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An Acoustic Analysis of Vowels
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An Acoustic Analysis of Vowels

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2024) | Viewed by 7007

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jaydene Elvin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Linguistics, California State University Fresno, Fresno, CA, USA
Interests: acoustic–phonetics; language documentation; L2 perception and production

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Acoustic analyses have long been used to investigate the characteristics of both normal and abnormal speech in a variety of languages and settings. Methods of acoustic analyses have been particularly useful for the study of vowels. For example, acoustic analyses have been used to describe vowel production across mainstream languages and variation among dialects (e.g., American English (Clopper et al., 2005), Australian English (Harrington et al., 1997), Portuguese (Escudero et al., 2005) and Spanish (Chládková et al., 2011), to name a few), as well as under described languages (e.g., Nungon (Sarvasy et al., 2020), Otomi (Hñäñho) Mulík et al., 2019)). In studies of second language (L2) speech, methods of acoustic analyses have been used to predict L2 vowel perception and production (e.g., Gilichinskaya and Strange, 2010; Escudero and Vasiliev, 2011; Elvin et al., 2021). Acoustic analyses have also been used to investigate vowel production among speakers with speech disorders (e.g., Kent and Rountrey, 2020; Swartz et al., 2022). The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together state-of-the-art articles that use various methods of acoustic analyses to investigate the realizations of vowels for a variety of purposes. Topics of interest for this issue are those which feature acoustic analyses of vowels and include but are not limited to investigations of new and innovative methods of acoustic analysis, acoustic–phonetic language descriptions, language variation and change, L2 speech research, speech disorders.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editor ([email protected]) or to the Languages editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

References

Clopper, C. G., Pisoni, D. B., & De Jong, K. (2005). Acoustic characteristics of the vowel systems of six regional varieties of American English. The Journal of the Acoustical society of America, 118(3), 1661-1676.

Chládková, K., Escudero, P., & Boersma, P. (2011). Context-specific acoustic differences between Peruvian and Iberian Spanish vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 130(1), 416-428.

Elvin, J., Williams, D., Shaw, J. A., Best, C. T., & Escudero, P. (2021). The role of acoustic similarity and non-native categorisation in predicting non-native discrimination: Brazilian Portuguese vowels by English vs. Spanish listeners. Languages, 6(1), 44.

Escudero, P., Boersma, P., Rauber, A. S., & Bion, R. A. (2009). A cross-dialect acoustic description of vowels: Brazilian and European Portuguese. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 126(3), 1379-1393.

Escudero, P., & Vasiliev, P. (2011). Cross-language acoustic similarity predicts perceptual assimilation of Canadian English and Canadian French vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 130(5), EL277-EL283.

Gilichinskaya, Y. D., & Strange, W. (2010). Perceptual assimilation of American English vowels by inexperienced Russian listeners. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128(2), EL80-EL85.

Harrington, Jonathan, Felicity Cox, and Zoe Evans. "An acoustic phonetic study of broad, general, and cultivated Australian English vowels." Australian Journal of Linguistics 17.2 (1997): 155-184.

Kent, R. D., & Rountrey, C. (2020). What acoustic studies tell us about vowels in developing and disordered speech. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29(3), 1749-1778.

Mulík, S., Amengual, M., Avecilla-Ramírez, G., & Carrasco-Ortíz, H. (2019). An acoustic description of the vowel system of Santiago Mexquititlán Otomi (Hñäñho). In Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XIX), Melbourne, Australia (pp. 1377-1381).

Swartz, M. T., Koenig, L., & Hitchcock, E. R. (2022). Acoustic analysis of vowel production in children with childhood apraxia of speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 151(4), A44-A45.

Dr. Jaydene Elvin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • acoustic analyses
  • acoustic–phonetics
  • vowels
  • speech perception
  • speech production
  • heritage language
  • bilingualism
  • language variation
  • accent variation
  • language change
  • language contact
  • minority languages
  • apraxia
  • dysarthria
  • language documentation
  • regional variation
  • sociophonetics

