Vowel Quality Research Articles

Vowel qualities in monosyllabic words in Namibian English

This study investigated how Namibian English speakers produce vowel qualities in controlled speech. Participants were 14 proficient Namibian English speakers, who produced monosyllabic English CVC words, presented in orthographic form. The first and second formant values were extracted from the speakers’ productions to determine the vowel qualities in each word. The formant values produced by the Namibian English speakers were then compared to those produced by nine British English speakers, obtained from a previous study, in order to examine how Namibian English vowel qualities relate to British English vowel categories. The results showed a great deal of variation and overlap in the Namibian vowel categories, particularly in the close front vowels and open and close back vowels. This resulted in the formation of five to six clusters of vowel qualities. This is likely an effect of the varied linguistic backgrounds of the participants. Furthermore, the Namibian English vowels differed significantly from most British English vowels, especially in the F2 formant. Some commonalities with earlier research into Namibian English vowel qualities was found in the fronting, backing and mergers of some vowel categories.

EXPRESS: Same same but different - The graded influence of vowel quality and prosodic prominence on letter detection.

The present study investigates the impact of phonetic realization and prosodic prominence on visual letter identification, focusing on the letter <e> in German bisyllabic words. Building upon previous research, a computerized letter search task was conducted with 78 skilled adult readers. Words featuring different phonetic realizations of <e> (/eː, ɛ, e, l̩, n̩, ɐ/) in stressed and unstressed first and second syllables were systematically included. Analyses of error rates and response times revealed a graded pattern in detection of <e>, with the closed long (/eː/) and closed short (/e/) realizations being easiest to detect, open (/ɛ/) and near-open central (/ɐ/) vowels becoming incrementally harder, and silent vowels in syllabic consonants (/n̩/) being the most challenging. Results divided by position and stress of the syllable containing the target letter further indicated influences of prosodic prominence. The findings contribute to understanding the intricate interplay of grapheme-phoneme correspondences and prosodic structure in skilled readers' visual letter recognition.

The vowel space of multiethnolectal (Stuttgart) German.

The emergence of multiethnolects, i.e.specific speaking styles or varieties associated with second and third generation speakers from immigrant backgrounds, has been observed and studied in several major cities in Europe and elsewhere in theworld. The multiethnolect that is the focus of this study is one such variety of colloquial German. Most previous research on multiethnolectal German has focused on grammatical features. This paper reports on the first comprehensive study of the vowel system (vowel quality and global vowel space size) of multiethnolectal German, based on data from Stuttgart. The results show that the vowel space of multiethnolectal speakers is in generally more centralized than that of a comparison group. A more detailed analysis reveals that the linguistic background plays an important role, as speakers with a Turkish or South Slavonic language background are responsible for this effect.

An Acoustic–Phonetic Description of Hidatsa Vowels

In this study, we report on results of a preliminary acoustic–phonetic analysis of the Hidatsa vowel system. We conducted acoustic measurements of Hidatsa vowels in terms of averaged temporal and spectral properties of these phones. Our durational analysis provides strong evidence that Hidatsa has a ten-vowel system with phonemically long and short vowels, in addition to two diphthongs. Our spectral measurements consisted of averages and time-evolution dynamic properties of the first three formants (F1, F2 and F3) at 30 equally spaced time points along the central portion of each vowel. The centers and distributions of the F1 and F2 formants, as well as their time-averaged trajectories, provide strong evidence for separate vowel qualities for both the short and long vowels. These measurements also show that all Hidatsa vowels have some degree of time-dependent spectral change, with the back vowels generally displaying a longer time-evolution track. Lastly, our results also indicate that in Hidatsa mid-short vowels do not appear with the same frequency as the other vowels, and that the short [é] has no unstressed counterpart.

