Vowel Research Articles

Mandibular setback and its effects on speech

PurposeTo study effects of mandibular set back by BSSRO on phonetic quality of vowel sounds and compare it with preoperative recording. Patients and methodsTen non syndromic male patients of mandibular skeletal excess between 16 and 24 years of age undergoing pre-surgical Orthodontic treatment were included in the study. Before surgery vowel sounds in Hindi language were recorded by suitable software. The patients were treated by bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy for mandibular setback. Postoperatively same sets of sounds were recorded at an interval of 4, 8, 12, 24 and 52 weeks. The acoustic features were divided into two groups: F1 being vowel sounds of posterior region (Oropharyngeal) and F2 being vowel sounds produced in the anterior region. The data analysis was done using Praat software (ver 5404). ResultsA total of 10 male patients were selected with an average age of 17.4 years. Amount of mandibular setback on an average was 6 mm. It was observed that frequency values of F1 reduced after the surgery till 12 weeks following which it improved to its preoperative status. F2 values increased postoperatively and continued to be higher than the preoperative values throughout the follow up period. ConclusionMandibular set back by bilateral sagittal split osteotomy have profound influence on the acoustic qualities of the subjects. In our study it was realised that, such changes are attributable to changes in transverse and vertical changes of the oro-phyarngeal and oral apertures respectively.

The influence of prior pronunciations on sensorimotor cortex activity patterns during vowel production

Objective. In recent years, brain–computer interface (BCI) systems have been investigated for their potential as a communication device to assist people with severe paralysis. Decoding speech sensorimotor cortex activity is a promising avenue for the generation of BCI control signals, but is complicated by variability in neural patterns, leading to suboptimal decoding. We investigated whether neural pattern variability associated with sound pronunciation can be explained by prior pronunciations and determined to what extent prior speech affects BCI decoding accuracy. Approach. Neural patterns in speech motor areas were evaluated with electrocorticography in five epilepsy patients, who performed a simple speech task that involved pronunciation of the /i/ sound, preceded by either silence, the /a/ sound or the /u/ sound. Main results. The neural pattern related to the /i/ sound depends on previous sounds and is therefore associated with multiple distinct sensorimotor patterns, which is likely to reflect differences in the movements towards this sound. We also show that these patterns still contain a commonality that is distinct from the other vowel sounds (/a/ and /u/). Classification accuracies for the decoding of different sounds do increase, however, when the multiple patterns for the /i/ sound are taken into account. Simply including multiple forms of the /i/ vowel in the training set for the creation of a single /i/ model performs as well as training individual models for each /i/ variation. Significance. Our results are of interest for the development of BCIs that aim to decode speech sounds from the sensorimotor cortex, since they argue that a multitude of cortical activity patterns associated with speech movements can be reduced to a basis set of models which reflect meaningful language units (vowels), yet it is important to account for the variety of neural patterns associated with a single sound in the training process.

Efficient harmonic peak detection of vowel sounds for enhanced voice activity detection

Voice activity detection (VAD) involves discriminating speech segments from background noise and is a critical step in numerous speech-related applications. However, distinguishing speech from noise based on the properties of noise is fallible, because it is difficult to predict and characterise the noise occurring in real life. In this study, the authors instead focus on the intrinsic characteristics of speech. The harmonic peaks of vowel sounds have higher energies than the other spectral components of speech and are the speech features most likely to survive in most cases of severe noise. Therefore, the energy differences between harmonic peaks and other spectral features show promise for enabling robust VAD. To exploit this feature, the harmonic peaks must be accurately located. For this purpose, this study proposes an efficient harmonic peak location detection (HPD) method. Based on extensive experiments conducted in the presence of various noise types and signal-to-noise ratios, we found that VAD with the proposed HPD approach outperforms existing VAD methods and does so with reasonable computational cost and higher robustness.

한국어 폐음절의 모음 지속시간 : 일본어 폐음절에 대한 선행연구와의 비교

한국어 폐음절의 모음 지속시간 : 일본어 폐음절에 대한 선행연구와의 비교

Does Open Rhinoplasty Alter Voice Quality?

