Spanish Vowels Research Articles

The interaction of L2 and L3 levels of proficiency in third language acquisition

AbstractLevel of proficiency (LoP), unlike other factors, such as L2 status (Cenoz 2001) or linguistic proximity (Westergaard et al. 2016), has not been widely investigated in terms of third language acquisition (TLA). However, it is possible that LoP in L2 (Tremblay 2006), L3 (Wrembel 2010) and the interaction between these factors (Sypiańska and Cal in press) might play an important role in TLA. This study, thus, aims to further examine the aforesaid possibilities by analysing the influence of L2 and L3 LoP and their interaction on the production of L3 vowels in a group of L1 Polish/L2 English/L3 Spanish speakers who differ in terms of LoP in their foreign languages. A MANOVA was conducted to compare the main effects of L2LoP, L3LoP and vowel as well as the interaction effect between these factors on the production of L3 Spanish vowels. The results indicate an influential role of L2LoP and L3LoP and their interaction depending on the vowel being analysed. Low proficiency in one of the languages allowed the other, more proficient one, to impact the production of the L3 Spanish vowels. This interplay of factors expands the understanding of how the L2 and L3 proficiency condition the developing L3.

A Phonetic Account of Spanish-English Bilinguals’ Divergence with Agreement

Does bilingual language influence in the domain of phonetics impact the morphosyntactic domain? Spanish gender is encoded by word-final, unstressed vowels (/a e o/), which may diphthongize in word-boundary vowel sequences. English neutralizes unstressed final vowels and separates across-word vocalic sequences. The realization of gender vowels as schwa, due to cross-linguistic influence, may remain undetected if not directly analyzed. To explore the potential over-reporting of gender accuracy, we conducted parallel phonetic and morphosyntactic analyses of read and semi-spontaneous speech produced by 11 Monolingual speakers and 13 Early and 13 Late Spanish-English bilinguals. F1 and F2 values were extracted at five points for all word-final unstressed vowels and vowel sequences. All determiner phrases (DPs) from narratives were coded for morphological and contextual parameters. Early bilinguals exhibited clear patterns of vowel centralization and higher rates of hiatuses than the other groups. However, the morphological analysis yielded very few errors. A follow-up integrated analysis revealed that /a and o/ were realized as centralized vowels, particularly with [+Animate] nouns. We propose that bilinguals’ schwa-like realizations can be over-interpreted as target Spanish vowels. Such variable vowel realization may be a factor in the vulnerability to attrition in gender marking in Spanish as a heritage language.

Vowel characterization of Spanish speakers from Antioquia–Colombia using a specific-parameterized discrete wavelet transform analysis

Vowel formants provide information as to how a vowel is uttered. Formant frequencies are relevant in applications involving human speech processing. However, such implementations are mainly performed with non-Spanish speakers. Thus, the Spanish vowels characterization should be further explored. In this study, a method for formants extraction based on the discrete wavelet transform is presented. The work focuses on Spanish speakers from Antioquia, Colombia. The parameters of the wavelet analysis are adjusted in order to establish a suitable vowels characterization within the frequency formant space. The results show that the vowel-specific wavelet analysis yields well defined clusters in the formant space. A k-means algorithm was trained in order to obtain representative centroids for each vowel. These centroids are tested in a vowels identification task, with good performance results. Moreover, the centroids are compared with vowel formants from Spanish speakers reported in the literature. The comparison reveals that speakers from distinct regions express specific features of vowels utterance, suggesting that speakers from regional populations within countries, can be better characterized. The proposed wavelet parametrization combined with the clustering algorithm can be attractive for real-time applications of voice processing. Furthermore, the proposed methodology can be applied in future studies with speakers from other Colombian- and Spanish-speaking regions.

Problemas teóricos y experimentales con las vocales del español

En este trabajo hacemos una descripción de las vocales del español rioplatense. Las describimos fonéticamente por sus propiedades acústicas y articulatorias presentando varias cartas de formantes. Ejemplificamos también el problema teórico de la identificación de los rasgos distintivos que permiten caracterizarlas. Finalmente, hacemos hincapié en dos problemas que consideramos cruciales para la descripción y la explicación fonética y fonológica: el problema del inventario –que surge básicamente de los presupuestos teóricos con los que se trabaje– y el problema de la distinción entre monoptongos y diptongos, habida cuenta de que los datos experimentales más actuales ponen en duda que las vocales del español sean monoptongos estables, ya que presentan dinamismo espectral inherente.

