VCV Sequences Research Articles

An acoustic investigation on the effect of speaking rate on vowel space and coarticulation in Toda VCV sequences

An acoustic investigation on the effect of speaking rate on vowel space and coarticulation in Toda VCV sequences

Abstract knowledge of emphatic reduplication in Turkish

This study investigated whether native speakers of Turkish have abstract knowledge regarding the principles guiding the selection of appropriate reduplicative forms in emphatic reduplication in Turkish. 14 native speakers of Turkish completed the study. The participants were asked to reduplicate 48 non-words in 4 experimental conditions where the number of segments and the phonological features of the word forms were manipulated. The 4 experimental conditions had VCV (e.g. /ukɑ/), CVC (e.g. /lɔt/), CVCV (e.g. /gεʒi/), and VCCV (e.g. /ɔhfɑ/) sequences. Each condition included 12 items. In each of the CVC, CVCV, and VCCV conditions, the base forms for 6 items did not include consonants used productively as interpolated consonants {p, m, s}. The next 6 conditions included {p, m, s} either as the first, or the second consonant in the base form of the non-word. The results indicated that the interpolated consonant in Turkish was taken from the set of {p, m, s}. Moreover, the interpolated consonant was sometimes identical to the second consonant of the base, but never to the first consonant. The most frequently produced interpolated consonant was {p}. In the VCV, and VCCV conditions, {m} was preferred over {s}. In the CVC, and CVCV conditions, {s} was preferred over {m}. The results demonstrate that Turkish native speakers were able to extend the reduplication strategies they employed in real words to non-words.

Effect of linguistic context on the perception of consonants in Parkinsonian Read French speech

ABSTRACT We examined the effect of linguistic factors on the perceptual identification of intervocalic consonants produced by speakers with Parkinson’s Diseases (PD). To neutralize the effect of preceding and following contexts, all the intervocalic consonants were excised with half the preceding and following vowels. We recorded 10 PD and 10 healthy speakers reading a text. An average of 114 VCV sequences per speaker was obtained. In total, our corpus consisted of 2280 stimuli. For the perception test, 20 adults native speakers of French were instructed that they would be presented utterances produced by different speakers and that they were to identify the sequences and write what they heard. No information was given on the sequence type (VCV). The reported consonant was examined in relation to the intended consonant; the score of distorsion was the number of phonetic features differing from the prototypical consonant. The results were examined as a function of the following/or preceding linguistic factors: consonant nature, oral/nasal vocalic context, class of word (function or content) and prosodic position within sentences. Consonant imprecision was confirmed in the speech of PD speakers. Two groups of patients were observed: the former with a low degree of dysarthria severity and scores of consonant identification close to that of healthy speakers; the latter with a high degree of dysarthria severity and a low identification score. Linguistic factors were shown to affect consonant production and perception. In both normal and PD speech, consonants had more features identified when they belonged to content words, word-initial syllables or final-phrase syllables. This suggests that in Parkinson’s disease speech disorders relate to motor control and not to a loss of the linguistic knowledge.

Language Dominance Modulates the Perception of Spanish Approximants in Late Bilinguals

The ability to discriminate phonetically similar first language (L1) and second language (L2) sounds has significant consequences for achieving target-like proficiency in second-language learners. This study examines the L2 perception of Spanish approximants [β, δ, ɣ] in comparison with their voiced stop counterparts [b, d, g] by adult English-Spanish bilinguals. Of interest is how perceptual effects are modulated by factors related to language dominance, including proficiency, language history, attitudes, and L1/L2 use, as measured by the Bilingual Language Profile questionnaire. Perception of target phones was assessed in adult native Spanish speakers (n = 10) and Spanish learners (n = 23) of varying proficiency levels, via (vowel-consonant-vowel) VCV sequences featuring both Spanish approximants and voiced stops during an AX discrimination task. Results indicate a significant positive correlation between perceptual accuracy and a language dominance score. Findings further demonstrate a significant hierarchy of increasing perceptual difficulty: β < δ < ɣ. Through an examination of bilingual language dominance, composed of the combined effects of language history, use, proficiency, and attitudes, the present study contributes a more nuanced and complete examination of individual variables that affect L2 perception, reaching beyond proficiency and experience alone.

