Prevocalic Position Research Articles

A CURIOUS CASE OF /t/ and /d/ SPIRANTIZATION IN SERBIAN-ENGLISH INTERPHONOLOGY

The paper explores a subtype of the phonological process of lenition, more precisely, the phe- nomenon of spirantization in the Serbian-English interlanguage system. During the process of spirantization, plosive sounds transform into fricatives and the factors causing altered realiza- tions may stem from various sources, the most prominent being mother tongue interference. For example, due to the specific pronunciation of alveolar stops and fricatives in L1, Spanish learners of English as a foreign language tend to transfer the feature into their L2, causing thus all voiced plosives, regardless of the place of articulation, to transform into fricatives (Zampini 2008). However, the phonological system of Serbian is not characterized by the same processes, hence, the occasional spirantization in the interlanguage system, we argue, cannot be derived from mother tongue interference, yet may be the result of other factors, such as, qualitative hypercorrection. The analyzed corpus was obtained from the recordings of a spontaneous speech by 15 Serbian English-major students at the tertiary level of education. We investigated the instances of spirantization using the methods of acoustic analysis and spectrographic illustra- tions via Praat, version 6.2.04. The findings indicated that only alveolar plosives (both voiced and voiceless) were spirantized, most frequently in accented position. Regarding the phonetic environment, the word-initial pre-vocalic position, as well as the word-final post-vocalic and post-consonantal position, triggered the highest frequency of spirantization occurrence. Acous- tic measurements confirm the initial assumptions regarding the specific nature of spirantized variants [dz], [ts], [ð] and [θ]. The results have important pedagogical implications and provide insights into the complexity of cross-linguistic influence.

Dar kartą apie dabartinių baltų kalbų nosinių sonantų akustinius požymius: naujausi lyginamieji tyrimai

Continuing the acoustic investigation of nasals in the contemporary Baltic languages: a comparative study In the paper, the nasals of the contemporary Baltic languages have been analyzed: labial (Lith. /m/, /mj/ and Lat. /m/), dental (Lith. /n/, /nj/ and Lat. /n/), palatal (Lat. /ɲ/), as well as [ŋ], the velar allophone of /n/ which occurs before [–k/–g] in both languages. Four acoustic properties of Lithuanian and Latvian nasals have been investigated: 1) the first nasal formant (N1); 2) the bandwidth of the first nasal formant (B1); 3) the frequency range of the antiformant (Z1); 4) F2 loci. The study material included three Lithuanian and three Latvian native speakers (men aged 20–40). Lithuanian and Latvian sonorants were analyzed in a prevocalic position in CVC sequences taking into account two criteria: 1) the place of articulation; 2) palatalization (non-palatalized vs. palatalized vs. palatal nasal). According to the results, the investigated acoustic properties of nasals in Baltic have different relevance in distinguishing between different places of articulation: 1) N1 is relevant when distinguishing between the velar allophones [ŋ, ŋʲ] and the rest of the nasals in both languages; 2) there is a statistically significant difference in B1 values of Lithuanian dental/palatalized and non-palatalized labial/velar nasals, as well as Latvian labial/dental and palatal/velar nasals; 3) in terms of Z1 frequencies, it is possible to differentiate Lithuanian [m, mʲ, n, nʲ] from [ŋ, ŋʲ]; in Latvian, it is possible to distinguish between all places of articulation by Z1 values: [m] < [n] < [ɲ] < [ŋ]; 4) F2 loci can be considered as one of the most important cues for differentiating places of articulation of Lithuanian and Latvian nasals, although they do not distinguish between all the nasal places of articulation classes in Baltic. The study has shown that there is no single distinctive acoustic feature that would distinguish between all the nasals, therefore nasal sonorants must be investigated comprehensively. Perceptual experiments would also help to assess the differential significance of acoustic properties.

Clear vs. dark /l/ in German Learner English: Dataset for chapter 5 in "Phonological variation in German Learner English"

This dataset contains tabular files with acoustic measurements for prevocalic and non-prevocalic laterals produced by n = 62 German learners of English and n = 26 native speakers of English (BrE and AmE). The German subjects are instructional-setting learners ranging from grade 5 (age: 11) to university. They are predominantly from northern Bavaria and represent a broad range of proficiency levels. Pronunciation ability was assessed with a foreign accent rating. The data were elicited with a word list and each subject produced n = 15 tokens (n = 10 in non-prevocalic position, n = 5 in prevocalic position). Measurements are reported for the first two formants (F1 and F2). See ReadMe file for more details. Related publication: Soenning, Lukas. 2020. Phonological variation in German Learner English. University of Bamberg dissertation. DOI: 10.20378/irb-49135 Open access: https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/49135

