Voiceless Stop Research Articles

The phonetic realization of the plain uvular /q/ in a variety of South Bolivian Quechua

This paper presents an acoustic description of the production of the plain uvular /q/ in the speech of eight speakers of South Bolivian Quechua. While this sound patterns phonologically as a stop, its primary realization is as a voiced continuant. Variation is documented with respect to segmental and prosodic position. Segmentally, a voiced continuant is the most common realization intervocalically and after a rhotic, while a voiceless continuant is comparatively more frequent after a voiceless sibilant, and voiced stops are most common after a nasal. In post-pausal position, voiced continuant productions are still attested and are particularly common for certain speakers, suggesting that this sound category has been reanalyzed as a continuant. For other speakers, voiceless stop productions are common or preferred in post-pausal position, reflecting a standard prosodically conditioned lenition pattern. Interestingly, voiced stops also show increased frequency in post-pausal position. The production of the plain uvular is analyzed in spontaneous speech collected in an interview format, as well as in scripted speech from a word list task. A second analysis compares the realization of /q/ to the other three stops /p t k/ in the language in spontaneous speech, and finds significantly more continuant productions for /q/.

Voicing and manner of articulation in L2 perception: The role of markedness

Arabic labial obstruents exhibit gaps in voicing: both the voiceless stop /p/ and the voiced fricative /v/ are absent. Thus, Arabic speakers learning English must acquire the missing labial segments along with segments that are already in their phonemic inventory. In this study, I examine markedness in L2 acquisition of English by Arabic speakers, focusing on its role in perception. Specifically, I test two general markedness patterns: (a) stops are unmarked relative to fricatives and (b) voicing contrast in word-initial position is unmarked relative to word-final position. If unmarked sounds are easier to acquire than marked ones, we may expect Arabic speakers to perceive the new segment /p/ better than /v/. Moreover, their perception of the voicing contrast in word-initial position should be better than in word-final position. 31 Saudi Arabic speakers heard 144 nonce words produced by a native speaker of English. The words included: /p/, /b/, /f/ and /v/ in word-initial or word-final position. Results showed Arabic speakers were significantly better at perceiving the fricative /v/ than the stop /p/ (p < .01), contrary to what was expected, suggesting that the acoustic cues of fricatives are perceptually more prominent. The markedness relation was, however, observed with better perception word-initially than word-finally.

Effects of native language and habituation in phonetic accommodation

Effects of vocal accommodation have been reported in a wide range of contexts, but they have typically been small. The absence of effects in some cases has proven perplexing. In the present investigation I present innovative methods for the representation of phonetic distance between phonetic tokens and the analysis of phonetic accommodation. I take a broad crosslinguistic perspective and report effects of linguistic background (L1) on patterns of phonetic convergence toward typical monolingual English voiceless stop voice-onset-times (VOTs).I propose that patterns of accommodation in laryngeal-oral coordination, as instantiated by voiceless stop VOTs, will reflect general principles of motor coordination (preferences for stable/in-phase coordination, cf. Browman & Goldstein, 1988; Haken, Kelso, & Bunz, 1985). Thus, stable, near-zero VOTs (cf. Spanish) will be less likely to show convergence toward intermediate English VOT, whereas less stable, long VOTs (cf. Korean) will be more likely to converge. Monolingual English and bilingual (Korean-English, Spanish-English) participants completed word shadowing and reading tasks. Their vowel-normalized voiceless stop VOTs were submitted to two analyses which confirm the articulatory stability hypothesis and reveal group-specific changes in vocal accommodation over time. The first involves a general baseline-to-test comparison, while in the second, a trial-specific difference from baseline is used as a dependent measure.The results offer new insights into the effects of language background on vocal accommodation, and the analytical approach offers a means to more cleanly isolate subtle effects of accommodation in speech among a multitude of competing factors.