Korean vowel harmony has weak phonotactic support and has limited productivity

Abstract Chong (2017) claims that a derived environment process is productive to the extent that it is supported by phonotactics. The present study tests this claim by comparing variable patterns observed in Korean vowel harmony of suffix alternation with vowel co-occurrence restrictions in the lexicon. A corpus study replicated findings of previous studies that the harmony in suffix alternation is losing productivity, conditioned by the quality of the stem vowel, the number of intervening consonants between the vowels and the stem class. Phonotactic generalisations in vowel sequences matched such tendencies in the alternation in that harmony was feeble in phonotactics and that some of the factors that modulate the harmony in alternation were found to affect the harmony in phonotactics as well. The findings generally support Chong’s claim that lack of phonotactic support for an alternation makes it harder to learn.

Maintenance of Lexical Pitch Accent in Heritage Lithuanian: A Study of Perception and Production

This study investigates how the unique circumstances of heritage language acquisition impact prosody, an understudied aspect of heritage speech. I examine the perception and production of lexical pitch accent by two generations of heritage Lithuanian speakers in Chicago (n = 13), with a qualitative comparison to one normative native speaker also living in Chicago. The speakers participated in the following: (1) a perception task requiring them to identify meaning distinctions between pairs of words that differ only by accent; and (2) a production task in which they produced sentences containing nine nominal declensions, where pitch accent plays a morphological role. In task (1), speakers across the board were not able to identify meaning distinctions in accent-based minimal pairs, irrespective of their frequency, and were more accurate at perceiving pairs that differed on the basis of segmental phonological features. However, HSs with more education perceived more accent-based distinctions, as did HSs who were more engaged in the Chicago community. Older HSs maintained more distinctions than either the NS or the younger HSs, which suggests a change in progress in the language or the Chicago Lithuanian community. In task (2), none of the speakers consistently used pitch to signal word-level prominence. Instead, all speakers relied on changes in duration and vowel quality to signal word-level prominence, suggesting that, for these speakers, there has been a shift to a stress-accent system. The older HSs was also patterned more like the NS in their retention of the expected stress in the nominal declensions. Dialect was also determined to play a role in the retention of standard accent patterns in both perception and production.

Acoustic patterns in Hong Kong Cantonese hesitation markers: Vowel quality and omnisyllabic tone

ABSTRACT: Hesitation markers (HMs) lie somewhere on the dividing line between linguistic and sub-linguistic, evincing at the same time crosslinguistic commonalities as well as language-specific features (Candea et al. 2005; Dingemanse and Woensdregt 2020). This study seeks to expand on understanding of these lexically peripheral items by analyzing their acoustic properties in Hong Kong Cantonese (HKCT), including vowel quality and F0. Recent work by Dingemanse and Woensdregt (2020) discusses phonetic similarities in HMs across languages, which are constrained by adherence to the phonologies of their respective languages. However, it is unclear how HMs are incorporated into HKCT tonal phonology, which can be characterized as 'omnisyllabic' (Matisoff 1995), every syllable being associated with a lexical tone. The present study gathers acoustic data (F0, F1–F2, duration) from the PolyU Corpus of Spoken Chinese (http://wongtaksum.no-ip.info:81/corpus.htm) across 10 speakers and 196 HMs, comparing them against 525 lexical items. Results for F1–F2 clustered around mid-front /ɛ/, which is in line both with crosslinguistic trends and HKCT phonology. Results for F0 clustered around the lower end of the pitch range, approaching Tones 3 and 6, which is expected given effort minimization trends. However, establishing a connection with a particular lexical tone was complicated by the similarity of Tones 3 and 6, which could not be statistically distinguished. Cross-speaker analysis showed considerable variation in F0, indicating that context, intonation, or idiolectal variation may play a substantial role. This has implications for our understanding of how peripheral items like hesitation markers are treated in omnisyllabic tone languages like Cantonese. 摘要: 犹豫标记置身语言学与副语言学的边界，占据一个既有跨语言共性又 具特定语言特征的区域(Candea et al. 2005; Dingemanse and Woensdregt 2020)。本研究旨在透过分析犹豫标记在香港粤语中，包含元音音色 及 F0 的声学特性，扩充对这些语义周边项目的理解。Dingemanse and Woensdregt(2020)最近的研究论及犹豫标记有跨语言声学相似性，亦 受制于各语言对自身的音段音韵学的持守。不过，香港粤语作为"全 音节语言"(Matisoff 1995)，每个音节均附上声调，犹豫标记应如何 纳入香港粤语的声调音韵学，这仍不清楚。本研究从理工大学中文口 语语料库 (PolyU Corpus of Spoken Chinese, http://wongtaksum.noip.info:81/corpus.htm) 集结 F0、 F1–F2 及时长的声学资料，横跨十位语 者，共 196 个犹豫标记，与 525 个词汇作比较分析。F1–F2 的结果围 绕半开前元音/ɛ/丛集，与跨语言趋势及香港粤语音韵学均能匹配。F0 的结果则丛集于近乎最低的音高，接近调三及调六，合乎最少付出倾 向的预想。可是，要与特定字词声调建立联系仍很复杂，因为调三及 调六相似，不能以统计学区分。跨语者分析显示 F0 有相当变化，提示 语境、语调或个人习语变化可能有重大影响。这对理解全音节语言 (如粤语)如何应对犹豫标记等等周边项目有所提示。

