Stressed Syllables Research Articles

Speech Audiometry in Pakistan: Development of Urdu Spondee Words List (USWL)

Background: Hearing impairment (HI) is a common barrier to communication which impacts the HI in achieving higher educational goals, impacts them at work and leisure and can result in social exclusion Objective: To developed Urdu Spondee Words List for establishing Speech Recognition Threshold in Urdu speaking hearing impaired population. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in twin cities of Rawalpindi & Islamabad from July 2018 to January 2019. Study involved development of a tool called Urdu Spondee Word list (USWL) and familiarity judgement utilizing a sample of N=50 Urdu speaking participants of both genders aged 10-16 years utilizing convenience sampling, and finally voice analysis on PRATT software. SPSS version 21 was used for data analysis. Results: The results revealed that the final selected list of 18 spondee words has equally stressed syllables, with the accomplishment of the criteria of familiarity judgment for the participants. The recorded list shows minimum and maximum intensity variation of 3db to 8db in the homogenous audibility of the words making it suitable for speech recognition threshold measures. Conclusion: The developed 18 item Urdu Spondee Word list (USWL) with criteria of familiarity and homogenous audibility of words is suitable for speech recognition threshold measurement for Urdu speaking population.

Acoustic speech metrics that differentiate primary progressive aphasia variants depend on language typology

AbstractBackgroundPrimary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) variants can be distinguished using acoustic speech measures. In particular, the syllabic pairwise‐variability‐index (syll‐PVI), which computes syllable duration differences between unstressed and stressed adjacent syllables, can differentiate between the logopenic (lvPPA) and non‐fluent (nfvPPA) variants in English.MethodWe analysed 5 repetitions of 5 multisyllabic words in a cohort of 37 patients (7 svPPA, 14 lvPPA, 16 nfvPPA) and 15 healthy controls. Data were annotated in Praat (manually revised) and metrics computed in R by means of Generalized Linear Mixed Models. The temporal parameters analysed were speech rate (number of sounds per second), average syllable duration (mean duration of each syllable for each word), and syll‐PVI (the normalized difference in duration between the stressed syllable of a word and the preceding one). Four speech language pathologists with extensive clinical experience with PPA performed blinded independent ratings of apraxia of speech severity in a subset of 31 participants.ResultSyllable duration behaves as expected, the control group had the smallest average syllable duration for the five polysyllabic words, followed by the lvPPA, nfvPPA and svPPA groups. The durations are longer in nfvPPA compared to lvPPA (Cohen’s d = 2.249, p = 0.02). Speech rate shows similar results; the largest difference is found between lvPPA and nfPPA, however it does not reach significance (Cohen’s d = 1.434, p = 0.07). Regarding syll‐PVI, nfvPPA tend to have the value closest to 0 (as expected due to greater presence of apraxia of speech), but the effect size does not reach significance for any word. Mean apraxia of speech severity showed higher correlation with syllable duration (spearman coef = 0.290, p = 0.11) than syll‐PVI (spearman coef = ‐0.073, p = 0.69).ConclusionSyllable duration, and not syll‐PVI, can distinguish lvPPA and nfvPPA in Spanish. This is probably due to a typological difference between English (a prototypical stress‐timed language) and Spanish (a prototypical syllable‐timed language) given that the syllabic‐PVI computes differences between duration of unstressed and stressed syllables and those differences are smaller in syllable‐timed languages. Our results highlight the necessity of considering language particularities in the development of speech and language clinical measures.

Poetry and Syllable-Stress Identification as the Means for Understanding Dyslexia and Reading-Related Difficulties

In young adults and adolescents, dyslexia typically is characterized by slow or laborious reading. These reading difficulties are underpinned at least partly by a phonological deficit that disrupts cognitive connections between spoken and written language. Prosodic stress is a phonological property of spoken language reflecting differences in syllable stress, for example, between the noun REC.ord and the verb re.CORD. Prosodic stress is not reflected in the written form “record,” but evidence suggests that knowledge of prosodic stress is relatively weak in people with dyslexia. The present study examines the abilities of young adults with and without a history of dyslexia to identify stressed syllables in poems. In our main analysis, there was no significant difference for marking stressed syllables between the participants with and without dyslexia. However, accuracy for marking stress correlated with a measure of nonword reading, consistent with previous findings of overlapping segmental and prosodic deficits in dyslexia. Additional correlations of the task to both reading and language measures raise questions about the overlap between dyslexia and other disorders, particularly developmental language disorder. We also discuss how the poetry task could be used as an instructional intervention or treatment activity for people with limited awareness of prosodic stress.

