School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
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ItemLearning on the Field: L2 Turkish Vowel Production by L1 American English-Speaking NGOs in Turkey(MDPI, 2022-12)This study adopts the Speech Learning Model to investigate the first language (L1) influence as well as the effects of the length of residence and second language (L2) exposure on American English-speaking learners of Turkish in their productions of Turkish unrounded–rounded vowel pairs, with a particular focus on the vowel categories “new” to American English speakers (/y/, /œ/, and /ɯ/). L1 (English) and L2 (Turkish) speech samples were collected from 18 non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers. L2 experience was defined by whether the worker lived in an urban or regional environment in Turkey. Participants’ audio productions of the word list in L1 and L2 were segmented and annotated for succeeding acoustic analyses. The results show an interesting front–back variability in the realisations of the three vowels, including further back variants of the front vowels (/y/, /œ/) and more forward variants of the /ɯ/ vowel, with a substantial degree of interspeaker variability. While the analysis revealed no significant results for the length of residence, language experience was found to have a significant effect on the production of /y/ (F2) and /ɯ/ (F1/F2). This study forms a first step into the research of adult L2 acquisition in Turkish with a focus on L2 in the naturalistic workplace environment, rather than instructed settings. The findings of this study will contribute to the development of teaching materials for NGO workers learning Turkish as their L2.
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ItemAttitudes towards Indian English among young urban professionals in Hyderabad, India(WILEY, 2023-06)Abstract Despite extensive work on the description of Indian English(es), only limited attention has been paid to attitudes towards the variety among its speakers. This paper reports on semi‐structured interviews eliciting language attitudes with 32 educated young students and professionals in Hyderabad, India. Results reveal that Indian English is occupying an increasingly legitimate position within the popular consciousness, and that there is an increasing sense of ownership of a supra‐local or pan‐dialectal ‘Indian English’. There is an expressed desire for Indian English to continue to expand, and to be accepted as one of the authentic languages of India. The participants exhibited relatively high levels of linguistic security, and while a certain ‘nostalgia’ for British English was retained by some, Indian English appears to be emerging as an authentic carrier of Indian identity.
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ItemThe “other” Spanish: Methodological issues in the study of speech timing in Chilean Spanish(International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), 2020-01-01)This paper is a preliminary account of speech rhythm and some phonological properties of Chilean Spanish in spontaneous dialogues. Different dialects of Spanish have been studied using rhythm metrics measuring the durational variability of vocalic and consonantal intervals. There are, however, methodological issues regarding the segmentation of intervals, often overlooked in previous research, such as the criteria for categorising certain segments into the different intervals and the segmentation of different voice qualities. The present study addresses this gap and compares rhythm metrics obtained using two methods of segmentation based on the available literature. The analyses reveal that a strictly 'acoustic' approach to segmentation of intervals results in slightly inflated metrics. Nevertheless, both methods show there is significant durational interval variability in Chilean Spanish, compared to other dialects of Spanish, that may be connected to phonological properties of the variety.
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ItemThe effects of mp3 compression on acoustic measurements of fundamental frequency and pitch range(ISCA, 2016)Recordings for acoustic research should ideally be made in a lossless format. However, in some cases pre-existing data may be available in a lossy format such as mp3, prompting the question in how far this compromises the accuracy of acoustic measurements. In order to determine whether this is the case, we compressed 10 recordings of read speech in different compression rates (16-320 kbps), and reconverted them to wav in order to examine the effect of compression on commonly used suprasegmental measures of fundamental frequency (f0), pitch range and level. Results suggest that at compression rates between 56 and 320 kbps, measures of f0and most measures of pitch range and level remain reliable, with mean errors below 2% and often better than that. The skewness of the distribution of f0measurements, however, shows much greater measurement errors, with mean errors of 6.9%-7.6% at compression rates between 96 kbps and 320 kbps, and 44.8% at 16 kbps. We conclude that mp3 compressed recordings can be subjected to the acoustic measurements tested here. Nevertheless, the indeterminacy added by mp3 compression needs to be taken into account when interpreting measurements.
