Intonation Characteristics Research Articles

INTONATION ORGANIZATION OF COMPLIMENT AND FLATTERY SPEECH ACTS IN ENGLISH FILM DISCOURSE

The article focuses on intonation characteristics of compliment and flattery speech acts in English-language film discourse. Since the intonation-prosodic arrangement of the discourse is determined by its pragmatic intention, the article dwells on the illocutionary aims of the addressees of compliment and flattery speech acts. The main illocutionary aims of compliment speech act are seen as the intention to please, or encourage the addressee, the intention to release one’s emotions, the intention to express gratitude to the addressee for certain actions of his, and the intention to calm down and encourage the addressee, to save his “face”. The main illocutionary aims perceived by flatterers are the desire to disguise flattery as a sincere praise or compliment; the intention to gain benefit and the intention to force the addressee into taking actions, seen as beneficial for the speaker. The carried out auditory and electroacoustic analyses of the intonation of compliments and flattery enabled the author to identify certain common tendences in terms of melodical contour: both speech acts are characterized by the predominant use of falling nuclear tone and falling tone movement. Compliments are framed with The Descending Stepping Head or The Ascending Head, while flattery is characterized by a greater variability of pre-nuclear patterns than compliments: apart from The Descending Stepping Head, The Ascending Head, The Level Head and The Sliding Head are used. Compliments are also characterized by a high pitch level. The pitch of flattering utterances is more varied: it is qualified as high in half of the phrases, medium or low in the rest of the phrases. The pitch level of compliment phrases is medium in male speech and narrow in female speech. Phrases of flattery are pronounced on a high pitch level. The voice range of flattering phrases is medium, which makes the speaker sound smarmy and wheedling. The loudness of both compliment and flattery is increased, and the pace is slowed down, except for women who utter compliments: they speak faster.

Фоностилистические приемы аргументации в аудиорекламе

The aim of the study is to identify the features of phonostylistic argumentation means in an advertising audio text that influence the effectiveness of the transmission of factual information. Audio advertising is one of the striking examples of emotionally charged speech, where the presented information is perceived through an acoustic channel. Argumentation in audio advertising is carried out not only at the lexical and syntactic level, but also at the phonetic level. Phonostylistic techniques optimize the perception of an audio text and also contribute to the memorization of the advertising message. The paper provides examples of the use of phonostylistic techniques in audio advertising that have an argumentative effect on the addressee. The scientific novelty lies in the description and systematization of phonostylistic techniques of sounding speech as elements of argumentation in audio advertising. It is the first time that auditory analysis has been used to establish the dependence of intonation characteristics and nonverbal audio means on the type of speech (monologue or dialogue) presented in audio advertising. As a result, it has been proved that argumentation in an audio advertising text is a way of speech influence on the audience, which is implemented with the help of emotional and psychological arguments. Linguistic means of expressiveness and phonetic means of speech influence make advertising more convincing and attention-getting.

Изучение фонетики студентами лингвистических специальностей по методу «шедоуинг»: трудности и потенциальные решения

The paper describes the use of the shadowing technique, which entails learners of the foreign language reading an authentic text together with the speaker in order to copy the rhythm and tempo, and connected speech peculiarities, thereby, improving their articulation, phonetic, lexical, grammatical, translation and other skills in the foreign language. According to the observations of other researchers, this method helps students improve articulation and intonation characteristics, and speech fluency; however, there is no comprehensive description of the issues discovered by the authors while using this method with the students of linguistic specialties in phonetics course. Based on the observations of 96 first-year students who study Linguistics and Pedagogy with the B1+ level according to the CEFR, the researchers have identified a number of challenges in using this method to teach students of the linguistic faculties. The students may face the following issues: 1) difficulties with making their own markings especially in the beginning of their studies; 2) skeptical attitude towards the changes made, trouble identifying the right tone; 3) reluctance of a particular percentage of students to spend enough time on self-study which this technique is predicated upon (in the current study, this was around a quarter of the students); 4) particular sound articulation challenges, difficulty copying English tones, as well as pronouncing long thought groups; 5) psychological barriers. The authors suggest potential solutions, such as using Praat software to analyze speech, measuring pitch and intensity to resolve markup disputes; emphasizing and illustrating the importance of studying the phonetic aspects of the language to achieve successful communication; targeted work with the articulation of sounds that are absent or different from Russian ones.