어두 영어 무성 폐쇄음의 VOT 길이 조절에 대한 간격 효과

This study aims to show that the VOTs of English stops are phonetically influenced by non-local segments. Eight native English speakers (4 females and 4 males) produced nonce words of the forms C1V1C2 and C1V1C2VC with variation in the voicing of C1 and C2. Phonetic analysis found, first, that voiceless C1-VOT shortening occurs regressively when followed by another voiceless stop across a vowel, but C2-VOT is not affected by C1. Second, VOT modulation in English voiceless stops is non-local in the sense that the Cs triggering VOT shortening need not be root-adjacent. Third, the interval, which is the distance between the intervening V1 and C2, plays a role in triggering C1-VOT shortening. These results support Walter’s (2007) claim that the VOT modulation in English results from the articulatory difficulty associated with repeating laryngeal cues within a short time. They will be discussed in light of phonetic proximity, particularly limits on the distance at which corresponding Cs may occur. Directionality will also be discussed regarding the target of VOT modulation in light of the avoidance of recurrent aspiration.

Effect of Age and Gender on Voice Onset Time: Data from Sinhalese

Objective: To documenting the voice onset time in voiced and unvoiced stop consonants in Sinhala and to investigating the effects of age and gender on voice onset time values in Sinhalese speakers. Methods: Three groups of participants were employed. Group 1 included 20 children, Group 2 included 20 adults and Group 3 consisted of 20 elderly subjects. All the subjects spoke the dialect of central province of Sri Lanka. Words consisting of three Sinhala short vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ in were recorded. Voice onset time values from two voiced and voiceless stop consonants were extracted. Results: Voiced stop consonants had significantly longer voice onset time values compared to voiceless stop consonants. Significant effect of age as well as gender on voice onset time values were also observed. Conclusion: Supplementary investigations on the normative aspects of voice onset time among the Sinhala population would provide additional insights and validated tools for indexing the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of stop consonants in Sinhalese. Keywords: Voice Onset Time, Sinhalese, Elderly, Sinhala, Acoustic analysis

Comparative Study of Voice Onset Time in English Word-Initial Stop Consonants Produced by Uzbek and American Speakers of English

The purpose of this study is to shed light on a comparative study of Voice Onset Time (VOT) values produced by Uzbek speakers of English and native speakers of American English. The study aimed to determine significant differences in terms of the VOT value in pronunciation of voiced and voiceless stop consonants in word-initial positions. Scholarly sources on the comparative study of Uzbek and English phonetics suggest that most of the Uzbek stop consonants possess similar qualities to those of English stop sounds (Abduazizov 1992; Yusupov 2013). A descriptive comparison of Uzbek and English consonants demonstrates the difference between the two languages in isolated forms rather than in speech. This study is motivated by the fact that little is known about recent studies on the instrumental comparative study of English plosives produced by Uzbek speakers of American English. In addition, so far, no studies have been carried out in VOT analysis of English sounds produced by Uzbek speakers. The research was conducted through voice recording and analyses of data collected from Uzbek speakers and American native speakers. Recordings of 3240 overall tokens were collected and analyzed using Praat phonetic software. The mean VOT values obtained from both subject groups have been compared and statistically tested using the Independent Samples t-test. The research findings show that Uzbek subjects’ and American native subjects’ VOT values differ significantly. However, there are a few words (9 out of 52) where the differences in the VOT values of the two subject groups are not statistically significant. The research presents implications for teaching pronunciation of English plosive sounds in word-initial positions where a stop consonant followed by a vowel sound to Uzbek speakers of English by taking into account the periodic measurement of consonants. In addition, there are implications for future research that might explore other features of VOT produced by Uzbek language speakers. Keywords: Voice Onset Time; stop consonants; voiced; voiceless consonants; Uzbek

모어청자에 의한 일본어 어두 폐쇄음의 지각*

It is known that the voicing contrast for Japanese word-initial stops is primarily realized as differences in the voice onset time (VOT). However, recent studies have reported that voiced stops are more often produced with a positive VOT than with a negative VOT among the younger generation nationwide. It is also known that post-stop F0 is associated with the stop contrast, but the degree of F0 use differs from region to region. This study explores whether the difference in post-stop F0 functions as a perceptual cue to the stop contrast along with VOT. Fifty-five college students who are native listeners from four different regions participated in two or three perception tests. The results show that VOT is a primary cue to the voiced-voiceless distinction of word-initial stops, but that the effect of post-stop F0 on the stop contrast is marginal. The post-stop F0 is involved in perception only when VOT is ambiguous, such that a sound with high F0 is more often perceived as a voiceless stop, but not vice versa. The results of this study indicate that the acoustic parameters associated with the stop contrast are not the same in production and perception, and suggest that other factors such as context, which is not an acoustic characteristic, may also be involved in the stop contrast.

