Spanish mid vowels as sociolinguistic variables in Galicia

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica de la Fuente Iglesias ◽  
Susana Pérez Castillejo
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Identity Performance ◽  
Production Theory ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
Vowel Production

Abstract This paper analyzes the acoustic properties of Spanish stressed mid vowels from a corpus of over 2,800 tokens produced by Galician-dominant bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals. Following principles of bilingual speech production theory, we explore whether these vowels present lexically conditioned open variants [ɛ] and [ɔ] not present in monolingual Spanish. In combination with linguistic factors, we also examine whether bilingual mid-vowel production in our corpus is related to social variables. Assuming a linguistic repertoires perspective that links variation to identity performance, we argue that Spanish /e/ and /o/ are sociolinguistic variables in Galicia and that the distribution of their variants can be exploited to perform social meaning.

Age and Laryngeal Airway Resistance During Vowel Production in Women

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannette D. Hoit ◽  
Thomas J. Hixon
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Airway Resistance ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Laryngeal Function ◽  
Healthy Women ◽  
Laryngeal Airway

An investigation was conducted to determine if laryngeal valving economy, as reflected in measures of laryngeal airway resistance during vowel production, differs with age in women. Seventy healthy women were studied, 10 each at age 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75, and 85 years. Results indicated that laryngeal airway resistance did not differ significantly with age, although it was noted that the 45-year-old women generally had lower laryngeal airway resistance values. This pattern of function differs from that observed in men (Melcon, Hoit, & Hixon, 1989). Discussion of findings includes consideration of factors that might influence laryngeal function during speech production in women. Clinical implications are offered.

Acoustical Analysis of Spanish Vowels Produced by Laryngectomized Subjects

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 988-996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Cervera ◽  
José L. Miralles ◽  
Julio González-Àlvarez
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Temporal Domain ◽  
Word Context ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
English Speaking

The purpose of this study was to describe the acoustic characteristics of Spanish vowels in subjects who had undergone a total laryngectomy and to compare the results with those obtained in a control group of subjects who spoke normally. Our results are discussed in relation to those obtained in previous studies with English-speaking laryngectomized patients. The comparison between English and Spanish, which differ widely in the size of their vowel inventories, will help us to determine specific or universal vowel production characteristics in these patients. Our second objective was to relate the acoustic properties of these vowels to the perceptual data obtained in our previous work (J. L. Miralles & T. Cervera, 1995). In that study, results indicated that vowels produced by alaryngeal speakers were well perceived in word context. Vowels were produced in CVCV word context by two groups of patients who had undergone laryngectomy: tracheoesophageal speakers (TES) and esophageal speakers. In addition a control group of normal talkers was included. Audio recordings of 24 Spanish words produced by each speaker were analyzed using CSL (Kay Elemetrics). Results showed that F1, F2, and vowel duration of alaryngeal speakers differ significantly from normal values. In general, laryngectomized patients produce vowels with higher formant frequencies and longer durations than the group of laryngeal subjects. Thus, the data indicate modifications either in the frequency or temporal domain, following the same tendency found in previous studies with English-speaking laryngectomized speakers.

scholarly journals Vowel Dispersion in English Diphthongs: Evidence from Adult Production

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy Jennifer Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Distance ◽  
Additional Constraint ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Strong Preference ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Dispersion Theory ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Distance Constraints ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Additional Constraints

In this paper, I address the problem of including diphthong vowels into a Dispersion Theory (Flemming 2004) framework. First, I review the main aspects of Dispersion Theory in Flemming (2004), which gives an analysis of vowel inventories using a perception-based account of contrast, but noticeably omits diphthongs, which–while different from monophthongs–are highly productive, contrastive members of vowel inventories. Next, in order to correctly represent and incorporate diphthongs, I discuss acoustic properties of diphthongs and their presence in vowel inventories cross-linguistically. Diphthongs are compared to the monophthong inventory using production data to assess their relative positions in the vowel space. The English vowel production data should reflect the language-specific constraint ranking of *Effort with the maximum contrast and minimum distance constraints as predicted in Flemming's theory.                To derive diphthongs, Flemming (2004)’s constraints as well as additional constraints from Minkova & Stockwell (2003) are used to account for the distance between the two offset targets. An additional constraint is proposed to account for the strong preference in the English production data to centralize the onset targets. Derivations for individual diphthong productions compared to possible surrounding candidates are provided in the analysis.

Can a Model of Overlapping Gestures Account for Scanning Speech Patterns?

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 604-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kris Tjaden
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Production Theory ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Position Effects ◽  
Speech Patterns ◽  
Disordered Speech ◽  
Acoustic Measure

A simple acoustic model of overlapping, sliding gestures was used to evaluate whether coproduction was reduced for neurologic speakers with scanning speech patterns. F2 onset frequency was used as an acoustic measure of coproduction or gesture overlap. The effects of speaking rate (habitual versus fast) and utterance position (initial versus medial) on F2 frequency, and presumably gesture overlap, were examined. Regression analyses also were used to evaluate the extent to which across-repetition temporal variability in F2 trajectories could be explained as variation in coproduction for consonants and vowels. The lower F2 onset frequencies for disordered speakers suggested that gesture overlap was reduced for neurologic individuals with scanning speech. Speaking rate change did not influence F2 onset frequencies, and presumably gesture overlap, for healthy or disordered speakers. F2 onset frequency differences for utterance-initial and -medial repetitions were interpreted to suggest reduced coproduction for the utterance-initial position. The utterance-position effects on F2 onset frequency, however, likely were complicated by position-related differences in articulatory scaling. The results of the regression analysis indicated that gesture sliding accounts, in part, for temporal variability in F2 trajectories. Taken together, the results of this study provide support for the idea that speech production theory for healthy talkers helps to account for disordered speech production.