Perceptual features of intervocalic consonant realizations used for -t-, -tt- (based on British news analytic discourse)

During the last decade, two competing tendencies — globalization and national identity preservation — produced a considerable impact on the English-speaking World. One of the consequences of that process was a series of drastic changes that occurred in British English. It became the leader of instability and variability of pronunciation standard among the Englishes today. Various patterns of allophonic variation of intervocalic /t/ and its substitute with allophones of other phonemes such as tap / flap and sibilants can be named among those changes. The current perceptual study aimed at determining whether tapping / flapping and spirantization cases can lead to phonological changes and variability of the corresponding word phonemic pattern. 37 stimuli in VCV sequences that represented tapping acoustically similar to /d/, flapping similar to /r/ and /l/, sibilants similar to /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /s/, /z/ were segmented from the acoustic material. 8 realizations of the following phonemes /d/, /r/, /l/, /t/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /s/, /z/ were included into the experiment as a control group. Consequently, 45 stimuli were included into the perceptual study. A web-site was constructed to carry out the on-line perceptual experiment and collect and analyze the obtained data automatically. The randomized tokens for listening were uploaded and a questionnaire was published on the web-site. 16 native speakers took part in the experiment performing a discrimination task. 272 answers were received from the subjects to tap-and-flap-containing tokens. Among the responses, voiced consonant interpretations prevailed over voiceless ones (86 % vs 14 %). 63 % out of 86 % were /d/ responses and 13 % and 10 % were /r/ and /l/ responses correspondingly. 288 responses were obtained for 18 tokens that included sibilants. Among them, only 29 % on average accounted for plosives while 71 % accounted for fricative sibilants. Voiceless/voiced phonological feature and consonant loci feature taken separately were discriminated correctly for 72 % of the tokens.

Contextual and syllabic effects in heterosyllabic consonant sequences. An ultrasound study

The present ultrasound study investigates lingual coarticulatory resistance for consonants in Catalan C#C sequences. In agreement with the initial expectations, the labial /p/, the dentoalveolars /t, n, l/ and the velar /k/ turned out to be more variable than /s/, the alveolar trill /r/ and the alveolopalatal /ɲ/. Moreover, in comparison to ultrasound data for VCV sequences reported in an earlier study, consonants were less contextually variable as a general rule and this difference was most apparent at the back of the vocal tract in particular for /s/ and /r/. While consonants were generally longer syllable initially than syllable finally, differences in tongue position and contextual variability between the two syllable positions were determined by the place and manner of articulation characteristics of the target and contextual consonants rather than by a trend for consonants to exhibit a higher/more anterior and less variable tongue position when occurring in syllable onset than in syllable coda. Regarding contextual variability, /t, n, l/ showed no clearcut differences as a function of syllable position, and /s, r/ and to a large extent /p/ were more variable syllable initially and /k/ syllable finally. On the other hand, differences in tongue configuration between the two syllable sites were associated mainly with carryover tongue raising/fronting effects exerted by contextual dorsal consonants and with anticipatory tongue lowering/backing effects from the low vowel /a/ following the cluster. The dorsovelar consonant /k/ was found to blend before /ɲ/ in the sequence /kɲ/ but not in the reverse cluster /ɲk/. The implications of the present data for phonology and sound change are discussed.

