Charting the vowel space

2017 ◽  
pp. 134-144
Author(s):  
Geoff Lindsey
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Space

Effects of Gender, Parental Role, and Time on Infant- and Adult-Directed Read and Spontaneous Speech

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 4001-4014
Author(s):  
Melanie Weirich ◽  
Adrian Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Parental Involvement ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
First Year ◽  
Space Size ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Description Task

Purpose The study sets out to investigate inter- and intraspeaker variation in German infant-directed speech (IDS) and considers the potential impact that the factors gender, parental involvement, and speech material (read vs. spontaneous speech) may have. In addition, we analyze data from 3 time points prior to and after the birth of the child to examine potential changes in the features of IDS and, particularly also, of adult-directed speech (ADS). Here, the gender identity of a speaker is considered as an additional factor. Method IDS and ADS data from 34 participants (15 mothers, 19 fathers) is gathered by means of a reading and a picture description task. For IDS, 2 recordings were made when the baby was approximately 6 and 9 months old, respectively. For ADS, an additional recording was made before the baby was born. Phonetic analyses comprise mean fundamental frequency (f0), variation in f0, the 1st 2 formants measured in /i: ɛ a u:/, and the vowel space size. Moreover, social and behavioral data were gathered regarding parental involvement and gender identity. Results German IDS is characterized by an increase in mean f0, a larger variation in f0, vowel- and formant-specific differences, and a larger acoustic vowel space. No effect of gender or parental involvement was found. Also, the phonetic features of IDS were found in both spontaneous and read speech. Regarding ADS, changes in vowel space size in some of the fathers and in mean f0 in mothers were found. Conclusion Phonetic features of German IDS are robust with respect to the factors gender, parental involvement, speech material (read vs. spontaneous speech), and time. Some phonetic features of ADS changed within the child's first year depending on gender and parental involvement/gender identity. Thus, further research on IDS needs to address also potential changes in ADS.

Distinctiveness and Assimilation in Vowel Perception in a Second Language

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (12) ◽  
pp. 4534-4543
Author(s):  
Wei Hu ◽  
Sha Tao ◽  
Mingshuang Li ◽  
Chang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Vowel Identification ◽  
Vowel Perception ◽  
Perceptual Distance ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Chinese Counterpart ◽  
Vowel Categories

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate how the distinctive establishment of 2nd language (L2) vowel categories (e.g., how distinctively an L2 vowel is established from nearby L2 vowels and from the native language counterpart in the 1st formant [F1] × 2nd formant [F2] vowel space) affected L2 vowel perception. Method Identification of 12 natural English monophthongs, and categorization and rating of synthetic English vowels /i/ and /ɪ/ in the F1 × F2 space were measured for Chinese-native (CN) and English-native (EN) listeners. CN listeners were also examined with categorization and rating of Chinese vowels in the F1 × F2 space. Results As expected, EN listeners significantly outperformed CN listeners in English vowel identification. Whereas EN listeners showed distinctive establishment of 2 English vowels, CN listeners had multiple patterns of L2 vowel establishment: both, 1, or neither established. Moreover, CN listeners' English vowel perception was significantly related to the perceptual distance between the English vowel and its Chinese counterpart, and the perceptual distance between the adjacent English vowels. Conclusions L2 vowel perception relied on listeners' capacity to distinctively establish L2 vowel categories that were distant from the nearby L2 vowels.

Hypernasality Severity Analysis in Cleft Lip and Palate Speech Using Vowel Space Area

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikitha K. ◽  
Sishir Kalita ◽  
C.M. Vikram ◽  
M. Pushpavathi ◽  
S.R. Mahadeva Prasanna
Keyword(s):  
Cleft Lip ◽  
Cleft Lip And Palate ◽  
Vowel Space

scholarly journals Altered speech patterns in subjects with post-traumatic headache due to mild traumatic brain injury

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine D. Chong ◽  
Jianwei Zhang ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Teresa Wu ◽  
Gina Dumkrieger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Effect Model ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Post Traumatic

