Single Vowel Research Articles

Segmentation of Malayalam Handwritten Characters into Pattern Primitives and Recognition using SVM

This paper describes a lexical analysis (segmentation) approach in Pattern Recognition for Online Handwritten Character Recognition (OHCR) in Malayalam. The subunits (Pattern Primitives) in the single stroke vowel characters in Malayalam are identified and marked with pattern primitives to obtain a reference set of characters. Segmentation of the handwritten character samples into pattern primitives is made using a Combined Approach of Ramer Douglas Peucker algorithm and Eight Direction Freeman Code as per reference set. Features that are unique in the primitives of a character are extracted. The discriminating features identified are the direction of first primitive, segment count, cusp in second primitive, crossing in third primitive, and cusp in seventh primitive. The experiments were conducted on 100 samples per character that showed exact segmentation as per the reference set. With a five dimension feature set, the study achieved a recognition rate of 95.77% for five-fold cross-validation using Support Vector Machine with RBF kernel. The study shows that the segmentation of characters into pattern primitives is an effective method to realize accurate Malayalam OHCR systems for real-time applications.

Is segmental foreign accent perceived categorically?

The second language learning process involves acquisition of sounds that differ to varying degrees from the sounds of a learner’s native language. Learners’ productions are strongly influenced by their native language particularly for sounds which are similar but non-identical in the two languages. However, foreign accent is typically investigated at the level of utterances and as a consequence the segmental basis of foreign accent and its role in communication remain unclear. The principal issues addressed by the current study are whether accentedness at the segmental level is judged categorically by native listeners, and whether consonantal and vocalic segments are treated similarly. British English listeners judged as native or non-native a series of words in which a single vowel or consonant had been replaced by its Spanish-accented counterpart. The degree of segment accent was varied in equal amounts along a 21-step continuum using a blending technique based on native and non-native segments excised from words spoken by a balanced bilingual talker. Listeners assessed 24 distinct consonant and vowel continua. Averaged across all vowel or consonant continua, listeners’ nativeness judgements varied with segment nativeness in a non-categorical fashion. However, most individual consonant continua, as well as those vowel continua that involved durational changes, were perceived categorically. These results suggest that while overall segment-level foreign accent might be considered to vary in degree, in reality at the level of individual segments –where second language learners’ pronunciation awareness and control has to be focussed– small acoustic changes can convey a foreign accent.

Sound context modulates perceived vocal emotion

Many animal vocalizations contain nonlinear acoustic phenomena as a consequence of physiological arousal. In humans, nonlinear features are processed early in the auditory system, and are used to efficiently detect alarm calls and other urgent signals. Yet, high-level emotional and semantic contextual factors likely guide the perception and evaluation of roughness features in vocal sounds. Here we examined the relationship between perceived vocal arousal and auditory context. We presented listeners with nonverbal vocalizations (yells of a single vowel) at varying levels of portrayed vocal arousal, in two musical contexts (clean guitar, distorted guitar) and one non-musical context (modulated noise). As predicted, vocalizations with higher levels of portrayed vocal arousal were judged as more negative and more emotionally aroused than the same voices produced with low vocal arousal. Moreover, both the perceived valence and emotional arousal of vocalizations were significantly affected by both musical and non-musical contexts. These results show the importance of auditory context in judging emotional arousal and valence in voices and music, and suggest that nonlinear features in music are processed similarly to communicative vocal signals.

중국 연변조선어 단모음 /ㅐ/와 /ㅔ/에 대한 실험음성학적 연구

중국 연변조선어 단모음 /ㅐ/와 /ㅔ/에 대한 실험음성학적 연구

Infants use phonetic detail in speech perception and word learning when detail is easy to perceive