Exploring phonetic cues to persuasive oral presentation: A study with British English speakers and English L2 learners

Persuasiveness in oral communication in English can be expressed with various vocal phonetic cues that may not be readily accessible to English second language (L2) learners whose native language may employ a different set of cues. With a goal to increase L2 learners’ perceived spoken confidence and persuasiveness, and obtain empirical evidence for phonetic adjustments that native English speakers make to influence listeners, the current study explored the use of consonant prolongation in stressed syllable onsets for emphasis by native British English speakers and English L2 learners. The native speakers’ durations of continuant consonants and voiceless stop consonant voice onset times (VOTs) in (1) neutrally-produced speech and (2) persuasively delivered motivational/shocking/emotional messages were compared to Latvian L2 English speakers’ productions. The results revealed that in persuasive speech, the British speakers’ consonantal durations, particularly those of continuants, got significantly longer relative to the vowels that followed them; for English L2 learners, the duration of consonants did not change as a factor of speech type. This is in line with our previous research with American English speakers and carries implications for L2 speech learning and teaching.

The Relationships Among Vocal Variability, Vocal-Articulatory Coordination, and Dysphonia in Children

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between vocal variability and variability of vocal-articulatory coordination in children. Furthermore, this study examined if this relationship was impacted by pediatric dysphonia. Study DesignRetrospective analysis of speech samples in the Arizona Child Acoustic Database. MethodsSpeech samples from children 2–7 years of age were selected for analysis. Vocal variability was defined as the coefficient of variation (CoV) of fundamental frequency, taken from the center of sustained vowels. Variability of vocal-articulatory coordination was defined as the CoV of voice onset time (VOT) of voiceless stop consonants. Both objective and subjective measures of dysphonia were completed for each participant. ResultsChildren had a negative correlation between VOT variability and vocal variability. Further analysis indicated that this relationship was present in children with typical developmental levels of dysphonia but absent for children with moderate to severe dysphonia. Increased dysphonia severity was associated with increased vocal variability. ConclusionIncreased VOT variability was associated with decreased vocal variability in children with dysphonia severities consistent with typical vocal development. However, this relationship was not present in children with moderate to severe dysphonia. This study suggests that future work is needed to examine the relationships between the vocal system and vocal-articulatory coordination in children with and without diagnosed voice disorders.

Does Voicing Affect Patterns of Transfer in Nonnative Cluster Learning?

Purpose Previous studies have demonstrated that speakers can learn novel speech sequences, although the content and specificity of the learned speech motor representations remain incompletely understood. We investigated these representations by examining transfer of learning in the context of nonnative consonant clusters. Specifically, we investigated whether American English speakers who learn to produce either voiced or voiceless stop-stop clusters (e.g., /gd/ or /kt/) exhibit transfer to the other voicing pattern. Method Each participant (n = 34) was trained on disyllabic nonwords beginning with either voiced (/gd/, /db/, /gb/) or voiceless (/kt/, /kp/, /tp/) onset consonant clusters (e.g., /gdimu/, /ktaksnæm/) in a practice-based speech motor learning paradigm. All participants were tested on both voiced and voiceless clusters at baseline (prior to practice) and in two retention sessions (20 min and 2 days after practice). We compared changes in cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration between baseline and each retention session to evaluate learning (performance on the trained clusters) and transfer (performance on the untrained clusters). Results Participants in both training conditions improved with respect to cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration for the clusters they practiced on. A bidirectional transfer pattern was found, such that participants also improved the cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration for the clusters with the other untrained voicing pattern. Post hoc analyses also revealed that improvement in the production of untrained stop-fricative clusters that originally were added as filler items. Conclusion Our findings suggest the learned speech motor representations may encode the information about the coordination of oral articulators for stop-stop clusters independently from information about the coordination of oral and laryngeal articulators.

