Phonetic Inventory Research Articles

Does Native Language Matter in Perceptual Ratings of Dysarthria?

Despite the general agreement that dysarthria characteristics are largely language-independent, few efforts have attempted a systematic comparison across languages. To examine the role of native languages in the perception of speech characteristics of dysarthria secondary to Parkinson's disease (PD), auditory-perceptual ratings of dysarthria, and confidence level of the judgments were compared between two listener groups: language-matched and language-crossed. A total of 60 listeners (35 native speakers of Korean and 25 native speakers of American English) estimated speech abnormality for 20 speech dimensions using a visual analog scale method for both language-matched and language-crossed speech stimuli. Speech stimuli were passage readings of the respective languages obtained from individuals with and without PD. For speech dimension ratings, eight of 20 speech dimensions revealed significant differences in response to PD speech between the two listener groups, for most of which, language-crossed listeners' estimation was lower (i.e., more impaired) than language-matched listeners. For confidence-level ratings, language-matched listeners were less confident in the ratings of speakers with PD compared to the language-crossed listeners. The data support both language-universal and language-specific aspects in perceiving dysarthria characteristics, such that native language plays a role, especially when rating articulatory- and rhythmic-related characteristics. The findings are discussed with respect to the role of linguistic information, such as phonetic inventories and prosodic structures, in perceiving dysarthria characteristics.

Singing in a Second Language: Pronunciation Errors Made by Sri Lankan Decedent Students' when Singing Sinhala Songs Under the Influence of the Australian English Language

When a speaker/vocal performer sings in a second language, the pronunciation can be labelled as a different or fake accent compared to the native speakers. On a theoretical level, it is very difficult for learners of a second language (L2) to get rid of the phonetic effects of (L1) and sometimes impossible, unless the language learner can process both languages from birth. This research aims to identify the pronunciation errors made by Sri Lankan decedent students' according to the consonant sounds of the Inattentional Phonetic Alphabet when they sing Sinhala songs under the influence of the Australian English Language. This research specifically questions what consonant substitutes are employed by the aforementioned speakers for the irreplaceable consonant identity of Sinhala sound production. In this research, Sinhala and English phonemes were compared based on the data from Cox & Palethrope (2007), Rajapakshe (1994 & 1997) and previous research of this researcher (Penahetipola, 2011). The research fundamentally employs a comparison of the phonetic inventory of both languages based on the IPA charts and data from spectrogram analysis of speech sounds made by 45 Australian-born children of Sinhala migrants who are 10-12 and study Sinhala as a second language. Prenasalised stops and nasals have been identified as the most noticeable substitutes. Also, retroflex, palatal, and bilabial are the concerned sound production. The finding is very useful in developing language-speaking programs for speakers and vocal performers who practice Sinhala as their second language.

Phonological development in first language Laki-speaking children aged 3 to 5 years: A pilot study

Purpose To date there are no studies of speech sound acquisition in Laki, a language spoken in western regions of Iran. Thus, we set out a pilot study to investigate the speech development of 56 first language Laki-speaking children (aged 3–5 years). Method Single words were elicited through a picture naming test specifically developed for this study. After recording and transcribing of speech samples, percentage of consonants correct (PCC), percentage of vowels correct (PVC), and proportion of whole word proximity (PWP) were documented in four age groups (36–41, 42–47, 48–53, and 54–59 months) and both genders. Children’s phonetic inventories and consonant and vowel accuracy were also described. Result All the sounds were considered as emerging by 53 months of age. For speech sound accuracy, all the speech sounds except /ɢ, z, ŋ, ʒ/ were mastered by 5 years. The effect of age on PCC values was significant. Also, age groups showed significant differences for PWP but were not significant for PVC. Boys and girls did not differ for PCC, PVC, and PWP values. Conclusion From a theoretical perspective, findings contribute to theories about phonological acquisition in general and will enable crosslinguistic comparisons. From an applied standpoint, language-specific characteristics are identified, which are much needed for clinical practice with Laki-speaking children.

