Word-initial Stop Research Articles

Spectral degradation and carrier sentences increase age-related temporal processing deficits in a cue-specific manner.

Advancing age is associated with decreased sensitivity to temporal cues in word segments, particularly when target words follow non-informative carrier sentences or are spectrally degraded (e.g., vocoded to simulate cochlear-implant stimulation). This study investigated whether age, carrier sentences, and spectral degradation interacted to cause undue difficulty in processing speech temporal cues. Younger and older adults with normal hearing performed phonemic categorization tasks on two continua: a Buy/Pie contrast with voice onset time changes for the word-initial stop and a Dish/Ditch contrast with silent interval changes preceding the word-final fricative. Target words were presented in isolation or after non-informative carrier sentences, and were unprocessed or degraded via sinewave vocoding (2, 4, and 8 channels). Older listeners exhibited reduced sensitivity to both temporal cues compared to younger listeners. For the Buy/Pie contrast, age, carrier sentence, and spectral degradation interacted such that the largest age effects were seen for unprocessed words in the carrier sentence condition. This pattern differed from the Dish/Ditch contrast, where reducing spectral resolution exaggerated age effects, but introducing carrier sentences largely left the patterns unchanged. These results suggest that certain temporal cues are particularly susceptible to aging when placed in sentences, likely contributing to the difficulties of older cochlear-implant users in everyday environments.

The production of voicing in Namibian English stops by speakers of Khoekhoegowab

This study examines whether Namibian English spoken by L1 Khoekhoegowab speakers has word-initial stop voicing contrasts, and how they might be realized in freely produced speech. The data consists of English interviews collected from nine speakers of Namibian English. For analysis, a total of 365 words beginning with a stop-vowel sequence were extracted from the interviews, and analyzed for voice onset time (VOT). To examine the realization of voicing, the extracted words are divided into voiced and voiceless categories based on their phonological voicing in other varieties of English and their VOTs are compared statistically. The VOTs of voiceless stops are significantly longer than those of voiced stops. The results suggest a short-lag vs. aspiration contrast in word-initial stops in Namibian English and provide new information about the phonetic features of Namibian English consonants.

L1 Japanese Perceptual Drift in Late Learners of L2 English

This study presents evidence of second language (L2) influence on first language (L1) perception of alveolar stops. Sixty-one L1 Japanese late learners of L2 English (onset ~12 years old) in Japan (N = 31) and in the US (N = 30) participated. We examined late L2 learners’ L2 perceptual ability and L1 perception drift by administering three perception tasks (AX discrimination, forced categorization, and goodness rating) on word-initial stop consonants. The L2 learners’ L1 Japanese and L2 English data were compared to those of Japanese and English monolinguals, respectively (N = 21, N = 16). All participants’ production data were also gathered to examine potential perception-production relationships. Late learners’ sensitivity patterns along a synthesized /da–ta/ continuum differed significantly from those of monolingual speakers, with a sensitivity peak location between the monolingual Japanese and English groups. This suggests that late learners’ voicing category boundaries may have been influenced by L2 English learning. The L2 learners’ goodness rating patterns of L1 Japanese stimuli also showed evidence of L1 perceptual drift: L2 learners tended to be more accepting of Japanese stimuli with longer VOTs compared to Japanese monolinguals.

How Good Does This Sound? Examining Listeners’ Second Language Proficiency and Their Perception of Category Goodness in Their Native Language

Language learners often transfer the sounds and prosody of their native language into their second language, but this influence can also flow in the opposite direction, with the second language influencing the first. Among other variables, language proficiency is known to affect the degree and directionality of cross-linguistic influence. However, little is known about how second language learning affects listeners’ perception of their native language. To begin addressing this gap, we examined the relationship between learners’ second language proficiency and their category goodness ratings in their native language. Thirty-nine English-speaking learners of Spanish listened to English words that began with voiced and voiceless stop consonants and were asked to rate how well the word represented the intended word on a 5-point scale. To create a voicing continuum, we manipulated the voice onset time of the word-initial stop in each target item from 125 ms of prevoicing to 100 ms of aspiration, in 25 ms steps. Proficiency did not affect the perception of voiced targets, but both proficiency and L2 stop production affected the perception of voiceless targets.