Some observations on aspiration and glottal fricatives in languages with a phonological contrast

In this paper I investigate aspiration and glottal fricatives as found in languages with a phonological contrast. Using a global cross-linguistic sample, I establish a typology of aspiration outcomes in diachrony. The most important processes among these include transposition of glottal fricative, the less commonly encountered transposition of aspiration, spontaneous aspiration, and spontaneous loss of aspiration, together with the phenomenon of deaspiration. I set up certain parameters, which include laryngeal compatibility, directionality, and scope, in order to study the processes of the two transpositions and systematise them, while also attempting eventually to disentangle them from the way they are defined in some of the literature. Historical trajectories in the development of aspiration, I propose, can be described in terms of a cycle in which languages add to their stock of aspirated sounds via transposition of h/ɦ typically in the pre-vocalic position, but also eliminate aspiration generally in syllable coda as a result of various processes, which appear to be triggered by phonetic changes.

Prenominal bon and bonne in French liaison and enchaînement: An acoustic description

AbstractThis article investigates the treatment of oronasal vowel /ↄ̃/ of the prenominal adjective bon (/bↄ̃/) in liaison, as produced by 19 speakers of Northern Metropolitan French. The oronasal vowel of this word has traditionally been identified as a denasalized vowel in liaison, which, when paired with the liaison consonant [n], is typically understood to be produced identically to the feminine form of the adjective bonne (/bↄn/). To verify this supposition, the adjective pair bon/bonne is produced in various contexts and word sequences by each speaker in a series of reading tasks. Six acoustic measures (i.e., A1−P0, A3−P0, center of gravity, F1 bandwidth, F2 and vowel duration) are taken for each token and the resulting data are analysed in a series of regression models. A brief acoustic description is given for the vowel /ↄ̃/ both in and out of liaison, and comparison is made between bon in liaison and the feminine bonne in prevocalic position (e.g., bon ami vs. bonne amie). Analyses indicate that 15 of the 19 speakers seem to produce bon in liaison distinctly from non-liaison bon, but not distinctly from pre-vocalic bonne, which may support suppletive analyses of adjectives in liaison.

Darkening and vocalisation of /l/ in English: an Element Theory account

The lateral approximant in General British English (GB) is realised as light when occurring in the onset (leaf), and as dark in the rhyme (help,feel,google). Non-prevocalic positions are typical contexts for lenition, analysed in Element Theory as decomposition in weak positions. However, it is unclear how velarisation can be characterised as element loss if light [l] is represented as |A I|, while dark [ɫ] is represented as |A U|. Therefore, I propose that laterals in GB contain both the coronal |I| and the velar |U| element underlyingly (in addition to |A|), but because these cannot combine in a compound segment in English, they are both floating. Their association at the phrase level is determined by the apophonic chain (Guerssel & Lowenstamm 1996), mapped onto the structure of the syllable: |I| is attracted to the prevocalic position, |A| to the vocalic position and |U| to the postvocalic position. Darkening thus does not involve lenition of /l/, but partial interpretation in all positions. In contrast, I analyse vocalisation of dark [ɫ] as lenition, involving loss of |A| in weak positions. I integrate the lateral into the system of glides in English, and establish a typology of its behaviour across different accents.

Latviešu /v/ un /ʝ/: dažādu realizāciju akustiskais pētījums

Šī pētījuma mērķis ir noskaidrot latviešu valodas fonēmu /v/ un /ʝ/ distribūciju CVC struktūras vārdos. Rakstā analizēti šādi akustiskie parametri: dinamiskās pētāmo skaņu spektrogrammas, relatīvā intensitāte un formantu parēju (patskanis ⇨ līdzskaņi /v/ un /ʝ/) relatīvais ilgums.Balstoties uz paveikto analīzi, secināms, ka līdzskaņa /v/ dominējošais variants gan prevokāliskā, gan postvokāliskā pozīcijā ir frikatīvs spraudzenis, bet līdzskanis /ʝ/ prevokāliskajā pozīcijā visbiežāk tiek izrunāts kā frikatīvs spraudzenis, postvokāliskā pozīcijā – kā nefrikatīvs spraudzenis vai patskanis. Frikatīvajiem spraudzeņiem, salīdzinot ar nefrikatīvajiem spraudzeņiem, ir raksturīgas augstākas spektrālās smailes frekvences vērtības un plašāks vērtību diapazons. Relatīvās intensitātes vērtības samazinās secībā patskanis > nefrikatīvais spraudzenis > frikatīvais spraudzenis, turklāt frikatīvajiem spraudzeņiem ir vislielākā intensitāte. Attiecībā uz patskaņa formantu pārejas relātīvo ilgumu, abus līdzskaņus iespējams raksturot pēc līdzīgas tendences: frikatīvajiem spraudzeņiem ir īsākas blakus esoša patskaņa formantu pārejas nekā nefrikatīvajiem spraudzeņiem un patskaņiem

Spectral dynamics of sibilant fricatives are contrastive and language specific.