An Acoustic Analysis of Word Stress Production by Indonesian Learners of English

: Although word stress is a crucial aspect of English speaking, it is not given much emphasis in Indonesia's EFL instruction. Students, consequently, lack the theoretical understanding of how to properly stress syllables in English words. This study uses a program named Praat to examine the acoustic parameters of word stress produced by EFL students in terms of its intensity level. These parameters can indicate whether the students pronounce two-syllable words of nouns and verbs accurately. The subjects of this research were the third-year students of English Education Department who were selected purposively based on the students’ results of EF SET (Standardized English Test). The findings revealed that the students produced more inaccurate word stress when pronouncing nouns than they did when pronouncing verbs. Moreover, the inaccurate word stress produced by the students was divided into three categories: equation stress, no-stress placement, and reverse stress. Among the three categories, equation stress is the most common error found in this study. This study provides insight into the features of word stress and the acoustic measurement of word stress produced by Indonesian learners of English. It implies that there is a need to integrate explicit instruction on word stress. This could involve dedicated lessons on stress placement, incorporating practical exercises and feedback mechanisms to help students develop a theoretical understanding and practical skills in pronouncing English words accurately. The study also encourages future research in related areas, suggesting a focus on other pronunciation problems like intonation. This broader approach to research can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges Indonesian learners face in mastering English pronunciation that can provide a foundation for curriculum development and instructional strategies aimed at enhancing English language proficiency in Indonesia.

Production of Acoustic Correlates of Stress by L2 Spanish-Speaking Immigrants to Spain

Little work has examined the L2 acquisition of Spanish stress, and especially the production of its acoustic correlates, and the work that has is largely limited to inexperienced learners. This study examines the production of stress by L1 English/L2 Spanish speakers who are highly experienced with their L2, having lived much of their adult lives as immigrants in Spain. Data were collected from the reading of a short story, an extended reading with a plot was provided so that participants would not be focused on their pronunciation, thus producing speech closer to spontaneous speech while still allowing for control over what they produced. Intensity, duration, pitch and deaccenting were examined and the results from the L2 learners were compared to a control group of native speakers from Spain who performed the same task. While only one L2 learner’s stress production could be classified as completely native-like, as a group, their stress production approximated native speaker norms to a greater degree than has been found for most other aspects of L2 Spanish pronunciation in previous research. Nonetheless, L2 learners seemed to transfer duration patterns from their L1 into their L2 Spanish and also deaccented stressed syllables nearly twice as often as native speakers.

Acoustic correlates of oral and glottal stops in Tahitian

The Eastern Polynesian language Tahitian spoken in French Polynesia, is described as having a simple phonological inventory with a single stop series: /p, t, ʔ/. Little is known about the acoustic properties of these consonants compared to well-resourced languages. Five female speakers of Tahitian produced multiple repetitions of tokens that varied in terms of stress location and prosodic phrase position. Acoustic analyses of stop duration and VOT, as well as voicing measures including voicing fraction and strength of excitation were conducted. As predicted, oral stops were significantly longer than glottal stops by 63 ms in word medial contexts with no effect of stress. VOT values were on average 21–26 ms (with /t/ marginally longer than /p/) confirming these are short lag stops (Cho and Ladefoged, 1999). Stress was marginally significant with shorter VOT values in stressed syllable onsets with no affect of prosodic position, unlike Hawaiian (Davidson and Parker Jones, 2022). Like Hawaiian, however, (Davidson, 2021), the glottal stop in Tahitian has gradient realizations although the majority are realised with full glottal closure with low voicing fraction and strength of excitation values. There are also clear effects of greater coarticulation in unstressed versus stressed syllables suggesting localised hyperarticulation in the latter context.