The production of English syllable-level timing patterns by bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking children with cochlear implants and their peers with normal hearing

We examined the timing parameters in syllables of English containing word initial singleton sonorants (/l/ and /ɹ/) and stop+sonorant clusters by bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking children with cochlear implants (CImp group) and their cohorts with normal hearing (NH group). The timing parameters included: voice onset time (henceforth, VOT), vowel duration following word initial singleton consonants and vowels following word initial stop+sonorant clusters as well as lateral and rhotic duration in word initial position and in stop+sonorant clusters. Our motivation for the current study was to address whether hearing loss affects the production of the timing parameters of syllables and whether language interference in bilingual productions is modulated by hearing loss. The results of the English production tasks show effects of onset type (singleton, C, vs complex onsets, CC) on VOT, whereby VOT for word initial singleton stops was shorter than VOT in stop+sonorant clusters. To the contrary vowel duration tended to extend temporally as more consonants are added to the onset. With regard to lateral and rhotic duration in word initial singleton and complex onsets, both groups (CImp and NH) showed the typical compression effect of /l/ in complex onsets characteristic of the timing pattern for sonorants in English complex syllables, though no shortening of the rhotic was found for the NH group. Combined results suggest little effect of hearing loss on the production of the timing parameters of English syllables, and virtually no effects across groups that can be attributed to language interference.

Production of the Word-Initial Stop Variation by Kyungsang Koreans in Seoul and Seoul Koreans in Kyungsang Province

Production of the Word-Initial Stop Variation by Kyungsang Koreans in Seoul and Seoul Koreans in Kyungsang Province

Stimulus context affects the phonemic categorization of temporally based word contrasts in adult cochlear-implant users.

Cochlear-implant (CI) users rely heavily on temporal envelope cues for speech understanding. This study examined whether their sensitivity to temporal cues in word segments is affected when the words are preceded by non-informative carrier sentences. Thirteen adult CI users performed phonemic categorization tasks that present primarily temporally based word contrasts: Buy-Pie contrast with word-initial stop of varying voice-onset time (VOT), and Dish-Ditch contrast with varying silent intervals preceding the word-final fricative. These words were presented in isolation or were preceded by carrier stimuli including a sentence, a sentence-envelope-modulated noise, or an unmodulated speech-shaped noise. While participants were able to categorize both word contrasts, stimulus context effects were observed primarily for the Buy-Pie contrast, such that participants reported more "Buy" responses for words with longer VOTs in conditions with carrier stimuli than in isolation. The two non-speech carrier stimuli yielded similar or even greater context effects than sentences. The context effects disappeared when target words were delayed from the carrier stimuli for ≥75 ms. These results suggest that stimulus contexts affect auditory temporal processing in CI users but the context effects appear to be cue-specific. The context effects may be governed by general auditory processes, not those specific to speech processing.

An Acoustic Analysis of Word-Initial Stops Produced by Jeju Korean Speakers

An Acoustic Analysis of Word-Initial Stops Produced by Jeju Korean Speakers

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

Comparing Phonetic Convergence in Children and Adults

Observations by sociolinguists suggest that when children relocate to a new community, they rapidly learn to imitate their peers, adopting the new local accent faster and more effectively than adults. However, few well-controlled laboratory experiments have been conducted comparing speech or accent imitation across ages. Here, we investigated Canadian English-speaking children's and adults' imitation of three model speakers: a Canadian English talker, an Australian English talker, and a non-native Mandarin English talker who learned English later in life. The speech of all three talkers was manipulated to have elongated voice onset time (VOT) on word initial stop consonants. The dependent measure was how much participants would lengthen their VOTs after exposure to one of the talkers in two paradigms: delayed shadowing (Experiment 1) and immediate shadowing (Experiment 2). We predicted that overall children would show more imitation than adults, particularly when imitating the Canadian English talker, given previous work on children's social preferences. Although we did not observe age differences in either study, when shadowing was immediate, we found that imitation was influenced by the accent of the speaker, but not in the manner we predicted: both age groups imitated the Mandarin-accented model more strongly than the Canadian model. When shadowing was delayed, we observed no evidence of imitation. We discuss our findings in light of other recent work, and conclude that the development of speech imitation is an area ripe for further investigation.

