Phoneme Substitution Research Articles

Exploring auditory recognition: Native Japanese listeners' perception of frequent and infrequent English words in noise with varied phonological neighborhood densities

Native Japanese listeners identified English words embedded in noise (SNR + 6dB) produced by native American English and Japanese speakers. The identical word list used in our previous study (Nozawa and Wayland 2023) was employed. Listeners responded by typing the words they heard. The findings revealed no discernible impacts of phonological neighborhood density, possibly due to the small vocabulary size limiting competition from other words. However, frequent words exhibited greater precision in recognition compared to infrequent words. Despite the introduction of noise, the overall accuracy of responses did not experience a substantial impact. Nevertheless, specific words like “class” and “club,” initially nearly perfect in accuracy without noise, dropped to 0% accuracy. Most errors included phoneme substitution rather than phoneme addition or deletion, and in / CVC/ words, the onset consonant was identified substantially better than the vowel and the coda consonant. Initial consonant clusters, such as /br/, / kl/, and /pl/, were frequently perceived as /l/ or /r/, leading to the initial stops or fricatives being missed. Errors encompassed the substitution of phonemes with others that are not typically perceptually assimilated into the same native language (L1) categories, which would not be revealed through predefined multiple-choice identification or discrimination tasks.

An Investigation of the Differences in Phonological Awareness Performance Based on Cognitive Style

Purpose: Research in cognitive style has shown its relevance in predicting reading ability. However, its effect on phonological awareness, which plays a central role in reading acquisition, remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in phonological awareness based on cognitive style. Method: Twenty-nine monolingual English speaking African American and Caucasian 6-year-old 1st grade students from the Washington DC metropolitan area participated in the study. Participants were distributed as follows: 11 females, 18 males, 21 African Americans, and 8 Caucasians. Participants were of middle-class socioeconomic background with no evidence of cognitive, language, phonological, articulation or hearing deficits. Testing occurred over two sessions scheduled on different days. During the first session, participants were individually administered the Cognitive Style Assessment Protocol (CSAP) to measure cognitive style and assigned to either the wholistic or analytic cognitive style group. In the second session, the Phonological Awareness Assessment Protocol (PAAP) was administered to measure the main components of phonological awareness. Raw data consisted of participant scores on the CSAP and PAAP. Data were analyzed using two-tailed t-tests to determine if there were significant group differences between the analytic and wholistic groups in phonological awareness and its components. Results: Results showed that students with an analytic cognitive style performed better than those with a wholistic cognitive style on overall phonological awareness and on the following phonological awareness components: syllable segmentation, phoneme substitution, and phoneme blending. No significant group differences were found on rhyming, phoneme isolation, phoneme deletion, and phoneme segmentation tasks. Conclusion: Findings showed some differences in phonological awareness between analytic and wholistic students with analytic students performing better than wholistic students. These differences in aspects of phonological awareness seem to implicate cognitive style in reading acquisition given the central role that phonological awareness pays in reading development and suggest that wholistic students may experience reading difficulties that stem from their cognitive orientation.

Effects of orthography and cognate status on second language Spanish lexical encoding

Abstract This study examined the accuracy of English-speaking learners of Spanish in storing L2 sounds within cognates and noncognates, specifically in words containing 〈g〉 and 〈h〉, which have differing cross-linguistic phoneme-grapheme correspondences. In the first task, participants heard Spanish words with target-like pronunciations of 〈g〉 and 〈h〉 or inaccurate pronunciations with an English-like phonemic substitution for these graphemes, and they decided whether or not they were words. The second task had participants decide between the two pronunciations of each Spanish word and select the accurate pronunciation. The findings in both tasks showed that for L2 learners, 〈h〉 cognate words had less accurate phonological representations compared to all other conditions, possibly due to the greater consistency in phoneme-grapheme correspondence for 〈h〉 in English. These results show that cognate status and orthographic (in)congruity interact to influence the accuracy of L2 lexical encoding.

