Phonetic Match Research Articles

KEKERABATAN BAHASA TETUN DAN BAHASA DAWAN (LINGUISTIK HISTORIS KOMPARATIF)

This research aims to describe the relationship between the Tetun and Dawan languages which is entitled “The kinship relationship between the Tetun and Dawan languages” using the theory of comparative historical linguistics. The method used qualitative and quantitative approaches using a lexicostatistic technique. The data collection methodology and technique used are effective methods of observation, interviewing, and recording. This research was conducted at the village of Rafae, Raimanuk District, Belu Regency. The research instrument used in the interview was a list of questions containing 200 basics (Swadesh) vocabulary. The results showed that there was a relationship between the Tetun and Dawan languages, attempts through 33 pairs of related words, with 5 pairs of identical words category, phonetic match 10, phonetically similar 6, and a different phonemic 12. The level of kinship Bahasa Tetun and Bahasa Dawan has a kinship at the level of rock (stock) with a percentage of 16,5 %.

Factors modulating cross-linguistic co-activation in bilinguals

Activation of both of a bilingual’s languages during auditory word recognition has been widely documented. Here, we argue that if parallel activation in bilinguals is the result of a bottom-up process where phonetic features that overlap across two languages activate both linguistic systems, then the robustness of such parallel activation is in fact surprising. This is because phonemes across two different languages are rarely perfectly matched to each other in phonetic features. For instance, across Spanish and English, a “voiced” stop is realized in phonetically-distinct ways, and therefore, words that begin with voiced stops in English do not in fact fully overlap in phonetic features with words in Spanish. In two eye-tracking experiments using a visual world paradigm, we examined the effect of a phonemic match (English /b/ matched to Spanish /b/) vs. a phonetic match (English /b/ matched to Spanish /p/) on cross-linguistic co-activation (English words co-activating Spanish) in Spanish L1 and in Spanish L2 speakers. We found that while phonemic matching induced co-activation in both Spanish L1 and Spanish L2 speakers, phonetic matching did not. Together, these results indicate that co-activation of two languages in bilinguals may proceed through activation of categorical phonemic information rather than through activation of phonetic features.

Exploring Text-Constraint Models and Source Information for Long-Enrollment with Short-Test Speaker Verification

This work focuses on long-enrollment with short-test speaker verification (SV) from the perspective of application-oriented systems. The importance of phonetic match between train and test models is explored in terms of having a text-constraint model-based framework on Part IV of RedDots database. This database has a text-dependent and a text-prompted-based enrollment conditions for speaker modeling. Two different text-constraint setups are formalized for evaluating the effect of text match on train and test sessions. Further, the excitation source features mel power difference of spectrum in subbands, residual mel frequency cepstral coefficient and discrete cosine transform of integrated linear prediction residual are investigated to determine their significance for text-constraint-based framework. Although the source features individually perform poorer compared to the conventional mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) features, their significance is reflected in fusion due to the complementary nature of information carried by them. Additionally, the source features become imperative for text-constraint-based models for long-enrollment with short-test SV in fusion to MFCC features and achieves commendable improvement from baseline framework of text-prompted-based enrollment condition. This thus minimizes the performance difference between text-dependent and text-prompted-based enrollment condition showing importance of text-constraint models and source information in long-enrollment with short-test-based framework favorable from the perspective of field deployable systems.

Underapplication in Akan Loanword Adaptation

This paper examines the phenomenon of underapplication of palatalization rule observed in loanword adaptation in Akan, a Niger-Congo (Kwa) language. The phenomenon has been widely studied almost exclusively in the domain of reduplication where palatalization fails in some reduplicants in the context of back consonant + front vowel. Similar failure is observed when adapting some English words into Akan. For instance, a source word ‘crack’ is adapted as krak ɪ but not * kra ʨɪ as would be expected in the native grammar. The sequence of k + ɪ would be expected to result in palatalization of the k into tɕ . This is accounted for within the Optimality Theory that while in reduplication palatalization fails due to a high-ranking of OCP(+cor) constraint, in loans adaptation it results from the adapters’ bid to attain phonetic match between source words and adapted forms, hence a relatively high ranking of IDENT-IO(cor) constraint over well-formedness constraints.

When is a word a word?

Although adult-based words co-occur in the period of transition to speech with a variety of non-word vocalizations, little attention has been given to the formidable problem of identifying these earliest words. This paper specifies explicit, maximally 'inclusive' identification procedures, with criteria based on both phonetic and contextual parameters. A formal system for evaluating phonetic match is suggested, as well as a set of child-derived functional categories reflecting use in context. Analysis of word use across two samples of 10 children each, followed from 0;9 to 1;4, provides evidence to suggest that context-bound words can be 'trained' by focusing on eliciting language, but that the timing of context-flexible word use remains independent of such training.