Neural network-based measure of consonant Lenition in Parkinson's disease

This study investigates the effects of Parkinson's disease (PD) and various linguistic factors on the degree of lenition in Spanish stops. The lenition is estimated from posterior probabilities calculated by recurrent neural networks trained to recognize sonorant and continuant phonological features. First, individuals with PD exhibit a higher degree of lenition in their stops compared to healthy controls, suggesting that PD has a significant impact on the articulatory control of stops, resulting in more pronounced lenition. Second, stress influences the degree of lenition, with stressed syllables showing less weakening compared to unstressed syllables. Thirdly, place of articulation plays a role in lenition, but the effects differ between PD and healthy control groups. PD patients demonstrate greater weakening in bilabial and velar stops compared to dental stops, while healthy controls exhibit more lenition in velar stops, with no significant difference between bilabial and dental stops. These findings suggest abnormalities in lip movement control among PD patients align with previous research on reduced lip velocities in Parkinsonian patients. Importantly, the study highlights the effectiveness of recurrent neural networks in quantifying lenition in PD patients.

Просодические маркеры состояния «гнев» (на примере культурно-коммуникативных моделей общения русской и кабардинской этногрупп региона Кавказские Минеральные Воды)

The aim of the study is to identify the nation-specific and gender-specific prosodic markers of the state of anger involving the material of the cultural and communicative interaction models of the Russian and Kabardian ethnic groups of the Caucasian Mineral Waters region. The scientific novelty lies in applying a multifactorial methodology for analysing the regional type of communication taking into account the emotional-expressive content, gender and social differentiation for further creation of an adaptive quantitative-statistical learning model. It is the first time that Praat 5.3.32 is used as a tool for selecting relevant elements of an adaptive model for analysing emotionally marked communication. As a result of the study, the researchers proved that gender characteristics and the national type of communication influence the following indicators: the intensity of the beginning of an emotionally marked phrase, the main stressed syllable, the end of the phrase, tonal range, register, the ratio between the levels of the beginning of the phrase, the first stressed syllable and the end of the phrase, the volume of the interval of the rising and lowering tone, intensity coefficient, the intensity of the nuclear and stressed syllables, the ratio of syllables in order, variance, standard deviation and average syllabic intensity.

L1 influence on stress placement by English language teachers in Anambra State (Nigeria)

Despite the availability of a number of studies on stress in Nigerian English, scant attention has been paid to patterns of stress placement in connected speech by Anambra State English language teachers, especially insights that are supported with acoustic evidence. Bearing in mind this gap as well as their training in the language and its expected standardising role, this study describes the patterns that characterise stress assignment to words in the context of connected speech by Anambra State English language teachers, while tracking possible L1 influence. A short passage which was read by 50 Anambra State teachers and audio-recorded, in addition to naturally occurring classroom speech, constitute the data. The analysis, which was done perceptually and acoustically, shows that when placed against the constitutionally mandated patterns of Standard British English (SBE), the teachers have variable and unstable stress placement patterns on words in connected speech. They produced stressed syllables with higher F0, intensity and duration than SBE. Out of the 50 participants, only 21% had patterns that are close to SBE, while L1 influence was evident in 79% of the participants. This evidence does not support the continuous exonormative role of SBE for Nigerian English.

Rhyme in dróttkvætt, from Old Germanic Inheritance to Contemporary Poetic Ecology I: Overview and Argument

This paper is the first in a three-part series or tryptic that argues for the Old Germanic origins of rhyme in the Old Norse dróttkvætt meter. This meter requires rhymes on the stressed syllables of two words within a six-position line, irrespective of the syllables that follow. This first instalment introduces both the Old Germanic poetic form and the dróttkvætt meter. It outlines the background of the discussion and presents the basic argument. The second instalment presents a portrait of rhyme in Old Germanic meters outside of Old Norse, providing foundations for viewing rhyme as an inherited part of the Old Germanic poetic system. That portrait highlights the use of rhymes including the stressed vowel within a short line and the tendency to use such rhymes in the b-line, corresponding to the rhymes in even lines of dróttkvætt. The third instalment turns to dróttkvætt within its poetic ecology, beginning with a portrayal of rhyme in Old Norse eddic poetries, followed by dróttkvætt in relation to its contemporary poetic ecology and unravelling its impacts on that ecology, gradually working backward to a perspective on the ecology in which it emerged.