Phonetic feature size in second language acquisition: Examining VOT in voiceless and voiced stops

Featural approaches to second language phonetic acquisition posit that the development of new phonetic norms relies on sub-phonemic features, expressed through a constellation of articulatory gestures and their corresponding acoustic cues, which may be shared across multiple phonemes. Within featural approaches, largely supported by research in speech perception, debate remains as to the fundamental scope or ‘size’ of featural units. The current study examines potential featural relationships between voiceless and voiced stop consonants, as expressed through the voice onset time cue. Native English-speaking learners of Spanish received targeted training on Spanish voiceless stop consonant production through a visual feedback paradigm. Analysis focused on the change in voice onset time, for both voiceless (i.e. trained) and voiced (i.e. non-trained) phonemes, across the pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. The results demonstrated a significant improvement (i.e. reduction) in voice onset time for voiceless stops, which were subject to the training paradigm. In contrast, there was no significant change in the non-trained voiced stop consonants. These results suggest a limited featural relationship, with independent voice onset time (VOT) cues for voiceless and voices phonemes. Possible underlying mechanisms that limit feature generalization in second language (L2) phonetic production, including gestural considerations and acoustic similarity, are discussed.

The sounds of prehistoric speech.

Evidence is reviewed for widespread phonological and phonetic tendencies in contemporary languages. The evidence is based largely on the frequency of sound types in word lists and in phoneme inventories across the world's languages. The data reviewed point to likely tendencies in the languages of the Upper Palaeolithic. These tendencies include the reliance on specific nasal and voiceless stop consonants, the relative dispreference for posterior voiced consonants and the use of peripheral vowels. More tenuous hypotheses related to prehistoric languages are also reviewed. These include the propositions that such languages lacked labiodental consonants and relied more heavily on vowels, when contrasted to many contemporary languages. Such hypotheses suggest speech has adapted to subtle pressures that may in some cases vary across populations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Reconstructing prehistoric languages'.

Learning Challenging L2 Sounds Via Computer Training: High-Variability Perceptual Training for Children and Adults

ABSTRACT Do learners of a second language (L2) need frequent contact with native speakers of that language in order to master its phonology? What if they hear audio recordings of native speakers and receive immediate corrective feedback about their perception? We used a randomized controlled experiment with 135 Chinese speakers (with English as their L2) to examine whether a high-variability perceptual training (HVPT) paradigm might enhance the perception of challenging contrasts between English voiced and voiceless stop consonants. Learners in all the age groups tested – middle childhood, early adolescence, and young adulthood – showed enhanced perception of English stop consonants after 20 five-minute training sessions conducted across 4 to 6 weeks, based on audio-recorded input coupled with corrective feedback. The training benefits were maintained at the one-month follow-up. Our results suggest that HVPT using audio-recordings of native speakers can be an affordable and useful language enrichment to supplement live interaction with native speakers, for L2 learners of a wide age range.

Three Different Strategies of Voice Coarticulation in Modern Standard Russian

The paper reports some new data based on an experimental study in voice coarticulation of voiced and voiceless obstruents adjacent to sonorants as a function of place and manner of articulation of these consonants in Standard Modern Russian. The results of the experiment based on the 384 tokens collected from 24 participants confirm once again that in word internal clusters of [sonorant + obstruent + sonorant] coronal consonants the voice coarticulation of the obstruent is observed; it may be determined by the surrounding sonorants. The coarticulation in question may be realized in three different ways. In the case of sonorants not identical in place and manner of articulation [dental nasal + dental voiceless stop + alveolar vibrant] the closure part of the dental stop becomes voiced throughout, but this accommodation in phonation type does not lead nevertheless to the voiced/voiceless phonemes’ neutralization since the the contrast in question is still maintained by means of phonetic parameters other than voice (phonation itself), such as closure duration, burst duration (being significantly higher in underlyingly voiceless stops) and relative overall intensity (being noticeably higher in underlyingly voiced obstruents). On the other hand, in the case of dental sonorants identical in place and manner of articulation [nasal + voiceless stop + nasal], where the maximum effect of coarticulation for an homorganic stop was expected, the contrast in burst duration is eliminated since no burst of dental stop is found in the position before an homorganic nasal, but the closure part of the stop does not acquire voicing in order to prevent the voiced/voiceless phonemes’ neutralization. Finally, in the case of [dental nasal + dental voiceless stop + dentalveolar lateral] consonantal clusters the closure part of the dental stop is voiced throughout and the increased burst duration leads to (generally complete) devoicing of the following lateral. The direction of coarticulation in [ntlj] clusters is progressive, it is carried out gradually, left to right.