The Improvement of Articulation Ability on Bilabial Letters Using Abata Method in the Hearing Impaired Students

This research aims to find out the effect of Abata method implementation in improving the articulation ability on bilabial letters in the hearing impaired child of Abata Boarding School. In the beginning of assessment, it was found that the child performed the phoneme substitution on all bilabial letters (p-b-m-w), in which all bilabial letters were pronounced like the letter 'w' that was imperfect. This research used SSR (Single Subject Research) method and A-B-A (Applied Behaviour Analysis) design. The subject in this research was a hearing impaired child in class II of Abata Boarding School in Temanggung. The data collection technique was implemented using a test of articulation ability on bilabial letters and observation. The data analysis used in this research was descriptive statistics, through direct observation on graphic and table. Based on the data processing, the mean level percentages were 25% in the baseline-1 phase, 60% in the intervention phase, and 72.5% in the baseline-2 phase. Calculation of the overlapping percentage from baseline-1 phase to intervention phase was 0%. The research shows the result that the Abata method is capable of improving the articulation capability on bilabial letters in the hearing impaired child of Abata Boarding School.

Does contextual information within a sentence affect the relationship between word level intelligibility and the Functional Load principle among ELF users? A preliminary study

ABSTRACT The Functional Load (FL) principle predicts that a high FL phonemic substitution lowers the intelligbility more than a low FL phonemic substitution. However, as yet no study has comprehensively investigated whether contextual information could attenuate any loss of intelligibility due to FL phonemic substitutions. As such, this study investigates the triangular relationship among the FL principle, word level intelligibility, and contextual information within a sentence. A Chinese speaker of English recorded sentences with more and with less contextual information that also had words with no FL substitutions, low FL substitutions, and high FL substitutions. Japanese university students transcribed the missing words from each sentence. The central hypothesis of this study is that missing words with more contextual information within their sentences will be more intelligible than missing words with less contextual information, regardless of any FL substitution. The results supported some of the hypotheses of this study, but not all.

PHONOLOGICAL INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES AND PRIMARY PUPILS SPELLING PERFORMANCE IN AKWA IBOM NORTH EAST SENATORIAL DISTRICT

The research determined the effect of three phonological instructional strategies on spelling performance of primary school pupils in Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial District.In order to carry out the study objectively, three specific objectives, three research, questions and three hypotheses were formulated.The study adopted the pretest, post-test,control group non-randomised quasi experimental research design. The population of the study comprised of 11,180 primary two pupils consisting of 5,361 male and 5,819 female from public primary schools and a sample size of 120 respondents. Instruments titled “Pupils Spelling Performance Test (PSPT) was used for data collection Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to determine the reliability of the instruments, which gave value of 0.83 for PSPT Mean and standard deviation were used for answering research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used in testing the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance.The findings revealed that there is no significant mean difference in pupils’ spelling performance when taught using rhyming, sound deletion, phoneme substitution and Look and Say Instructional strategies.The school administrators should consider in-service training for English teachers in phonological instructional strategies. Curriculum planners should ensure phonological instructional strategies is as teaching methods forteachers in achieving spelling goals as spelling affects reading and writing.

Orthographic and phonological processing effects on the reading abilities of young children learning to read Malayalam alphasyllabary

Background Learning to read is a complex process that involves phonological and orthographic processing abilities, broader language skills and cognitive processes across all writing systems. Although these components remain common, the pace of acquisition of phonological and orthographic processing and reading abilities differ across writing systems. Methods This study aimed to understand the developmental pattern of reading and phonological processing, assess their interrelationship and study the predictors of reading ability among 175 children, learning to read Malayalam and attending Grades 1–3. They completed various reading (akshara reading, word and nonword reading) and phonological processing (rhyme recognition, syllable deletion, syllable segmentation, phoneme deletion, phoneme substitution, rapid naming and nonword repetition) tasks. Results Grade and reading level-based analysis was performed to collate the results. Results revealed a significant overlap of phonological processing and reading abilities among children in Grades 2 and 3. Reading scores demonstrated a weak-to-moderate significant correlation with the phonological processing tasks. Although skilled readers performed significantly better on all phonological processing tasks, their scores did not reach ceiling. Syllable-level tasks were easier compared to phoneme-level tasks, and they significantly predicted the reading abilities of children. Conclusions The findings contribute to the existing body of evidence for akshara writing systems, specifically in Malayalam alpha-syllabary. The development of phonological processing and reading in Malayalam extends beyond the third grade, and syllable processing contributed to increased variance in reading accuracy among inexperienced readers.