The voice can change after upper airway manipulation. The present study evaluated voice change after open rhinoplasty. The present cross-sectional study was conducted on patients undergoing open rhinoplasty. Three acoustic parameters (frequency, bandwidth, and amplitude) were evaluated before open rhinoplasty and then 3, 7, and 10months after the operation. Patients' sounds when pronouncing M, N, and A were examined. Acoustic factors were measured at the first and second nasal murmurs. Time was a predictive factor and multiple acoustic parameters were the outcome of the study. Twenty-five patients were studied. Amplitude and bandwidth decreased, whereas frequency increased, when pronouncing the vowel A after rhinoplasty. In contrast, for consonants M and N, amplitude decreased, whereas bandwidth and frequency increased, after rhinoplasty. Open rhinoplasty seems to affect voice quality. Open rhinoplasty altered the frequency, amplitude, and bandwidth of vowel and consonant sounds during 10-month follow-up.

Robust Sensorimotor Learning during Variable Sentence-Level Speech

Sensorimotor learning has been studied by altering the sound of the voice in real time as speech is produced. In response to voice alterations, learned changes in production reduce the perceived auditory error and persist for some time after the alteration is removed [1-5]. The results of such experiments have led to the development of prominent models of speech production. This work proposes that the control of speech relies on forward models to predict sensory outcomes of movements, and errors in these predictions drive sensorimotor learning [5-7]. However, sensorimotor learning in speech has only been observed following intensive training on ahandful of discrete words or perceptually similar sentences. Stereotyped production does not capture the complex sensorimotor demands of fluid, real-world speech [8-11]. It remains unknown whether talkers predict the sensory consequences of variable sentence production to allow rapid and precise updating of speech motor plans when sensory prediction errors are encountered. Here, we used real-time alterations of speech feedback to test for sensorimotor learning during the production of 50 sentences that varied markedly in length, vocabulary, and grammar. Following baseline production, all vowels were simultaneously altered and played back through headphones in near real time. Robust feedforward changes in sentence production were observed that, on average, precisely countered the direction of the alteration. These changes occurred in every participant and transferred to the production of single words with varying vowel sounds. The results show that to maintain accurate sentence production, the brain actively predicts the auditory consequences of variable sentence-level speech.

Denasalisation in the spoken French of Ijebu undergraduate French learners in selected universities in south West of Nigeria

Denasalisation is a lexical phenomenon brought into play during the process of lexicalisation while nasalisation is a natural process which occurs when an oral sound is modified in the environment of an adjacent nasal sound. Little attention is paid to the former because phonologists admit that nasalisation is more natural during speech production. This paper, therefore, examined denasalisation in the spoken French of 50 Ijebu Undergraduate French Learners (IUFLs) in Selected Universities in South West of Nigeria with a view to establishing instances of denasalisation in their spoken French. Data collection for this study was through tape-recording of participants’ production of 30 sentences containing French vowel and consonant sounds. Goldsmith’s Autosegmental phonology blended with distinctive feature theory was used to analyse instances of denasalisation in the data collected. The study revealed instances of denasalisation of nasal sounds at initial and final positions in the spoken French of the IUFLs.Keywords: IUFLs, Denasalisation, Autosegmental Phonology, French as Foreign language

Improving L2 pronunciation inside and outside the classroom

Spanish/Catalan learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) attended a formal instruction (FI) period combined with explicit pronunciation instruction, which consisted of theoretical and practical approaches to English segmental phonetics as well as a contrastive analysis between the participants’ first languages and the target language, English. The EFL learners’ ability to perceive and produce L2 vowels was assessed before and after the 8-week instructional treatment. Results show that the EFL learners significantly improved their perception of vowel sounds embedded in real and non-words. However, no improvement in production was found as a result of the instruction received. While these results suggest that learners’ perceptual skills can be improved with teacher-led instruction, the quantity and availability of explicit pronunciation instruction is not sufficient to modify learners’ speech production. Thus, optimal results require learners to continue learning outside the classroom context. With this aim, this paper presents two autonomous activities developed to increase learners’ awareness about phonology: L1-L2 Pronunciation Comparison Task and a Phonological Self-awareness Questionnaire.