중국 감 방언권 학습자의 한국어 어두 파열음 음성적 특징 연구

이 연구는 중국 감 방언권 학습자의 한국어 어두 파열음 발음 특성을 고찰하고 감 방언권 한국어 학습자를 위한 발음 교육 개선점을 제안하는데 목적이다. 우선, 한국어 어두 파열음을 구별하는 중요한 음향적 특성인 성대 진동 시작 시간과 후행 모음 시작점의 피치를 요인으로 삼고 중국 감 방언권 학습자, 한국인 화자, 중국 보통화권 학습자를 대상으로 음성 실험을 진행하였다. 실험 결과, 중국 감 방언권 학습자의 성대 진동 시작 시간과 후행모음 시작점의 피치는 모두 다른 두 집단과 유의미한 차이가 나타났다. 성대 진동 시작 시간의 비교 분석 결과, 감 방언권 학습자의 평음과 경음은 다른 두 집단보다 크게 나타났고, 격음은 양순음과 치조음에 있어서 중국 보통화권 학습자보다 크게 나타났으나 한국인 화자와 비슷하게 발음하였다. 연구개음에 있어서 한국인 화자보다 작게 나타났고 중국 보통화권 학습자보다 크게 나타났다. 후행 모음 시작점의 피치의 비교 분석 결과, 평음에 있어서 중국 감 방언권 학습자는 한국인 화자, 중국 보통화권 학습자보다 높게 나타났고 격음과 경음에 있어서 다른 두 집단보다 낮은 것이었다.<BR> 이 실험 결과를 통하여 중국 감 방언권 학습자는 감 방언의 영향으로 보통화권 학습자와 다른 발음 특성을 갖고 있는 것으로 추정할 수 있다. 중국에서 방언은 일상생활에서 빈번하게 사용되고 있는데 방언의 사용으로 인한 학습자 간의 발음 차이는 주목할 만하다. 따라서 중국인 학습자를 대상으로 한 한국어 발음 교육은 학습자의 방언권 요인도 함께 고려하면 보다 효율적인 발음 교육을 기대할 수 있다.

A Phonetic Study of Korean Heritage Learners’ Production of Korean Word-initial Stops

The current study investigates heritage language (HL) learners’ production of the Korean three-way stop contrast. Korean consonants include a typologically rare distinction among three types of voiceless stops typically described as plain /p, t, k/, aspirated /ph, th, kh/, and tense /p*, t*, k*/. This study examines how this phonological contrast is implemented by HL learners enrolled in a beginning level Korean class at a university. Language-specific (i.e., English and Korean) gender effects in VOT are also explored in HL learners. The results show that voice onset time (VOT) mainly serves to differentiate tense stops from plain and aspirated stops, while f0 plays a significant role in differentiating plain from aspirated and tense stops in HL learners. This finding is consistent with accounts of sound change under way in current Korean stops. The inter- and intraspeaker variations or categorical confusion with Korean plain stops commonly shown in second language (L2) learners is not found in HL learners of this study. Hence, the results of the present study support the view that HL learners preserve the phonological and phonetic benefits in their HL. In terms of gender-based differences, VOT is found to be shorter for males in plain and aspirated stops, while it is longer for males in tense stops. Finally, this study also suggests that controlling the heterogeneity of subjects mitigates the methodological challenges of HL research.

Voice onset time variation in natural southern speech

Sociophonetic research has traditionally emphasized vowels and only recently begun to examine consonants. The emerging literature on consonants has found systematic regional variation in consonant production (Jacewicz et al., 2009; Eddington and Turner, 2017). These studies have focused on present-day speakers producing lab-recorded speech and thus provide little historical or naturalistic insight to consonant variation. One way that the production of stop consonants varies is in voice onset time (VOT). In this study, we utilize the Digital Archive of Southern Speech (DASS) (Kretzschmar et al., 2013), a collection of 64 sociolinguistic interviews recorded between 1968 and 1983, to explore consonant variation in an unscripted historical setting. DASS was force-aligned using the Montreal Forced Aligner (McAuliffe et al., 2017), and the VOT of pre-vocalic, word-initial stop consonants in three-minute audio clips from each speaker was measured using AutoVOT (Keshet et al., 2014). VOT was normalized by dividing duration by speaking rate, and this normalized measurement was included as the dependent variable in a mixed effects model. As expected, stress, voicelessness, and a dorsal place of articulation were significant predictors. Our preliminary analysis reveals significant regional and age differences, adding evidence for speaker-specific variation of VOT as a result of sociophonetic variables.