Open syllable lengthening and diphthongisation in Upper Middle High German: evidence from verse

Despite a long history of scholarly interest, the relative chronologies (and even origins) of open syllable lengthening (OSL) and the diphthongisation of the Middle High German (MHG) high vowels remain unclear. This paper, drawing on orthographic evidence from a thirteenth-century Parzival MS, St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 857, provides new insights into these two key changes. The changes either maintained or increased the quantity of stressed vowels, leading to a net increase in the quantity of stressed syllables in MHG. Diphthongisation simply altered the segmental quality of already long monophthongs; only OSL increased the quantity of the vowels it affected. This paper argues that OSL was not a feature of the South Bavarian dialect of Cod. 857’s Hand III, although his dialect had certainly undergone diphthongisation. It is difficult to reconcile this picture with claims by Penzl, Kranzmayer and Wiesinger that OSL was present throughout the Bavarian dialect area by 1200. This paper challenges claims that diphthongisation was triggered by OSL via a phonological push-chain, maintaining that the two changes were independent. It is furthermore suggested that the scribe is uninterested in marking vocalic quantity, which—in the absence of OSL—was still consistent across inflexional paradigms. Instead, he uses the circumflex “length marker” to indicate diphthongal quality. The scribes’ dialect thus represents a key turning point: diphthongisation was well progressed, but OSL had yet to occur.

Interaction of Voice Onset Time with Vocal Hyperfunction and Voice Quality

The main aim of the present work was to investigate whether vocal hyperfunction (VH), perceptual voice quality (VQ), gender, and phonetic environment influence Voice Onset Time (VOT). The investigated group consisted of 30 adults, including 19 women (X = 46.1 ± 13.7 years) and 11 men (X = 47.5 ± 11.0 years), who had either phonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction (PVH) and non-phonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction (NPVH). VQ was judged considering the overall severity of dysphonia (OS) and the subcharacteristics of roughness, breathiness, and strain. Phonetic variables such as vowel stress, syllable stress, and mode of speech task were analyzed. Four samples of syllables with [p] plus vowel or diphthong were retrieved from CAPE-V sentences recordings. Acoustic analysis with Praat comprised VOT, mean fundamental frequency (fo), intensity (SPL dB(A)), and coefficient of variation of fundamental frequency (CV_fo %). VOT was significantly influenced by OS (p ≤ 0.001) but not by vocal VH condition (PVH versus NPVH) (p = 0.90). However, CV_fo was affected by the VH condition (p = 0.02). Gender effects were only found for mean fo (p ≤ 0.001) and SPL (p = 0.01). All VQ sub characteristics (OS, roughness, breathiness, and strain) correlated with VOT (p ≤ 0.001) and SPL (p ≤ 0.001) but not with fo. In summary, VOT was affected by voice quality, while it was not affected by vocal hyperfunction conditions. Therefore, VOT has the potential to objectively describe the onset of voicing in voice diagnostics, and may be one underlying objective characteristic of perceptual vocal quality.