Infants successfully discriminate speech sound contrasts that belong to their native language’s phonemic inventory in auditory-only paradigms, but they encounter difficulties in distinguishing the same contrasts in the context of word learning. These difficulties are usually attributed to the fact that infants’ attention to the phonetic detail in novel words is attenuated when they must allocate additional cognitive resources demanded by word-learning tasks. The current study investigated 15-month-old infants’ ability to distinguish novel words that differ by a single vowel in an auditory discrimination paradigm (Experiment 1) and a word-learning paradigm (Experiment 2). These experiments aimed to tease apart whether infants’ performance is dependent solely on the specific acoustic properties of the target vowels or on the context of the task. Experiment 1 showed that infants were able to discriminate only a contrast marked by a large difference along a static dimension (the vowels’ second formant), whereas they were not able to discriminate a contrast with a small phonetic distance between its vowels, due to the dynamic nature of the vowels. In Experiment 2, infants did not succeed at learning words containing the same contrast they were able to discriminate in Experiment 1. The current findings demonstrate that both the specific acoustic properties of vowels in infants’ native language and the task presented continue to play a significant role in early speech perception well into the second year of life.

The Contrastive Evaluation On Modern Chinese and Uzbek Vowels

This paper adopts the four steps of “comparative analysis”.First of all, it summarizes the language of Chinese and Uzbek and its Vowels. Chinese belongs to the “Sino-Tibetan language family” and is an isolated language. The Uzbek language belongs to the “Altaic language family” and is an adhesive language. There are 10 single vowels and 13 diphthongs in Chineselanguage. There are 7single vowels in Uzbeklanguage,andone syllable contains one vowel, that is to say, several vowels have several syllables. Generally speaking, there are 4 diphthongsin Uzbeklanguage. Secondly, the single vowels in Chinese and Uzbek pronunciation are selected for comparative analysis. Then, the single vowels of Chinese and Uzbek are compared and analyzed from the aspects of “pronunciation part”, “ tongue position” and “lip shape”. Finally, based on the similarities and differences between the two vowels, the errors that Uzbek learners may have in Chinese vowels acquisition are predicted, and propose relevant teaching suggestions.

Functional Parcellation of the Speech Production Cortex.

Neuroimaging has revealed a core network of cortical regions that contribute to speech production, but the functional organization of this network remains poorly understood. Purpose We describe efforts to identify reliable boundaries around functionally homogenous regions within the cortical speech motor control network in order to improve the sensitivity of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analyses of speech production and thus improve our understanding of the functional organization of speech production in the brain. Method We used a bottom-up, data-driven approach by pooling data from 12 previously conducted fMRI studies of speech production involving the production of monosyllabic and bisyllabic words and pseudowords that ranged from single vowels and consonant-vowel pairs to short sentences (163 scanning sessions, 136 unique participants, 39 different speech conditions). After preprocessing all data through the same pipeline and registering individual contrast maps to a common surface space, hierarchical clustering was applied to contrast maps randomly sampled from the pooled data set in order to identify consistent functional boundaries across subjects and tasks. Boundary completion was achieved by applying adaptive smoothing and watershed segmentation to the thresholded population-level boundary map. Hierarchical clustering was applied to the mean within-functional region of interest (fROI) response to identify networks of fROIs that respond similarly during speech. Results We identified highly reliable functional boundaries across the cortical areas involved in speech production. Boundary completion resulted in 117 fROIs in the left hemisphere and 109 in the right hemisphere. Clustering of the mean within-fROI response revealed a core sensorimotor network flanked by a speech motor planning network. The majority of the left inferior frontal gyrus clustered with the visual word form area and brain regions (e.g., anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate) associated with detecting salient sensory inputs and choosing the appropriate action. Conclusion The fROIs provide insight into the organization of the speech production network and a valuable tool for studying speech production in the brain by improving within-group and between-groups comparisons of speech-related brain activity. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9402674.

