Voice

About: Voice is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2393 publications have been published within this topic receiving 56637 citations.

Dynamic hyperarticulation of coda voicing contrasts.

Abstract: This study investigates the capacity for targeted hyperarticulation of contextually-relevant contrasts. Participants communicated target words with final /s/ or /z/ when a voicing minimal-pair (e.g., target dose, minimal-pair doze) either was or was not available as an alternative in the context. The results indicate that talkers enhance the durational cues associated with the word-final voicing contrast based on whether the context requires it, and that this can involve both elongation as well as shortening, depending on what enhances the contextually-relevant contrast. This suggests that talkers are capable of targeted, context-sensitive temporal enhancements.

Changes in voice-onset time in speakers with cochlear implants.

Abstract: Voice‐onset time (VOT) and syllable duration were measured for the English plosives in /C■d/ (C=consonant) context spoken by four postlingually deafened recipients of multichannel (Ineraid) cochlear implants. Recordings were made of their speech before, and at intervals following, activation of the speech processors of their implants. Three patients reduced mean syllable duration following activation. Using measures of VOT and syllable duration from speakers with normal hearing [Volaitis and Miller, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 92, 723–735 (1992)] and from the subjects of this study, VOT is shown to vary approximately linearly with syllable duration over the ranges produced here. Therefore, the VOT of each token was adjusted for the change in syllable duration of that token relative to the mean syllable duration in the first baseline session. This variable, labeled VOTc, was used to evaluate the effects on voicing of the speakers’ renewed access to the voicing contrast provided by their implants. Preimplant, all four speakers characteristically uttered voiced plosives with too‐short VOT, compared to the measures for hearing speakers. Voiceless plosive mean VOT was also abnormally short for two of the speakers, and close to normal for the remaining two. With some hearing restored, subjects made relatively few errors with respect to voicing when identifying plosives in listening tests, and three of the four speakers lengthened VOTc. The findings are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that speakers use their hearing to calibrate mechanisms of speech production by monitoring the relations between their articulations and their acoustic output.

Discrimination of word‐final voicing in German

Abstract: Traditionally, German is described as having complete neutralization of voiced versus voiceless consonants word finally. In this study native German speakers were recorded reading real words differing in the voicing of the final consonant. The recorded tokens were then randomized and played to native Germans who identified the word they heard. The listeners performed very poorly, but significantly better than chance. In addition, temporal acoustic measurements of the recorded tokens were made using duplex oscillogram and intensity curves on visicorder tracings. Statistical analysis of the acoustic measurements—nucleus duration, consonant duration, duration of voicing during closure, and final aspiration—showed significant, though small differences between intended voiced and voiceless pairs. Discriminant analysis applied to the four variables produced an acoustic criterion by which the intended voicing of tokens could be predicted with 63% accuracy, about the same as the best listener was able to do. In addition, data will be presented showing asymmetry between production and perception, in relative importance of acoustic cues and in individual subjects' discrimination performance. [Work supported by NIH.]

Acoustic and Temporal Analysis for Assessing Speaking

Abstract: Objectively measurable features of a speaker's speech are certainly relevant to true score variance in assessing speaking skills. Ideally, speech proficiency scores should be more a function of the comprehensibility of speakers' pronunciation and the degree to which speakers' discourse is responsive to the communicative demands of the tasks. Speech science has made progress toward identifying acoustic features of pronunciation that affect comprehensibility. It has become common for elements of speech accent to be detected by instrument and computer-assisted acoustical analysis (e.g., Computer Speech Laboratory [CSL] or Praat), which characterizes different accents by examining patterns of fundamental frequencies or F0 formants. Until somewhat recently, research examining characteristics of second language (L2) speech production had been concerned with phonemic segmental phenomena, that is, the “accuracy” of non-native speaker (NNS) consonant and vowel formation . Accordingly, acoustic characteristics of those productions had mainly focused on single parameters of English: vowel duration differences in voicing contrast, acoustic vowel spaces, and voice onset time of stop consonants. Currently, however, the consensus is moving toward an appreciation of the role that differences in speaking rates, intonation patterns, and other prosodic features (suprasegmentals) may play in intelligibility and listeners' assessments. Non-native temporal (e.g., pause structures) and acoustic patterns (e.g., tone choices) account for native listeners' perception of L2 English learners' speech as “accented.” Acoustic parameters combining rate, pauses, and intonation of speech have been also conjointly investigated for assessing NNS' oral proficiency. This chapter starts with a brief background to acoustic analysis in applied linguistics, introduces various speech recognition and acoustic parameters used in assessing speaking, and illustrates application processes and examples of those analyses. It explores new conceptualizations of acoustic measures in speaking assessment and discusses challenges of this approach and future directions. Keywords: Assessment evaluation; Speaking; Speech Recognition

Diagnosing the completion of a sound change: Phonetic and phonological evidence for /ʃ/ in Buenos Aires Spanish

Abstract: This paper presents a sociolinguistic analysis of the variable devoicing of /ʒ/ in Buenos Aires Spanish, a phenomenon previously characterized as a change in progress. A novel method is implemented to determine the completion of the devoicing change by comparing the voicing levels of /ʒ/ to the inherent voicing variability of /s/, as well as by comparing the allophonic patterns of /ʒ/ to those of /s/. If the voicing levels of /ʒ/ are not significantly different from those of /s/ and the /ʒ/ no longer exhibits positional affrication, then the speaker's underlying postalveolar fricative is /ʃ/: they are a “devoicer.” The results suggest that, although older speakers, of both middle and upper classes, exhibit variation in the distribution of “voicers,” most younger speakers are devoicers, indicating that the /ʒ/ devoicing change is nearing conclusion. As a result, the underlying fricative for the majority of Buenos Aires Spanish speakers may very well be /ʃ/.