Metathesis of aspiration as the source of anticipatory voicelessness in Basque

ABSTRACTIn Basque, there is evidence, especially in early loans from Latin, that a sequence #DV(R)T… where D is a voiced stop and T is a voiceless (aspirated) stop was optionally produced with devoicing of the first of these stops. An additional particularity of this sound pattern is that the devoiced word-initial stop typically surfaces with aspiration, while the previously aspirated stop loses it: #DV(R)T(h)… &gt; #T(h)V(R)T… This typologically uncommon sound pattern has been described as assimilation of voicelessness in the literature, or spread of [-voiced]. I propose that this sound pattern is triggered by aspiration, not voicelessness, and that it is a case of metathesis, not assimilation. Under the proposed analysis, aspiration of the second stop in the word is reanalysed as originating in the first stop, an instance of perceptual metathesis. This approach accounts for the distribution of aspirated stops before and after the optional change, and the failure of post-sibilant stops to trigger. This account also has implications for the chronology of aspiration-loss in Western dialects: at the time the earliest Latin loans were borrowed, all Basque dialects still maintained a historical series of aspirated stops. Only later, after this process of optional metathesis, did the Western dialects lose *h and stop aspiration.

한국어 초성 비음의 인식 자질

한국어 초성 비음의 인식 자질

A typological study of Voice Onset Time (VOT) in Indo-Iranian languages

The stop consonants of Indo-Iranian languages are categorized into two to maximum five laryngeal categories. The present study investigates whether Voice Onset Time (VOT) reliably differentiates the word-initial stop laryngeal categories and how it covaries with different places of articulation in ten languages (two Iranian: Pashto and Wakhi; seven Indo-Aryan: Dawoodi, Punjabi, Shina, Jangli, Urdu, Sindhi, and Siraiki; and one Isolate: Burushaski). The results indicated that there was a clear VOT distinction between the voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated stops. The voiceless unaspirated stops showed shorter voicing lag VOTs than voiceless aspirated stops. Voiced unaspirated, voiced aspirated, and voiced implosive stops were characterized by voicing lead VOTs. In the voiceless unaspirated and aspirated categories, palatal affricates showed the longest voicing lag VOT due to the frication interval of this stop type. In contrast, voiceless unaspirated retroflex stops were characterized by the shortest voicing lag VOT. There were no clear place differences in the voiceless aspirated, voiced unaspirated, voiced aspirated, and voiced implosive categories. The findings of the current study suggest that VOT reliably differentiates the stop consonants of all the languages that contrast two (voiceless unaspirated vs. voiced unaspirated: Pashto and Wakhi) or three (voiceless unaspirated vs. voiceless aspirated vs. voiced unaspirated: Burushaski, Dawoodi, Punjabi, and Shina) laryngeal categories. However, VOT does not consistently distinguish the stop consonants of languages (Jangli, Urdu, Sindhi, and Siraiki) with contrastive voiced unaspirated, voiced aspirated, and voiced implosive categories.

Structure in talker variability: How much is there and how much can it help?

ABSTRACTOne of the persistent puzzles in understanding human speech perception is how listeners cope with talker variability. One thing that might help listeners is structure in talker variability: rather than varying randomly, talkers of the same gender, dialect, age, etc. tend to produce language in similar ways. Listeners are sensitive to this covariation between linguistic variation and socio-indexical variables. In this paper I present new techniques based on ideal observer models to quantify (1) the amount and type of structure in talker variation (informativity of a grouping variable), and (2) how useful such structure can be for robust speech recognition in the face of talker variability (the utility of a grouping variable). I demonstrate these techniques in two phonetic domains—word-initial stop voicing and vowel identity—and show that these domains have different amounts and types of talker variability, consistent with previous, impressionistic findings. An R package (phondisttools) accompanies this paper, and the source and data are available from osf.io/zv6e3.