The role of lexical context and language experience in the perception of foreign-accented segments

Abstract When faced with intelligibility problems, listeners resort to contextual information. The present study explores the use of lexical context by listeners when identifying segments with various degrees of foreign accent. Native English listeners identified words into which a single Spanish-accented segment from a 5-step continuum had been inserted. Listeners also identified vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel sequences containing the same accented segments. While lexical context helped, the lexical advantage was largely independent of degree of foreign accent, with a slight benefit only for the most accented consonants. To examine the influence of listeners’ first language on the usefulness of lexical context, a second experiment was carried out with Spanish, Japanese and Czech non-native listeners. As was the case for native listeners, there was little evidence that a lexical context helps more for foreign-accented than native segments. Normalised for word familiarity, overall non-native identification patterns were comparable to native listeners’ perceptions. Listeners’ first language phonetic inventory had an effect on identification levels, particularly in the case of vowels. Lexical context benefits for vowel identification can be explained by their generally less categorical processing, their realisational variability in English, and symbol mapping issues.

Structure and acoustics of the speech of verbal autistic preschoolers.

In this study, we report an extensive investigation of the structural language and acoustical specificities of the spontaneous speech of ten three- to five-year-old verbal autistic children. The autistic children were compared to a group of ten typically developing children matched pairwise on chronological age, nonverbal IQ and socioeconomic status, and groupwise on verbal IQ and gender on various measures of structural language (phonetic inventory, lexical diversity and morpho-syntactic complexity) and a series of acoustical measures of speech (mean and range fundamental frequency, a formant dispersion index, syllable duration, jitter and shimmer). Results showed that, overall, the structure and acoustics of the verbal autistic children's speech were highly similar to those of the TD children. Few remaining atypicalities in the speech of autistic children lay in a restricted use of different vocabulary items, a somewhat diminished morpho-syntactic complexity, and a slightly exaggerated syllable duration.

Improvement of speech by facial prosthesis in a midfacial defect with a gunshot injury: A case report.

Gunshot wounds in the maxillofacial region may cause serious defects that result in functional and esthetic disabilities. A 14-year-old male patient was referred to the prosthodontics clinic for provisional prosthetic restoration 5 months after an injury involving the midline midfacial region. An interim extraoral silicone maxillofacial prosthesis, also known as an epithesis, replacing the nose and upper lip, was fabricated to enhance appearance and speech intelligibility. The effect of the prosthesis insertion on speech outcome was assessed over 6 months. Blood pulse oxygen saturation levels and heart rate were monitored to assess ventilation following the prosthesis insertion. Results of the Assessment of Articulation Subtest revealed the patient produced the target speech sounds of 31 more words correctly at 6 months follow-up. Bilabial, labiodental, and postalveolar speech sounds in the phonetic inventory improved. Fabrication of an extraoral silicone maxillofacial prosthesis, modifying substructure design, and prosthesis usage over time contributed to the significant enhancement of speech intelligibility and did not significantly change the blood pulse oxygen saturation levels and heart rate. It led to an improvement in overall aesthetic outcomes and was a useful tool for the patient's social integration. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology

For speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with multilingual children, differential diagnosis between typical development and speech sound disorder may be complex. This paper presents a longitudinal case study of a bilingual Vietnamese–Australian child (PE) between the ages of 3 years;10 months (3;10) and 6;10, to explore the impact of cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology on speech acquisition. PE completed speech assessments as a participant in the VietSpeech Study: the Vietnamese Speech Assessment and the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology in English. Differential diagnosis based on English speech assessment alone indicated speech sound disorder; yet differential diagnosis based on speech assessment in both languages revealed developmental, cross-linguistic transfer, and ambient phonological influences to be the primary reasons for mismatches. Independent and relational analyses at 3;10 revealed age-appropriate phonetic inventories in Vietnamese and English and bi-directional cross-linguistic transfer: segmental transfer of non-shared consonants, non-shared phonological patterns, and a preference for palatal and retroflex consonants. Contrastive analysis with family members demonstrated the impact of ambient phonology on PE’s speech. Over the three years her speech accuracy improved and mismatches reduced. By 6;10 her English speech was age appropriate and some cross-linguistic transfer was still evident in Vietnamese. Evidence is presented for how dual phonological systems can interact over time until they stabilize. During differential diagnosis, SLPs need to consider the influence of cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology on bilingual speech acquisition.