Postalveolar co-occurrence restrictions in Slovenian

This paper shows that a postalveolar co-occurrence restriction (Obligatory Contour Principle, OCP) is a productive component of Slovenian phonology. We first examine whether an apparent OCP-based restriction on derived palatalization, previously observed in corpus data (Jurgec 2016), extends to novel forms via a goodness-rating task. We then explore the generality of the restriction across the lexicon, in non-derived novel words as well as derived forms. Our results confirm that native speakers judge derived palatalized nonce forms to be less acceptable when the stem contains another postalveolar, reflecting the pattern found in the previous corpus study. We further demonstrate that multiple postalveolars are dispreferred even in non-derived words, which suggests that the effect is a general case of OCP. This is additionally supported by effects of proximity (the restriction is stronger for postalveolars separated only by a single vowel than for those further apart from one another) and identity (the restriction is stronger for identical than non-identical postalveolars), reflecting cross-linguistic tendencies in the manifestation of OCP and non-local consonant dissimilation. Finally, we show that the restriction does not appear to apply to all places of articulation, suggesting that the co-occurrence restriction in Slovenian specifically targets postalveolars, and adding a previously unattested pattern to the typology of OCP phenomena on consonant place.

Discrimination between Modal, Breathy and Pressed Voice for Single Vowels Using Neck-Surface Vibration Signals.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using neck-surface acceleration signals to discriminate between modal, breathy and pressed voice. Voice data for five English single vowels were collected from 31 female native Canadian English speakers using a portable Neck Surface Accelerometer (NSA) and a condenser microphone. Firstly, auditory-perceptual ratings were conducted by five clinically-certificated Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) to categorize voice type using the audio recordings. Intra- and inter-rater analyses were used to determine the SLPs’ reliability for the perceptual categorization task. Mixed-type samples were screened out, and congruent samples were kept for the subsequent classification task. Secondly, features such as spectral harmonics, jitter, shimmer and spectral entropy were extracted from the NSA data. Supervised learning algorithms were used to map feature vectors to voice type categories. A feature wrapper strategy was used to evaluate the contribution of each feature or feature combinations to the classification between different voice types. The results showed that the highest classification accuracy on a full set was 82.5%. The breathy voice classification accuracy was notably greater (approximately 12%) than those of the other two voice types. Shimmer and spectral entropy were the best correlated metrics for the classification accuracy.

ANALISIS KOMPARATIF ANTARA BAHASA JAMEE (ACEH) DAN BAHASA MINANGKABAU (BUKITTINGGI)

The problems in this study are the differences in phonology, lexical, morphology, and syntactic structure between Jamee (Aceh) and Minangkabau (Bukittinggi). The aim of this research is to know the difference of phonology, lexical, morphology, and syntactic structure between Jamee language and Minangkabau Bukittinggi language. The method used in this research was descriptive with qualitative approach. Data were collected by observation, interview, and documentation techniques. The data sources in this research were 5 speakers of Jamee language and 5 speakers of Minangkabau Bukittingi language. the data analysis procedures were data selection, data classification, and data presentation. The results of research in this article phonological differences, there were / ɛ / and / ɔ / in vocal system of Jamee, / a / while vocal system of Minangkabau Bukittinggi language and Jamee / ɣ / or / R / language consonant system, while Minangkabau Bukittinggi language / r /, then there were pronunciation differences include single vowels, double vowels, and consonants. These differences consist of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. For affixation, the difference lies in the insertion (infix) -al-, -ar- in Jamee and -am-, -um- in Minangkabau Bukittinggi. The suffixes (suffixes) -en, -ken in Jamee, -in the Minangkabau language of Bukittinggi, and the ends (confix) there were me-ken, me-en, ma-kan, ma-an in Minangkabau language Bukittinggi, except prefixes. The prefixes of the two languages have similarity. The differences was also seen from word classification in verbs, nouns, adjectives, numerelia, and adverbs. In terms of the type of word repetition there was no difference only in the form of words or basic words only, while the sentence structure of the two languages have in similarities.