The Articulatory and Acoustic Representation of Second-Language French Vowels.

This study examines how L1 English-L2 French learners use L1 articulatory and acoustic categories to produce L2 vowels that are both similar to and different from their L1 vowels. Previous studies examining the relationship between L1 and L2 sound inventories have found that learners reuse L1 phone categories to produce L2 phones that are perceived as similar, but importantly, there is a lack of articulatory data included in these types of studies, which has reinforced the assumption that vowel categories can be solely represented by their acoustic properties. The present study uses ultrasound tongue imaging data and videos of lip rounding in addition to acoustic data to examine how L1 English-L2 French learners produce the French vowels /i y u e ø o/ compared with their English vowels /i u e o/. The results focus on individual paths to category formation to show how learners articulate L2 vowels, and reveal that they tend to reuse L1 tongue body gestures to produce the French vowels /i u e o/, and lip rounding gestures to produce the round vowels /y u o/. This study demonstrates that transfer of articulatory gestures depends on vowel quality and emphasizes the importance of using articulatory data to inform theories of L2 category formation.

Comparative Formants Analysis of English Vowels Using PRAAT

This research focuses on the comparative formant analysis of English vowels between native and non-native speakers using PRAAT software. The study aims to investigate the comparison of the acoustic properties of English vowels to understand the pronunciation differences encountered by non-native speakers. By analyzing the formant frequencies of monophthongs in English vowels, specifically the first formant (F1), this research seeks to identify any significant differences between English native speaker and five non-native speakers, whose first language is Indonesia. The data collected from speech samples will be descriptively analyzed to determine variations in formant patterns. The finding shows that the F1 values of the vowels show variations among the non-native speakers compared to the native speaker. There are still monophthongs that these participants mispronounce, indicating that the learner's understanding is an obstacle to their fluency in speaking and pronouncing the sounds correctly. The research findings imply that these mispronunciations are linked to differences in tongue height, vowel backness, and vowel quality between native and non-native speakers. The results underscore the analysis of F1 values for 12 words containing vowel monophthongs, highlighting these variations. This suggests that the learner's understanding of these phonetic aspects is crucial for achieving fluency in vowel production and pronunciation.

Acoustic measurements of the Indonesian oral monophthongs produced by Acehnese speakers

This study explores the characteristics of Indonesian oral monophthong vowels produced by male and female language consultants in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, as their first language. Using purposive sampling, ten Acehnese males and ten Acehnese females were selected to articulate eight target vowels: /i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /ә/, /a/, /u/, /o/, and /ɔ/. Vowel measurements were obtained through recorded word elicitation, using a word list containing the target vowels. F1 and F2 frequencies in Hertz were determined and analyzed using Praat software to assess vowel qualities and subsequently converted to the Bark scale. Vowels were plotted on the F1/F2 formant space. The findings illustrate the distinct measurements of each Indonesian monophthong vowel by male and female consultants, represented in the vowel space. Male vowels generally exhibit higher and more centralized positioning, while female vowels appear more dispersed and lower. This research contributes valuable insights for comparing vowel systems across various languages and dialects spoken in multilingual Indonesia.