Distributional factors in Telugu sibilant production

Telugu is one of a small set of languages described as exhibiting three or more place contrasts among sibilant fricatives (less than 4% of languages in UPSID; Maddieson and Precoda, 1990). In a pilot study of alveolar, palatal, and retroflex sibilant productions in VCV sequences, Telugu speakers were found to show consistent inter-speaker variation in the production of the palatal sibilant, with half showing evidence (in production and perception) of a complete merger with the alveolar, and the other half showing evidence of a merger with the retroflex, and no clear demographic differences underlying the delineation of the two groups. Following up on this result, we present acoustic data from native speakers of Telugu recorded in Hyderabad producing words with the three sibilants in multiple vowel contexts, positions (CV, VC), and lexical neighborhood structures (with vs. without sibilant competitors in a second order neighborhood), focusing in the acoustics in particular on formant transition cues to palatal and retroflex places. This data are presented both to clarify the present state of the Telugu sibilant system and to explore what effect the lexical distribution of these sounds has on the acoustic feature mapping of the contrast.

Lingual Articulation and Coarticulation for Catalan Consonants and Vowels: An Ultrasound Study

Background: The study investigates the tongue position and coarticulatory characteristics of a subset of Catalan consonants and vowels using ultrasound. Method: Ultrasound data were recorded and analyzed for the Catalan front lingual consonants /t, d, n, l, ɾ, s, r, ʎ, ɲ, ʃ/ and vowels /i, e, a, o, u/ in symmetrical VCV sequences produced by 5 adult Catalan speakers. Results: Among other aspects, data show more tongue body fronting for palatal consonants and, among dentals and alveolars, for laminals than for apicals; the manner of articulation demands account for considerable tongue body retraction and predorsum lowering during the trill /r/ and for some tongue body retraction during /l/ next to front vowels. Vowel and consonant coarticulation occurs mostly in lingual regions which are not primarily involved in closure or constriction formation. Differences in the relative prominence of the anticipatory and carryover consonant-to-vowel effects in tongue body position were found to hold clearly for /r/ in all vowel contexts and for palatal consonants next to /a, o, u/. Conclusions: Place-dependent and manner-dependent articulatory characteristics for consonants and vowels account for the most relevant coarticulatory effects and may contribute to explain several sound change patterns.

A study on coarticulatory resistance and aggressiveness for front lingual consonants and vowels using ultrasound

A new method for quantifying contextual variability at different regions of the tongue using ultrasound spline data reveals that tongue body coarticulatory resistance for Catalan consonants and vowels in VCV sequences decreases in the progression [ʎ, ɲ, ʃ] > [s, r] > [l, ɾ, t, n] > [ð] and [i, e] > [a] > [o] > [u]. These consonant and vowel hierarchies support the degree of articulatory constraint model of coarticulation according to which coarticulatory resistance depends on whether a given lingual region is involved in the formation of a closure or constriction and on the severity of the manner of articulation requirements. Data show that this coarticulatory scenario holds not only at the palatal zone, as revealed by previous coarticulation studies, but at the velar and pharyngeal zones as well. Partial exceptions are [s] and [i], which may allow for some more contextual variability than expected at the back of the vocal tract. Another major finding is that tongue body coarticulatory resistance and aggressiveness are highly positively correlated. The implications of these experimental results for speech production organization and sound change are discussed.

Improvement of sensor for electromagnetic articulograpy to reduce detrimental effects of sensor attachment on articulation

Electromagnetic articulography (EMA) tracks the position and direction of small wired sensors attached inside and outside of the mouth during articulation. In this study, we improved a five degree-of-freedom sensor of the NDI Wave speech research system, which is a type of EMA system, to reduce the effects of sensor cable on articulation. This was done because the thickness and stiffness of the original cable appeared to interfere with natural articulation. The new cable has the diameter of 0.1 mm, which is thinner than the original, and is more flexible. The degree of interference due to sensor attachment to the articulators was evaluated by comparing the extent of distortion of speech produced by four elderly speakers with new and original sensor attached to their articulators. The speakers produced a Japanese vowel sequence and VCV sequences with the two types of sensors attached to their articulators, and three Japanese speech language pathologists evaluated their speech for the degree of speech distortion. The results suggest that the new sensors were much less likely to disturb natural articulation. [This research was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Nos. 24652085, 25240026, and 25280066.]