О взаимодействии фонетических параметров, реализующих фонологический контраст по голосу в русском языке

The paper reports new data obtained in the experimental study of voice coarticulation of voiced and voiceless obstruents adjacent to sonorant depending on the place and manner of articulation of these consonants in Standard Modern Russian. The experimental results revealed the voice coarticulation of the obstruent in word-internal clusters of [sonorant + obstruent + sonorant] coronal consonants, possibly due to the preceding homorganic nasal consonant. In the case of sonorants [nasal + voiceless stop + vibrant] that are not identical in place and manner of articulation, the closure part of the dental stop becomes voiced throughout, with this phonation type accommodation not leading, nevertheless, to the voiced / voiceless phoneme neutralization since the contrast in question is still maintained by phonetic parameters other than voice (phonation itself). These are closure duration, burst duration, and relative overall intensity. On the contrary, in the case of dental sonorants [nasal + voiceless stop + nasal] being identical in place and manner of articulation, the contrast in burst duration is eliminated since no burst of dental stop is found in the position before homorganic nasal, with the closure part of the stop not acquiring voicing to prevent the voiced / voiceless phoneme neutralization. In conclusion, it is argued that in Standard Modern Russian, the phonetic parameter [relative overall intensity] is less significant in the hierarchical structure of distinctive phonological feature than [closure voicing] and [burst duration] ones since it cannot serve as the only parameter distinguishing the voiced and voiceless obstruents in the intersonorant position.

Beyond perceptual narrowing: Monolingual and bilingual infants discriminate Hindi contrasts when learning words in the second year of life.

A significant body of literature has demonstrated that infants demonstrate a decline in sensitivity to nonnative sound contrasts by their first birthday, a transition often thought to be adaptive for later word learning. The present study investigated infants' sensitivity to these contrasts in a habituation-based discrimination and word learning task (total N = 168, 78 males and 90 females). All infants were native to Singapore and were of Chinese origin. Family socioeconomic status (SES) was measured by parental education. The mean number of years of parental education was 4.02 years after high school. Using a habituation-based discrimination paradigm, monolingual, and bilingual infants' sensitivity to the Hindi dental/retroflex voiceless stop was investigated at 14 months (Experiment 1). Neither group discriminated the contrast. Using the Switch paradigm, we assessed sensitivity to the same contrast in a word learning task. Monolingual and bilingual infants were tested at 14- and 19 months (Experiment 2a) and subsequently, an older group of bilingual infants was tested at 24 months (Experiment 2b). Results demonstrated an overall sensitivity to the Hindi contrast in Experiment 2a. Bilingual infants tested in Experiment 2b were not sensitive to the Hindi contrast. Findings are discussed with reference to discontinuities in the growth of a phonological lexicon as well as possible mechanisms elicit nonnative sensitivity in word learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Sound Pattern of Heritage Spanish: An Exploratory Study on the Effects of a Classroom Experience

While heritage Spanish phonetics and phonology and classroom experiences have received increased attention in recent years, these areas have yet to converge. Furthermore, most research in these realms is cross-sectional, ignoring individual or group changes across time. We aim to connect research strands and fill gaps associated with the aforementioned areas by conducting an individual-level empirical analysis of narrative data produced by five female heritage speakers of Spanish at the beginning and end of a semester-long heritage language instruction class. We focus on voiced and voiceless stop consonants, vowel quality, mean pitch, pitch range, and speech rate. Our acoustic and statistical outputs of beginning versus end data reveal that each informant exhibits a change in between three and five of the six dependent variables, showing that exposure to a more formal register through a classroom experience over the course of a semester constitutes enough input to influence the heritage language sound system, even if the sound system is not an object of explicit instruction. We interpret the significant changes through the lenses of the development of formal speech and discursive strategies, phonological retuning, and speech style and pragmatic effects, while also acknowledging limitations to address in future related work.