Exploring acoustic overlaps in Djibouti Somali

Abstract Somali is well known to exhibit vowel harmony (Armstrong 1934), but linguists know remarkably little about how the system is implemented. Most presume that harmonic oppositions involve the tongue root and analyze the system relative to the feature [ATR], though the phonetic implementation of the contrast is complicated by a “quirky” (Krämer 2008) vocalic system. Reports also indicate that harmonic alternations vary between speakers and dialects, including in the bounds of the harmonic domain, but again, little systematic comparison has been pursued. To better understand the bearing that vowel quality and vocalic contrasts have on Somali vowel harmony, this paper reports the results of a study aimed at establishing details of the Djibouti Somali vocalic system. Our findings reveal that while a harmony system seems intact for all speakers studied, three consistent trends of acoustic (i.e., vowel space) overlap emerge from the data which may portend eventual mergers. These trends align in notable ways, but not entirely, with reports of harmonic decay elsewhere in the literature. They suggest that loss of harmonic distinctions in high vowels may be underway, but in different ways, in front vs. back vowels and that harmonic contrasts in long vowels are particularly susceptible to weakening. Our interpretation of these results, viewed alongside the typological literature on ATR harmony systems, is that Somali vowel harmony may be threatened or in decline as a result of these acoustic overlaps.

Acoustic measurements and intelligibility of English vowels produced by Thai speakers

Effective English communication across different languages and cultures has become increasingly important in a globalised world. To gain a deeper understanding of the segmental features of Thai speakers of English, this study aims to investigate the production of English monophthongs and diphthongs by Thai speakers and examine how intelligible their pronunciations are to others. Data were collected through two tasks: a production task and a listening task. For the production task, three Thai female speakers were chosen as the participants. They were recorded reading a passage consisting of all targeted vowels, and a total of 180 English tokens were analysed. For the listening task, thirty Malaysian listeners were asked to evaluate the speech intelligibility of the English sounds produced by the three speakers. The duration and formant frequencies of English vowels produced were measured to investigate the characteristics of the monophthongs and diphthongs. The findings show that there were significant differences in the durations between long and short vowels of the monophthongs, but there were no significant differences in the vowel quality produced. The ROC (rate of change) of formant frequencies (F1 and F2) indicates that there was no formant movement for the diphthongs /eɪ/, /əʊ/, and /eə/. The three diphthongs showed similar characteristics as other ASEAN Englishes that are monophthongal as /e:/, /o:/, and /ɛ:/, respectively. These findings confirm that speakers’ L1 influences English vowel production. Although there were vowel variations in the characteristics of the vowels produced by the speakers, the intelligibility scores were high.

Listen-and-repeat training of non-native vowel quality

This study investigated how listen-and-repeat training affects the production of non-native (Swedish) vowels /y/ and /u/ by speakers of different Namibian languages. Seventeen speakers, who did not have /y/ or /u/ categories in their L1, participated in the experiment. Training effects were measured with acoustic analysis and an identification task performed by 40 proficient Swedish speakers, to see whether the acoustic quality and the perceptual salience of the speakers’ non-native production evolved during training. We expected the speakers’ production to change as a function of training, and the change to be reflected on the vowel formant values and the identification task. The results showed that the speakers produced /u/ close to the trained target already in the first session, but changed their production away from the target after the first training. The speakers’ production of /y/ did not change significantly. The speakers did not reach a perceivable spectral difference between the two non-native vowels. The participants’ productions remained inconsistent throughout the experiment. There was great inter-speaker variation, which could not be accounted for by the speakers’ language backgrounds.