An Ultrasound Study of Coarticulatory Resistance and Coarticulatory Aggression

<em><span lang="EN-IN">The term 'coarticulatory resistance' refers to the degree to which a given segment, a consonant or a vowel, resists potential interference of neighbouring segments. The phoneme has coarticulatory resistance exert stronger influence on neighbouring phoneme and exhibit less contextual variation, this characteristic termed as 'coarticulatory aggression'. The present study aims to analyse the coarticulatory resistance and coarticulatory aggression based on ultrasound imaging technique. Thirty adult Malayalam speakers participated as subjects. The stimuli consisted of VCV sequences, with C corresponding to voiced/voiceless counterparts of dental stops (/t̪/, /d̪/) or retroflex stops (/ʈ/, /ɖ/) or velar stops (/k/, /g/), in the context of vowels /a, i, u/. Measurements of coarticulation resistance of consonants, preceding vowels and following vowels were carried out based on Root Mean Square (RMS) distance between the tongue contours of vowels and consonants. Results showed that coarticulatory resistance of consonants were decreased in the order from retroflex followed by velars and dentals. High front vowel /i/ resisted coarticulation of preceding consonant better than other vowels considered. It highlights the trend of </span><span lang="EN-IN">Degree of Articulatory Constraint (DAC) </span><span lang="EN-IN">model for both consonant and vowel system.</span></em>

Place of articulation of anterior nasal versus oral stops in Croatian

The purpose of this investigation is to analyse the place of articulation of anterior nasal versus oral stops in Croatian. Although there is agreement that placement for /n/ and /td/ is in the anterior region, there is disagreement among different authors about the precise place of articulation for these sounds. Some authors view these targets as sharing identical placement while others view placement of /n/ as more posterior to /td/. In this paper we use electropalatography (EPG) to investigate whether placement for these sounds is the same or different. The speech of six participants was recorded for the purposes of this study. The speech material consisted of 972 VCV sequences (V = /iau/, C = /ntd/). Four EPG indices were analysed: the ACoG measure, the amount of contact at dental and alveolar articulatory zones (dentoalveolar articulation being inferred indirectly), incomplete EPG closures and the lateral contact measure. Coarticulatory effects of vowels on placement were also measured. The results showed that /ntd/ generally shared the place of articulation in the dentoalveolar region, but also that relating quantitative physiological data to specific places of articulation should be done cautiously, taking into account variability in individual productions. The analyses also showed that /n/ had more incomplete EPG closures and a significantly lower amount of lateral contact when compared with /t/ and /d/. The nasal was more variable and showed less coarticulatory resistance in different vowel contexts than /t/ and /d/. The results of this study are discussed in terms of existing descriptions of Croatian consonant system and in light of cross-linguistic findings.

Videofluoroscopic Investigation of Body Position on Articulatory Positioning

To quantitatively examine the effects of body position on the positioning of the epiglottis, tongue, and velum at rest and during speech. Videofluoroscopic data were obtained from 12 healthy adults in the supine and upright positions at rest and during speech while the participants produced 12 VCV sequences. The effects of body position, target sounds, and adjacent sounds on structural positioning and vowel formant structure were investigated. Velar retropositioning in the supine position was the most consistent pattern observed at rest. During speech, all structures, with varying degrees of adjustment, appeared to work against the gravitational pull, resulting in no significant narrowing in the oro- and nasopharyngeal regions while in the supine position. Minimal differences in the formant data between the body positions were also observed. Overall, structural positioning was significantly dependent on the target and adjacent sounds regardless of body position. The present study demonstrated that structural positioning in response to gravity varied across individuals based on the type of activities being performed. With varying degrees of positional adjustment across different structures, fairly consistent articulatory positioning in the anterior-posterior dimension was maintained in different body positions during speech.