Does the Functional Load Principle Predict How Important Phonemic Contrasts Are to Intelligibility Among ELF Users? A Partial Replication of Munro and Derwing (2006) From an ELF Perspective

Abstract The Functional Load (FL) principle predicts that high FL phonemic contrasts, such as /i:/ and /ɪ/, contribute more to the mutual intelligibility of pronunciation than low FL phonemic contrasts, such as /u:/ and /ʊ/. In order to assess whether the FL principle accurately predicts intelligibility under English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) conditions, this study partially replicated the first study to empirically support the FL principle: Munro and Derwing (2006). Chinese speakers of English recorded 24 sentences containing target words with high and low FL phoneme substitutions, and 171 Japanese university students listened to the sentences and transcribed the target words into standard orthography. The hypothesis of this study is that the target words with high FL phoneme substitutions will be less intelligible than the target words with low FL phoneme substitutions. The results showed that the target words with high FL phoneme substitutions were indeed lower in intelligibility than the target words with low FL phoneme substitutions, and furthermore cumulative high FL phoneme substitutions lower intelligibility even more. The results are consistent with Munro and Derwing’s (2006) finding that high FL phoneme substitutions lower comprehensibility more than low FL phoneme substitutions, and thus this study claims to have replicated one aspect of their study even under ELF conditions.

Is the Tocharian Mule an “Iranian Horse” or a “Turkic Donkey”? Further examples for Proto-Turkic */t₂/ [ts

Tocharian B etswe ‘mule’ is a newly attested word. It has been identified as a loan from Iranian *atswa (< Proto-Indo-European *h₁ék̂wos ‘horse’). The present study proposes a Turkic etymology for the Tocharian word in question. It has been suggested that the Proto- Turkic form *ät₂gä [ɛtsʰˈɣɛ] ‘donkey’, the origin of the Common Turkic äšgäk and Khalaj äšgä, is the source of the Tocharian B etswe. Tocharian /w/ is a substitution of the Proto-Turkic phoneme */g/. An etymology has also been proposed for Proto-Turkic *ät₂gä. According to this, the form *ät₂gä originally denotes ‘eared (animal)’ and derives from the root *ät₂i ‘ear’, which is also the root of the verb *ät₂id- ‘to hear’ (> Common Turkic äšid-, Chuvash ilt-). The Proto-Turkic root *ät₂i ‘ear’ is related to the Akkadian ḫasīsu(m) /hatsītsu(m)/ ‘ear; wisdom’ and further Akkadian loanwords in Turkic are discussed.

Phonemic Characterization of the Production of English Consonants by Nonnative Saudi Speakers

The current study characterizes the production of English consonants by Saudi L2 speakers and offers pedagogical implications for teachers and curriculum designers. Fifteen nonnative Saudi speakers, with at least one of year of residence in an English-speaking country, were recorded individually reading an English passage containing all the English consonants. Their recordings were subjected to a segmental, phonemic analysis to identify and describe any phonemic mispronunciation. The following consonants were found challenging to the Saudi L2 speakers: /v/, /?/, /p/ and /?/. Their production of these consonants was characterized by devoicing of /v/, inserting /g/ after /?/, voicing or lack of aspiration of /p/, and trilling or tapping of /?/. L1 influence played the main role in their mispronunciation. Their production of /v/ and /p/ resulted in phonemic substitutions with /f/ and /b/, respectively. These substitutions have the potential of being detrimental to speech intelligibility according to the Functional Load Principle and Lingua Franca Core; therefore, they should be prioritized in teaching English pronunciation to Saudi learners. The paper concludes by outlining pedagogical implications and offering tips for teaching English pronunciation to Saudi learners.