PHONOLOGICAL DEVIATION AMONG SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN THE FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC NASARAWA, NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

In Nigeria today, most speakers of English are second users of the language because they acquire their different mother tongues before they come to learn English. This article studied the phonological deviation among speakers of English at the Federal Polytechnic. Nasarawa. Adopting the survey research design, the oral production test (OPT) was used whereby thirty (30) students were randomly selected to speak on some topical issues and issues; related to academics such as Examination Malpractice in Nigeria’s Higher Institutions, Campus Gangsterism, High Rate of Unemployment in Nigeria, The 2019 General Election and hate speeches among politicians during the 2019 electioneering campaign. The student’s speeches were recorded and transcribed in their raw forms and compared with the Received Pronunciation (RP) for the purpose of analysis. The results showed that there were deviations in the production of some sounds that are not present in the phonetic inventory of most Nigerian languages as well as wrong placement of stress on English words. The results also showed that the mother tongue plays a significant role in the wrong pronunciation of English words by most Nigerian English bilinguals.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0208/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Articulation Test for Bahdini Kurdish Preschool Children

ABSTRACT 
 Articulation tests record and analyze children’s speech and they are used to determine which sounds children can or cannot say or if the speech errors the children produce are developmentally appropriate or they are delayed. The aim of this study was to develop an articulation test for Bahdini Kurdish preschool children. For this purpose, a picture-naming test was designed to elicit spontaneous single-word responses representing 26 consonants in initial, medial and final positions and 8 vowels in medial positions. Seven experts were asked to review the test and complete a questionnaire. Then, it was presented to 65 normal Bahdini Kurdish speaking children. They were 38 males and 27 females from three different age groups: 3, 4, and 5 years old. The children’s responses were recorded and then scored for each correct utterance and picture identification. The results show that there are no significant differences among the experts’ responses which reflect their approval for the test to be a valid tool for collecting the phonetic inventory of the children. There is a significant and high correlation between correct word utterances and picture identification which prove the content validity of the test. Finally, there are no significant differences between males and females which indicates that the test is suitable for both genders, while significant differences were found among age groups in which old children performed better than younger ones. Thus, the test is a valid and a reliable tool that can be applied to collect the phonetic inventory of Bahdini Kurdish speaking children.

Describing (pre)linguistic oral productions in 3- to 5-year-old autistic children: A cluster analysis.

For most autistic children, spoken language emergence and development happen after the age of 3. Once they start developing and using spoken language, some eventually manage to reach typical levels of language abilities, while others remain minimally speaking into adulthood. It is therefore difficult to consider young autistic preschoolers as a homogeneous group in terms of spoken language levels. In our study, we breakdown a representative and inclusive group of children on the spectrum aged from 3 to 5 into five subgroups that correspond to different linguistic profiles. To do so, we qualitatively described children's (pre)verbal productions elicited during interactions with a parent and with an experimenter. We then used a type of statistical analysis called cluster analysis to group together the children that had a similar expressive (pre)linguistic behavior. Using this analysis, we were able to delineate five linguistic profiles with qualitatively different patterns of vocal production. Two of these profiles are composed of speaking children; the three others are composed of non- or minimally speaking children. Our findings show that traditional binary division of speaking versus nonspeaking autistic children is not precise enough to describe the heterogeneity of early spoken language in young autistic children. They also support the use of qualitative descriptions of vocal productions and speech to accurately document children's level of language, which could, in turn, help design very finely tailored language intervention specific to each child.