Previous research has extensively investigated the spectral properties of sibilant fricatives with little consideration to how these properties vary over time. To investigate such spectro-temporal variation, productions of English /s/ and /ʃ/ and of Japanese /s/ and /ɕ/ in word-initial, prevocalic position were elicited from adult native speakers. The spectral dynamics of these productions were analyzed in terms of a psychoacoustic measure of peak frequency: "peak ERBN number." Peak ERBN number was computed at 17 evenly spaced points across each fricative production. The resulting peak ERBN number trajectories were analyzed with orthogonal polynomial growth-curve models, to determine how peak frequency varied temporally within each fricative. Three analyses compared (1) the English sibilants to each other, (2) the Japanese sibilants to each other, and (3) English /s/ to Japanese /s/. The results indicated that, in both English and Japanese, the sibilant fricatives differ acoustically in terms of both static (i.e., overall level) and dynamic (i.e., shape) aspects of the peak ERBN number trajectories. Furthermore, English /s/ and Japanese /s/ exhibited language-specific differences in the shape, but not overall level, of peak ERBN number trajectories.

The phonetic origins of /s/-retraction: Acoustic and perceptual evidence from Australian English

In contemporary spoken English, /s/ can resemble a post-alveolar fricative when it occurs in /str/ clusters e.g. street. /s/-retraction in /str/ is known to be widespread in North American English, but the question of how this sound change comes about has attracted only a very small amount of empirical research. This paper investigates the phonetic pre-conditions for /s/-retraction based on the results of two experiments conducted with Australian English. Study 1 shows that the first spectral moment (M1) for /s/ is lower in /spr, str, skr/ and slightly lower in /sp, st, sk/ than in pre-vocalic position. Temporal variation in first spectral moment trajectories suggests that the articulatory movements associated with the rhotic are timed relatively earlier in /str/ vs. /spr, skr/ clusters. Study 2 tested native listener categorization of sibilants produced by multiple talkers. Results show that sibilants originally produced in stream and steam elicit /ʃ/ responses when spliced into pre-vocalic contexts. There was an interaction with talker gender, with male voices eliciting more /ʃ/ responses. Thus, the conditions for sound change to occur by which /s/ becomes /ʃ/ originate in a synchronic bias for /s/ produced in /sC(r)/ clusters to show increased auditory similarity to /ʃ/. Australian English shows the pre-conditions for /s/-retraction but is not currently undergoing this sound change.

A phonological explanation for the Korean aspirated consonant lenition in the prevocalic position: Based on the data from the speech of three dialects, two generations, and males and females

A phonological explanation for the Korean aspirated consonant lenition in the prevocalic position: Based on the data from the speech of three dialects, two generations, and males and females

An ultrasound study of the acquisition of North American English /ɹ/

I report an acoustic and articulatory study of North American English /ɹ/ production in typically developing English-speaking children during early and later-stage acquisition. North American English /ɹ/ is of interest in adult populations because it exhibits acoustic stability (e.g., low F3) despite considerable articulatory variability both within and between speakers [Delattre and Freeman (1968)]. North American English /ɹ/ is also often one of the last sounds to be acquired by children [Smit (1993), Schriberg (1993)], especially in prevocalic position (Smit et al. (1990), McGowan et al. (2004)]. Tiede et al. (2011) have argued that children might attempt different vocal tract configurations during acquisition, particularly in contexts where the articulatory demands are greater. While there is a growing body of literature on articulatory variability in adult production of /ɹ/ [e.g., Mielke et al. (2010), Campbell et al. (2011)], there remains virtually no articulatory data on typically developing children’s production during acquisition. This study uses ultrasound imaging to investigate the articulations of four typically developing English-speaking children, aged between 3 and 6 years, during production of familiar lexical items. Children’s early-stage articulations are examined and compared with their later-stage productions, and with adult variability patterns.