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2045 KiB  
Article
An Acoustic–Phonetic Description of Hidatsa Vowels
by John P. Boyle, Jiaang Dong, Armik Mirzayan and V. B. Scott
Languages 2024, 9(10), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9100315 - 29 Sep 2024
Viewed by 366
Abstract
In this study, we report on results of a preliminary acoustic–phonetic analysis of the Hidatsa vowel system. We conducted acoustic measurements of Hidatsa vowels in terms of averaged temporal and spectral properties of these phones. Our durational analysis provides strong evidence that Hidatsa [...] Read more.
In this study, we report on results of a preliminary acoustic–phonetic analysis of the Hidatsa vowel system. We conducted acoustic measurements of Hidatsa vowels in terms of averaged temporal and spectral properties of these phones. Our durational analysis provides strong evidence that Hidatsa has a ten-vowel system with phonemically long and short vowels, in addition to two diphthongs. Our spectral measurements consisted of averages and time-evolution dynamic properties of the first three formants (F1, F2 and F3) at 30 equally spaced time points along the central portion of each vowel. The centers and distributions of the F1 and F2 formants, as well as their time-averaged trajectories, provide strong evidence for separate vowel qualities for both the short and long vowels. These measurements also show that all Hidatsa vowels have some degree of time-dependent spectral change, with the back vowels generally displaying a longer time-evolution track. Lastly, our results also indicate that in Hidatsa mid-short vowels do not appear with the same frequency as the other vowels, and that the short [é] has no unstressed counterpart. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue An Acoustic Analysis of Vowels)
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29 pages, 2920 KiB  
Article
Acoustic Analysis of Vowels in Australian Aboriginal English Spoken in Victoria
by Debbie Loakes and Adele Gregory
Languages 2024, 9(9), 299; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9090299 - 12 Sep 2024
Viewed by 495
Abstract
(1) Background: Australian Aboriginal English (AAE) is a variety known to differ in various ways from the mainstream, but to date very little phonetic analysis has been carried out. This study is a description of L1 Aboriginal English in southern Australia, aiming to [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Australian Aboriginal English (AAE) is a variety known to differ in various ways from the mainstream, but to date very little phonetic analysis has been carried out. This study is a description of L1 Aboriginal English in southern Australia, aiming to comprehensively describe the acoustics of vowels, focusing in particular on vowels known to be undergoing change in Mainstream Australian English. Previous work has focused on static measures of F1/F2, and here we expand on this by adding duration analyses, as well as dynamic F1/F2 measures. (2) Methods: This paper uses acoustic-phonetic analyses to describe the vowels produced by speakers of Aboriginal Australian English from two communities in southern Australia (Mildura and Warrnambool). The focus is vowels undergoing change in the mainstream variety–the short vowels in KIT, DRESS, TRAP, STRUT, LOT, and the long vowel GOOSE; focusing on duration, and static and dynamic F1/F2. As part of this description, we analyse the data using the sociophonetic variables gender, region, and age, and also compare the Aboriginal Australian English vowels to those of Mainstream Australian English. (3) Results: On the whole, for duration, few sociophonetic differences were observed. For static F1/F2, we saw that L1 Aboriginal English vowel spaces tend to be similar to Mainstream Australian English but can be analysed as more conservative (having undergone less change) as has also been observed for L2 Aboriginal English, in particular for KIT, DRESS, and TRAP. The Aboriginal English speakers had a less peripheral vowel space than Mainstream Australian English speakers. Dynamic analyses also highlighted dialectal differences between Aboriginal and Mainstream Australian English speakers, with greater F1/F2 movement in the trajectories of vowels overall for AAE speakers, which was more evident for some vowels (TRAP, STRUT, LOT, and GOOSE). Regional differences in vowel quality between the two locations were minimal, and more evident in the dynamic analyses. (4) Conclusions: This paper further highlights how Aboriginal Australian English is uniquely different from Mainstream Australian English with respect to certain vowel differences, and it also highlights some ways in which the varieties align. The differences, i.e., a more compressed vowel space, and greater F1/F2 movement in the trajectories of short vowels for AAE speakers, are specific ways that Aboriginal Australian English and Mainstream Australian English accents are different in these communities in the southern Australian state of Victoria. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue An Acoustic Analysis of Vowels)
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21 pages, 1145 KiB  
Article
The Targetedness of English Schwa: Evidence from Schwa-Initial Minimal Pairs
by Emily R. Napoli and Cynthia G. Clopper
Languages 2024, 9(4), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040130 - 2 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1329
Abstract
Schwa in English shows a considerable amount of contextual variation, to the extent that previous work has proposed that it is acoustically targetless. Although the consensus of previous research seems to suggest that schwa is targeted, the sources of schwa’s contextual variation have [...] Read more.