Discovering phonetic inventories with crosslingual automatic speech recognition

The high cost of data acquisition makes Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) model training problematic for most existing languages, including languages that do not even have a written script, or for which the phone inventories remain unknown. Past works explored multilingual training, transfer learning, as well as zero-shot learning in order to build ASR systems for these low-resource languages. While it has been shown that the pooling of resources from multiple languages is helpful, we have not yet seen a successful application of an ASR model to a language unseen during training. A crucial step in the adaptation of ASR from seen to unseen languages is the creation of the phone inventory of the unseen language.The ultimate goal of our work is to build the phone inventory of a language unseen during training in an unsupervised way without any knowledge about the language. In this paper, we (1) investigate the influence of different factors (i.e., model architecture, phonotactic model, type of speech representation) on phone recognition in an unknown language; (2) provide an analysis of which phones transfer well across languages and which do not in order to understand the limitations of and areas for further improvement for automatic phone inventory creation; and (3) present different methods to build a phone inventory of an unseen language in an unsupervised way. To that end, we conducted mono-, multi-, and crosslingual experiments on a set of 13 phonetically diverse languages and several in-depth analyses. We found a number of universal phone tokens (IPA symbols) that are well-recognized cross-linguistically. Through a detailed analysis of results, we conclude that unique sounds, similar sounds, and tone languages remain a major challenge for phonetic inventory discovery.

The English Fricative Consonant /z/ as a Challenge to Norwegian L1 EFL Learners: An Error Analysis of Phonemic Transcriptions

English fricatives, such as /z/, are thought to pose substantial challenges to the students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) whose first languages (L1s) are characterised by phonetic repertoires that are dissimilar to that of English as far as fricatives are concerned (Kallio et al. 2021; Kanokpermpoon 2007). The absence of the fricative /z/ in the phonetic inventory of Norwegian is reported to impact negatively on the Norwegian L1 EFL learners’ speech production in English (Rugesæter 2014). The study that is further presented in the article aims to analyse potential challenges associated with the English fricative consonant /z/ experienced by a group of Norwegian L1 EFL students (hereafter “participants”) on the B2 level of proficiency in English according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (The Council of Europe 2011). To that end, the participants were requested to execute a series of phonemic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): one transcription at the end of the autumn semester (Task 1) and another one at the end of the spring semester (Task 2). The phonemic transcriptions in the study were regarded as a diagnostic tool (Fouz-González, Mompean 2021; Lintunen 2005) that provided an index of the participants’ familiarity with /z/ and, indirectly, reflected their use of /z/. The error analysis of the participants’ transcriptions revealed that the majority of them made mistakes by substituting /z/ for /s/. Considering that the substitution of /z/ for /s/ was common in Task 1 and persisted in Task 2, it was concluded that the participants, who were on the upper-intermediate level of English proficiency, found /z/ challenging. The linguo-didactic implications of the findings are discussed in the article. Keywords: English as a Foreign Language (EFL), the English fricative consonant /z/, /s/ – /z/ contrast, upper-intermediate EFL learners, Norwegian L1

Emerging Phonology Under Language Contact: The Case of Sino-Russian Idiolects

Abstract The main aim of this study is to examine what kind of phonological system emerges because of language contact wherein adult speakers of L1 (Chinese) attempt to speak L2 (Russian) without any previous instruction in L2. The main findings of this study are as follows: a) The speakers of L1 largely adopt the phonetic inventory and phonotactics of L2 and b) the only underlying (distinctive) features in the emerging phonological system are those of place of articulation while voicing plays no distinctive role in the emerging phonological system of Chinese speakers. Moreover, the speakers of L1 faithfully replicate the stress system of L2, even though L1 (Chinese) is a tonal language and L2, Russian, is a stress language. The most important finding of this study is that speakers of L1 discern the entity ‘word’ in L2. The emerging phonological system is geared towards assuring the identifiability of words in L2 rather than towards consistency of phonological rules.