Acoustic analysis of the voice in patients with Parkinson's disease and hypokinetic dysarthria

Background and aimMost patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) develop speech disorders during the course of the disease. These disorders severely affect the speech intelligibility and vocal quality of these people. The aim of this paper is to characterize the voice and speech of subjects with PD through the automatic analysis of voice recordings. We also study whether there is a relationship between the acoustic parameters extracted from the recordings and the quality of the voice perceived by the subjects themselves. Materials and methodsThis is a descriptive correlational study in which 20 subjects with PD and 20 healthy controls were compared. The subjects with PD completed the VHI-30 instrument and performed sustained phonation of different vowels in Spanish. The stage of the disease was also evaluated using the Hoehn and Yahr scale. ResultsThere are greater vocalic changes in subjects with PD than in healthy controls. In particular, significant differences were found for the vowel space area, intensity, F0, jitter and shimmer. No statistically significant associations were found between these acoustic parameters and the voice quality as perceived by the subjects with PD. ConclusionsAcoustic analysis of voice and speech may be of great help in characterizing the state of hypokinetic dysarthria in PD patients. In addition, automatic tools of this type could be used in the future in a complementary manner to facilitate identifying treatment needs in PD patients.

Spelling Acquisition in Spanish: Using Error Analyses to Examine Individual Differences in Phonological and Orthographic Processing

ABSTRACT This study examined Spanish spelling errors among 166 native Spanish-speaking students from Kindergarten to Grade 3 based on a spelling-to-diction task. Fifteen types of spelling errors were analyzed in a latent class analysis. Results suggested three phases of spellers: Phase 1 students had a high chance of committing almost all types of errors. Phase 2 students had a lower chance of committing vowel-based phonological errors, but still had a high chance of committing consonant-based phonological errors. Phase 3 students had some difficulty differentiating distinct but similar consonant sounds for spelling (e.g., spelling reptile [reptile] as rebtil; Diente [tooth] as viente). Among the word-context factors, syllable complexity and orthography difficulty were the best predictors of phonological and orthographic errors in more proficient spellers, respectively. We suggest that awareness of Spanish vowel and consonant sounds may not grow in tandem, and future research should incorporate word-context features into spelling error analysis.

Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy ed. by Rajiv Rao

Reviewed by: Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy ed. by Rajiv Rao André Zampaulo Rao, Rajiv, editor. Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy. Routledge, 2019. Pp. 355. ISBN 978-1-13895-461-8. Considering the lack of priority that the teaching of pronunciation receives in Spanish language textbooks, Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy is a long-awaited collection of fifteen essays cohesively organized into two parts, the first of which is dedicated to the sound system of Spanish, while the second delves into particular challenges that arise in the classroom. By providing readers with the necessary depth that the subject requires, the editor and the twenty-one leading scholars who pen the book chapters not only offer their expertise on virtually all aspects related to the sounds of Spanish, but also provide hands-on activities and suggestions for instructors and students alike. In the book’s introduction, the editor contextualizes the motivation for a new resource dedicated solely to the instruction of Spanish pronunciation and provides readers with a well-organized and explained section on phonetics jargon and terminology, complementary to the glossary located at the end of the book. Part I gathers eight chapters that fully describe the Spanish sound system and offer practical strategies to teaching it in the classroom. Eugenio Martínez Celdrán and Wendy Elvira-García provide the first chapter, “Description of Spanish Vowels and Guidelines for Teaching Them,” which addresses the phonetic and phonological features of Spanish vowels and provides a collection of exercises on the perception and production of these segments by learners of different first-language backgrounds. The second and third chapters are devoted to stop consonants. Specifically, Mary L. Zampini’s “Pronunciation in the L2 Spanish Classroom: The Voiceless Stops /p, t, k/” and Manuela González-Bueno’s “Suggestions for Teaching Spanish Voiced Stops /b, d, ɡ/ and Their Lenited Allophones [β̞, ð̞, ɣ̞]” provide a full and illustrative description of the phonetics and phonology of Spanish stops and the challenges that their articulation and allophonic distribution pose to native English-speaking learners of Spanish. The pedagogical materials and guided activities offered at the end of both chapters depict the authors’ viewpoint successfully and guide the reader into putting their approaches into practice. Next, the phonological rules and allophonic distribution of Spanish interdental, alveolar, and velar phonemes are carefully laid out and illustrated in A. Raymond Elliott’s “A Theoretical Framework in the Acquisition and Teaching of Fricatives to L2 Learners of Spanish.” Benjamin Schmeiser’s “Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Liquid Consonants” correctly describes the articulatory, acoustic, and auditory features of lateral and rhotic consonants in Spanish [End Page 300] and identifies the production of velarized /l/ as one of the common issues found in the speech of native English-speaking learners of Spanish. As for rhotics, the author offers appropriate tongue-twisters to be used in the classroom and discusses similarities between the production of these consonants in Spanish and English. Carlos-Eduardo Piñeros focuses on Spanish nasal consonants in “The Polymorphism of Spanish Nasal Stops.” Besides discussing the articulatory characteristics of these segments and the contrast in meaning they produce in Spanish, Piñeros also provides a thorough account of the behavior of nasals at the end of syllables. Chapters seven and eight are devoted to describing Spanish suprasegmentals and stressing the crucial role they play in the teaching and learning of Spanish pronunciation. While Sonia Colina’s “Incorporating Syllable Structure into the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation” provides a singularly rich sample of activities featuring communicative exercises, tongue-twisters, cognates, and borrowings, Carme de-la-Mota’s “Improving Non-Native Pronunciation: Teaching Prosody to Learners of Spanish as a Second/Foreign Language” offers innovative approaches to incorporate stress, rhythm, and intonation into the practice of pronunciation. The seven chapters featured in the second part of the book focus on the various pedagogical challenges posed by the teaching of Spanish pronunciation and provide practical suggestions to overcome them in the classroom. For example, Germán Zárate-Sández’s “Spanish Pronunciation and the Teaching of Dialectal Variation” deals with...