The Effects of Age and Gender on VOT, F0, and H1-H2 in Korean Voiceless Stops Produced by Daegu Speakers

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of age and gender on VOT, F0, and H1-H2 in Korean voiceless stops produced by Daegu speakers. The results revealed that VOT, F0, and H1-H2 are primary acoustic cues for the distinction between male and female speakers. For the effect of age, F0 plays a role in differentiating three age groups while VOT distinguishes between the child and the two adult groups. However, the H1-H2 is not affected by age. With regard to phonation type, Daegu speakers use VOT for a three-way laryngeal contrast, but both F0 and H1-H2 make a two-way distinction, which indicates that VOT is a primary cue for the phonation type. Furthermore, the young female speakers show a unique characteristic revealing that the VOT difference between the lenis and the aspirated stop categories was smaller than other groups, which implies that they are sensitive to a sound change and prefer to use standard language. Regarding the place of articulation, only VOT distinguishes the place of articulation on the stops.

The production of the English stop voicing contrast by Arab L2 speakers of English

The English voiceless stop /p/ and voiced stop /ɡ/ are absent in the consonant inventory of Arabic. This difference provides a fertile ground for empirical research in L2 speech learning among Arab L2 speakers of English. The current study, therefore, aims to explore the English stop voicing contrast as produced by Arab native speakers. Focusing on Voice Onset Time (VOT) as an acoustic parameter, the study seeks to examine the extent to which (1) Arab L2 speakers of English maintain the English stop voicing contrast for /p-b/ and /k-ɡ/, and (2) the L2 VOT continuum by Arab L2 speakers follows or deviates from the L1 VOT continuum in English. The acoustic phonetic experiment involved elicited materials of /p-b/ and /k-ɡ/ from four male native speakers of Arabic. The tokens were recorded in isolation (utterance-initial position) and in a carrier sentence (utterance-medial position). The data were then acoustically analysed following standard segmentation, annotation and measurement criteria. Results reveal that the Arab L2 speakers can, to a large extent, maintain the English stop voicing contrast across all places of articulation, with voiced stops usually being produced with “normal” negative VOT (prevoicing) and voiceless stops usually being produced with “normal” positive VOT and also accompanied with aspiration in the long-lag region. There are also exceptional cases of “abnormal” negative VOT (prevoicing) for voiceless stops and “abnormal” positive VOT (devoicing) for voiced stops, with an extremely larger number of devoiced tokens for voiced stops in comparison to prevoiced tokens for voiceless stops. The results accord well with the Speech Learning Model’s prediction that phonetically “new” sounds are relatively easier to learn than phonetically “similar” sounds. The conclusion is drawn that languages sharing the same sound contrast may exhibit different phonetic implementations in marking a phonological contrast.

The relation between category compactness and L2 VOT learning

L1 and L2 category compactness have been reported to correlate with L2 vowel pronunciation accuracy in advanced intermediate learners (Kartushina and Frauenfelder, 2014). However, it is not clear whether category compactness is an effect of L2 learning, or whether it is an individual characteristic that might predict aspects of L2 learning. Holliday (2015) suggests that more variable VOT categories early in L2 learning may facilitate acquisition of new L2 VOT patterns. We tested relationships between L1 and L2 category compactness and L2 pronunciation progress for voiceless stops, in ten L1 English-L2 Spanish learners over the course of one semester of early Spanish courses. We found that lower L2 Spanish VOT correlated with higher voiceless VOT standard deviation at the end of the semester for all but the absolute beginners (R2 = 0.6256, F(1,5) = 37.75, p = 0.004). Thus, for early learners, as production improves, L2 categories may expand. In addition, L1 English voiceless stop VOT category compactness at beginning of term correlated with L2 Spanish VOT accuracy at end of term for all learners (R2 = 0.6798, F(1,9) = 17.0, p = 0.003), suggesting that L1 category compactness may reflect individual properties that influence progress in L2 learning.