Differences in EPG contact dynamics between voiced and voiceless lingual fricatives

Achieving voicing during fricatives is complex because voicing and frication require opposite production strategies that must be managed effectively at the supralaryngeal level. Previous research has suggested that there are differences in tongue-to-palate contact patterns that are conditioned by voicing. However, findings have been restricted to a single time point and have been generally inconclusive. This study used electropalatography (EPG) to investigate differences in the dynamics of contact in voiced and voiceless lingual fricatives. Participants were six typically speaking Croatian adults. The speech material consisted of symmetrical VCV sequences, where C was /s zʃ ʒ/. EPG measures were taken throughout the fricatives and indices were used to quantify place of articulation (CoG), groove width and target configuration onset. The EPG measures showed similar results for voiced and voiceless fricatives during their central portions. However, there were notable differences at the periphery of the fricative period, the most significant being that the voiceless fricatives reached a stable period in terms of tongue placement and groove configuration later than the voiced fricatives. The results support aerodynamic evidence that voiced and voiceless fricatives differ in the onset and the offset of turbulence.

Coarticulation in Catalan Dark [/] and the Alveolar Trill: General Implications for Sound Change

Coarticulation data for Catalan reveal that, while being less sensitive to vowel effects at the consonant period, the alveolar trill [r] exerts more prominent effects than [ł] on both adjacent [a] and [i]. This coarticulatory pattern may be related to strict manner demands on the production of the trill. Both consonants also differ regarding the relative prominence of the consonant-to-vowel anticipatory and carryover effects in VCV sequences: while [r] and [ł] exert much anticipatory coarticulation on the preceding vowel, carryover effects on the following vowel turn out to be more salient for [r] than for [ł]. These consonant-dependent differences in coarticulatory direction parallel the directionality patterns observed in related vowel assimilatory and glide insertion processes occurring in the Romance languages, in Early Germanic, in Old, Middle and Modern English, and in Arabic when the target consonant is not [ł] or [r] but a pharyngealized dentoalveolar.

Phonetically governed voicing onset and offset in preschool children who stutter

Phonetically governed changes in the fundamental frequency (F0) of vowels that immediately precede and follow voiceless stop plosives have been found to follow consistent patterns in adults and children as young as four years of age. In the present study, F0 onset and offset patterns in 14 children who stutter (CWS) and 14 children who do not stutter (CWNS) were investigated to evaluate differences in speech production. Participants produced utterances containing two VCV sequences. F0 patterns in the last ten vocal cycles in the preceding vowel (voicing offset) and the first ten vocal cycles in the subsequent vowel (voicing onset) were analyzed. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed no group differences between the CWS and CWNS in either voicing onset or offset gestures. Both groups showed patterns of F0 onset and offset that were consistent with the mature patterns seen in children and adults in previous studies. These findings suggest that in both CWS and CWNS, a mature pattern of voicing onset and offset is present by age 3;6. This study suggests that there is no difference between CWS and CWNS in the coordination of respiratory and laryngeal systems during voicing onset or offset.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) discuss the importance of investigating children who stutter close to the onset of stuttering; (b) describe the typical change in F0 during voicing onset; (c) discuss the potential implications of these results with regard to future research.

Supralaryngeal articulatory signatures of three-way contrastive labial stops in Korean

This study investigates how the three-way contrastive bilabial stops (/p⁎,p h,p/, called fortis, aspirated and lenis, respectively) in word-medial position in Korean are distinct kinematically at the supralaryngeal articulatory level. Results of a magnetometer experiment with seven speakers of Seoul Korean showed that the three-way contrastive stops in VCV sequences (V=/i/ or /a/) are indeed manifested at the supralaryngeal level—not only in consonantal articulation, but also in vocalic articulation of their adjacent vowels. Several specific points have emerged. First, stops were three-way distinct in constriction degree and constriction duration (/p*/>/p h/>/p/). Second, their contrast was also evident in temporal dimensions of the vocalic tongue movement with a three-way distinct pattern (/p*/>/p h/>/p/), and of the lip opening movement with a two-way distinction (/p*,p h/>/p/). Third, consonantal strength was further reflected in V-to-V coarticulation, such that longer constriction triggered more reduction of V-to-V coarticulation. However, there was a case (for /i/ in carryover direction) in which coarticulatory reduction was still observed even when the duration was factored in, showing duration-independent V-to-V coarticulatory resistance associated with the fortis and aspirated stops. Fourth, stable coordination was observed between the lip constriction and the vocalic tongue movement which is in line with previous findings in Japanese and English, suggesting cross-linguistic similarities in consonant–vowel gestural coordination regardless of the rhythmic structure of a given language.