scholarly journals Segmentation of tongue shapes during vowel production in magnetic resonance images based on statistical modelling

2018 ◽  
Vol 232 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-281
Author(s):  
Jessica C Delmoral ◽  
Sandra M Rua Ventura ◽  
João Manuel RS Tavares
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Statistical Modelling ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Images ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Key Aspects

Quantification of the anatomic and functional aspects of the tongue is pertinent to analyse the mechanisms involved in speech production. Speech requires dynamic and complex articulation of the vocal tract organs, and the tongue is one of the main articulators during speech production. Magnetic resonance imaging has been widely used in speech-related studies. Moreover, the segmentation of such images of speech organs is required to extract reliable statistical data. However, standard solutions to analyse a large set of articulatory images have not yet been established. Therefore, this article presents an approach to segment the tongue in two-dimensional magnetic resonance images and statistically model the segmented tongue shapes. The proposed approach assesses the articulator morphology based on an active shape model, which captures the shape variability of the tongue during speech production. To validate this new approach, a dataset of mid-sagittal magnetic resonance images acquired from four subjects was used, and key aspects of the shape of the tongue during the vocal production of relevant European Portuguese vowels were evaluated.

scholarly journals Parents’ hyper-pitch and vowel category compactness in infant-directed speech are associated with 18-month-old toddlers’ expressive vocabulary

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audun Rosslund ◽  
Julien Mayor ◽  
Gabriella Óturai ◽  
Natalia Kartushina
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Northern Norway ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Space Expansion ◽  
Vowel Categories

The present study examines the acoustic properties of infant-directed speech (IDS) as compared to adult-directed speech (ADS) in Norwegian parents of 18-month-old toddlers, and whether these properties relate to toddlers’ expressive vocabulary size. Twenty-one parent- toddler dyads from Tromsø, Northern Norway participated in the study. Parents (16 mothers, 5 fathers), speaking a Northern Norwegian dialect, were recorded in the lab reading a storybook to their toddler (IDS register), and to an experimenter (ADS register). The storybook was designed for the purpose of the study, ensuring identical linguistic contexts across speakers and registers, and multiple representations of each of the nine Norwegian long vowels. We examined both traditionally reported measures of IDS: pitch, pitch range, vowel duration and vowel space expansion, but also novel measures: vowel category compactness and vowel category distinctiveness. Our results showed that Norwegian IDS, as compared to ADS, had similar characteristics as in other languages: higher pitch, wider pitch range, longer vowel duration, and expanded vowel space area; in addition, it had less compact vowel categories. Further, parents’ hyper-pitch, that is, the within-parent increase in pitch in IDS as compared to ADS, and vowel category compactness in IDS itself, were positively related to toddlers' vocabulary. Our results point towards potentially facilitating roles of parents’ increase in pitch when talking to their toddler and of consistency in vowel production in early word learning.

scholarly journals Hausa vowels and dipthongs

1985 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-182
Author(s):  
Mona Lindau-Webb
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Trinomial Equation

Acoustic properties of Hausa vowels and diphthongs from several speakers are investigated. The results show that Hausa is best described as having a five vowel system, where the five basic vowels have the qualities of the long vowels. Long vowels are derived as double basic vowels. The qualities of the short vowels are significantly different from those of the long vowels, but these quality differences can be accounted for by an undershoot mechanism in the speech production. The diphthong /au/ is modeled, using the formant frequencies of /a/ and /u/ with an interpolation in accordance with a trinomial equation. The diphthong /ai/ is mostly realized as a long [e:] phonetically.

scholarly journals Von Kempelen et al.: remarks on the history of articulatory-acoustic modelling

2005 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 145-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Pompino-Marschall
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Theoretical Description ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Pipe Model ◽  
Acoustic Modelling ◽  
Theoretical Reasoning ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Theoretical Considerations

The contribution of von Kempelen's "Mechanism of Speech" to the 'phonetic sciences' will be analyzed with respect to his theoretical reasoning on speech and speech production on the one hand and on the other in connection with his practical insights during his struggle in constructing a speaking machine. Whereas in his theoretical considerations von Kempelen's view is focussed on the natural functioning of the speech organs – cf. his membraneous glottis model – in constructing his speaking machine he clearly orientates himself towards the auditory result – cf. the bag pipe model for the sound generator used for the speaking machine instead. Concerning vowel production his theoretical description remains questionable, but his practical insight that vowels and speech sounds in general are only perceived correctly in connection with their surrounding sounds – i.e. the discovery of coarticulation – is clearly a milestone in the development of the phonetic sciences: He therefore dispenses with the Kratzenstein tubes, although they might have been based on more thorough acoustic modelling. Finally, von Kempelen's model of speech production will be discussed in relation to the discussion of the acoustic nature of vowels afterwards [Willis and Wheatstone as well as von Helmholtz and Hermann in the 19th century and Stumpf, Chiba & Kajiyama as well as Fant and Ungeheuer in the 20th century].  

An Electromyographic Study of the Tongue During Vowel Production

1964 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter F. Mac Neilage ◽  
George N. Sholes
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Tongue Muscles ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Surface Electromyograms ◽  
Anatomical Information

Surface electromyograms were recorded from 13 locations on the tongue of one subject during production of 17 different types of [p]-vowel-[p] monosyllables. Results were considered together with X-ray data on tongue action, and anatomical information on tongue musculature, in an attempt to describe the action of tongue muscles during vowel production. It proved possible in most cases to assign muscles, with some certainty, to the major features of myographic activity, and to indicate what function the muscle was serving. The results have particular relevance to theories of sequential speech production, and indirectly, theories of speech perception, as they provide a basis for description of how coarticulation of vowels with consonants involving the tongue takes place.

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