Retracted: Intonation Characteristics of Singing Based on Artificial Intelligence Technology and Its Application in Song‐on‐Demand Scoring System

Retracted: Intonation Characteristics of Singing Based on Artificial Intelligence Technology and Its Application in Song‐on‐Demand Scoring System

«Italian in Аlgeria» J. Rossini in the context of the evolutionary ways of the development of the Italian music theater of the early XIX century

The purpose of the study is to identify the poetic and intonational features of the opera «Italian in Algeria» by G. Rossini in the context of general evolutionary paths of development of the genre of Italian comic opera. The methodology is based on a combination of culturological, historical and musicological, hermeneutic and art studies, which together significantly deepens the study of genre and style specifics of opera by G. Rossini, in particular, «Italians in Algeria» as a new stage in the development of opera-buffa. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by its analytical perspective, which takes into account both the manifestations of aesthetic and stylistic guidelines of Rossini's opera «Italian in Algeria» and its genre specificity, adjusted to the Italian cultural and historical tradition of the early nineteenth century. Conclusions. The plot-semantic indicators of G. Rossini's «Italians in Algeria», on the one hand, show contact with the typology of the «classic» opera-buffa, as evidenced by the traditional comedy plot; the correlation of most of the heroes of the play with the types of Italian comedy masks; appeal to oriental (Turkish) themes, interpreted in the spirit of the ideas of the Enlightenment, as well as analogies with the Mozart Musical Theater and the comedies of JB Moliere. On the other hand, the opera demonstrates the innovative approach of its author, as evidenced by the final rondo of Isabella with the choir, which both in text and in intonation language appeals to the ideas of Italian culture on the eve of Risorgimento. Generalization of the intonation specificity of «Italian in Algeria» by G. Rossini demonstrates the originality of the relationship between traditions and innovations. The poetics of opera-buffa is manifested here in G. Rossini's masterful mastery of the art of opera ensemble; in the wide use of timbre-performance capabilities of buffoon bass, patter techniques, etc. The novelty of the work is manifested in the complexity of the images of the main characters, the richness of their intonation characteristics, which were based on the traditions of belcanto. This is primarily related to the image of Isabella, who ultimately gravitates to the ideas of national patriotism and thus greatly expands the expressive possibilities of the typology of opera-buffa in line with the socio-political and cultural realities of Italy in the early XIX century.
 Key words: opera-buffa, G. Rossini Musical Theater, «Italian in Algeria», Risorgimento, Italian Musical Theater.

A qualitative study on the variability in intonation learning and attrition in brazilian portuguese bilingual speakers of spanish l2

In this study we analyzed the production of fundamental frequency contours by bilingual Brazilian speakers living in Spain. His production in Spanish L2 was compared with that of native Spanish speakers and his production in Portuguese L1 with that of monolingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. The analysis is qualitative, based on the visual observation of patterns in temporarily normalized f0 contours. Statements were compared in three modalities, declarative, total interrogative and pronominal interrogative, elicited in two styles of elocution - read separately and inserted into a narrative. In the analysis we observed evidence favorable to the presence of two phenomena that are related to bilingualism: learning, in the form of patterns produced in Spanish L2 similar to those observed in the speech of native Spanish, and linguistic erosion, which is manifested in the appearance of patterns produced by bilinguals in their L1 that are similar to those found in native Spanish. The two phenomena occur gradually and variably among the speakers analyzed. We identify patterns in the production of f0 contours by bilinguals and propose a preliminary classification of variable behaviors in terms of incorporating native Spanish characteristics into L2 production (learning) and the transfer to Portuguese of Spanish intonation characteristics (erosion). In the discussion of the results, we point out a possible relationship between the occurrence of learning and erosion and the experience of speakers with L2, especially the time of residence in Spain and formal study of Spanish and the amount of use of L1. We propose, based on the Speech Learning Model (SLM-r), to understand the differential manifestation of the two processes in the three enunciation modalities studied as a result of the interaction between the different tonal repertoires of Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