One-day listen-and-repeat training of a non-native vowel duration contrast for speakers of Namibian languages

Abstract Listen-and-repeat training has previously been successfully used to train the perception and production of non-native vowel quality and duration contrasts. This study used a one-day listen-and-repeat training paradigm for the production of a non-native vowel duration contrast, /tite – tiːte/ with no feedback or other instructions. Learning results were assessed by acoustic analysis of the produced durations, and identification of the productions by listeners with quantity contrasts in their native Finnish language. Training participants were 18 Namibian speakers of various Bantu and Khoe languages. The results showed that the majority of the speakers did not produce a consistent acoustic duration contrast between the target words. In the identification task, the listeners’ performance was at essentially chance level for almost all of the speakers. The results are discussed in terms of earlier results using the same stimuli, training design and language background.

Voicing or register in Jarai dialects? Implications for the reconstruction of Proto-Chamic and for registrogenesis

Abstract Jarai is a Chamic language of Vietnam and Cambodia that is traditionally described as preserving the original Austronesian voicing contrast in onset obstruents. However, there is anecdotal evidence that it has developed a register contrast, i.e. a binary contrast based on a bundle of spectral properties like pitch, voice quality and vowel quality. We conducted production and perception experiments of the voicing/register contrast in two Jarai varieties spoken in Saom Kaning, Cambodia, and Ea Sup, Vietnam, to determine if they preserve voicing and/or have developed a register contrast. Results show that both dialects have a register contrast primarily based on vowel height modulations (F1) and that onset voicing has become at best an optional secondary property of register. F1 is also the primary cue used for register identification in both dialects. Implications for the diachronic development of the register contrast in Chamic languages and in Mainland Southeast Asia in general are discussed.

Phonetic shifts in bilingual vowels: Evidence from intersentential and intrasentential code-switching

Aims and objectives: While previous research on code-switching, defined as the alternation between two languages in a single interaction, has focused on syntactic sociopragmatic patterns, significantly less work has focused on the impact of code-switching on phonetics. Distinct types of code-switching have been previously identified, with the distinction between intersentential and intrasentential code-switches being among the most basic. Yet, existing work on the phonetics of code-switching has largely relied on single feature (i.e., voice onset time) and has exclusively examined one type of code-switch (i.e., intrasentential). The current study investigates the potential for cross-linguistic interference in vowel production and examines the potential role of different code-switch types: intersentential and intrasentential code-switching. Design/Methodology: Thirty-seven Korean–English bilinguals participated in a controlled reading paradigm, producing monolingual English, monolingual Korean, intersentential code-switches, and intrasentential code-switches. Data and analysis: Analysis leveraged differences in the Korean and English vowel inventories and focused on the production of English [æ] and the corresponding Korean vowel [e~ε]. Findings/Conclusions: Results indicated that code-switched English vowels shifted in the direction of Korean vowels with respect to both height and backness. Code-switch type was shown to be significant, with a greater degree of vowel shift for intrasentential than intersentential code-switching. Originality: This study adds to the limited prior literature examining the effect of code-switching on vowel quality and is one of the first studies to systematically examine the role of code-switching typology on cross-linguistic interference in the phonetic domain. Significance/Implications: First, this study adds to the limited prior research that specifically examines the effect of code-switching on phonetic production of vowel quality. Second, this study highlights the nuances of short-term cross-linguistic interference, and notably the possibility for differential outcomes of interference across different linguistic domains (e.g., phonetics and syntax), showing a clear role for code-switching typology at the phonetic level.

Epenthetic vowel quality crosslinguistically, with focus on Modern Hebrew

Abstract This paper proposes the principle of weakest epenthesis, whereby the quality of the epenthetic vowel is that of the weakest lexical vowel of the language, and weakness is defined phonologically, not phonetically. This principle is first shown to motivate the emergence of [e] as the epenthetic vowel of Modern Hebrew. It is then corroborated by a crosslinguistic survey of 100 languages. Finally, the Modern Hebrew facts are used to illustrate the formalization of this principle using gradient symbolic representations.