Schwa in English shows a considerable amount of contextual variation, to the extent that previous work has proposed that it is acoustically targetless. Although the consensus of previous research seems to suggest that schwa is targeted, the sources of schwa’s contextual variation have yet to be fully explained. We explored a potential source of variation in English schwa, namely, whether schwa occurs in a content word (word-initial schwa, e.g., accompany) or is a function word (phrase-initial schwa, e.g., a company). We sought to determine whether English speakers distinguish word- and phrase-initial schwas in production, as well as whether word- and phrase-initial schwas differ in their level of targetedness. To elicit hyperarticulation of word- and phrase-initial schwas and thereby facilitate our ability to observe their targets, participants produced ambiguous and unambiguous word- and phrase-initial schwa pairs in neutral and biased sentence contexts. The first and second formant trajectories of the schwas were analyzed using growth curve analysis, allowing us to demonstrate that word-initial and phrase-initial schwas are both targeted and have different targets. Ultimately, our results suggest different underlying representations for schwas in function and content words. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue An Acoustic Analysis of Vowels)
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35 pages, 2214 KiB  
Article
Australian English Monophthong Change across 50 Years: Static versus Dynamic Measures
by Felicity Cox, Joshua Penney and Sallyanne Palethorpe
Languages 2024, 9(3), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9030099 - 13 Mar 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1576
Abstract
Most analyses of monophthong change have historically relied on static acoustic measures. It is unclear the extent to which dynamic measures can shed greater light on monophthong change than can already be captured using such static approaches. In this study, we conducted a [...] Read more.
Most analyses of monophthong change have historically relied on static acoustic measures. It is unclear the extent to which dynamic measures can shed greater light on monophthong change than can already be captured using such static approaches. In this study, we conducted a real-time trend analysis of vowels in corpora collected from female Mainstream Australian English (MAusE) speakers under 30 years of age across three time periods: the 1960s, 1990s, and 2010s. Using three different methods for characterising the first and second formants (the target-based approach, discrete cosine transform (DCT), and generalised additive mixed model (GAMM)), we statistically examined differences for each of 10 monophthongs to outline change over the fifty-year period. Results show that all three methods complement each other in capturing the changing vowel system, with the DCT and GAMM analyses superior in their ability to provide greater nuanced detail that would be overlooked without consideration of dynamicity. However, if consideration of the vowel system as a whole is of interest (i.e., the relationships between the vowels), visualising the vowel space can facilitate interpretation, and this may require reference to static measures. We also acknowledge that locating the source of vowel dynamic differences in sound change involves reference to surrounding phonetic context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue An Acoustic Analysis of Vowels)
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21 pages, 1360 KiB  
Article
Acoustic Similarity Predicts Vowel Phoneme Detection in an Unfamiliar Regional Accent: Evidence from Monolinguals, Bilinguals and Second-Language Learners
by Daniel Williams, Turgut Ağabeyoğlu, Adamantios Gafos and Paola Escudero
Languages 2024, 9(2), 62; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020062 - 14 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1710
Abstract
When encountering an unfamiliar accent, a hypothesized perceptual challenge is associating its phonetic realizations with the intended phonemic categories. Greater accumulated exposure to the language might afford richer representations of phonetic variants, thereby increasing the chance of detecting unfamiliar accent speakers’ intended phonemes. [...] Read more.
When encountering an unfamiliar accent, a hypothesized perceptual challenge is associating its phonetic realizations with the intended phonemic categories. Greater accumulated exposure to the language might afford richer representations of phonetic variants, thereby increasing the chance of detecting unfamiliar accent speakers’ intended phonemes. The present study examined the extent to which the detection of vowel phonemes spoken in an unfamiliar regional accent of English is facilitated or hindered depending on their acoustic similarity to vowels produced in a familiar accent. Monolinguals, experienced bilinguals and native German second-language (L2) learners completed a phoneme detection task. Based on duration and formant trajectory information, unfamiliar accent speakers’ vowels were classed as acoustically “similar” or “dissimilar” to counterpart phonemes in the familiar accent. All three participant groups were substantially less sensitive to the phonemic identities of “dissimilar” compared to “similar” vowels. Unlike monolinguals and bilinguals, L2 learners showed a response shift for “dissimilar” vowels, reflecting a cautious approach to these items. Monolinguals displayed somewhat heightened sensitivity compared to bilinguals, suggesting that greater accumulated exposure aided phoneme detection for both “similar” and “dissimilar” vowels. Overall, acoustic similarity predicted the relative success of detecting vowel phonemes in cross-dialectal speech perception across groups with varied linguistic backgrounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue An Acoustic Analysis of Vowels)
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