Modern Arabic Scholars on Stress

The article comments on the most significant phonetic works, which describe: • theoretical provisions on the physiology of percussive sound generation, • its acoustic features and parameters of the vowel component - syllabic carrier, • rules for placing stress in Arabic words, • Peculiarities and differences in the generation of stress in different idioms of the Arab world. The aim of the paper is to describe the basic concepts of Arab scholars regarding the stress in the Arabic word. The authors take a different look at the articulatory mechanism and acoustic characteristics of stress, highlighting various parameters of the stressed syllable, such as effort, exhaled air volume, intensity, tone, duration and distinctness. The purpose of the description is to identify the common features of Arabic stress. The article examines the works of Ibrahim Anis, Muhammad al-Nuri, Tamam Hassan and Ahmad Mukhtar Umar – authors of the 20th century, when experimental phonetic studies among Arabic linguists were not yet carried out, therefore, the paper describes a purely theoretical study of the issue. As the main factor of the stressed syllable, Arabic authors choose the effort applied for its implementation, as well as the tone – this is noted in the works of all the listed linguists. Two authors highlight the characteristics of distinctness and duration. According to all authors, intensity makes the least contribution to the stress of a syllable. All factors are associated with great effort at the stage of articulation. The article describes the history of interest in stress in Arabic grammatical monographs, as well as the main provisions and approaches to its definition, which made it possible to further experimental study of the issue.

Nizarorustu: A Textual Analysis of the Battle of Niså

Nizarorustu: A Textual Analysis of the Battle of Niså

Research on word stress in Iranian languages by Soviet and Russian scholars

In recent years, considerable material has been accumulated in the field of experimental studies of Iranian languages, including the works by Soviet and Russian scholars, enabling us to make new generalizations regarding the acoustic characteristics of word stress as part of the problem of speech recognition. The study of Iranian languages has been rather uneven: most of the acoustic studies focused on Persian, and only a few covered other 11 languages described in this article. In addition, most of these studies have been published in Russian and therefore remain unknown to the wide international linguistic community. The purpose of the article is to sum up the achievements of Soviet and Russian scholars regarding the acoustic properties of the stressed syllable in Iranian languages. Different views of Soviet, Russian and foreign authors were compared. A number of positions with weak points in reasoning were screened out, and the most well-reasoned ones adopted as the most probable traits of word stress in Iranian languages. Tonal stress was found in Mazandarani, Persian and Tajik; quantitative - in Dari (Afghanistan), Sarikoli and theoretically in Rushani; multicomponental - in Abyanei, Gavruni, Gilaki, Pashto, and Wakhi. Ossetic is likely to have quantitative stress, but statistical proof hasn’t been found yet. Apparently, the overall situation reveals that tonal and quantitative stress types are typical for many Iranian languages. Dynamic stress is found in several languages, but only as a part of multicomponental one; and spectral stress is the rarest feature. The results achieved could be used in automated transcription and speech recognition services.

Atypical speech production of multisyllabic words and phrases by children with developmental dyslexia.

The prevalent "core phonological deficit" model of dyslexia proposes that the reading and spelling difficulties characterizing affected children stem from prior developmental difficulties in processing speech sound structure, for example, perceiving and identifying syllable stress patterns, syllables, rhymes and phonemes. Yet spoken word production appears normal. This suggests an unexpected disconnect between speech input and speech output processes. Here we investigated the output side of this disconnect from a speech rhythm perspective by measuring the speech amplitude envelope (AE) of multisyllabic spoken phrases. The speech AE contains crucial information regarding stress patterns, speech rate, tonal contrasts and intonational information. We created a novel computerized speech copying task in which participants copied aloud familiar spoken targets like "Aladdin." Seventy-five children with and without dyslexia were tested, some of whom were also receiving an oral intervention designed to enhance multi-syllabic processing. Similarity of the child's productions to the target AE was computed using correlation and mutual information metrics. Similarity of pitch contour, another acoustic cue to speech rhythm, was used for control analyses. Children with dyslexia were significantly worse at producing the multi-syllabic targets as indexed by both similarity metrics for computing the AE. However, children with dyslexia were not different from control children in producing pitch contours. Accordingly, the spoken production of multisyllabic phrases by children with dyslexia is atypical regarding the AE. Children with dyslexia may not appear to listeners to exhibit speech production difficulties because their pitch contours are intact. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Speech production of syllable stress patterns is atypical in children with dyslexia. Children with dyslexia are significantly worse at producing the amplitude envelope of multi-syllabic targets compared to both age-matched and reading-level-matched control children. No group differences were found for pitch contour production between children with dyslexia and age-matched control children. It may be difficult to detect speech output problems in dyslexia as pitch contours are relatively accurate.