Perception of complex word‐initial onsets in English by native speakers of Japanese.

Past studies have shown that English L2 learners whose native languages have relatively simple syllable structure have different degrees of difficulty in producing complex syllable and word onsets in English. For instance, more marked clusters (e.g., /bj/) were harder to produce than the less marked ones (e.g., /pj/) for Japanese learners of English [E. Broselow and D. Finer, Second Language Research 7, 35–59 (1991)]. However, what is unknown is whether such difficulties reflect problems in perceiving complex syllable structures. The current study tested Japanese L2 learners and American English controls in a categorial ABX discrimination test of eight contrasts between nonsense words with consonant cluster onsets CC(C)VCV versus CəC(C)VCV sequences (e.g., /spani/versus/səpani/) and included /sp, sk, pl, bl, kl, gl, spl, skl/ clusters. Words were imbedded in short sentences to increase task difficulty. Results showed that overall accuracy by the Japanese group was significantly poorer than for the Americans (72% and 98% correct respectively). Certain clusters were harder for Japanese listeners (e.g., 76% correct for /pl/ but 64% for /bl/). Productions of the words were also obtained and are related to perceptual performance.

Effect of tone on consonant + vowel interaction.

Examining consonant + vowel coarticulation for American English [Agwuele et al., 16th ICPhS, 1, 617–620 (2007) and Lindblom et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 121, 3802–3813 (2007)], the effect of speech tempo and emphatic stress on F2onset and F2mid of the following vowel were quantified and dissociated from the underlying traditional coupling of consonant and vowel. Thus, these two prosodic factors were shown to pose additional confound to CV coarticulation. Adopting the approach of these works, this present study examines VCV sequences in Yoruba, a tonal language, in order to determine whether lexical tone produces as additional confounding effect to the interaction between consonant and tone bearing vowel that could be shown to be separate from the traditionally expected CV bonding. The study shows that the changing pattern of tone configuration in VCV sequences, e.g., from VMCVM [M=midtone] to VLCVL [L=low tone] produces differing consonant + vowel interaction. The study provides acoustic evidence for a possible independence of the “source” from the “filter,” i.e., the resonances of the vocal tract [Fant, G. Acoustic Theory of Speech Production (1960)].

An experimental and modeling study of anticipatory coarticulation in VCV sequences

Anticipatory coarticulation within V1CV2 sequences is studied for EMMA data in French and in Mandarin Chinese. The corpus was designed consistently for both languages. V1 and V2 were /i, a, u/ and C was either /t/ or /k/. The influences of V2 on tongue position of V1 and of C were analyzed for three French and two Chinese speakers. For French speakers vowel V2 influences the whole sequence V1CV2, while its influence is strictly limited to the syllable CV2 for Mandarin speakers. These suggested that speech planning strategies in French and in Chinese are different and that differences could arise from differences in the status of the syllable in the analyzed languages. A speech production model has been then used for testing quantitatively these conclusions. It involves a forward model and optimization techniques to infer optimal motor commands from the phonemic targets in the perceptual space. Different hypotheses about planning and execution of movement were tested on this model. The comparison of simulations and data supports the hypothesis that the syllable could be a basic unit for planning for Mandarin speakers, while it suggests that larger sequences such as VCV should be considered in the planning of French sequences.