Spanish vowel Perception by Korean Learners of Spanish: Korean Learners do not Perceive Spanish ‘O’ as ‘O’

This paper examines Spanish vowel perception by Korean learners. According to Speech Learning Model (Flege, 1987, 1992, 1995; Bohn &Flege, 1992), L2 phones can be classified into three categories, ‘new’, ‘similar’, and ‘identical’. Many studies have found that in the long run, ‘similar’ phones cause the most trouble for L2 learners. Generally, Spanish vowels are believed to have one-to-one correspondence with Korean, making them straight-forward to learn. In contrast, using experimental phonetics measures, it was discovered that the two vowel systems do have considerable differences. Thus, Spanish vowels should be considered as ‘similar’ phones, rather than ‘identical’. In order to investigate whether the learners and the native speakers demonstrate some differences in Spanish vowel perception, an experiment utilizing synthesized sounds was carried out. There were three groups of subjects, with one native speaker (NS) group and two Korean speaker (KS) groups depending on the amount of L2 experience. For the experiment, four continua (/a/-/o/, /e/-/i/, /e/-/a/, and /?/-/o/-/u/) were synthesized. The fourth continuum was designed in a more complex way, in order to contain the points of articulation for not only Spanish /o/ and /u/ but also Korean /?/, /o/, and /u/. The subjects chose the closest Spanish vowel for each synthesized sound. The results reinforced the SLM’s argument that similar phones are difficult to learn. KS surely perceived Spanish vowels in a different manner from NS. Against our initial predictions, however, the results did not support the learning effect.

Comparative function of Spanish vowels and consonants in lexical and socioindexical processing tasks using auditory discrimination

A series of speech perception experiments involving lexical decision and talker identification tasks shows that Spanish-speaking listeners rely heavily on consonants to identify words and vowels to identify talkers. The study replicates a similar study for English. Participants were 94 native Spanish-speaking undergraduate students who performed a same-different auditory discrimination (forced choice) task to detect a word (Version A) or a speaker (Version B). Listeners heard pairs of isolated nonsense words produced by speakers of Venezuelan Spanish. In Experiment 1, a control group heard unaltered stimuli. Experiments 2 and 3 followed the same design was but with vowels excised (Experiment 2) or consonants excised (Experiment 3). Results showed that overall discrimination was best with the unaltered stimuli (Experiment 1, as predicted), followed by vowel-only stimuli (Experiment 3). Furthermore, it was shown that listeners relied more heavily on consonants to perform the lexical decision task relative to the talker identification task (Experiments 2 and 3). These findings confirm results from previous studies using English-speaking participants, showing a minimal role for crosslinguistic variation. Current results contribute to the body of knowledge on speech universals and have implications for the dual functions of lexical and socioindexical processing across languages.