Conflict-based speech error monitoring in bilinguals: Differences between first and second language monitoring

All speakers must monitor their speech for errors. However, few studies have investigated speech monitoring in bilinguals. We examined whether monolinguals and bilinguals differ in first (L1) and second (L2) language speech monitoring. Participants included 18 English monolinguals, 20 English-French and 21 French-English sequential bilinguals who learned their two languages one after the other, and 15 simultaneous bilinguals who learned their two languages from birth. All participants performed an English phoneme substitution task while an electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Three event-related brain potential (ERP) components were analyzed: the stimulus-locked P200 and N200, and the response-locked error-related negativity. All groups performed the task equally well despite showing differences in ERP patterns on correct and incorrect trials. Only simultaneous bilinguals showed a larger P200 preceding incorrect compared to correct responses, suggesting a role for lexical activation processes in the production of speech errors. All language groups showed evidence of pre-articulatory, conflict-based error monitoring through the N200. Only French-English sequential bilinguals, in their L2, showed a reliable ERN effect following speech errors. Thus, speech error monitoring processes were found to be influenced by whether one is speaking in their L1 versus L2 depending on the stage of monitoring, with response conflict being more informative for post-articulatory error monitoring during L2 compared to L1 speech production.

An acoustic analysis of French vowel phoneme substitutions in native English speakers

In the last 60 years of second language acquisition research, much has changed from the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) and the belief from Eric Lenneberg that producing second language vowels and consonants was too tricky without a first language accent (Harley, 1997). These casual remarks and observations would set in motion further extensions of CPH to help focus equal attention on second language learning. It would not be until 1987 and research conducted by Jim Flege that the world would begin to see how American college students can produce and differentiate between the close fronted /y/ and its back closed counterpart /u/ (Flege, 2005). Flege would conclude through his experiment that second language learners (L2) of French had an easier time producing a “new” vowel or vowel that is absent from their first language (L1) inventory because the habit of substitution would not be as frequent (Flege, 2005). The research that will be attempted will try to show how with more experience as a French student, students will be able to form a separate category for the high fronted close /y/, regardless of how close it is to its American English counterpart /u/, or the predictions set forth by the Learning Speech Model.

An Analysis of Perceptual Confusions on Logatome Utterances for Similar Language

In a polyglot speech synthesis, it is possible to use one language resource for another language. However, if the adaptation is not implemented carefully, the foreignness of the sound will be too noticeable for the listeners. This paper presents the analysis of respondents’ acceptance of a series of listening tests. The research goal was to find out in the absence of phonemes of a particular language, would it be possible for the phonemes to be replaced with another language’s phonemes. This will be especially beneficial for under-resourced language either in the case for 1) the language has not yet well researched into or 2) the language has not well documented in the required media. Preliminary studies were conducted to construct phoneme confusion matrices. The confusion study was observed based on the consonants’ position in syllable structure: onset and coda. These studies were then compared to similar studies to find possible overlap among them. Then, based on the outcome, two perceptual tests have been conducted to observe the applicability of phoneme substitutions. The first test was to observe the effect of phonemes substitution during the intelligibility test for individual words. The second test was to evaluate whether context influenced perception based on whether respondents noticed phoneme substitution on a word in a series of words. From these experiments, it can be concluded that it is possible to do phoneme substitution but with a certain condition. From significance testing, it was found that phoneme substitution may not be suitable to be implemented for onset position but can be applied for coda position provided the context is available.