East Tusom

Abstract East Tusom is a Tibeto-Burman language of Manipur, India, belonging to the Tangkhulic group. While it shares some innovations with the other Tangkhulic languages, it differs markedly from “Standard Tangkhul” (which is based on the speech of Ukhrul town). Past documentation is limited to a small set of hastily transcribed forms in a comparative reconstruction of Tangkhulic rhymes (Mortensen & Miller 2013; Mortensen 2012). This paper presents the first substantial sketch of an aspect of the language: its (descriptive) phonetics and phonology. The data are based on recordings of an extensive wordlist (730 items) and one short text, all from one fluent native speaker in her mid-twenties. We present the phonetic inventory of East Tusom and a phonemicization, with exhaustive examples. We also present an overview of the major phonological patterns and generalizations in the language. Of special interest are a “placeless nasal” that is realized as nasalization on the preceding vowel unless it is followed by a consonant, and numerous plosive-fricative clusters (where the fricative is roughly homorganic with the following vowel) that have developed from historical aspirated plosives. A complete wordlist, organized by gloss and semantic field, is provided as appendices.

Logopedia-considerații praxiologice: interogații, bune practice și intervenție bazată pe dovezi științifice

INTRODUCTION: Although speech therapy in Romania has a tradition of over 70 years, the practice in the field is in a full process of affirmation and clarification. The initial training system and some professional organizations contribute to the updating and dissemination of standards and good practices in the field. OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to describe some aspects of Romanian speech therapy practice and to draw attention to some discrepancies in the reporting of language and communication disorders. Some suggestions on concrete ways of intervention and evidence-based speech therapy are also offered. METHODS: (1) The statistical data reported by the Iași Inter-School Speech Therapy Center between 2011 and 2020 were analyzed. The data are compared with those available internationally. (2) Two children groups were considered: one diagnosed with developmental language disorder (DLD) (n = 67) and another diagnosed with language delay (LD) (n = 57), aged between 3 and 12 years (M = 5 years 8 months). Tests were used to establish the psychological language age, active and passive vocabulary, record the phonetic inventory and language samples analysis (LSA) for qualitative observations. RESULTS: (1) Statistical data reveal a concordance of reports for speech sound disorders. There are major discrepancies for the other language and communication disorders. Causal explanations and potential directions for remedying this situation are proposed. (2) A statistical analysis (Student’s t test) was conducted in order to compare the children in LD and DLD groups. The data obtained from this analysis along with LSA indicate that the language skills differ between the two groups on the following aspects: lexical, pragmatic, semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological. Significant differences (p<0.05) occur for onset speech therapy age, phonological disorder, passive vocabulary and language psychological age. Results for active vocabulary did not indicate statistical difference between LD and DLD children. CONCLUSIONS: Explorations reveal a situation with potential negative consequences on children with language and communication disorders. It is desirable to ensure a consensus among practitioners, from the identification phase to the construction of the remediation plan. The use of guidelines for language development and communication skills can contribute to a unitary and effective practice. The study is a prospective one, this issue being subject for further exhaustive approaches.

Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers Treatment: Effect on Expressive Vocabulary and Phonology.

Purpose This study examined the effect of Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment on toddlers' expressive vocabulary and phonology. Parent acceptability of VAULT treatment was also considered. Method We used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline single case experimental design with three late talking toddlers aged 21-25 months. The treatment was delivered twice weekly in 30-min sessions for 8 weeks by a rotating team of four speech-language pathologists. Toddlers heard three of their 10 strategically selected target words a minimum of 64 times in play activities each session. Expressive vocabulary and phonology was assessed pre-post, with parent interviews conducted posttreatment. Results All toddlers increased production of target words and expressive vocabulary. Ambient expressive vocabulary size increased by an average of 16 words per week (range of 73-169 words learned over the treatment period). On a 20-item, single-word speech assessment, the toddlers' phonetic inventories increased on average from three to seven consonants, and five to eight vowels. Two toddlers used protowords pretreatment, which were replaced by recognizable attempts at words posttreatment. Parents reported the treatment was acceptable for the child and their family with future consideration of parent-based delivery of the treatment in the home. Conclusions The results of this treatment provide further evidence of a model of intervention informed by the principles of implicit learning, and the interconnectedness of phonological and lexical learning. Investigation is required to establish the efficacy and feasibility of VAULT in clinical contexts. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14714733.

