English Vowels Research Articles

Native Vowel Merger Effects on English Vowel Neutralization

Native Vowel Merger Effects on English Vowel Neutralization

English phoneme recognition of vocoded speech by adult Mandarin-speaking English-learners

The present study examined the joint influence of listeners’ language experience and the degree of spectral degradation of speech signals on English phoneme recognition of L2 listeners. The participants included 27 native English-speaking listeners and 43 native Mandarin-speaking listeners who used English as an L2. The L2 participants varied in chronological age, age of English learning, length of residency in the United States, and the amount of daily-based English usage. The speech stimuli included 12 English vowels embedded in a /hVd/ context produced by four speakers and 20 English consonants embedded in a /Ca/ context produced by two speakers. The speech stimuli were processed using 2-, 4-, 6-, 8-, and 12-channel noise vocoders. The processed and original stimuli were presented to the listeners for identification in a random order. The results showed that spectral degradation had more adverse effects on the L2 listeners but the L2 disadvantage became more evident as the number of frequency increased. The L2 listeners showed different confusion patterns from the L1 listeners, which was affected by the L2 listeners’ native language experience. Furthermore, the regression analysis revealed that the L2 listener’s length of residency in the United States was a significant predictor for their phoneme recognition outcomes.

Computer-based auditory training improves second-language vowel production in spontaneous speech.

The current study examined the effectiveness of computer-based auditory training on Greek speakers' production of English vowels in read sentences and in spontaneous speech. Another group of Greek speakers served as controls. Improvement was evaluated pre- and post-training via an identification task performed by English listeners and by an acoustic analysis of vowel quality using a combined F1/F2 measure. Auditory training improved English vowel production in read sentences and in spontaneous speech for the trained group, with improvement being larger in read sentences. The results indicate that auditory training can have ecological validity since it enhances learners' production beyond the (read) sentence level.

Comparing acoustic and articulatory targets in short-term visual feedback training of non-native vowels

Theories of speech production aim to explain how talkers express abstract linguistic forms as audible events that are intelligible to both speaker and listener. The relationship among planned units of speech, their articulatory implementation, and their acoustic consequences is thus a key issue in speech research. The work reported here is part of a larger project designed to investigate the effects of visual acoustic and visual articulatory feedback on second language (L2) learners’ production and perception of non-native speech sounds. L2 talkers from a variety of language backgrounds practiced producing an English vowel, /æ/, while receiving visual feedback on either (1) first and second formant frequencies, provided by a real-time spectrographic display, or (2) tongue back position, shown using a talker-driven tongue avatar. Kinematic data were recorded using an electromagnetic articulograph (EMA) system that tracked tongue midline and lateral movement during vowel productions. Pronunciation accuracy was analyzed by calculating acoustic and kinematic Mahalanobis distances between L2 productions and target (native talker) exemplars. Initial analyses of a single subject’s data showed that both types of visual feedback training improved pronunciation, suggesting that both acoustic and articulatory information are recruited during vowel production.

Effect of word frequency in producing English unstressed vowels by Korean learners of English

Effect of word frequency in producing English unstressed vowels by Korean learners of English

Effect of word frequency in producing English unstressed vowels by Korean learners of English

Effect of word frequency in producing English unstressed vowels by Korean learners of English

Resilience of English vowel perception across regional accent variation

In two categorization experiments using phonotactically legal nonce words, we tested Australian English listeners’ perception of all vowels in their own accent as well as in four less familiar regional varieties of English which differ in how their vowel realizations diverge from Australian English: London, Yorkshire, Newcastle (UK), and New Zealand. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that amongst the vowel differences described in sociophonetic studies and attested in our stimulus materials, only a small subset caused greater perceptual difficulty for Australian listeners than for the corresponding Australian English vowels. We discuss this perceptual tolerance for vowel variation in terms of how perceptual assimilation of phonetic details into abstract vowel categories may contribute to recognizing words across variable pronunciations. Experiment 2 determined whether short-term multi-talker exposure would facilitate accent adaptation, particularly for those vowels that proved more difficult to categorize in Experiment 1. For each accent separately, participants listened to a pre-test passage in the nonce word accent but told by novel talkers before completing the same task as in Experiment 1. In contrast to previous studies showing rapid adaptation to talker-specific variation, our listeners’ subsequent vowel assimilations were largely unaffected by exposure to other talkers’ accent-specific variation.