The Borrowing Process of English Loanwords on Covid-19 in Indonesian

AbstractThis research was aimed at finding out the patterns of English loans on Covid-19 into Indonesian and their borrowing processes. Data for this qualitative study were English borrowing words and phrases functioning to denote Covid-19 issues which are massively used by Indonesians. The data were obtained from various sources such as mass media, official documents, notices in public places, daily conversation, and others. The classification of borrowing by Haugen (1950) was used in this study. Data analysis was done by comparing the original forms of the loanwords and the phonologically-and-morphologically ‘imitated’ ones. Findings of this study reveal that English loans on Covid-19 can be classified into loanwords, loanblends, and loanshift, each of which has its own borrowing processes. None-phonemic substitution, partial-phonemic substitution, and total phonemic substitution are the borrowing process of loanwords. Spelling adjustment and letter omission are the borrowing methods of loanblends. Loan translation is the only borrowing process for loanshift. This study recommends that future research use more data on health realm in order to make a more comprehensive description of the borrowing process in Indonesian. Keywords: borrowing process; covid-19, loanblend; loanshift; loanword.

Gairaigo in The Covid-19 Pandemic Era: A Study of Transformational Generative Phonology

Transformational Generative Phonology is a phonological theory that treats the distinguishing feature as the smallest unit and connects the distinguishing features and lexicons with phonological rules. This research has been conducted by several previous researchers, but study regarding the object in the Covid-19 pandemic is still limited. The purpose of this study was to explain the phonological process and phonological rules of foreign loan words into Japanese using transformational generative phonological approach. This study used descriptive qualitative method. Sources of the data were obtained from vocabularies or terms that appeared during the Covid-19 period. The results of this study indicated that there were six phonological rules which include, 1) the addition of the phoneme [u] at the end of words; 2) the addition of the phoneme [o] at the end of the word; 3) Addition of phoneme [u] in the middle of the word, 4) Addition of phoneme [o] in the middle of the word; 5) Addition of phoneme [k] at the end of the word, and; 6) Substitution of phoneme [l] to [r]. So that the implementation of this research was to create a rule to make it easier for foreign learners of Japanese to understand the sound changes that occur in Japanese lingual units.

The Interference Made by Students to Pronounce English Phoneme in Wajo Buginese Context of South Sulawesi

This study was aimed at finding out the factors of Buginese students’ interference in pronouncing English phonemes at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Majauleng. The research applied a descriptive research method. The subjects of this research were Wajo Buginese students at eleventh grade of senior high school at Wajo regency in South Sulawesi. They were chosen by using purposive sampling technique, and there were 20 students involved in this study. The instrument of the research was pronunciation test and reading test form and. The students’ pronunciation in reading test was recorded to be analyzed based on research focused. The results of this research showed that most of the students were difficult to pronounce the front vowels correctly, it indicated that the interference of made by Wajo Buginese students in pronouncing English phoneme occur in substitution of phoneme and the phoneme that has prominent interference was /ae/. Therefore, students’ dialect of Wajo Buginese interfered English pronunciation in reading.

Phonemic substitutions in the English-Tiv loan phonology

All living languages borrows new words to enrich their own languages. Tiv language has borrowed a lot of loan words from the English language as a result of language contact. This paper analyses phonemic substitutions in the English-Tiv loan phonology. The main objectives of this study are to discuss vowel and consonant substitutions in the English-Tiv loan phonology and to state the implications of English-Tiv loan phonology in the study of the Tiv grammar. This study adopts LaCharite & Paradis’ (2005) phonological Repair Model and Calabrese Andrea’s (2009) Acoustic Approximation Model. The author used both primary and secondary sources in this study. Under primary sources, the researcher compiled the list of English-Tiv loan words through the participant-observer method, and the secondary sources were obtained from journal articles, textbooks, and dictionaries. From this study, the following observations were made: that English-Tiv loan phonology leads to coda declusterisation. Tiv phonology does not have /θ/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /ʌ/ and /ə/ phonemes; so the said phonemes are being replaced by /t/, /d/, /ʃ/, /ɔ:/ and /æ/. It has been discovered that some loan words maintain their original spellings but have different pronunciations. This paper is an advancement of scholarship on phonemic substitutions in the English-Tiv loan phonology, making it an important addition to secondary sources of data on the critical reception of English-Tiv loan words and promoting the Tiv language within and beyond the academic cycle.