SYSTEM AND METHOD OF USING ACOUSTIC MODELS FOR AUTOMATIC SPEECH RECOGNITION WHICH DISTINGUISH PRE− AND POST−VOCALIC CONSONANTS

Disclosed are systems, methods and computer readable media for training acoustic models for an automatic speech recognition systems (ASR) system. The method includes receiving a speech signal, defining at least one syllable boundary position in the received speech signal, based on the at least one syllable boundary position, generating for each consonant in a consonant phoneme inventory a pre-vocalic position label and a post-vocalic position label to expand the consonant phoneme inventory, reformulating a lexicon to reflect an expanded consonant phoneme inventory, and training a language model for an automated speech recognition (ASR) system based on the reformulated lexicon.

First consonant deletion in constraint-based approaches

This paper gives an analysis of the phenomenon of first consonant deletion in several versions of Optimality Theory, comparing their strong and weak points. Generally, C₁ instead of C₂ gets deleted in a VC₁C₂V sequence fed by syncope from VC₁VC₂V. A traditional parallel version of Optimality Theory (P-OT) fails to describe the phenomenon properly, even when equipped with a positional faithfulness constraint MAX(STRONG). Based on perceptional strength, MAX (STRONG) guarantees the survival of segments in a context of strong perception, that is, in prevocalic position. No allowance of intermediate derivational steps in P-OT makes MAX(STRONG) overexert its influence, failing to select a correct output. Another analysis in P-OT, Wilson (2001), is reviewed, describing the phenomenon with the help of a targeted constraint and cumulative harmonic ordering. These two additional devices are employed to compare the relationships among candidates as well as between input and output as a way out of the problem facing P-OT. On the other hand, Harmonic Serialism, a serial version of OT equipped with gradualness and harmonic improvement, provides input in each step of derivation and has no difficulty presenting a proper analysis. Presenting a path from P-OT through a targeted-constraints theory to HS, it is confirmed again that the more tightly restricted a theory is like HS, the less powerful it is, giving a better solution to a problem.

Effects of the distribution of acoustic cues on infants' perception of sibilants

A current theoretical view proposes that infants converge on the speech categories of their native language by attending to frequency distributions that occur in the acoustic input. To date, the only empirical support for this statistical learning hypothesis comes from studies where a single, salient dimension was manipulated. Additional evidence is sought here, by introducing a less salient pair of categories supported by multiple cues. We exposed English-learning infants to a multi-cue bidimensional grid ranging between retroflex and alveolopalatal sibilants in prevocalic position. This contrast is substantially more difficult according to previous cross-linguistic and perceptual research, and its perception is driven by cues in both the consonantal and the following vowel portions. Infants heard one of two distributions (flat, or with two peaks), and were tested with sounds varying along only one dimension. Infants' responses differed depending on the familiarization distribution, and their performance was equally good for the vocalic and the frication dimension, lending some support to the statistical hypothesis even in this harder learning situation. However, learning was restricted to the retroflex category, and a control experiment showed that lack of learning for the alveolopalatal category was not due to the presence of a competing category. Thus, these results contribute fundamental evidence on the extent and limitations of the statistical hypothesis as an explanation for infants' perceptual tuning.

Factors affecting stimulability of erred sounds in common types of dyslalia

BackgroundStimulability refers to the child’s ability to produce a correct or improved production of the erred sound given oral and visual modeling. Stimulability assessment is recommended to be an integral part of the clinical routine. Stimulable sounds display a readiness for therapy and the extent to which a sound is stimulable is a key factor in target selection. ObjectiveTo study the factors that might be associated clinically with the stimulability of the erred sound(s) in common types of dyslalia in Arabic speaking children that may be helpful in determining the target sound in the therapy program. Patients and methodsThis study was conducted on 75 patients complaining of the inability to utter certain sounds correctly; they were divided into three equal groups; Group 1 (Sigmatism group); Group 2 (Back-to-Front Displacement group) and Group 3 (Rhotacism group). Stimulability test was applied for the erred phoneme in isolation and syllables. ResultsThe highest stimulability was observed in the Sigmatism group followed by Back-to-Front Displacement group, while the Rhotacism group showed the least stimulability score. Unvoiced sounds were more stimulable than their voiced counterpart sounds. The initial position of the phoneme showed the highest stimulability followed by the middle position and lastly the final position. A highly significant correlation was detected between stimulability at the syllable with prevocalic position and stimulability at isolated sound. ConclusionStimulability of erred sound could be altered by the type and the position of the erred sounds. Sigmatism and prevocalic position showed the highest stimulability.