Native Vowel Merger Effects on English Vowel Neutralization

Native Vowel Merger Effects on English Vowel Neutralization

Crossmodal correspondence between haptic shape and sound

Accumulating evidence has demonstrated the existence of non-arbitrary correspondence between sensory modalities. For example, studies report non-arbitrary relationship between visual shape and sound: people tend to label a round shape 'bouba' and a spiky shape 'kiki' (Köhler, 1947; Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). Since such relationship is well established mostly in the visual and auditory domain, the present study aimed to examine the correspondence between the haptic and auditory modality, which has not been illuminated much in previous studies. A three-dimensional, round and a spiky haptic stimulus were generated with a parametric shape model (Lee Masson et al., 2016), and linear interpolation was carried out on the coordinates of the two stimuli to generate five more stimuli in between. As a result, there were total seven haptic stimuli, of which the roundness/spikiness dimension was equi-distantly manipulated. Multidimensional scaling analysis confirmed that physical spaces conformed to perceptual space, showing the effectiveness of the manipulation of the physical parameters. For the auditory stimuli, we used Haskins Articulatory Synthesizer to generate two vowel sounds by manipulating the height and frontness of the tongue body position (e.g. /a/, /i/). These sounds were shown to be associated with either round or spiky visual shape (Kwak et al., iMRF 2017). On each trial of the experiment, participants (N=19) had to palpate a haptic stimulus for 5 seconds, after which it was taken away by the experimenter. Then the two sounds were presented sequentially, and the participants had to choose the sound that better matched the object. Results showed the main effect of shape: the roundest object was associated with /a/, whereas the spikiest object was associated with /i/, and responses for the objects in between were modulated according to the roundness/spikiness dimension. These results suggest that the correspondence between shape and sound extends to haptics and audition. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2018

Using ultrasound to examine contrastive hyperarticulation

The current paper examines the extent to which there is cross-linguistic evidence for the hyperarticulation of more phonologically contrastive vowel sounds. Hall et al. [2017, JCAA 45: 15] found that tense vowels in English are produced with more total tongue movement when in positions where they are more phonologically contrastive. This finding was established through the use of Optical Flow Analysis [Horn & Schunck 1981] on ultrasound videos of the tongue. The “more contrastive” positions were those in which the vowels could contrast with their lax vowel counterparts, while the “less contrastive” positions were those in which no such contrast was possible. While there was evidence that the degree of contrast affected the tongue movements, the data were somewhat confounded by the fact that the more contrastive positions were largely closed syllables, while the less contrastive positions were largely open syllables. In the current paper, we first replicate the original results with more tightly controlled phonetic contexts in English and then examine analogous results for Canadian French. Crucially, in Canadian French, [e] vs. [ɛ] contrast in open syllables and not in closed, such that the effects of syllable position and phonological contrast can be teased apart. [Funded by SSHRC.]The current paper examines the extent to which there is cross-linguistic evidence for the hyperarticulation of more phonologically contrastive vowel sounds. Hall et al. [2017, JCAA 45: 15] found that tense vowels in English are produced with more total tongue movement when in positions where they are more phonologically contrastive. This finding was established through the use of Optical Flow Analysis [Horn & Schunck 1981] on ultrasound videos of the tongue. The “more contrastive” positions were those in which the vowels could contrast with their lax vowel counterparts, while the “less contrastive” positions were those in which no such contrast was possible. While there was evidence that the degree of contrast affected the tongue movements, the data were somewhat confounded by the fact that the more contrastive positions were largely closed syllables, while the less contrastive positions were largely open syllables. In the current paper, we first replicate the original results with more tightly controlled...

Sulle vocali nasali e nasalizzate dell’albanese

Nasalization of stressed vowels in Albanian (especially in the northern Albania Geg dialect) is considered by Albanologists as a very problematic phenomenon and a case study difficult to be solved. The current paper proposes an analysis that frames the phenomenon both at a synchronic and diachronic level. The development of vowel nasalization is investigated by taking into account the most accredited theories in the acoustic-coarticulatory field as well as linguistic universals concerning the spreading of nasalization in the vowel systems of various languages of the world. From a diachronic point of view, particular attention is paid to the original conditions of Albanian vocalism and, above all, to the aspects concerning the results of IE * o and and * e (as well as * a and * e from Latin borrowings). The evolution of these sounds helps to determine both the phonetic conditioning which originated nasalization and its periodization: nasalization developed only before a tautosyllabic nasal consonant (except for those cases where it is a result of analogical leveling) and must have been stabilized after the diphthongization of mid vowels *e and * o . Finally, based on the data available today concerning the geographical distribution of nasal vowels in the Albanian speaking area (including Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro), an alternative hypothesis about the diffusion of the phenomenon is offered. Nasalization in Albanian may have had a gradual spreading, relatively to the number of vowels involved, through a process blocked at its initial stage in the southern Tosk area and in some peripheral Geg areas, and not uniformly extended to the whole Albanian speaking region.