Production and perception of two English vowels by advanced Colombian Spanish learners of English

This study investigates the acquisition of the English vowels [ae] and [ʌ] by Colombian learners of American English. Thirty speakers of Colombian Spanish residing in the United States participated in this study. A multiple-choice identification task demonstrated that participants were proficient at identifying [ae] and [ʌ], though the accuracy rate was somewhat lower than for a number of other English vowels used for comparison. When misidentified, [ae] and [ʌ] were most frequently confused with each other or with the low back vowel [ɑ]. In a production task completed by both bilingual Spanish speakers and monolingual English speakers, learners’ [ae] and [ʌ] were distinct from native monolingual English productions. The nature of the acoustic differences between native speakers’ vowels and learners’ vowels suggested that Colombian speakers’ English renditions of [ae] and [ʌ] were affected by their Spanish [a]. Further analysis revealed that learners’ [ae] was not statistically different from their own production of Spanish [a]. These results are compatible with the assumption emerging from previous research that speakers of Spanish acquiring English assimilate, to a varying degree, English low and low-mid vowels to Spanish [a]—a single vowel found in this area of the vowel space in Spanish.

INTERFERENSI FONOLOGIS PENUTUR BAHASA MELAYU KUPANG KE DALAM BAHASA INDONESIA DI KOTA KUPANG

The aims of this study is to identify and describe phonological forms of BMK into BI and the factors that cause the interference of BMK into BI. In accordance with the characteristics studied, this research is included in descriptive-qualitative research. The population in this study were 50 urban residents aged 17-45 years who had different educational and occupational backgrounds. Primary data in this study was obtained by observing the events in formal places. Meanwhile the secondary data was obtained through interviews with the informants. The results of the study found that there was a disturbance of zero affliction, apokop and syncope in formal speech. The data is also proved the diphthong sound [aw] is changed to be a mono single vowel, medium (top) round, semi closed sound [o]. Furthermore, the factors that cause the BMK interference into BI are the bilingual factor, the prestige factor and the nativization process (BMK is a creole language).

A Pathological Multi-Vowels Recognition Algorithm Based on LSP Feature

At present, pathological voice recognition is mainly based on the classification of pathological voice. However, almost all the researches are based on the single vowel \a samples, but few on multi-vowels. In addition, the current researches on multi-vowels recognition are mainly for normal voices, which are unsuitable for the speech recognition of normal and pathological multi-vowels simultaneously. This paper concentrates on developing an accurate and robust feature called enhanced-bark line spectrum pair (E-BLSP) to detect and classify normal and pathological multi-vowels. We explore the impact of E-BLSP feature on recognition performance and propose an effective method based on the combination of three features including E-BLSP for pathological and normal multi-vowels. In this paper, first LSP and difference of adjacent LSP (DAL) features of a vowel are extracted. Then LSP feature is warped at bark domain to get bark line spectrum pair (BLSP). In addition, then E-BLSP feature is calculated by adjusting BLSP using DAL feature. Finally, the adjusted E-BLSP feature and other two traditional features, including linear prediction cepstrum coefficient (LPCC) and mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients (MFCC) are applied to support vector machine (SVM) and deep neural network (DNN) classifiers to explore the classification performance of single feature and feature combinations for pathological and normal vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/. The results show that the highest achieved accuracies for DNN and SVM network are 98.6190% and 96.2693%, while the largest achieved area under curves (AUC) are 0.9925 and 0.9868, correspondingly with the combination of three features including LPCC, MFCC, and E-BLSP.

InRA: An Imagery Technique to Improve Reading Skills of Arabic Single Vocal “A” Alphabets

Imagine and Read Arabic—InRA is a form of intervention strategies through the design of teaching material as an alternative to overcome the problem in recognizing and reading Arabic letters among students in the basic education level. Innovation is highlighted from the point of teaching techniques and aids learning reading skills of 29 Hija’iyyah Arabic Alphabets of single vowel “A” in teaching and learning Arabic language in primary schools. The usage of this innovation will not only overcome the issue of identifying and reading but also even train students of basic Arabic writing techniques. It is compatible with the objectives of the Curriculum Standard of the Arabic Language for Year 1 KSSR Revision and the initial curriculum for Year 2 to 6 to ensure that students can read and write Arabic Hija’iyyah Alphabets correctly. This innovation is devoted to the use of rehabilitation activities in the classroom of teaching Arabic language subject through the application of multiple intelligences. A total of 20 students from Year 1 were exposed to teaching aids using the charts that are designed graphically using picture icons which resemble certain Hija’iyyah Alphabets for 7 weeks with a focus on 4 - 5 letters per week. Post-test results found that 100% sample students have successfully mastered those skills. The implementation of technology applications AR (Augmented Reality) and QR Code also adds an element of edutainment in aids designed for the purpose of self-access learning that characterizes the 21st century teaching and learning.

