinguish the English vowels after training, 11 of them successfully created a new vowel category along the spectral dimension. However, their category boundary between /i/-/ɪ/ was set at a different location from that of native speakers. We interpret these results as providing evidence that it is possible for late inexperienced learners to create new phonetic categories with phonetic training, but that the new categories may be subject to phonetic category dissimilation, an effect previously documented with early bilinguals.

On the Perception of Child Learners’ English Vowels in a Context of Minimal Input

This study investigates the extent to which the four variables of initial age of L2 learning, length and frequency of private English education, and...

The interface between perception and production in L2 English vowels

The study explores the interface between perception and production in L2 English vowels focusing on the precedence relationship and the correlation between perception and production. To that end, 34 Korean EFL learners identified 12 English vowels presented in the bVt word structure and their productions of the same English vowels were identified by native English speakers. The results revealed that overall the precedence relationship of perception over production was attested but not across all the target vowels. The results also showed that similar error patterns were observed in perception and production for the same vowels. However, no correlation was found between perception and production, suggesting that L2 speech perception and production may not develop concurrently. The findings of the study are discussed in light of L2 learning, especially in light of the development of L2 perception and production skills. (Korea University · Kyonggi University)

English Vowel Hiatus and Consonant Epenthesis

Vowel hiatus arises when two vowels are locally adjacent but heterosyllabified within words or across word boundaries. In English, as well-described, vowel clash is resolved by two strategies; glide insertion and glottal stop insertion. In fact, these sounds are not underlyingly present but added for ease of articulation in casual or fast speech. Following sonority-driven prominence scale in V1-V2 sequences, the least marked glides are the most favored to fix vowel hiatus. Which glide is adopted is closely related to the feature of the first vowel; for a palatal /j/-glide, V1 is a high front vowel, for a labio-velar /w/-glide, a high back vowel and for a central liquid /r/-glide, also called the intrusive r, a non-high vowel, i.e. homorganic. Furthermore, provided that V2 gets stressed, a laryngeal plosive also fills an empty onset even though it is the most marked at the point of vowel hiatus. These hiatus resolution strategies are well-couched into Optimality Theory(OT) (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004; McCarthy and Prince, 1995) where Dep[F] type constraints ranked over the sonority-driven markedness constraints determine the glide j/w-epenthesis the best and the intrusive r the second-best if the former is banned. Glottal stop addition is also employed as a rescue strategy to remove vowel clash when glides are all blocked, i.e. before V2 bearing stress.

Perception of American-English Vowels by Early and Late Spanish-English Bilinguals.

Increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants are entering the US and learning American-English (AE) as a second language (L2). Previous studies investigating the relationship between AE and Spanish vowels have revealed an advantage for early L2 learners for their accuracy of L2 vowel perception. Replicating and extending such previous research, this study examined the patterns with which early and late Spanish-English bilingual adults assimilated naturally-produced AE vowels to their native vowel inventory and the accuracy with which they discriminated the vowels. Twelve early Spanish-English bilingual, 12 late Spanish-English bilingual, and 10 monolingual listeners performed perceptual-assimilation and categorical-discrimination tasks involving AE /i,ɪ,ɛ,ʌ,æ,ɑ,o/. Early bilinguals demonstrated similar assimilation patterns to late bilinguals. Late bilinguals' discrimination was less accurate than early bilinguals' and AE monolinguals'. Certain contrasts, such as /æ-ɑ/, /ʌ-ɑ/, and /ʌ-æ/, were particularly difficult to discriminate for both bilingual groups. Consistent with previous research, findings suggest that early L2 learning heightens Spanish-English bilinguals' ability to perceive cross-language phonetic differences. However, even early bilinguals' native-vowel system continues to influence their L2 perception.