Smartphone-based delivery of oropharyngeal exercises for treatment of snoring: a randomized controlled trial.

Upper airway exercises for snoring treatment can be effective but difficult to administer and monitor. We hypothesized that a brief, relatively simple daily upper airway exercise regimen, administered by a smartphone application, would reduce snoring and encourage compliance. Targeted vowel sounds causing tongue base movements were incorporated into a voice-controlled smartphone game application. Participants with habitual snoring, apnea hypopnea index (AHI) ≤ 14events/h, and BMI ≤ 32kg/m2 were randomly assigned to perform 15min of daily gameplay (intervention group) or 5s of daily voice recording (control group) and to audio record their snoring for 2nights/week for up to 12weeks. Sounds above 60dB were extracted from recordings for snore classification with machine learning support vector machine classifiers. Sixteen patients (eight in each group) completed the protocol. Groups were similar at baseline in gender distribution (five males, three females), mean BMI (27.5 ± 3.8 vs 27.4 ± 3.8kg/m2), neck circumference (15.1 ± 1.6 vs 14.7 ± 1.7in.), Epworth Sleepiness Score (8 ± 3.5 vs 7 ± 4.0), and AHI (9.2 ± 4.0 vs 8.2 ± 3.2 events/h). At 8weeks, the absolute change in snoring rate (> 60dB/h) was greater for the intervention group than the control group (- 49.3 ± 55.3 vs - 6.23 ± 23.2; p = 0.037), a 22 and 5.6% reduction, respectively. All bed partners of participants in the intervention group reported reduced snoring volume and frequency, whereas no change was reported for the control group. Smartphone application-administered upper airway training reduces objective and subjective snoring measures and improves sleep quality. ClinicalTrials.gov ; no.: NCT03264963; URL: www.clinicaltrials.gov.

THE NATURE OF DIPHTHONGS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORICAL PROCESS

In the modern phonetic and phonology of Standard German the term «diphthong» is understood as a gliding sound that consists of two vowels pronounced in one syllable. In German there are 3 falling (descending) diphthongs that have a lot of variants of their graphic image. A genesis of diphthongs begins in the Indo-European period and their further development and change are due to many phonetic processes (diphthongization, monophthongization, phoneme junction, phoneme separation). The article presents an analysis of diphthongs which was based on the material of text of the Old and Middle High German periods. Causes and trends of vowel combinations have been established. From the point of view of the genesis of vowel sounds, the monophthongs are primary, and diphthongs are secondary and the latter act as a building material at the appearance of words and perform a certain grammatical and phonetic (constitutive) functions. All diphthongs were divided into groups and their qualitative characteristics were described and analyzed. The results have shown a direct correlation between the time of the genesis of diphthongs and their frequency of the use in the German texts.

국어 모음체계의 조음음성학적 검토

국어 모음체계의 조음음성학적 검토

Research on multi-modal silent speech recognition technology

We are all familiar with audio speech recognition technology for interfacing with smartphones and in-car computers. However, technology that can interpret our speech signals without audio is a far greater challenge for scientists. Audio speech recognition (ASR) can only work in situations where there is little or no background noise and where speech is clearly enunciated. Other technologies that use visual signals to lip-read, or that use lip-reading in conjunction with degraded audio input are under development. However, in the situations where a person cannot speak or where the person's face may not be fully visible, silent speech recognition, which uses muscle movements or brain signals to decode speech, is also under development. Associate Professor Takeshi Saitoh's laboratory at the Kyushu Institute of Technology is at the forefront of visual speech recognition (VSR) and is collaborating with researchers worldwide to develop a range of silent speech recognition technologies. Saitoh, whose small team of researchers and students are being supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), says: 'The aim of our work is to achieve smooth and free communication in real time, without the need for audible speech.' The laboratory's VSR prototype is already performing at a high level. There are many reasons why scientists are working on speech technology that does not rely on audio. Saitoh points out that: 'With an ageing population, more people will suffer from speech or hearing disabilities and would benefit from a means to communicate freely. This would vastly improve their quality of life and create employment opportunities.' Also, intelligent machines, controlled by human-machine interfaces, are expected to become increasingly common in our lives. Non-audio speech recognition technology will be useful for interacting with smartphones, driverless cars, surveillance systems and smart appliances. VSR uses a modified camera, combined with image processing and pattern recognition to convert moving shapes made by the mouth, into meaningful language. Earlier VSR technologies matched the shape of a still mouth with vowel sounds, and others have correlated mouth shapes with a key input. However, these do not provide audio output in real-time, so cannot facilitate a smooth conversation. Also, it is vital that VSR is both easy to use and applicable to a range of situations, such as people bedridden in a supine position, where there is a degree of camera movement or where a face is being viewed in profile rather than full-frontal. Any reliable system should also be user-dependent, such that it will work on any skin colour and any shape of face and in spite of head movement.