The Perception of Back Vowels: Centre of Gravity Hypothesis

According to the formant centre of gravity (FCOG) hypothesis, two vowel formants in close proximity are merged during perceptual analysis, and their contribution to vowel quality depends on the centre of gravity of the formant cluster. Findings consistent with this hypothesis are that two formants can be replaced by a single formant of intermediate centre frequency, provided their separation is less than 3-3.5 Bark; and that changes in their relative amplitudes produce systematic shifts in vowel quality. In Experiment 1, listeners adjusted the frequencies of F1 and F2 in a synthesized 6-formant vowel (with the F1-F2 separation fixed at 250 Hz, i.e. less than 3 Bark) to find the best phonetic match to a reference vowel with modified formant amplitudes. Contrary to FCOG predictions, F2 attenuation did not produce lower frequency matches. Raising the amplitude of F2 led to predicted upward shifts in formant frequencies of the matched vowel, but with increased variability of matches for some stimuli. In Experiment 2, listeners identified synthesized vowels with a range of separations of F1 and F2. Formant amplitude manipulations had no effect on listeners' judgements when the fundamental frequency was low (125 Hz). Small shifts in vowel quality appeared for stimuli with a high fundamental (250 Hz), but the shifts were significantly larger for F1-F2 separations greater than 3.5 Bark. These effects of formant amplitude are qualitatively different from those observed with single-formant vowels and are generally incompatible with a formant-averaging mechanism.

Perception of front vowels: the role of harmonics in the first formant region.

Vowel matching and identification experiments were carried out to investigate the perceptual contribution of harmonics in the first formant region of synthetic front vowels. In the first experiment, listeners selected the best phonetic match from an F1 continuum, for reference stimuli in which a band of two to five adjacent harmonics of equal intensity replaced the F1 peak; F1 values of best matches were near the frequency of the highest frequency harmonic in the band. Attenuation of the highest harmonic in the band resulted in lower F1 matches. Attenuation of the lowest harmonic had no significant effects, except in the case of a 2-harmonic band, where higher F1 matches were selected. A second experiment investigated the shifts in matched F1 resulting from an intensity increment to either one of a pair of harmonics in the F1 region. These shifts were relatively invariant over different harmonic frequencies and proportional to the fundamental frequency. A third experiment used a vowel identification task to determine phoneme boundaries on an F1 continuum. These boundaries were not substantially altered when the stimuli comprised only the two most prominent harmonics in the F1 region, or these plus either the higher or lower frequency subset of the remaining F1 harmonics. The results are consistent with an estimation procedure for the F1 peak which assigns greatest weight to the two most prominent harmonics in the first formant region.

(Tu) eres: A Neologism

THE phonetic match between the Latin future TU ERIS and the Castilian present tu eres is exact. The only possible objection, that the short eshould have produced a diphthong (hence *yeres), disappears in the light of the imperfect forms: era eres has met with general acceptance, some authors of historical grammars have recorded it with less than total conviction. ERIS, if retained in Spanish, would an isolated vestige, and an irregular one, of a Latin tense that otherwise vanished completely. The shift from future to present, moreover, lacks parallels in the spoken language, and a change involving a single form, independent of the verb system in general, has no precedents in Spanish or, apparently, in any other Romance language. This article proposes to show still another objection, one grounded in chronology, which makes the traditional derivation quite unacceptable. The historical grammars may register surprise or reservations regarding the derivation ERIS > eres, but by advancing no alternative they imply at least tentative acquiescence. Meyer-Liibke, usually no enemy of atomistic explanations, injects a grain of salt by noting that eres must be from ERIS.1 Others, such as Hanssen and Elcock, report the change without comment.2 Bourciez, perhaps more skeptical, acknowledges un remarcable transfert du futur au present.3 Garcia de Diego remains noncommittal: Eres co-

Within-category discriminations in speech perception

The assumption that listeners are unaware of the highly encoded acoustic properties which lead to phoneme identification is questioned in the present study. It was found that some subjects can make use of small differences in voice onset time when making within-category discriminations. Subjects who can use these auditory features do so both implicitly (in a phonetic match task) and deliberately (in a physical match task). Results also indicate that some type of parallel process model is needed to account for the processing of auditory and phonetic information.

Categorical perception, auditory memory, and dichotic interference: a “same”—“different” reaction time study

A “same”—“different” reaction time study was conducted in which stimuli from a voice onset time continuum were presented dichotically at seven different stimulus onset asynchronies (0–3.3 sec). There were two kinds of instructions: “phonetic match” (same or different category?) and “acoustic match” (same or different stimulus?). The study was aimed at the following questions: (a) Can the effect of acoustic differences on reaction time [Pisoni and Tash, Percept. Psychophys. 15, 285 (1974)] be replicated? (b) Does this effect decrease with temporal separation of the stimuli? (c) Do pretraining and “acoustic match” instructions lead to improved discrimination in this paradigm [cf. Pisoni and Lazarus, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 55, 328 (1974)]? (d) Do they increase the Pisoni-Tash effect? (e) Is within-category discrimination greatly improved and as good as between-category discrimination with simultaneous dichotic syllables? (f) Are incorrect “different” responses under dichotic interference (at short time lags) related to distance of the stimuli from the category boundary [cf. Repp, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 56, S53 (1974)]. Preliminary analysis suggests these answers: (a) yes; (b) no; (c) no; (d) yes; (e) yes and no; (f) no? Final results and their implications are discussed.