Perceptual categorization of English vowels by native European Portuguese speakers

This study reports the results of a perceptual assimilation task (PAT) used to assess the degree of perceived cross-language (dis)similarity between the vowel inventories of European Portuguese (L1) and American English (L2) and, thus, predict difficulty in the perception and production of non-native vowels. Thirty-four native European Portuguese speakers completed a PAT, in which they mapped both L2 English and L1 Portuguese vowels to native vowel categories and rated them for goodness-of-fit to L1 vowels. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical models of cross-language perception and L2 speech learning (SLM, Flege, 1995, &amp; PAM-L2, Best &amp; Tyler, 2007).-----------------------------------------------------------------------------CATEGORIZAÇÃO PERCEPTIVA DE VOGAIS INGLESAS POR FALANTES NATIVOS DE PORTUGUÊS EUROPEUEste estudo reporta os resultados de uma tarefa de assimilação percetiva, usada para avaliar o grau de semelhança inter-linguística entre os inventários vocálicos de português europeu (L1) e de inglês americano (L2), e, assim, prever dificuldades na perceção e produção de sons não nativos. Trinta e quatro falantes nativos de português europeu completaram uma tarefa de assimilação perceptiva, na qual identificaram vogais do inglês (L2) e do português (L1) de acordo com as categorias fonológicas da sua língua nativa, avaliando também a qualidade de representatividade categorial. Os resultados são discutidos partindo de dois modelos de perceção inter-linguística e aprendizagem de fala L2 (SLM, Flege, 1995, &amp; PAM-L2, Best &amp; Tyler, 2007).---Original em inglês.

The determining factor of L2 vowel perception: The establishment of L2 categories

The L2 speech learning theories argue that the perception of L2 phonemes is mainly influenced by the relationship between and among L1 and L2 phonemes. In the present study, we hypothesized that L2 vowel identification is primarily determined by the solidity of the L2 vowel category establishment and the perceptual distance between L2 vowel categories. A group of 31 native Mandarin Chinese-speaking listeners and a control group of 9 native English-speaking listeners participated in the study. All listeners were asked to identify natural English/Chinese vowel identification and categorize and rate synthetic English/Chinese vowels. Major findings include: 1) Chinese learners’ English vowel perception was associated with their capacity to establish English vowel category; 2) the perceptual distance between English vowel contrasts played a key role in Chinese learners’ English vowel perception, rather than the distance between the Chinese vowel and English counterpart. Overall, results of this study suggest that the individual variability of Chinese-native listeners’ English vowel perception is interpreted by the establishment of English vowel categories. [Work supported by China Natural Science Foundation 31628009.]

Using ultrasound to examine contrastive hyperarticulation

The current paper examines the extent to which there is cross-linguistic evidence for the hyperarticulation of more phonologically contrastive vowel sounds. Hall et al. [2017, JCAA 45: 15] found that tense vowels in English are produced with more total tongue movement when in positions where they are more phonologically contrastive. This finding was established through the use of Optical Flow Analysis [Horn & Schunck 1981] on ultrasound videos of the tongue. The “more contrastive” positions were those in which the vowels could contrast with their lax vowel counterparts, while the “less contrastive” positions were those in which no such contrast was possible. While there was evidence that the degree of contrast affected the tongue movements, the data were somewhat confounded by the fact that the more contrastive positions were largely closed syllables, while the less contrastive positions were largely open syllables. In the current paper, we first replicate the original results with more tightly controlled phonetic contexts in English and then examine analogous results for Canadian French. Crucially, in Canadian French, [e] vs. [ɛ] contrast in open syllables and not in closed, such that the effects of syllable position and phonological contrast can be teased apart. [Funded by SSHRC.]The current paper examines the extent to which there is cross-linguistic evidence for the hyperarticulation of more phonologically contrastive vowel sounds. Hall et al. [2017, JCAA 45: 15] found that tense vowels in English are produced with more total tongue movement when in positions where they are more phonologically contrastive. This finding was established through the use of Optical Flow Analysis [Horn & Schunck 1981] on ultrasound videos of the tongue. The “more contrastive” positions were those in which the vowels could contrast with their lax vowel counterparts, while the “less contrastive” positions were those in which no such contrast was possible. While there was evidence that the degree of contrast affected the tongue movements, the data were somewhat confounded by the fact that the more contrastive positions were largely closed syllables, while the less contrastive positions were largely open syllables. In the current paper, we first replicate the original results with more tightly controlled...

