Loquens

10th anniversary of Loquens

2024-02-15T11:50:29+01:00

A comparative and acoustic analysis of phoneme /g/ in spontaneous speech in Basque Country, Andalusia and Madrid

2023-08-29T12:40:40+02:00

In this work, we perform the acoustic analysis of the features of harmonicity, sonority, duration and intensity of each /g/ sound extracted from a sample of spontaneous speech from a corpus collected from recordings of local television programs in Andalusia, Madrid and the Basque Country. This corpus consists of 1292 utterances, in which the velar appears on 151 occasions in different contexts. These sounds are described and categorized thanks to the Praat spectrographic analysis program and a comparison of their features among the three dialectal communities that the corpus contains. The most relevant results allow us to conclude that undescribed realizations of [ɣ] occur in spontaneous speech; that the intensity curves of these approximant sounds yield significant figures for their characterization; and that the frequency of production of the approximant [ɣ] is greater in Andalusia than in Madrid or Euskadi.

Variation in the standard norm: the case of spoken Basque

2023-10-02T09:20:50+02:00

La estandarización suele ser un proceso vital en la normalización de las lenguas. La creación de una variante estándar, una variante unificada de la lengua, es una nueva herramienta, un nuevo recurso para los hablantes, a quienes dota de una variante formal, cuidada, de la lengua, para necesidades comunicativas ya existentes o que puedan surgir en el futuro. El estándar del euskera se conoce como Euskara Batua (Euskera Unificado). Este artículo tiene el objetivo de presentar la estandarización de la pronunciación del euskera, entendiendo la creación de la norma como una intervención externa que facilita a los hablantes desarrollar un registro de habla previamente no elaborado.

Analizaremos la variación y flexibilidad presentes en las normas para la pronunciación estándar de la lengua vasca, señalando las razones y los criterios (geográficos y sociológicos) en los que se fundamentó la Real Academia de la Lengua Vasca. Asimismo, basándonos en el modelo teórico de la Fonología Natural, argumentaremos la base fonológica de algunas normas. Se mostrará que las decisiones adoptadas en la configuración de algunas normas no coinciden con las argumentaciones fonológicas defendidas por la Fonología Natural en cuanto a la relación entre registros de habla y los tipos de procesos fonológicos.

A corpus study of durational rhythmic measures in the Kalhori variety of Kurdish

2023-10-23T09:51:27+02:00

In order to identify between-sentence and between-speaker variabilities, one of the methods used by phoneticians is studying durational rhythmic features. In the present research, to classify speech rhythm of Kalhori, a variety of Kurdish, and to find out about the most appropriate measures for between-sentence and between-speaker rhythmic variability in Kalhori, durational speech rhythmic measures were analyzed. To this end, two speaking styles (read and spontaneous) were explored. The analysis of the read corpus revealed that Kalhori Kurdish rhythm pattern is between stress-timed and syllable-timed. The results indicated that %V (proportion over which speech is vocalic) was the most significant measure for distinguishing between-sentence rhythmic variability in the read corpus, while %V and rateSyl (syllable rate) were the most efficient measures for identifying the between-speaker rhythmic variability in both the read and spontaneous corpus.

Durational cues to resyllabification in Spanish

2023-09-05T19:30:16+02:00

Word-final consonants in Spanish are post-lexically resyllabified when followed by an onsetless syllable, e.g. venden aves (‘they sell birds’) is traditionally syllabified as ven.de.na.ves and is considered homophonous with vende naves (‘he sells ships’). This study analyzes such two-word minimal pairs inserted in prosodically equivalent sentences read from a list and provides measurements of the acoustic duration of resyllabified /s/, /n/, and /l/, and of their flanking vowels. A mixed-model analysis showed that, when resyllabified as derived onsets, all three consonants pattern together and show a shorter duration (venden aves) in comparison with canonical onsets (vende naves). This is consistent with the coda position that they occupy in the lexical representation, given the weak nature of codas. However, vowel duration varies according to consonant identity. These results are discussed in terms of the articulatory gestures making up the target consonants and allow to interpret that the resyllabified consonant actually becomes the onset of the following syllable. Therefore, we offer converging evidence of resyllabified consonants acting both as codas and onsets, and consequently we propose they can be analyzed as ambisyllabic.

Multiple bursts in non-native and native English: Evidence from twelve L1s

2023-12-14T09:45:31+01:00

Voiceless plosives are frequently produced with multiple bursts (MBs), a phenomenon that has substantial implications for voice onset time measurement (VOT) of these consonants. MBs have been noted in previous research, but have not been systematically quantified. The objective of this study was to analyze MBs in non-native English (with data from twelve first languages) and native English, and to discern the effect of MBs on VOT measurement. Further, the potential effects of place of articulation (PoA), gender, speech rate, and age on MBs were explored. Results showed that VOT measurement method in the presence of MBs had a significant effect on the VOT values obtained for the plosives. In addition, MBs were influenced to a large extent by PoA, but not by gender, speech rate, or age. Comparisons between non-native English and native English revealed some significant differences, but in both varieties the analyses of MBs showed overall similar tendencies.