Duration of syllable nuclei in Spanish

Abstract In many languages, vowel duration is modulated by syllable structure — a phenomenon known as vowel compression — so that vowels are shorter in syllables with more segments than in syllables with fewer segments. Most instrumental evidence to date has reported an effect, in many languages, of the presence (and complexity) of a coda, and some studies have also documented effects of the presence (and complexity) of an onset. However, no prior studies on Spanish vowel duration have captured any effects of syllable structure. Using data from nine speakers and controlled speech materials, the present study addresses the following research question: Does syllable structure modulate vowel duration? The findings are as follows: (a) Relative to simplex onsets (those with a singleton consonant), complex onsets (those with a consonant cluster) trigger vowel compression; and (b) neither simplex nor complex codas consistently drive vowel compression — i.e. codas do not systematically affect vowel duration. Together with the facts for other languages, our findings support a view according to which syllable structure — in particular, onset complexity — modulates acoustic vowel duration. The study discusses the theoretical implications of this finding, which are argued to be in line with some of the principles of the Articulatory Phonology framework or, alternatively, suggest that codas should not be considered part of the articulatory syllable.

Vowel Production in Hearing Impaired Children: A Comparison Between Normal-hearing, Hearing-aided and Cochlear-implanted Children

Introduction and objectivesInadequate auditory feedback in prelingually deaf children alters the articulation of consonants and vowels.The purpose of this investigation was to compare vowel production in Spanish-speaking deaf children with cochlear implantation, and with hearing-aids with normal-hearing children by means of acoustic analysis of formant frequencies and vowel space. MethodsA total of 56 prelingually deaf children (25 with cochlear implants and 31 wearing hearing-aids) and 47 normal-hearing children participated. The first 2 formants (F1 and F2) of the five Spanish vowels were measured using Praat software. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Scheffé test were applied to analyze the differences between the 3 groups. The surface area of the vowel space was also calculated. ResultsThe mean value of F1 in all vowels was not significantly different between the 3 groups. For vowels /i/, /o/ and /u/, the mean value of F2 was significantly different between the 2 groups of deaf children and their normal-hearing peers. ConclusionBoth prelingually hearing-impaired groups tended toward subtle deviations in the articulation of vowels that could be analyzed using an objective acoustic analysis program.

Phonological (in)visibility

AbstractReduced vowels between obstruents and rhotics are durationally variable and phonologically invisible in Spanish, e.g.pərado‘field’ as /pɾ/. The present study compares L1-Spanish speakers, English monolinguals, and L2-Spanish learners’ perceptual boundaries for reduced vowels in Spanish. A native speaker produced 70 Spanish nonce words with word-initial obstruent + vowel + flap sequences, and the duration of each vowel was manipulated from 100% to 75%, 50%, and 25% of its original duration. To determine whether these groups perceive variably reduced vowels as phonologically visible, 78 listeners counted the number of syllables perceived in 280 target audio files. Linear regression models fitted to 21,436 responses indicate that English monolinguals apply an L1 perceptual strategy, but L2-Spanish learners have shifted their perceptual boundaries. The study concludes that the perception of highly variable acoustic information becomes more native-like with greater L2 proficiency, while age of acquisition is less predictive of native-like perception.

The role of input in native Spanish Late learners’ production and perception of English phonetic segments

Abstract This study evaluated the effect of input variation on the production and perception of English phonetic segments by native Spanish adults who had immigrated to the United States after the age of 16 years. The native Spanish (NS) participants were assigned to three groups of 20 each according to years of English input (years of U.S. residence multiplied by percent English use outside the home). Experiment 1 assessed the perceived relation between English and Spanish vowels. It yielded similar results for the NS groups designated “Low input” (M = 0.2 years of input), “Mid” (M = 1.2 years) and “High” (M = 3.0 years). Experiments 2–4 examined English vowel discrimination, vowel production and consonant discrimination. Apart from a modest improvement in vowel discrimination, these experiments showed little improvement as years of English input increased. One possible explanation for the essentially null finding of this study is that input matters little or not at all when an L2 is learned naturalistically following the closure of a critical period. Another possibility is that adequate native speaker input is crucial for L2 speech learning but the input differences evaluated here were insufficient to yield measurable improvements in performance. We conclude the article by illustrating a new technique that might be used to choose between these competing explanations.