Production Accuracy of L2 Vowels: Phonological Parsimony and Phonetic Flexibility

Ultimate attainment in foreign-language sound learning is addressed via vowel production accuracy in English spoken by advanced Czech EFL learners. English FLEECE–KIT, DRESS–TRAP, and GOOSE–FOOT contrasts are examined in terms of length, height, and backness. Our data show that, while being constrained by phonemic category assimilation (new vowel height distinctions are not created), the learners’ interlanguage combines phonological parsimony (reusing L1 length feature to contrast L2 vowels) with phonetic flexibility (within-category shifts reflecting L1–L2 phonetic dissimilarity). Although achieving nativelike phonological competence may not be possible learners who acquire L2 in the prevailingly L1 environment, the Czech learners’ implementations of English vowels revealed their ability to adjust for phonetic detail of L2 sounds.

The Effects of Formal Instruction on the Acquisition of English Long Vowels

Indonesian and English vowels reveal different phonetic classification and symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). English has five long vowels: i:, ɜ:, ɑ:, ɔ:, and u:. The difference in phonetic classification and symbol overlooks subsegmental difference in aspiration that exists between the two. In English there are many sounds symbolized by short vowels: i:, ɜ:, ɑ:, ɔ:, and u: which are absent in Indonesian phonetic symbol. These sounds make difficulties to Indonesian speakers of English to identify for communication purposes. This study therefore aims to find out whether formal instruction improve the acquisition of English long vowels by Indonesian learners of English and to investigate which long vowels tend to be difficult to be transcribed by the students. The population of this study was the students who attended the English Phonology course of English Literature Study Program Faculty of Languges and Literature Universitas Negeri Makassar Indonesia. The study reveals that formal instruction improved the acquisition of English long vowels by Indonesian learners of English and the majority of subject gave wrong transcriptions on these two words, e.g., for word early, they transcribed like / :ʌrly/, / ierly/, / erli/, / eirly/, e-l-i/, / irli/, / irly/, / e:ly/, / irliy / and for word girl, they transcribe like / gir:l/, / ger:l/, / ger/, / gael/, / g-e-r-l/, / gerl/, / ge:l/, / ge;l/, / gi:l/.

Moving towards a bilingual baseline in second language phonetic research

Abstract This investigation compared adult sequential bilinguals and native speakers (NSs) with the intention of determining if bilinguals are an appropriate comparison group for second language (L2) learners in L2 phonetic research. To that end, 16 Spanish-English bilinguals were compared to 20 NSs of English on their perception and production of two English vowels. In perception, both groups had a similar category boundary and acoustic cue weighting. In production, both groups produced distinct vowels that were highly intelligible, although the bilinguals produced the phonemes closer together in the vowel space and had more variable performance than the NSs. The inspection of these two participant groups reveals that bilinguals have the ability to perceive and produce a difficult L2 phonemic contrast, with slight and inconsequential differences when compared to NSs. Thus, I argue that bilinguals who have acquired a target structure are an apt comparison group in L2 phonetic experiments.

Acoustic Characteristics of Pakistani English Vowel Sounds

The purpose of this investigation was to document acoustic characteristics of Pakistani English (PaKE) vowel sounds. The experiment was designed to examine the properties of ten vowels produced by Pakistani ESL learners. The analysis is based on the voice samples of recorded 50 CVC words. Total 5000 (10 10 50=5000) voiced samples were analyzed. The data consisted of 50 words of ten English vowel sounds [i: ɪ e ɔ: æ ə ɑ: u: ɒ ʊ]. Ten ESL speakers recorded their voice samples on Praat speech processing tool installed on laptop. Three parameters were considered i.e., fundamental frequency (F0), vowel quality (F1-F2) and duration. Formant patterns were judged manually by visual inspection on Praat Speech Processing Tool. Analysis of formant frequency shows numerous differences between male and female of F1 and F2, fundamental frequency and duration of English vowels. The voice samples provide evidence for higher and lower frequency of vowel sounds. Additionally, the data analysis illustrates that there were statistical differences in the values of short and long vowels coupled with vowel space plot showing explicit differences in locating the production of vowels of male & female vowel space acoustic realizations.