Voice Onset Time of Word-Initial Stops and Affricates in Khalkha Mongolian

Voice Onset Time of Word-Initial Stops and Affricates in Khalkha Mongolian

Instructional Effects on Voice Onset Time Perception in L2 Speech Segmentation

This study examined the effects of instruction on the English word boundary perception of Korean learners of English. The focus of this study was the appropriate use of Voice Onset Time (VOT) of English voiceless stops (p, t, k) in word initial (e.g., top) and after word initial s position (e.g., stop) signaling the presence and absence of a word boundary before the stop consonant. There were 48 participants in the study, who were assessed three times: before instruction (pre-test), immediately after instruction (post-test), and five weeks after instruction (delayed post-test). Results revealed that participants’ perceptual accuracy improved significantly in both VOT positions in segmentation after instruction. However, the improvement was more prominent in word initial than after word initial s. Among word initial stop consonants, velar stops were the most difficult to acquire, while after initial s, bilabial stops were the most difficult and alveolar stops were the easiest to acquire.

Review of Fuchs, R. 2016. Speech rhythm in varieties of English: Evidence from educated Indian English and British English. Singapore: Springer Science+Business Media Singapore. 226 pages. ISBN: 978–3–662–47818–9

Review of Fuchs, Robert. 2016. Speech in varieties of English: Evidence from educated Indian English and British English. Singapore: Springer Science+Business Media Singapore. 226 pages. ISBN: 978-3-662-47818-9.Fuchs (2016) is the monograph version of Robert Fuchs's PhD thesis (University of Munster, Germany, 2013). It details research carried out on the production and perception of speech in Indian English (IndE) and British English (BrE) among students at two Universities in Hyderabad, India, at the start of this decade, the development of multidimensional model of rhythm (Fuchs, 2016: 4), and of an approach to speech perception research which modifies existing practice. From the outset, and just by reading the Preface to the volume (Fuchs, 2016: v-vii), one gets a sense of the enthusiasm Fuchs has for India, the people, the variety, and the research he has undertaken. This is a promising opening to what is basically a write-up of a research study, boding well for the rest of the book, and leading on to the introductory chapter in which the scene is set.The book is organised into eight chapters, as follows:a) Chapter 1 is a general introduction, outlining the available research at the time the study was undertaken and justifying the book's focus on speech in IndE, i.e., the lack of work on prosodic features of the variety. It also serves to situate the study firmly in a World Englishes paradigm, referring to Kachru's (1985) terminology of Inner, Outer and Expanding Circles, and Schneider's Dynamic Model of Postcolonial Englishes (2003, 2007).b) Chapter 2 starts by giving a historical and social description of English in India, including an account of the different varieties of IndE and of the Dravidian and Aindo-Aryan languages spoken. It further elaborates on IndE with respect to Kachru and Schneider's models, before going on to give a comparison of the phonologies of BrE and IndE based on existing descriptions.c) Chapter 3's focus is on speech itself and how it can be measured, with a review of speech metrics, and suggestions on how these might be improved.d) Chapter 4 reviews existing research on speech in varieties of English with a view to evaluating whether Outer Circle varieties tend to be more syllable-timed than Inner Circle ones. There is a criticism that most research does not look at a variety of speaking styles; this is one area Fuchs attempts to address in his research by looking at read speech (a passage) and an interview task.e) Chapter 5 is a classic methodology section, giving an account of the data used in the study (material and tasks; recording procedure; profile of speakers) and the methods used to annotate and analyse it.f) Chapter 6 presents the results of Fuchs's production study, with sections on vocalic and consonantal durations, syllable durations, sonority, voicing, fundamental frequency, intensity, loudness, speech rate, and word initial glottal stop insertion before vowels. It is here where he introduces his multidimensional model of speech rhythm.g) Chapter 7 looks at the perception of IndE and BrE speech rhythm, detailing first pilot studies and then main studies on accent discrimination and 'Cocktail Party Effect', and introducing a partially new technique (Fuchs, 2016: 5) for the measurement of speech perception events.h) Chapter 8 is a general conclusion, summarising the results, describing the phonology of current IndE, speculating about its future development, and highlighting the importance of the research for work on varieties of English. There is a section on the implications of the research presented here for future work on IndE.i) Finally, there is an appendix and index. References are included at the end of each chapter and not as a list in the end-matter of the book.Using Kachru's (1985) circles paradigm, India is described as fairly typical Outer Circle country (Fuchs, 2016: 12), with IndE at Schneider's (2003, 2007) fourth phase, exonormative stabilization. …