Phonetic competence features as a component of intercultural communicative competence of prospective German language teachers

The article presents the results of a theoretical study of the linguistic component ofthe intercultural education of the German language. The phonetic features of the German language are presentedon the basis of its pluricentric character. Examples of phonetic phenomena of the national variants of theAustrian and Swiss German languages are given. The phonetic phenomena of the German language, whicharise in the process of mastering and communicating in German, are indicated and affect the language and stylisticliteracy of future teachers. Purpose. The problem of the formation of German-speaking phonetic competencein modern conditions is outlined. The levels of proficiency in phonetic skills and abilities while using a foreignlanguage are noted. Methods. Thorough study of the researches on phonetic material; selection and analysisof chosen authentic texts, scientific sources; phonetic phenomena selection and analysis. Results. The researchillustrates samples of phonetic competence that determine the nationally marked feature of the German languageand constitute the content of educational and methodological material for the skills and abilities of interculturalcommunicative competence development.Conclusion. Thus, the work presented the main pronunciation and intonation characteristics of the Germanlanguage, which are the object of development and improvement in prospective teachers during the formationof intercultural communicative competence. The article investigated linguistic basics for teaching the aspectof the German phonetics. In addition, the paper outlines the phonetic national features of German variants,which highlight the culturally marked characteristics of German in the countries where the language is studied,and require additional attention in the educational process to acquire linguistic and sociocultural knowledge,skills and abilities as the components of intercultural competence.

Ballet “Chasing Two Hares” by Yuri Shevchenko: Intertextual and Intermedial Contexts

The relevance of research. The ballet “Chasing Two Hares” was first investigated from the point of view of intertextual and intermedia connections. Also, for the first time, the analysis of the musical component of the film "Chasing Two Hares" directed by V. Ivanov and composer B. Gomolyaka has been carried out. The parameters of interaction between the ballet “Chasing Two Hares” and the film of the same name at different levels are derived: plot, genre, intonation and drama.
 Main objective of the study is to determine the intertextual and intermedia contexts of Y. Shevchenko’s ballet “Chasing Two Hares”.
 Research methodology. In the article, the following methods of historical and theoretical musicology were used: historical — to clarify the circumstances of the creation of musical works, comparative — to compare the musical series of the film “Chasing Two Hares” and Y. Shevchenko’s ballet, the method of intertextual analysis — to identify the qualitative indicators of connections between different musical texts, the method of genre-intonation analysis — for the detection of immanent intonational specific features of the named opuses.
 The results and conclusions of the study. The concepts of “intertextuality” and “intermediality” in the context of the genre of ballet are defined. The ballet “Chasing Two Hares” by Y. Shevchenko is analyzed from the point of view of its genre and intonation specifics, intertextual and intermedia connections with the film “Chasing Two Hares” directed by V. Ivanov. The musical component of the film, the author of which was V. Gomolyaka, is considered. The main methods of V. Gomolyaka’s work are determined when he creates intonation characteristics of the main characters of the film (Golokhvostov, Pronya) by means of musical expressiveness. Golokhvostov has two contrasting leit-themes, Pronya — one leit-theme, which undergoes intonation changes at the end of the film. The genre and intonation coordinates of the sound landscape of the city of Kyiv have been determined, which V. Gomolyaka reproduces the motley picture of the city of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (church bells, urban folklore, klezmer music, etc.). The intonation and literary genesis of the ballet “Chasing Two Hares” by Y. Shevchenko has been clarified. The parameters of interaction of the film “Chasing Two Hares” with Y. Shevchenko’s ballet are derived: plot (introduction of the heroine Madame), genre (involving the semantics of genres: waltz, march, song, couplets, etc.), intonation (rethinking of sound models by Y. Shevchenko and ideas of V. Gomolyaka). The intertextual and intermedia connections of Y. Shevchenko’s ballet with other literary texts are traced: M Starytsky’s play “Gentleman lip without teeth, or Chasing Two Hares”, I. Nechuy-Levitsky’s play “On Kozhemyaki” and the film “Chasing Two Hares” directed by V. Ivanov and composer V. Gomolyaka. The individual author’s style of the composer is comprehended from the point of view of work in the genre of ballet.