The effect of native language on the second language vowel variability

Korean learners of English must create four vowel categories for English (/i, ɪ/ and /ɛ, ae/) in relation to two similar native categories (/i/ and /ɛ/). It is hypothesized that new categories should be easier to learn than similar ones (Flege, 1994), but it is unclear whether the English L2 vowels are similar or new. The degree of similarity between the four English vowels and the two Korean vowels was examined using the distribution metrics (i.e., ellipse overlap, cross-entropy, and Gaussian Mixture Model) as well as Euclidean distance in F1/F2 space. The L2 spoken corpus included 100 repetitions of words in both Korean and English spoken by 37 Korean L2 learners (20 female). Preliminary results indicate that the English (L2) high vowel pair was more overlapped with Korean /i/ than the low vowel pair with Korean /ɛ/, especially for male speakers. For the English (L2) low vowel pair, female speakers showed less overlap but higher variability along F1 direction than male speakers. This demonstrates that the similarity between Korean and English vowels is characterized by the distribution as well as the distances between the vowel categories. Acoustic results will be further compared with identification by native English speakers.

Effects of the place of articulation of the following consonant on the identification and discrimination of American English vowels by native speakers of Japanese and Korean

Native speakers of Japanese and Korean identified 6 American English monophthongs /i, ɪ, ɛ, ae, ɑ, ʌ/ and discriminated 6 vowel pairs /i/-/ɪ/, /ɛ/-/ɪ/, /ae/-/ɛ/, /ae/-/ɑ/, /ae/-/ʌ/, /ɑ/-/ʌ/ in in /hVt/, /pVt/, /pVn/ and /pVl/ frames. The two groups of listeners' identification and discrimination accuracy were submitted to 2 mixed-design ANOVAs, respectively, with 2 Listener Groups as a between-subject variable, and 6 frames and 6 vowels (or vowel pairs) as within-subject variables. As for identification, a main effect of vowel and frame are both significant (p<.001), and a three-way interaction of listener groups × vowels × frames is also significant (p<.001). Post-hoc pair-wise comparisons revealed that Korean listeners identified /ʌ/ significantly better than Japanese listeners. This is probably because Korean listeners can equate the English vowel to Korean /ʌ/. Japanese listeners' identification accuracy of /i/ is lower before /n/ and /l/, but that of Korean listeners was not affected by the context. As for discrimination, a main effect of the frames and vowel pairs was significant (p<.001). A three-way interaction of the 3 factors was not significant, but all the two-way interactions were significant (p<.001). Post-hoc pair-wise comparisons revealed that Japanese listeners' discrimination accuracy of /i/-/ɪ/ and /ae/-/ɛ/ is lower before /n/ and /l/ than before /t/, while that of Korean listeners was not affected by the context. Korean listeners discriminated /ae/-/ɛ/ least accurately of all the six vowel pairs.

Learning foreign-language sounds in adulthood: Listening, speaking, and individual differences

Adult native Dutch speakers tend to have difficulty learning the English /æ/-/ɛ/ contrast because both English vowels can be assimilated to Dutch /ε/. Two experiments examined how this contrast is acquired by Dutch adults and the relationship between perception and production in this process. In Experiment 1, a four-day perceptual training protocol on the /æ/-/ε/ contrast was combined with related or unrelated production practice (participants said the target word or a phonologically unrelated word after each perceptual decision). There was improvement over the four days in perception and production, but no effect of type of production practice. Perceptual training can thus boost production learning even when participants have to produce the new vowels. Some individuals, however, are more successful in acquiring foreign sounds. In Experiment 2, Dutch students were followed longitudinally over their first year studying English at university. Preliminary results indicate that, in a passive oddball paradigm testing for a MisMatch Negativity (MMN) effect, students could discriminate English /æ/ from English /ε/ already at initial test, but Dutch /ɛ/ from English /ɛ/ only at final test. We will ask whether students who show a larger increase in MMN over time improve more in pronunciation of /æ/ and /ε/.