A generational acoustic analysis of Mexican Spanish and English vowels

Multiple studies have suggested that the Spanish vowel system is stable, with little to no variation (Delattre, 1996; Quillis and Esgueva, 1983), while others have also noted variation in monolingual Spanish (Boyd-Bowman, 1952; Canellada and Vicente, 1960; Delforge, 2008; Lipski, 1990; Lope-Blanch, 1964; Marin Galves, 1995; Matluck, 1952; Quilis, 1999; Quilis and Esgueva, 1983) and bilingual Spanish in the United States (Fought, 1999; Godinez and Maddieson, 1985; Konopka and Pierrehumbert, 2008; Konopka, 2011; Ronquest, 2013; Willis, 2005). This study analyzes the vowel quality and duration of Spanish and English vowels by Mexican and Mexican-American speakers across different sociolinguistic generations in the United States (Silva-Corvalan, 1994), which has been absent from previous literature. An examination of the different generations is needed to account for the differing levels of Spanish and English use in the United States, as well as to examine how production of speech may change across generations. Results indicate all generations exhibit significant unstressed vowel reduction, though there is variation across the different groups. The amount of centralization and reduction also increases for each subsequent generation. In addition, Spanish influence is evident in the production of both G1 and G3 groups, though there is also evidence for acquired English speech. Multiple studies have suggested that the Spanish vowel system is stable, with little to no variation (Delattre, 1996; Quillis and Esgueva, 1983), while others have also noted variation in monolingual Spanish (Boyd-Bowman, 1952; Canellada and Vicente, 1960; Delforge, 2008; Lipski, 1990; Lope-Blanch, 1964; Marin Galves, 1995; Matluck, 1952; Quilis, 1999; Quilis and Esgueva, 1983) and bilingual Spanish in the United States (Fought, 1999; Godinez and Maddieson, 1985; Konopka and Pierrehumbert, 2008; Konopka, 2011; Ronquest, 2013; Willis, 2005). This study analyzes the vowel quality and duration of Spanish and English vowels by Mexican and Mexican-American speakers across different sociolinguistic generations in the United States (Silva-Corvalan, 1994), which has been absent from previous literature. An examination of the different generations is needed to account for the differing levels of Spanish and English use in the United States, as well as to examine how production of speech may change across generatio...

Perceptual assimilation of British English vowels to Spanish monophthongs and diphthongs.

This study examined the perceived similarity between Standard British English vowels and Spanish vowels, including Spanish diphthongs, not usually considered in studies on cross-language categorization. Twenty-nine Spanish speakers performed two perceptual assimilation tasks that differed in the number of response alternatives provided, that is, including or excluding diphthongs. The participants also performed an L1 vowel identification task. The results showed that Spanish listeners consistently perceived English diphthongs as closer to Spanish diphthongs than to Spanish monophthongs, with comparatively high assimilation scores. These results emphasize the need to include diphthongs in cross-language comparisons and second-language acquisition studies involving languages like Spanish.

Language Mode Influences Language-Specific Categorization

The present study aims to fill a gap at the intersection of the phenomena of language mode—the state of activation of the bilingual’s languages and language processing mechanisms—and the subset problem—issues learners face when the second language has fewer of some kind of contrast than the first language. When the subset problem is present in second language acquisition, learners may struggle to acquire specific contrasts of a language and may map them incorrectly to their first language. By studying advanced learners of Spanish and considering language mode, we are able to investigate whether learners create separate categories for Spanish vowels—as opposed to simply adapting their English categories—and whether the use of such categories depends on the language being perceived. Spanish and English serve as convenient languages for study of these phenomena because Spanish has fewer vowels than English. With this, we ask: “Does language mode influence language-specific categorization?” To investigate this question, we had native English-speaking, proficient Spanish learners perform an AX task in both English and Spanish, where they identified whether two aurally presented vowel stimuli were the same or different. There was no strong effect of language mode across conditions, but we found that reaction times were significantly slower and that error rates were higher in tasks that included stimuli from more than one language. Thus, we conclude that when multiple languages are activated it is more difficult to process a given language.