Automated phonological analysis and treatment target selection using AutoPATT

ABSTRACT Automated analyses of speech samples can offer improved accuracy and timesaving advantages that streamline clinical assessment for children with a suspected speech sound disorder. In this paper, we introduce AutoPATT, an automated tool for clinical analysis of speech samples. This free, open-source tool was developed as a plug-in for Phon and follows the procedures of the Phonological Analysis and Treatment Target Selection protocol, including extraction of a phonetic inventory, phonemic inventory with corresponding minimal pairs, and initial consonant cluster inventory. AutoPATT also provides suggestions for complex treatment targets using evidence-based guidelines. Automated analyses and target suggestions were compared to manual analyses of 25 speech samples from children with phonological disorder. Results indicate that AutoPATT inventory analyses are more accurate than manual analyses. However, treatment targets generated by AutoPATT should be viewed as suggestions and not used to substitute necessary clinical judgement in the target selection process.

Voicing contrasts and prosody in Majhi

This project examines the understudied phonetic inventory of Majhi Panjabi, particularly the factors that contribute to the perception of a three-way voicing contrast in stops and affricates: falling pitch contour and de-aspiration of following consonants. I further explore the possible impact of contact with the non-tonal qualities of Urdu in this change.

Rhotics and affricates in Sursilvan Romansh: Evidence from remote preliminary research on an under-documented language

Based on my remote phonetic documentation of the Sursilvan variety of Romansh (roh-sul, Gallo-Iberian, Switzerland), I propose a phonetic inventory and present acoustic analyses of variation in rhotics [ʁ] & [χ] as well as contrasts and coarticulation within the affricate system. This contribution to the scarce documentation on Sursilvan Romansh highlights the opportunities presented by remote methods for preliminary research on under-documented language varieties.

Specific Language Impairment and Language Delay: an Analysis of Developmental Language Disorder Characteristics in a Group of Romanian Children

Introduction: Although specific language impairment (SLI) or developmental language disorder (DLD) and language delay (LD) are fairly well documented language disorders, the specificity for Romanian children has not been clearly highlighted. Methods: EF were measured with the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF), and social and academic competences were measured with the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). The sample for this study consisted of 44 adolescents with mild intellectual disability aged 15-18 years old (mean age 16.7 years, SD- 1.4). Objectives: This study aims to identify the common and differential elements of the DLD (SLI) and LD through a quantitative and qualitative analysis. Methods: We considered two groups of children: one diagnosed with DLD (n = 67) and another with LD (n = 57), aged 3 to 12 years (M age = 5 years 8 months). Tests for establishing the language psychological age and the active and passive vocabulary, recording the phonetic inventory and language sample analysis (LSA) for qualitative observations were used as analysis tools. These instruments proved to be useful in establishing the specificity of each disorder and formulating the prognosis. Results: A statistical analysis (Student’s t test) was conducted in order to compare the children in LD and DLD groups. The data obtained from this analysis along with LSA indicate that the language skills differ between the two groups in the following aspects: lexical, pragmatic, semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological. Significant differences (p < .05) occur for the start of speech therapy age, phonological disorder, passive vocabulary and language psychological age. Results for active vocabulary did not indicate a statistical difference between LD and DLD children. Conclusions: The characteristics of DLD and LD were noted in this study. These language disorders have specific markers, which imply differentiated measures, from the diagnosis phase to the construction of the remediation plan. The study is a prospective one, this issue being the subject for further exhaustive approaches.