한국어–베트남어 단모음 대조를 통한 난이도 위계 설정

본 연구의 목적은 지각과 산출 실험을 통해 베트남인 한국어 학습자들 이 느끼는 단모음의 난이도 위계를 설정하는 데 있다. 베트남인 학습 자들은 모국어 단모음과의 대응을 통해 비교적 한국어 단모음을 쉽게 학습한다는 것이 일반적인 견해이다. 그러나 산출 실험 결과 학습자들 은 한국인 모국어 화자보다 단모음을 산출하는 공간이 좁으며, 후설 모음에서는 한국어와 베트남어 대응 모음이 일치하지 않는다. 베트남 어에 대응하는 한국어 대응 모음은 해당 베트남어 모음보다 높은 위치 에서 발음된다. 이러한 차이가 학습자의 후설 모음 지각 오류를 불러 일으키며, 오류가 가장 많은 모음쌍은 /ㅗ/와 /ㅜ/이다. /ㅐ/는 실험 대 상에 포함되어 있지 않으나 /ㅔ/를 /ㅐ/로 지각하는 학습자도 많았다. 실험 결과 베트남 학습자들을 위한 단모음 난이도 위계는 다음과 같 다. 0단계: ㅣ, ㅏ 1단계 : ㅡ, 2단계 : ㅔ / ㅐ, 3단계 : ㅜ, ㅗ, ㅓ

Perceptual and Quantitative Assessment of Dysphonia Across Vowel Categories

This study aims to determine the sensitivity of perceptual and computational correlates of breathy and rough voice quality (VQ) across multiple vowel categories using single-variable matching tasks (SVMTs). Sustained phonations of /a/, /i/, and /u/ from 20 dysphonic talkers (10 with primarily breathy voices and 10 with primarily rough voices) were selected from the University of Florida Dysphonic Voice Database. For primarily breathy voices, perceived breathiness was judged, and for primarily rough voices, perceived roughness was judged by the same group of 10 listeners using an SVMT with five replicates per condition. Measures of pitch strength, cepstral peak, and autocorrelation peak were applied to models of the perceptual data. Intra- and inter-rater reliability were high for both the breathiness and the roughness perceptual tasks. For breathiness judgments, the effect of vowel was small. Averaged over all talkers and listeners, breathiness judgments for /a/, /i/, and /u/ were -11.6, -11.2, and -12.2 dB noise-to-signal ratio, respectively. For roughness judgments, the effect of vowel was larger. The perceived roughness of /a/ was higher than /i/ or /u/ by 3 dB modulation depth. Pitch strength was the most accurate predictor of breathiness matching (r2 = 0.84-0.94 across vowels), and log-transformed autocorrelation peak was the most accurate predictor of roughness matching (r2 = 0.59-0.83 across vowels). Breathiness is more consistently represented across vowels for dysphonic voices than roughness. This work represents a critical step in advancing studies of voice quality perception from single vowels to running speech.

"Mummy, keep it steady": phonetic variation shapes word learning at 15 and 17 months.