Consonant Deletion and Eastern Andalusian Spanish Vowels: The Effect of Word-final /s/, /r/ and /θ/ Deletion on /i/

Syllable-final consonant deletion has been widely documented in Eastern Andalusian Spanish, although the effects of consonant deletion on preceding vowels are still unknown. Studies analyzing syllable-final consonants in Eastern Andalusian Spanish have focused on /-s/, disregarding other consonants which are also deleted in this position. The present paper aims to extend this traditional focus by analyzing how /-s/, /-r/ and /-θ/ deletion affects preceding /i/. After analyzing 383 samples of /i/ word-finally and before underlying word-final /s/, /r/ and /θ/ in Western Almería (Eastern Andalusia), it is confirmed that the deletion of these three consonants changes the quality of preceding /i/. Furthermore, the results of a perception test confirm that speakers of Eastern Andalusian Spanish can identify whether or not /i/ is followed by an underlying /-s/, /-r/ or /-θ/ and they can also identify two types of /i/ in isolation: word-final /i/ and /i/ preceding underlying /-r/; this identification occurs at a rate which is statistically significant. It is hypothesized that, apart from vowel height and frontness, a suprasegmental feature could be the perceptual cue used to identify an underlying consonant after a vowel in this variety of Spanish.

Perception of American-English Vowels by Early and Late Spanish-English Bilinguals.

Increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants are entering the US and learning American-English (AE) as a second language (L2). Previous studies investigating the relationship between AE and Spanish vowels have revealed an advantage for early L2 learners for their accuracy of L2 vowel perception. Replicating and extending such previous research, this study examined the patterns with which early and late Spanish-English bilingual adults assimilated naturally-produced AE vowels to their native vowel inventory and the accuracy with which they discriminated the vowels. Twelve early Spanish-English bilingual, 12 late Spanish-English bilingual, and 10 monolingual listeners performed perceptual-assimilation and categorical-discrimination tasks involving AE /i,ɪ,ɛ,ʌ,æ,ɑ,o/. Early bilinguals demonstrated similar assimilation patterns to late bilinguals. Late bilinguals' discrimination was less accurate than early bilinguals' and AE monolinguals'. Certain contrasts, such as /æ-ɑ/, /ʌ-ɑ/, and /ʌ-æ/, were particularly difficult to discriminate for both bilingual groups. Consistent with previous research, findings suggest that early L2 learning heightens Spanish-English bilinguals' ability to perceive cross-language phonetic differences. However, even early bilinguals' native-vowel system continues to influence their L2 perception.

Características acústicas de las vocales tónicas y átonas del español rioplatense. Efectos del estilo de habla y del contexto consonántico

Produced vowels in a style focused on speech (isolated words reading) exhibit more peripheral formants and more spectral change than conversational vowels (text reading). This study explored the interaction between lexical stress and speech style by comparing the production of stressed and unstressed /a e o/ River Plate Spanish vowels produced by word reading versus the text reading in three different consonantal contexts. Formant frequency in the stable point of the vowel (50%) and spectral change were examined. Results revealed that speech style mainly affected the F2 of stressed and unstressed vowels /e/ and /o/. In the word reading, /e/ was more anterior and /o/ more posterior. Nevertheless, this modification in the F2 due to speech style was not observed in all the consonantal contexts. Regarding F1, only stressed /a/ increased its F1 in word reading in relation to conversational speech, independent of the phonetic context. Concerning the effect of the lexical stress, stressed /a/ and /o/ were produced with a higher F1 than the unstressed counterparts, while stressed /e/ showed a higher F2 than unstressed /e/. As for the spectral change, vowels /a/ and /o/ evinced a higher spectral variation in the word reading than in text reading, unlike /e/ that showed an opposite pattern. Only the unstressed /a/ in bilabial context had a greater spectral change than the stressed /a/.

Comparación de la producción vocal en niños con hipoacusia prelocutiva con adaptación audioprotésica e implante coclear con normooyentes

Introduction and objectivesInadequate auditory feedback in prelingually deaf children alters the articulation of consonants and vowels.The purpose of this investigation was to compare vowel production in Spanish-speaking deaf children with cochlear implantation, and with hearing-aids with normal-hearing children by means of acoustic analysis of formant frequencies and vowel space. MethodsA total of 56 prelingually deaf children (25 with cochlear implants and 31 wearing hearing-aids) and 47 normal-hearing children participated. The first 2 formants (F1 and F2) of the five Spanish vowels were measured using Praat software. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Scheffé test were applied to analyze the differences between the 3 groups. The surface area of the vowel space was also calculated. ResultsThe mean value of F1 in all vowels was not significantly different between the 3 groups. For vowels /i/, /o/ and /u/, the mean value of F2 was significantly different between the 2 groups of deaf children and their normal-hearing peers. ConclusionBoth prelingually hearing-impaired groups tended toward subtle deviations in the articulation of vowels that could be analyzed using an objective acoustic analysis programme.