Immediate Phonological Features in Representing Regional Identity: Cases of Northern English Vowels in Contemporary Films

Immediate Phonological Features in Representing Regional Identity: Cases of Northern English Vowels in Contemporary Films

Perception of English vowels by Javanese and Sundanese speakers; A mouse-tracking study

Second language (L2) learners often encounter difficulties caused by the interference of their native language (L1). The aim of this study is to examine how the Javanese and Sundanese vowel systems hinder the perception of ten English vowels. Thirty Javanese, thirty Sundanese, and twenty English native speakers participated in a mouse-tracking experiment. Participants were required to identify English vowels corresponding to an auditory token by clicking on one of two word strings presented on a computer screen. According to the Speech Learning Model (SLM) hypothesis, the Javanese and Sundanese speakers were predicted to have higher error rates and show a larger Area Under the Curve (AUC) for similar vowels (same IPA symbols, but different diacritics between L1 and the target vowels) than the native English speakers. For new vowels (no same IPA symbols found between L1 and the target vowels), the L2 speakers were predicted to have lower error rates and a smaller AUC than the native English speakers. According to the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP), however, the prediction is stated in the reverse. Repeated measures of ANOVAs found that: 1) the Javanese and Sundanese speakers were less accurate in perceiving the new vowels /ɑː/, /ʌ/, /ae/, /e/, /ɪ/, and /ʊ/ and similar vowels /iː/ and /uː/. 2) The Javanese speakers showed a larger AUC than native speakers for new vowels /ɑː/, /ɜː/, /ɔː/, and /ʌ/ and for similar vowels /iː/ and /uː/. The Sundanese speakers showed a greater attraction to the incorrect alternatives than the native speakers for new vowels /ɑː/, /ɜː/, /ɔː/, /ʌ/, /ae/, /e/, /ɪ/, and /ʊ/ and similar vowels /iː/ and /uː/. Our findings partially support the L2LP hypothesis that the Javanese and Sundanese listeners are likely to show high error rates and a large attraction towards the incorrect alternatives of new vowels. The results confirmed that perceptual difficulties varied significantly according to the influence of L1 vowel inventories.

Vowel Space Area of Minangkabau Learners of English

Vowel spacearea (VSA) represents kinematic movements of the articulators and measures speech intelligibility. By looking at the vowel space area, the current study intends to examine the role of Minangkabau in the acquisition of English as a second language. We conducted a speech production experiment involving ten English monophthongs in isolated sentences. We measured the formant frequencies (F1/F2) values and computed the vowel quadrilateral. The results showed that the Minangkabau learners of English did not have similar VSA pattern when compared to the native English speakers. They did not open the jaws and move the tongues as similar as the native English speakers in pronouncing English vowels. The results were discussed in the area of second language acquisition.

Mother Tongue Affecting the English Vowel Pronounciation of Batak Toba Adults

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Nonconvergence and Divergence in Bilingual Phonological and Phonetic Systems: Low Back Vowels in Moundridge Schweitzer German and English

This study explores the bilingual phonology of two heritage speakers of Moundridge Schweitzer German (msg) from Moundridge, Kansas. The speakers are descendants of Mennonite speakers of German who settled in the area around Moundridge, Kansas, in the 1870s. The production of Moundridge Schweitzer German /a/ and /ɔ/ and American English /a/ and /ɔ/ were compared and no evidence of phonological or phonetic convergence was found. For one speaker, there was evidence that phonetic realizations of /a/ and /ɔ/ in the two languages were diverging with a merger or a near merger of the two vowels in the heritage variety of German but not in English.