Abstract Background/objective Changes in speech can be detected objectively before and during migraine attacks. The goal of this study was to interrogate whether speech changes can be detected in subjects with post-traumatic headache (PTH) attributed to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and whether there are within-subject changes in speech during headaches compared to the headache-free state. Methods Using a series of speech elicitation tasks uploaded via a mobile application, PTH subjects and healthy controls (HC) provided speech samples once every 3 days, over a period of 12 weeks. The following speech parameters were assessed: vowel space area, vowel articulation precision, consonant articulation precision, average pitch, pitch variance, speaking rate and pause rate. Speech samples of subjects with PTH were compared to HC. To assess speech changes associated with PTH, speech samples of subjects during headache were compared to speech samples when subjects were headache-free. All analyses were conducted using a mixed-effect model design. Results Longitudinal speech samples were collected from nineteen subjects with PTH (mean age = 42.5, SD = 13.7) who were an average of 14 days (SD = 32.2) from their mTBI at the time of enrollment and thirty-one HC (mean age = 38.7, SD = 12.5). Regardless of headache presence or absence, PTH subjects had longer pause rates and reductions in vowel and consonant articulation precision relative to HC. On days when speech was collected during a headache, there were longer pause rates, slower sentence speaking rates and less precise consonant articulation compared to the speech production of HC. During headache, PTH subjects had slower speaking rates yet more precise vowel articulation compared to when they were headache-free. Conclusions Compared to HC, subjects with acute PTH demonstrate altered speech as measured by objective features of speech production. For individuals with PTH, speech production may have been more effortful resulting in slower speaking rates and more precise vowel articulation during headache vs. when they were headache-free, suggesting that speech alterations were related to PTH and not solely due to the underlying mTBI.

scholarly journals Characterizing the distribution of the quadrilateral vowel space area

2014 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 421-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Visar Berisha ◽  
Steven Sandoval ◽  
Rene Utianski ◽  
Julie Liss ◽  
Andreas Spanias
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Space

Formant Frequencies of Stuttered and Fluent Vowels

1987 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Prosek ◽  
Allen A. Montgomery ◽  
Brian E. Walden ◽  
David B. Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Vowel Space

The formant frequencies of 15 adult stutterers' fluent and disfluent vowels and the formant frequencies of stutterers' and nonstutterers' fluent vowels were compared in an F1-F2 vowel space and in a normalized F1-F2 vowel space. The results indicated that differences in formant frequencies observed between the stutterers' and nonstutterers' vowels can be accounted for by differences among the vocal tract dimensions of the talkers. In addition, no differences were found between the formant frequencies of the fluent and disfluent vowels produced by the stutterers. The overall pattern of these results indicates that, contrary to recent reports (Klich & May, 1982), stutterers do not exhibit significantly greater vowel centralization than nonstutterers.

Effects of Long-Term Tracheostomy on Spectral Characteristics of Vowel Production

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1057-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Saletsky Kamen ◽  
Ben C. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Spectral Characteristics ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Motor Patterns ◽  
Spectral Parameters ◽  
Oral Motor ◽  
Vowel Space

This study investigated the effects of long-term tracheostomy on the development of speech. Eight children who underwent tracheotomy during the prelingual period were compared to matched controls on selected spectral parameters of the speech acoustic signal and standard measures of oral-motor, phonologic, and articulatory proficiency. Analysis of formant frequency values revealed significant between-group differences. Children with histories of long-term tracheostomy showed reduced acoustic vowel space, as defined by group formant frequency values. This suggests that these children were limited in their ability to produce extreme vocal tract configurations for vowels /a,i,u/ postdecannulation. Oral motor patterns were less mature, and sound substitutions were not only more variable for this group, but also reflected a persistent overlay of maladaptive compensations developed during cannulation.

A Comprehensive Three-dimensional Cortical Map of Vowel Space

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 3972-3982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Scharinger ◽  
William J. Idsardi ◽  
Samantha Poe
Keyword(s):  
Basilar Membrane ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Spatial Encoding ◽  
Spatial Gradients ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Cortical Map

Mammalian cortex is known to contain various kinds of spatial encoding schemes for sensory information including retinotopic, somatosensory, and tonotopic maps. Tonotopic maps are especially interesting for human speech sound processing because they encode linguistically salient acoustic properties. In this study, we mapped the entire vowel space of a language (Turkish) onto cortical locations by using the magnetic N1 (M100), an auditory-evoked component that peaks approximately 100 msec after auditory stimulus onset. We found that dipole locations could be structured into two distinct maps, one for vowels produced with the tongue positioned toward the front of the mouth (front vowels) and one for vowels produced in the back of the mouth (back vowels). Furthermore, we found spatial gradients in lateral–medial, anterior–posterior, and inferior–superior dimensions that encoded the phonetic, categorical distinctions between all the vowels of Turkish. Statistical model comparisons of the dipole locations suggest that the spatial encoding scheme is not entirely based on acoustic bottom–up information but crucially involves featural–phonetic top–down modulation. Thus, multiple areas of excitation along the unidimensional basilar membrane are mapped into higher dimensional representations in auditory cortex.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document