Fifteen-month-olds have difficulty detecting differences between novel words differing in a single vowel. Previous work showed that Australian English (AusE) infants habituated to the word-object pair DEET detected an auditory switch to DIT and DOOT in Canadian English (CanE) but not in their native AusE (Escudero etal., ). The authors speculated that this may be because the vowel inherent spectral change variation (VISC) in AusE DEET is larger than in CanE DEET. We investigated whether VISC leads to difficulty in encoding phonetic detail during early word learning, and whether this difficulty dissipates with age. In Experiment 1, we familiarized AusE-learning 15-month-olds to AusE DIT, which contains smaller VISC than AusE DEET. Unlike infants familiarized with AusE DEET (Escudero etal., ), infants detected a switch to DEET and DOOT. In Experiment 2, we familiarized AusE-learning 17-month-olds to AusE DEET. This time, infants detected a switch to DOOT, and marginally detected a switch to DIT. Our acoustic analysis showed that AusE DEET and DOOT are differentiated by the second vowel formant, while DEET and DIT can only be distinguished by their changing dynamic properties throughout the vowel trajectory. Thus, by 17 months, AusE infants can encode highly dynamic acoustic properties, enabling them to learn the novel vowel minimal pairs that are difficult at 15 months. These findings suggest that the development of word learning is shaped by the phonetic properties of the specific word minimal pair.

Use of a Novel Device to Assess Intraoral and Intrapharyngeal Baropressure during Sound Production

Objective: We developed a novel device that simultaneously measures oral and intrapharyngeal baropressure. The transducer has the advantage that it can be placed in any region. We determined the effect of different speech samples on baropressure in these regions. Patients and Methods: Seven healthy individuals produced speech samples comprising vowels and consonants (e.g., /aka/, /apa/, and /ash/). Two transducers were installed into the experimental plate at the incisive papillae and center of the Ah-line; a third transducer was placed in the mid-pharyngeal cavity. During each task, 3 parameters were analyzed: peak pressure, mean pressure, and the temporal relationship between sound signals and pressure changes. Results: The mean pressure did not change during the production of a single vowel; however, the pressure transiently increased during the production of the speech samples, depending on the place of articulation. Moreover, the place of articulation affected the onset and peak timing of pressure changes. Conclusions: These findings indicate that pressure changes during the production of speech samples reflect the functional aspects of speech production. In particular, simultaneous pressure recordings at multiple locations would provide precise information about speech production, compared to pressure studies that used a single pressure transducer.

Toward a dynamic theory of vowel production

Vowels are traditionally classified into monophthongs, diphthongs, triphthongs, and in some rare cases, tetraphthongs. However, there is a long debate on the complexity of vowels in the literature. Some phoneticians view diphthongs as a single vowel with phonetically complex nucleus, while others treat diphthongs as a sequence of two vowel elements. This paper reports recent developments in vowel researches in Chinese dialects, and argues for an integral account for vowel production. First, fine-gained phonetic details from Mandarin, Wu, Jin, Hui, Min, and Hakka reveal that falling diphthongs and rising diphthongs differ in temporal organization, spectral property, and spectral dynamics. Second, there is no dichotomy, but a continuum between monophthongs and diphthongs. Comparisons between four Hui dialects reveal how the process of diphthongization develops from a more monophthong-like stage to a more diphthong-like stage. In conclusion, the production data from Chinese dialects support an integral account for vowel production. Monophthongs are composed of a static spectral target, diphthongized vowels and falling diphthongs are composed of a dynamic spectral target, and rising diphthongs are sequences of two spectral targets.

Voice selectivity in the temporal voice area despite matched low-level acoustic cues

In human listeners, the temporal voice areas (TVAs) are regions of the superior temporal gyrus and sulcus that respond more to vocal sounds than a range of nonvocal control sounds, including scrambled voices, environmental noises, and animal cries. One interpretation of the TVA’s selectivity is based on low-level acoustic cues: compared to control sounds, vocal sounds may have stronger harmonic content or greater spectrotemporal complexity. Here, we show that the right TVA remains selective to the human voice even when accounting for a variety of acoustical cues. Using fMRI, single vowel stimuli were contrasted with single notes of musical instruments with balanced harmonic-to-noise ratios and pitches. We also used “auditory chimeras”, which preserved subsets of acoustical features of the vocal sounds. The right TVA was preferentially activated only for the natural human voice. In particular, the TVA did not respond more to artificial chimeras preserving the exact spectral profile of voices. Additional acoustic measures, including temporal modulations and spectral complexity, could not account for the increased activation. These observations rule out simple acoustical cues as a basis for voice selectivity in the TVAs.