Prosodic characteristics of key characters’ speech in M. Bulgakov’s novel «The Master and Margarita»

This article discusses the prosodic characteristics of the speech of key characters in M.A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. The work is performed in the context of the author’s dissertation. Prosodic characteristics of the characters’ speech is an important function of the author’s commentary in the literary text, which allows to emphasize the uniqueness of each character, to reveal the individual features of the speech, emotional and mental state, temperament of characters. It also expresses the meanings that are fundamentally important for the semantics of the image. Based on this, it can be argued that the verbs of sound, adverbial and adjective side notes in the prosodic characteristics of the characters create an original manner of M.A. Bulgakov’s writings: the writer conveys the full range of feelings and moods of his characters as fully as possible, reflecting the peculiarities of oral colloquial speech as well. In particular, the prosodic characteristics of the Master and Margarita in the novel reveal the essence of these characters, to convey the author’s intention in relation to them. So, the task of the intonation characteristics of the Master’s speech is to show his emotional instability, anxiety, which is explained by the failure with the novel (his life’s work). In the prosodic characteristics of Margarita’s speech, two plans are distinguished: Margarita actually and Margarita the witch. This division is important, since the intonations differ significantly (which allows the author to shift the emphasis towards the heroine’s infernality in the course of the plot movement). Special attention is paid to the analysis of lexemes that are used in the author’s comments, since they reflect the peculiarities of characters’ lexicon, contribute to the brightly changing image, while determining the self-disclosure of the character.

Intonation Characteristics of Singing Based on Artificial Intelligence Technology and Its Application in Song-on-Demand Scoring System

With the continuous progress of my country’s cultural industry, how to apply artificial intelligence technology to song on demand has become an issue of concern. This research mainly discusses the research of singing intonation characteristics based on artificial intelligence technology and its application in song-on-demand scoring system. This paper uses the combination of ant colony algorithm and DTW algorithm to measure the similarity between speech signals with the average distortion distance, so as to expect accurate recognition results. The design of the song-on-demand scoring function module uses a combination of MVC mode and command mode based on artificial intelligence technology. The view component in the MVC mode is mainly used to display the content that the user needs to sing and realize the interaction with the user. The singer selects a song to start playing, and the scoring terminal device queries the music library server for song information according to the song number, then starts playing the song through the FTP file sharing service according to the audio file path in the song information, and at the same time displays the song on the display according to the timeline Show song and pitch information. The singer sings according to the screen prompts. The microphone collects the voice signal and transmits it to the scoring terminal. After the scoring algorithm is calculated, the result is fed back to the screen in real time. The singer can view his singing status in real time and make corresponding adjustments to obtain a higher score. After the singing, the scoring terminal will display the final result on the screen to inform the user and upload the singing record to the server for recording. In the tested on-demand retrieval engine, the average hit rate of the top 3 has reached more than 90% under various humming methods, basically maintaining the high hit rate characteristics of the original retrieval engine. The system designed in this research helps to effectively improve the singing level.

ИНТОНАЦИОННЫЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ РЕЧИ ДЕТЕЙ С УМСТВЕННОЙ ОТСТАЛОСТЬЮ

In the literature, data on the formation of intonation in Russian-speaking children with mild intellectual disabilities (mental retardation) without genetic syndromes and serious neurological disorders (for example, cerebral palsy) based on the instrumental analysis of children’s speech are absent. The aim of this study was to compare the intonation characteristics of speech in children, aged 5 to 7, with typical development and with mild intellectual disabilities. The participants of the study were 20 children aged 5 to 7: 10 children (5 girls and 5 boys) with typical development (TD group) and 10 children (6 boys and 4 girls) with mild intellectual disabilities (ID group, ICD-10-CM Code F70). Intellectual disabilities were not associated with genetic or severe neurological disorders (non-specific ID). Child speech was taken from the AD-CHILD.RU speech database. Audio and video recordings of speech and behavior of TD group children (in a kindergarten) and ID group children (in an orphanage) were made in the model situation of a “dialogue with an adult”. Two studies were conducted: a perceptual experiment (n=10 listeners – native speakers, researchers in the field of child speech development) and an instrumental spectrographic analysis of child speech. The instrumental analysis of speech was made in the Praat program. The duration of utterances and stressed vowels, pitch values (average, maximum and minimum), pitch range values of utterances, and pitch range values of vowels were analyzed. The perceptual experiment showed that the utterances of ID group children classified as less clear and more emotional than the utterances of TD group children. The task of phrase stress (words highlighted by voice) revealing was more difficult for adults when they were listening to the speech of ID group children vs. TD group children. In ID group children, the values of utterance duration are lower and the values of vowel duration are higher than in TD group children. The average, maximum, and minimum pitch values, the pitch range values of ID group children’s utterances are higher vs. the corresponding parameters of TD group children’s speech. The duration and pitch range values of stressed vowels from ID group children’s words highlighted by intonation are higher than these features of TD group children’s stressed vowels. The pitch contours of stressed vowels from TD group children’s words highlighted by intonation were presented in most cases by the rise of the pitch contour; the pitch contours of stressed vowels from ID group children’s words highlighted by intonation were presented by the fall of the pitch. The dome-shaped vowel pitch contour and U-shaped contour are more frequent in the speech of ID group children vs. TD group children. In the future, the intonation characteristics of speech of children with different diagnoses could be considered as additional diagnostic criteria of developmental disorders.

Сучасні підходи до комплексної психокорекційної роботи з подолання заїкання у дошкільників

The article investigates the theoretical foundations and practical implementation of the complex approach to psycho-corrective work on overcoming stuttering. It is a therapeutic and pedagogical influence on different sides of the psychophysical state of a child suffering from stuttering by means of diverse methods, means and efforts initiated by different specialists (doctors, speech therapists, psychologists, educators). The purpose of the psycho-corrective work is to eliminate or weaken speech twitching and related disorders of voice, breathing, motor skills and speech; improvement and strengthening of the nervous system and the organism as a whole; depriving the child of a misconception of his / her speech defects as well as from psychological layering; re-education of his / her personality and behaviour, social rehabilitation and adaption of a child suffering from stuttering. Stuttering is not only a disorder of the speech function, but, first of all, a disorder of the nervous system, the weakening of a physical health, general motor skills; psychological features should also be noted. The experimental methodology of the complex psycho-corrective work with preschool children suffering from stuttering has been presented, it is aimed at forming the abilities of a stable smooth speech as a capability of pronouncing each syntagm within one speech exhalation. The methodology was introduced into the speech therapy work of specialized preschool institutions. Some specialized computer programs aimed at correcting the stuttering (games for tigers); traditional methods of preventing stuttering (creation of a protective speech mode, complexes of exercises aimed at the formation of phonation breathing, development of speech intonation characteristics, work on smoothing speech in its various forms, etc.); author’s methods of stutter correction (breathing exercises by A. M. Strelnikova, S. O. Mironova’s methodology, G. O. Volkova’s playing-based approach) were used in the designated work. The results of the study indicate the effectiveness of the proposed complex psycho-correctional methodology for working with preschoolers in order to overcome stuttering. It was experimentally proved that it is necessary to complexly influence not only on speech, personality, motor skills, nervous system of a stuttering child but also on his / her body as a whole in order to eliminate his / her stuttering. Keywords: stuttering, complex psycho-correctional work, methodology for overcoming stuttering, speech therapy exercises, speech, speech disorders.

DYNAMIC COMPONENT OF INTONATION PARTICIPATION IN THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ORAL PRAYER TEXT IN ENGLISH FILM DISCOURSE