Role of gender and linguistic diversity in word decoding development

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of gender and linguistic diversity in the growth of Dutch word decoding skills throughout elementary school for a representative sample of children living in the Netherlands. Following a longitudinal design, the children's decoding abilities for (1) regular CVC words, (2) complex monosyllabic words with consonant clusters in prevocalic and postvocalic position, and (3) polysyllabic words were assessed on two occasions during every grade. The results showed substantial growth across grade for all of the word decoding measures. Growth curve analyses showed a quadratic rather than a linear growth curve to optimally model the children's word decoding development. Small but significant effects of gender and linguistic diversity were observed: Girls generally did better than boys — mainly on the regular CVC word patterns. And children learning to read in Dutch as a first language generally did better than children learning to read Dutch as a second language — mainly on polysyllabic words. From a structural point of view, the development of word decoding in the different subgroups turned out to be highly comparable. Irrespective of gender and linguistic diversity, the three measures of word decoding strongly intercorrelated but also showed some unique variance. Moreover, a high degree of autoregression applied to the children's word decoding development over the school grades.

American English Has Goʔ A Loʔ Of Glottal Stops: Social Diffusion and Linguistic Motivation

In word-final, prevocalic position (e.g., it is) there are various possible phonetic realizations of /t/ in American English (e.g., [t], [ʕ], [ʔ]). The present study examines the linguistic and social factors associated with the use of the glottal stop in American English in 1,101 instances of word-final, prevocalic /t/ from the Santa Barbara Corpus. The glottal stop occurred in 24% of the cases. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors that favor glottaling of /t/. our findings concur with previous research in that age and region were significant: Westerners in their teens and 20s glottalized more than non-Westerners in the same age groups; speakers who are 30 and older, both Westerners and non-Westerners, glottalize to a much smaller degree. We also found that glottaling is favored by a following stressed syllable; however, gender and following vowel quality were not influencing variables, which contradicts previous experimental findings. If prevocalic glottaling is uncommon word-internally in American English, why is it apparently spreading word-finally? We provide evidence that word-final /t/s are more often followed by word-initial consonants than vowels, which places them in a glottalizing context. Instances with a glottal realization are stored in the mental lexicon and are available as possible pronunciation choices even in prevocalic position.

Intention in articulation: Articulatory timing in alternating consonant sequences and its implications for models of speech production

Several studies have reported that during the production of phrases with alternating consonants (e.g., top cop), the constriction gestures for these consonants can come to be produced in the same prevocalic position. Since these coproductions occur in contexts that also elicit segmental substitution errors, the question arises whether they may result from monitoring and repair, or whether they arise from the architecture of the phonological and phonetic planning process. This paper examines the articulatory timing of the coproduced gestures in order to shed light on the underlying process that gives rise to them. Results show that overall at movement onset the gestures are mostly synchronous, but it is the intended consonant that is released last. Overall the data support the view that the activation of two gestures is inherent to the speech production process itself rather than being due to a monitoring process. We argue that the interactions between planning and articulatory dynamics apparent in our data require a more comprehensive approach to speech production than is provided by current models.

Stem-final obstruent variation in Korean

It has been observed in the literature that stem-final coronal obstruents of nouns in Korean are generally in variation with [s] in the prevocalic position: for example, /pathh-ɨl/ [pathh-ɨl] ~ [pasɨl] ‘field, accusative’. In addition, nouns with final noncoronal stops have variants ending in lenis stops: for example, /iph-e/ [iph-e] ~ [ipe] ‘leaf, locative’. Recent survey and experimental studies reveal that a wide set of coronal obstruents [s, ch, th, c, t] may occur as variants. Moreover, there is an order of preference among them: in general, s >> ch, th >> c, t. This paper first shows that the observed relative preference among variants is matched by the distribution of lexical final obstruents in noun stems. Building on Albright’s Paradigm Learning Model, I provide a unified account for the occurrence of most variants and their relative preference by proposing stochastic rules deriving the paradigmatically related forms of noun stems. In addition, a wug-test is carried out to investigate the productivity of such rules. Results suggest that these rules are productive, providing the evidence for their cognitive presence.

T-Glottalization IN AMERICAN ENGLISH

In word-final prevocalic position (e.g., right ankle), there are various possible phonetic realizations of /t/ in American English: [t], [], []. The present study focuses on the linguistic and social factors associated with the use of the glottal stop. Data were gathered by having participants repeat sentences they were presented auditorily (e.g., She twisted her right ankle). The particular pronunciation of /t/ in the presented sentences was masked with a tone. Logistic regression analysis identified three significant factors: (1) glottal stops were favored by following front vowels; (2) younger female speakers were most likely to use glottal stops, which may indicate a change in progress; and (3) speakers from the Western United States glottalized more than speakers from other parts of the country.