Neurophysiological indices of the effect of cognates on vowel perception in late Spanish-English bilinguals

It is well established that acquiring a second language (L2) later in life results in less accurate production and perception of speech sounds in the L2. An interesting question is to what extent phonological similarity of translation equivalents across the first language (L1) and L2 affects speech-sound processing and lexical access in an L2.The present study examined this question by comparing processing of Spanish-English translation equivalents that either were phonologically similar (cognates) or dissimilar (non-cognates) in fifteen monolingual English-speakers and 15 late Spanish-English bilinguals. Event related potentials (ERP) were used to examine whether late L2-learners had more difficulty discriminating mispronunciations of vowels in English words that have Spanish cognates compared to words that do not have cognates. Behavioral results indicated effects of language background and cognate status on discrimination, with bilinguals showing poorer discrimination of English vowel mispronunciations than the American-English monolingual control group. ERP results revealed that cognate words facilitated L2 phonological processing as evidenced by a larger frontal positive component (P400) ERP effect, similar in amplitude to the P400 from monolinguals. Results suggest that cognate words facilitate speech processing in adult L2 learners, and, thus, may also be useful as a tool for perceptual learning of L2 phonology.

Regional Variation in Fundamental Frequency of American English Vowels

We examined whether the fundamental frequency (f0) of vowels is influenced by regional variation, aiming to (1) establish how the relationship between vowel height and f0 (“intrinsic f0”) is utilized in regional vowel systems and (2) determine whether regional varieties differ in their implementation of the effects of phonetic context on f0 variations. An extended set of acoustic measures explored f0 in vowels in isolated tokens (experiment 1) and in connected speech (experiment 2) from 36 women representing 3 different varieties of American English. Regional differences were found in f0 shape in isolated tokens, in the magnitude of intrinsic f0 difference between high and low vowels, in the nature of f0 contours in stressed vowels, and in the completion of f0 contours in the context of coda voicing. Regional varieties utilize f0 control in vowels in different ways, including regional f0 ranges and variation in f0 shape.

An Acoustic Investigation of Pakistani and American English Vowels

Acoustic analysis tests the hypothesis that the physical properties of Pakistani English (PaKE) vowels differ in terms of acoustic measurements of Native American English speakers. The present paper aims to document the physical behavior of English vowels produced by PaKE learners. The major goal of this paper is to measure the production of sound frequencies coupled with vowel duration. The primary aim of this paper is to explore the different frequencies and duration of the vowels involved in articulation of PaKE. English vowels selected for this purpose are: /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/ and /ə/. Total ten samplings were obtained from the department of computer science at Sindh Madressatul Islam University, Karachi. The study was based on the analysis of 500 (10×5×10=500) voice samples. Five vowel minimal pairs were selected and written in a carrier phrase [I say CVC now]. Ten speakers (5 male & five female) recorded their 500 voice samples using Praat speech processing tool and a high-quality microphone on laptop in a computer laboratory with no background sound. Three parameters were considered for the analysis of PaKE vowels i.e., duration of five vowels, fundamental frequency (F1 and F2). It was hypothesized that the properties of PaKE vowels are different from that of English native speakers. The hypothesis was accepted since the acoustic measurements of PaKE and English Native American speakers’ physical properties of sounds were discovered different.

The Realization of English Vowels by Kuwaiti Speakers

Learning to speak a language does not necessarily mean learning to realize all the phonemes of that language. When a sound does not exist in a speakers’ mother tongue, s/he tends to use a phonotactic; hence, either replacing the sound with another that might sound similar, eliminating the sound, or adding a sound to make it possible to realize. In some cases, the orthography of the target language causes confusion and is considered misleading to non-native speakers. There are only 6 vowels in Arabic phonetics, long and short. Yet, there are 20 phonetic vowel symbols in Received Pronunciation, and 16 in General American. The following study investigates the realization of the English vowels by Kuwaiti speakers, and the effect of orthography on such realizations. 64 male and female Kuwaiti speakers are recorded reading 55 words and 10 sentences. The data obtained was analyzed by Praat (qualitative data), and SPSS (quantitative data). Focus group interviews were also conducted to gain further insight into the topic. It was found that not only do the speakers replace the vowels that do not exist in Arabic, but they also mispronounce vowels that exist in Arabic as they are negatively affected by the English orthography.