Tonal prominence in the falling intonation of interrogatives and declaratives in Zulia (Venezuela)

2023-11-08T18:24:39+01:00

Geolinguistics is concerned with studying linguistic variation in space from various linguistic levels and reflecting it in the so-called linguistic atlases. Given the need to create a multimedia atlas in which to capture the prosody of Romance languages and varieties, the AMPER project (Atlas Multimédia Prosodique de l'Espace Roman) was born in 2002, the first atlas to describe prosody and capture the results in a computer support in the form of a multimedia atlas. One of these varieties is Venezuelan, for whose prosodic study the dialect division proposed by Mora is followed (Los Andes, Los Llanos, Centro, Sur-oriental and Zulia region). In this work, a phonetic-phonological intonational study of Zulia is carried out. The acoustic analysis was conducted with MATLAB and the absolute values of f ₀, extracted in the nucleus of the syllable, were relativized in semitones, determining their perceptual importance from the differential threshold of 1.5 semitones.

Production of English Vowel Contrasts in Spanish L1 Learners: A Longitudinal Study

2023-11-09T12:10:43+01:00

The present study undertakes a longitudinal examination of forty postgraduate students, native Spanish speakers, during their first year at a UK university. The research focuses on both individual and collective progress in mastering distinctions within English vowel pairs (/iː/-/ɪ/, /ɪ/-/e/, and /uː/-/ʊ/), with a specific focus on adaptations towards achieving native-like English vowel pronunciation, particularly in terms of vowel quality. Prior research indicates that adult Spanish learners encounter difficulties in mastering the intricate linguistic nuances presented by English. The methodology involved recording Spanish-speaking participants reading a list of words (CVC context) at three different time points over a year. The analysis was based on formant frequencies using Praat, and Euclidean distances were calculated to represent the degree of separation between each pair of vowels. Information about external factors potentially influencing the development of vowel productions among speakers was gathered through a language background questionnaire. The outcomes suggested varying rates of advancement within the group, which could be attributed to the diverse levels of exposure and interaction with native English speakers during their year of study in the UK. These results affirm the learning processes in adult L2 production, emphasizing the critical role played by both the quantity and quality of time in the assimilation of pronunciations to novel L2 segments.

Beyond the average: embracing speaker individuality in the dynamic modeling of the acoustic-articulatory relationship

2023-11-10T12:47:14+01:00

This paper explores the acoustic-articulatory relationship while considering individual differences in speech production. We aimed to determine whether there is a causal relationship between tongue movements and the contours of the first and second formant frequencies (F ₁ and F ₂) employing a hierarchical Bayesian continuous-time dynamic model, which allows for a more direct connection between the acoustic and articulatory measured variables and theories involving dynamicity. The results show predictive tendencies for both formants, where the anteroposterior and vertical tongue movements may predict changes in F ₁, with rising predicting an increase and retraction a decrease; and with tongue fronting and tongue height inversely predicting F ₂. Further, the modeled individual differences showed similar global tendencies, except for the rate of change of F ₂. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the relationship between tongue articulatory variables and formant contours, while accounting for between-speaker variability.

The results show predictive tendencies for both formants, where the anteroposterior and vertical tongue movements may predict changes in f₁, with rising predicting an increase and retraction a decrease; and with tongue fronting and tongue height inversely predicting f₂. Further, the modeled individual differences showed similar global tendencies, however with larger error estimates. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the relationship between tongue articulatory variables and formant contours, while accounting for between-speaker variability.

Software-assisted identification of non-native pitch elements for Russian-speaking learners of Spanish

2023-12-08T18:06:47+01:00

In this paper we present the results of an automatic comparative-contrastive analysis of functional elements of intonational contour (anacrusis, first peak, body, nucleus and final inflection) produced by non-native speakers of Spanish, whose first language is Russian. This analysis was carried out with the Plugin for phonetic-phonological analysis in Spanish (PAFe), a software tool for an instant comparative analysis of a non-native speakers’ pronunciation which takes audio recordings as input and implements multiple intonation comparison algorithms between native and non-native speakers of Spanish to calculate the percentage of similarity in intonation production. We used the intersyllabic analysis function of PAFe in order to identify which functional pitch elements of Russian speaking learners of Spanish -male and female- present more tonal deviations. Our results show that most tonal differences occurred in the body of the f ₀contour for female speakers whereas for male speakers the greatest tonal contrast was in the first peak. The obtained data indicate that these pitch elements are potentially challenging for Russian speaking learners of Spanish in their pursuit of acquiring phonetic-phonological competence. In addition, this study allowed us to identify which parameters of PAFe analysis per syllables require further refinement, such as processing of limited intonational spectrum values.