The article deals with the investigation of dynamic peculiarities of oral prayer texts used in modern English film discourse. Prayer personages’ appeal to God manifests intertextuality of the film discourse, that is the use of the elements of the existing text in the process of the creation of a new one. Two ways of personages’ appeal to God – with a canonical prayer registered in the Book of Common Prayers and with a “spontaneous” prayer address – have been investigated in the present paper. Four compositional parts having different pragmatic aims typical of the prayer texts of both types have been singled out. To determine the degree of the dynamic component participation in the organization of the prayer oral text, a complex phonetic analysis was conducted, the purpose of which was to identify the general trend of the dynamic organization of the prayer texts within a film discourse under study. As a result of perceptive and electroacoustic analysis, the main dynamic characteristics of the investigated texts were revealed. Distinctive intonation characteristics of the canonical prayer and the “spontaneous” prayer within a film component of intonation as a leading parameter. Instrumentally, it is found out that the differences in maximum intensity of the investigated prayer texts are essential. The “spontaneous” prayer demonstrates much higher maximum intensity than the canonical prayer. Howeverthe canonical prayer texts as well are characterized by the increased maximum intensity in introductory and concluding parts. The average syllabic intensity of the phrases constituting supraphrasal unities shows both the differences in their rate and the mutual tendency in their variability in different parts of the prayer. Thus the experimental research proved the hypothesis about the leading role of the dynamic component of intonation in prayer texts within a film discourse differentiation.

Intonation means of expressing misunderstanding in english film discourse

The immediate purpose of the paper is to provide intonation diff erentiation of the three types of misunderstanding in dialogue communication. The object of analysis is the English artistic discourse. The subject of investigation is the intonation means of expressing misunderstanding in English Film Discourse. The investigation results in identifying the common and diff erentiating intonation means of expressing direct misunderstanding, pretended misunderstanding and pretended understanding. The investigation of actors’ intonation has enabled the author to establish the certain misunderstanding phrases intonation characteristics: tone level, tone range, intensity and tempo. Conclusions. In terms of the tone level and tone range, most utterances have turned out to have mid pitch level and mid tone range. The more emotional the speaker is, the wider his voice range seems to, especially when it comes to pretended misunderstanding. In terms of intensity, most phrases are characteristic of normal intensity. The investigation of tempo in the phrases of misunderstanding has confi rmed its changeable and unstable character, presupposed by the addresser’s sincerity / insincerity. Most misunderstanding phrases are pronounced with a normal tempo. The accelerated tempo is common both for the phrases of direct misunderstanding and pretended misunderstanding. Another registered tendency concerns pragmatic pauses, which take place right in front of the lexical units, expressing misunderstanding.

Speech prosodic characteristics recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy volunteers

Many mechanisms for the brain organization of speech processes remain poorly understood now. Objective : to assess the structural and functional organization of speech prosody, by applying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This technique allows non-invasive studies of the organization of the speech system. Patients and methods. Using their proposed three paradigms, the authors evaluated speech prosody in healthy volunteers. The first paradigm was aimed to determine the intonation characteristics of a sentence; the second paradigm is to study the given accentuated and non-accentuated rhythms, and the third to recognize melodies. Results and discussion. In the first paradigm, there was bilateral activation of Wernicke's speech area (Brodmann's Area 22) that significantly prevailed in volume and intensity in the right hemisphere of the brain. Also, the right hemisphere predominantly showed activation of the supplementary motor region included in cytoarchitectonical Brodmann's Area 6. There was a significant activation Brodmann's Area 9 when a rhythm was determined in the right hemisphere and in Brodmann's Area 46 when melodies were recognized. The cerebellum, limbic system, subcortical structures, etc. were noted to be activated, which permits speech function to be regarded as a whole brain process. Conclusion. The investigation has confirmed that different regions of both hemispheres of the brain are involved in the systemic organization of speech, which enables the authors to speak about the codominance of the hemispheres in respect of this function. The presented paradigms fully meet the objectives of the study and can be used to map the prosodic characteristics of speech.

The Intonation Characteristics of Reading Sentences in Patients with Right Hemisphere Damage

The Intonation Characteristics of Reading Sentences in Patients with Right Hemisphere Damage