Synchronic Account of Substitution among Educated Ohaozara Speakers of English

Substitution is a natural experience among second language speakers because it occurs in a situation where the target language presents segments that do not exist in the native language of speakers. Native speakers, therefore, unavoidably try to overcome the linguistic problem of having to articulate sounds that are present in the foreign language but unavailable in their mother tongue. It is against this linguistic pedigree that this study explored the synchronic account of substitution among educated Ohaozara speakers of English using the Natural Phonology Hypotheses (NPH) as its analytical tool. The study aimed to identify and account for the particular cases of phonological substitution as it affects Ohaozara educated speakers of the English language and thereafter, recommend workable and sustainable remedies that would mitigate the problem. Data for the study were collected through the use of audio recorder and a reading comprehension passage. One hundred (100) educated Ohaozara speakers of English, who were drawn at random, using the stratified random sampling technique, participated in the study. The data were analyzed quantitatively in accordance with the tenets of NPH. The results showed that the speakers exhibited acts of phoneme substitution in most of their spoken discourses in English as evidenced by both data. The study offered a good number of recommendations and suggestions to mitigate the problem.

Fonološka svesnost, verbalna radna memorija i brzo automatsko imenovanje kao pokazatelji razvijenosti rečnika kod dece predškolskog uzrasta

Introduction. According to the lexical restructuring model, the development of vocabulary initiates the development of phonological representations. Therefore, it can be predicted that children with developed vocabulary will possess very specific phonological representations of words. Aim. The aim of this research was to determine the significance of phonological awareness, verbal working memory, and rapid automatic naming as indicators of the development of expressive and receptive vocabulary in preschool children. Method. The research included 86 children of typical development. For the assessment of phonological awareness, verbal working memory, rapid automatic naming, expressive and receptive vocabulary, the subtests of Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals -Fourth Edition battery were used. Results. The results showed that the model containing age, phonological awareness, verbal working memory, and rapid automatic naming predicted 51% of the achievement variance on expressive vocabulary tasks (F = 7.73, df1 = 2, df2 = 75, p < .001) and 38% of the achievement variance on receptive vocabulary tasks (F = 4.65, df1 = 2, df2 = 75, p < .001). In the final model, only the tasks of phoneme identification, phoneme substitution, and rapid automatic naming (p < .05) stood out as statistically significant indicators of expressive vocabulary. On the other hand, statistically significant indicators of receptive vocabulary included analysis and synthesis of phonemes, verbal working memory, and rapid automatic naming (p < .05). Conclusion. The results showed that age, phonological awareness, verbal working memory, and rapid automatic naming significantly contributed to vocabulary development in children before reading acquisition.

Ortografske kompetencije i fonološka svesnost dece sa razvojnim poremećajem koordinacije

Introduction. Developmental coordination disorder is a disorder of planning and coordination of complex movements during action, without previously diagnosed intellectual disability, neurological or any other sensory impairment. Although it is a relatively common disorder in school-age population, the correlation between phonological awareness and spelling in these children has not been sufficiently investigated. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between phonological awareness and spelling in children with developmental coordination disorder compared to children without coordination difficulty. Methods. The research included 65 children of the third grade of primary schools in Belgrade. Developmental coordination disorder was observed in 29 children, while 36 children did not have this disorder. The Questionnaire for Developmental Coordination Disorder was used to determine its presence. Phonological awareness was assessed by the Test of Phonological Awareness, and spelling by dictation. Results. The results show significant below-average achievements in the assessment of phonological awareness and spelling in children with developmental coordination disorder. Phonemic substitution was the least developed element of phonological awareness. The largest number of errors was observed at the word level, while substitution was the most common error at the syllabic and letter level. A positive correlation between phonemic segments and achievements in spelling indicates a relationship between the sublexical level and spelling development. Conclusion. Poor phonological awareness and spelling ability lead to learning disabilities during the educational process, which results in an overall poorer educational achievement in these children.