Modelling the developmental path in the acquisition of /l/-final irregular plurals by Portuguese children

ABSTRACT Previous empirical research has shown that Portuguese children aged 4;0 to 6;0 are sensitive to the quality of stem-final vowels when acquiring the irregular plural forms of /l/-final words (acquisition order: plurals of /al, ɛl, ɔl, ul/ > plurals of /il/). This study presents a formal account of this emergent pattern. We first construct an initial-state grammar that arguably instantiates Portuguese children’s grammatical knowledge at the onset of morpho-phonological acquisition. We then simulate morpho-phonological learning using two constraint-based models (Stochastic Optimality Theory and Noisy Harmonic Grammar) and their associated Gradual Learning Algorithm. The results of our learning simulations corroborate the experimental data, showing that the plural form of /il/-final words takes longer to master than that of other /l/-final words. In addition to replicating the empirical results, the learning simulation reveals two important implications. First, the raw frequency of individual forms cannot account for the attested patterns, suggesting that the input frequency is mediated by some principles of grammatical learning. Second, Harmonic Grammar outperforms Optimality Theory in simulating real acquisition data. Through the additive constraint interaction, Harmonic-Grammar learning is more restrictive, avoiding the generation of unobserved data in the course of morpho-phonological acquisition.

Acoustic, phonetic, and phonological features of Drehu vowels.

This study presents an acoustic investigation of the vowel inventory of Drehu (Southern Oceanic Linkage), spoken in New Caledonia. Reportedly, Drehu has a 14 vowel system distinguishing seven vowel qualities and an additional length distinction. Previous phonological descriptions were based on impressionistic accounts showing divergent proposals for two out of seven reported vowel qualities. This study presents the first phonetic investigation of Drehu vowels based on acoustic data from eight speakers. To examine the phonetic correlates of the proposed phonological vowel inventory, multi-point acoustic analyses were used, and vowel inherent spectral change (VISC) was investigated (F1, F2, and F3). Additionally, vowel duration was measured. Contrary to reports from other studies on VISC in monophthongs, we find that monophthongs in Drehu are mostly steady state. We propose a revised vowel inventory and focus on the acoustic description of open-mid /ɛ/ and the central vowel /ə/, whose status was previously unclear. Additionally, we find that vowel quality stands orthogonal to vowel quantity by demonstrating that the phonological vowel length distinction is primarily based on a duration cue rather than formant structure. Finally, we report the acoustic properties of the seven vowel qualities that were identified.

The Exploration of Deli Malay Language Vowels: An Acoustic Phonetic Analysis

This study aims to discuss the acoustic profile of Deli Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu Deli) vowels from phonetics. In collecting data, the research will involve 15 DML native speakers. The speakers involved were between 20-40 years old. The data was obtained by recording the speaker’s voice in a quiet room with a consistent microphone distance of about 30 centimeters from the lips. Teak speakers will read syllable words containing target vowels in sentences with DML vowels. The pronunciation target vowel is placed on the first syllable. This study found that Deli Malay has seven vowels, namely vowels /i/, /e/, /ə/, /a/, /o/, /u/ and /ↄ/. DML vowel positions /i/ and /e/are high and medium front vowels. While the vowels /o/, /u/ and /ↄ/ are high and medium back vowels. Meanwhile, the vowels /a/ and / ə / are mid and low mid vowels. Later, this acoustic study calculated approximate vowel measurements based on F1 and F2 from the spectrogram at Praat. The measurement of the sound quality of forman vowels in Malay deli vowels is vowel /a/ F1 = 876 Hz and F2 = 1701 Hz vowel /i/ F1 = 533 Hz and F2 = 2328 Hz, vowel /e/ F1 = 689 Hz and F2 = 2204 Hz, vowels / ə/ F1= 692 Hz and F2= 1686 Hz, vowels /o/ F1= 650 Hz and F2= 1459 Hz, /ↄ/ F1= 658 Hz and F2= 1373 Hz, and /u/ F1= 524 Hz and F2 = 1383 Hz. This study provides a detailed analysis of the acoustic properties of Deli Malay vowels, contributing to a deeper understanding of the phonetic characteristics of the language. This can be valuable for linguists and researchers studying Malay languages and their phonetic systems.