Eine Kontrastive Phonetische Analyse Niederdeutscher Langvokale

Taking up anecdotal evidence, our general research aim is to investigate and to quantify the phonetic characteristics of Low German in different Northern German regions on the basis of detailed acoustic and auditory analyses. In the initial pilot study presented here, we focus on phonologically long vowels. The analyses are based on a sample of long-vowel tokens, which were produced by 18 Northern German speakers in spontaneous translations of the 'Wenker' sentences. The speakers had comparable dialectal competences, but came from different regions of Northern Germany, i. e. Schleswig, Holstein, Dithmarschen, Ostfriedland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, or Nordbrandenburg. The selected vowel tokens occurred in contexts that were phonetically controlled in terms of both consonantal coarticulation and prosodic structure. The acoustic analysis included measuring durations, formant frequencies (F1-F3) and intonation characteristics (pitch-accent F0 patterns). The auditory analysis was made by narrow phonetic transcriptions. The results of the two analyses agree in showing clear regional differences. They concern the distributions of the long vowels within the vowel space (i.e. the vowel qualities, their stabilities and phonetic distances to each other) as well as the pitch-accent intonation patterns that co-occur with the long vowels. Differences in vowel duration were not found. Nordbrandenburg and Schleswig are characterized by a wide spectrum of monophthongal long-vowel qualities. In contrast, the long vowels in Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Ostfriesland show less diverse quality differences in the vowel centre. However, overall the phonetic diversity is still there in terms of diphthongizations that start or end at very different qualities. The long vowels of Dithmarschen combine the two characteristics, i.e. diphthongal qualities with relatively large differences in the vowel centre. As regards the intonation patterns across the vowels, we found that Dithmarschen and Holstein are both characterized by rising-falling pitch-accent peaks, but with different alignments relative to the vowel boundaries. The pitch-accent intonations of our speakers from Ostfriesland also rose and fell across the vowel. However, unlike in all other regions they additionally showed a striking F0 shape with a long high plateau in between the rising and falling movements. Our results are discussed with regard to the current claims about the dialectal organization of Northern Germany.

Improved status following behavioural intervention in a case of severe dysarthria with stroke aetiology

There is little published intervention outcome literature concerning dysarthria acquired from stroke. Single case studies have potential for more detailed specification and interpretation than is generally possible in larger studies so are informative for clinicians dealing with similar cases. Such research also contributes to planning of larger scale investigations. Behavioural intervention is described which was carried out between 7–9 months after stroke with a 69-year-old man with severe dysarthria. Pre-intervention stability between 5–7 months contrasted with post-intervention gains. Significant improvement was demonstrated using randomized, blinded assessment by 10 judges on measures of word and reading intelligibility and communication effectiveness in conversation. A range of speech analyses were undertaken (rate, pause, and intonation characteristics in connected speech and single word phonetic transcription), with the aim of identifying speech components which might explain the listeners’ perceptions of improvement. Changes were detected mainly in parameters related to utterance segmentation and intonation. The basis of post-intervention improvement in dysarthria is complex, both in terms of the active therapeutic dimensions and also the specific speech alterations which account for changes to intelligibility and effectiveness.

The effect of disrupting intonation patterns on the perceptual segregation of competing voices.

Relative differences in fundamental frequency and prosodic features have been extensively studied as cues to voice segregation in multitalker listening tasks. However, little is known about the effects of disrupting the intonation characteristics of a talker within a single phrase. The current experiment measured color‐number keyword identification scores with the coordinate response measure (CRM) sentences under two conditions: a “normal prosody” condition, where the target and masker phrases were spoken contiguously by a single talker; and a “disrupted prosody” condition, where the target and masking phrases were generated by concatenating together individual words that were originally spoken in different sentences. The results show that the elimination of normal prosodic cues had the greatest impact on performance when the target sentence was masked by a single CRM masking phrase that was presented at the same level as the target talker. The elimination of prosodic information had only a very slight impact on performance when the target talker was masked by more than one simultaneous talker, suggesting that the use of prosodic cues for segregation may be impaired when more than one interfering talker is present in the mixture.

A comparison of maternal and child intonation: Does adult input support child production?

Intonation involves the musical aspects of speech production and consists of suprasegmental aspects of phonology (i.e., pitch, length and loudness). The development of intonation involves various changes throughout the first 2 years of life as children learn how to manipulate intonation features as their linguistic system develops. Evidence from the literature provides a mixed message related to the influence of surrounding adult models on intonation production. The current study observed intonation characteristics in 23 mother-child pairs. Results indicated that, in general, children did not directly imitate maternal intonation, but that maternal support assisted the production of wider contours.