Acoustical Comparison between /u/ and /u:/ Arabic Vowels for Non-native Speakers

The articulation of Arabic phonemes is essential for the Malay community since Arabic language is mandatory to perform worship. Hence, in this paper, an acoustical analysis of Arabic phonemes for vowels /u/ and /u:/ is discussed based on tokens pronounced by Malay speakers. The experimental results showed that the Malay speakers are inclined to utter these Arabic phonemes similar to the native speakers and it was also found from the analysis that the vowel /u/ and /u: was articulated as high-back vowels. Conversely, the vowel /u/ was located lower than /u:/ as in the vowel-space. Alternatively results also showed that /u/ and /u:/ is higher than the other vowels specifically /a/ and /a:/. In addition, the statistical analysis showed that the formant frequencies of both short and long dummah for formant frequency F1, F2 and F3 have more variation in terms of /u/ as compare to /u:/. In contrast formant frequency F4 and F5 are more diversity in terms of /u:/.

Exploring the Experience and Effects of Vocal Toning.

Toning is a form of vocalizing that utilizes the natural voice to express sounds ranging from cries, grunts, and groans to open vowel sounds and humming on the full exhalation of the breath. Music therapists are increasingly utilizing toning in their clinical practice for a variety of therapeutic aims. Yet the effects of toning are not widely understood, with limited research to date. To gather and analyze descriptive data to better understand the experience and effects of self-administered toning. Primary aims were to: 1) understand participants' experiences with toning, and any effects resulting from their experiences; 2) measure participants' emotional response to toning and singing; and 3) examine similarities and differences across the two datasets. Participants were 20 adults, ages 20-40 years, who were non-musicians. We conducted semi-structured interviews and used qualitative content analysis to identify major themes and subcategories related to participants' toning experiences. Participants also completed a 48-item questionnaire on music and emotions. Results from the interview and questionnaire data were then compared and contrasted. Results indicate that shifts in attention, awareness, and consciousness frequently occurred when individuals engaged in toning. "Meditative," "calm," and "relaxed" were the three most common descriptors of toning. In contrast, singing evoked stronger emotions and associations than toning, with the three most common descriptors including "nostalgia," "tenderness," and "joyful activation." Findings also suggest that the physical experience with vibrations and the sound of one's own voice may be attributes of toning that likely contribute to its success in inducing altered states of awareness, attention, and consciousness. This study significantly expands our understanding of the experience and effects of toning, and has direct implications for clinical practice, including the identification of effective strategies to successfully engage adults in toning.

Acoustic Characteristics of Pakistani English Vowel Sounds

The purpose of this investigation was to document acoustic characteristics of Pakistani English (PaKE) vowel sounds. The experiment was designed to examine the properties of ten vowels produced by Pakistani ESL learners. The analysis is based on the voice samples of recorded 50 CVC words. Total 5000 (10 10 50=5000) voiced samples were analyzed. The data consisted of 50 words of ten English vowel sounds [i: ɪ e ɔ: æ ə ɑ: u: ɒ ʊ]. Ten ESL speakers recorded their voice samples on Praat speech processing tool installed on laptop. Three parameters were considered i.e., fundamental frequency (F0), vowel quality (F1-F2) and duration. Formant patterns were judged manually by visual inspection on Praat Speech Processing Tool. Analysis of formant frequency shows numerous differences between male and female of F1 and F2, fundamental frequency and duration of English vowels. The voice samples provide evidence for higher and lower frequency of vowel sounds. Additionally, the data analysis illustrates that there were statistical differences in the values of short and long vowels coupled with vowel space plot showing explicit differences in locating the production of vowels of male & female vowel space acoustic realizations.

Aspects of vowels in Jeonnam-Jindo

Aspects of vowels in Jeonnam-Jindo