A digital game-based training improves spelling in German primary school children – A randomized controlled field trial

Despite its potential to support reading and spelling development in children with or without dyslexia, research on the effectiveness of digital trainings carried out at home is scarce. This study investigated the effectiveness of a novel digital game-based spelling training for unassisted use at home (Prosodiya). The pedagogical approach differs from similar approaches as it systematically teaches orthographic knowledge in combination with syllable stress awareness. A sample of 116 German second- to fourth-grade children with mainly poor spelling skills participated in a randomized two-period, wait-list controlled field trial, in which children practiced at home over 9–10 weeks with Prosodiya. Results showed high participant engagement, as indicated by behavioral measures of student responsiveness, and they validate our novel pedagogical approach. Most importantly, results revealed significant training effects on syllable stress awareness and spelling abilities in trained and untrained domains. This training may thus expand the traditional pool of training methods.

Word-level prosodic and metrical influences on Hawaiian glottal stop realization.

Previous research on the phonetic realization of Hawaiian glottal stops has shown that it can be produced several ways, including with creaky voice, full closure, or modal voice. This study investigates whether the realization is conditioned by word-level prosodic or metrical factors, which would be consistent with research demonstrating that segmental distribution and phonetic realization can be sensitive to word-internal structure. At the same time, it has also been shown that prosodic prominence, such as syllable stress, can affect phonetic realization. Data come from the 1970s-80s radio program Ka Leo Hawai'i. Using Parker Jones' (Parker Jones, Oiwi. 2010. A computational phonology and morphology of Hawaiian. University of Oxford DPhil. thesis) computational prosodic grammar, words were parsed and glottal stops were automatically coded for word position, syllable stress, and prosodic word position. The frequency of the word containing the glottal stop was also calculated. Results show that full glottal closures are more likely at the beginning of a prosodic word, especially in word-medial position. Glottal stops with full closure in lexical word initial position are more likely in lower frequency words. The findings for Hawaiian glottal stop suggest that prosodic prominence does not condition a stronger realization, but rather, the role of the prosodic word is similar to other languages exhibiting phonetic cues to word-level prosodic structure.

Prosody affects visual perception in polysyllabic words: Evidence from a letter search task.

Previous research has shown that phonology influences the visual perception of a word's letters. However, the influence of prosody, including word stress, on grapheme perception in polysyllabic words is poorly investigated. The present study addresses this issue with a letter search task. Participants searched for vowel letters (Experiment 1) and consonant letters (Experiment 2) in stressed and unstressed syllables of bisyllabic words. Results reveal facilitated vowel letter detection in stressed syllables compared with unstressed syllables, indicating that prosodic information affects visual letter perception. Moreover, an analysis of the response time distribution revealed that the effect was present even for the fastest decisions but increased for slower response times. However, no systematic stress effect emerged for consonants. We discuss possible sources and dynamics of the observed pattern and the importance to accommodate feedback processes of prosody on letter perception in models of polysyllabic word reading.

Correlation between personality traits and acoustic patterns in the speech of spanish speaking individuals in the river plate

The background of this study is presented in three sections: a) Motivation Theories and their relationship with brain structures, b) Psychometric studies of Primary Personality Factors (PPF) and c) The role of brain structures in the production of prosodic aspects of language. Its objective is to evaluate the combination of parameters and acoustic characteristics found in the speech of normal individuals (n = 23), previously grouped according to a psychometric study of their personality in order to sort out Primary Personality Factors (PPF) and improve our knowledge on Human Temperaments. Acoustic parameters under study were: fundamental frequency (F0), total maximum energy and total duration, normal constituents of prosodic information. A three-syllable same phrase was analyzed in all the cases. The subject´s emissions were registered on a Sony (WM – 6 × 320) recorder and the phrase studied for each individual (N = 22) was processed with the Anagraf speech acoustic analysis program. The acoustic characteristics more useful to discriminate between PPF groups are: a) F0 rank and b) energy differences between stressed syllables and those not stressed. Acoustic studies can complement psychometric ones in order to differentiate each PPF group.