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ItemPhonetic exponence of word-level stress in Ashaninka(ARAWAK)(Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019-08-02)This quantitative study examines the phonetic exponents of word-level stress in Ashaninka, an Arawak language of Peru, ISO-639-3 cni; glottocode asha1243. The variety under study is spoken in the Districts of Rio Negro, Satipo, Mazamari, and Llayla of the Satipo province, and District of Pichanaki of the Chanchamayo province of Junín Region. The analysis of Ashaninka word-level stress is based on the audio corpus of elicited speech made during focused fieldwork in the research community. The study results indicate that the right edge oriented primary stress is cued by two robust phonetic exponents, such as duration and intensity. The left edge oriented secondary stress is expressed via intensity. Vowel quality is not a statistically significant correlate to stress in the elicited data, except for the mid back /o/ whose formant structure is indicative of the levels of stress.
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ItemCross-dialectal speech processing: perception of lexical stress by Indian English listeners(Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019-08-09)In English, lexical stress provides essential information guiding lexical activation. However, little is known about the processing of lexical stress in postcolonial Englishes. The present study examines the perception of lexical stress in disyllabic words by adult speakers of Standard Indian English. Results show that in iambic words (second syllable stressed), participants perform at about 54% accuracy, regardless of social background. In trochaic words, participants with private schooling perform significantly better (60% accuracy; p<0.05) than those with a government school background, approaching the level of accuracy reported for Australian English listeners. Our results suggest that processing of the commonly occurring trochaic condition is easier for participants from private schools, while processing of the rare iambic pattern is not eased by such experience. L1 background and onset of learning English show no systematic effect on participants’ performance. Variability in Standard Indian English is shaped mainly by schooling and not L1 background.
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ItemSecond language fluency: re-thinking utterance fluency from a phonetics-phonology interface(Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019-08-09)Research into second language fluency has called for cross-linguistic studies to rule out measures that can be attributed to intra-speaker variation. However, cross-linguistic comparisons in fluency studies are problematic. Research in the area has not necessarily taken into consideration differences across languages such as syllable structure, phonotactics, durational cues to prominence and prosodic levels, and idiosyncratic nature of pause duration. The preliminary results of this study into L2 fluency in Chilean Spanish speakers of English revealed that speed and pause phenomena were mostly idiosyncratic, and that segments rather than syllables could be a more reliable measure. Durational cues for phrasal level prominence were not implemented consistently in the L1 and preboundary lengthening in the L2 was not necessarily being used to signal prosodic constituent boundaries. It may be useful to re-operationalize measures used in L2 fluency studies from a phonetics-phonology interface perspective
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ItemTense-lax contrasts in Indian English vowels: transfer effects from L1 Telugu at the phonetics-phonology interface(Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019-08-09)We investigate the effects of L1 Telugu on tense-lax contrasts in Indian English vowels. While English has a tense-lax contrast in high vowels, / iː, ɪ, uː, ʊ/, with duration as an additional cue, Telugu has only a shortlong contrast, /i, iː, u, uː/, though these also have the lax allophones /ɪ, ɪː, ʊ, ʊː/ as a result of vowel harmony (VH), triggered by a following low vowel. We examine whether L1 transfer effects are limited to the ‘base’ phonological inventory (e.g. ‘borrowing’ the Telugu length contrast for English), or whether speakers access the spectrally closer VH allophones from Telugu. The results reveal something more complex, with some speakers showing tense-lax allophones also for Telugu length contrasts. In L1-L2 transfer, these speakers exapt these phonetically laxer short allophones for the English lax vowels. The other speakers, showing less tense-lax variation all round in L1, create entirely new phonetic categories for the English lax vowels.
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ItemHomogeneity vs heterogeneity in Indian English: Investigating influences of L1 on f0 range(ISCA, 2018-01-01)We present an exploratory analysis of several long-term distributional measures of f0 range in the speech of university-educated speakers of Indian English from four L1 backgrounds (Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Bengali). The aim of this study is to investigate the degree of homogeneity in Indian English prosody and any similarities between the speakers' productions in English and their L1. Following recent studies, we examine three aspects of f0 range: pitch level (relative height of habitual f0), pitch span and pitch dynamism. Overall, across varieties, pitch level measures reveal individual speaker differences and only weak L1 effects on max f0 and median f0. Some speakers show higher f0 in their L1 productions compared to their English productions. More robust patterns were found for pitch span and dynamism: for all measures (maximum-minimum f0, pitch dynamism quotient and standard deviation), significant differences were found between L1 and English (p<0.001) for Bengali and Telugu L1 speakers. The relative weakness of L1 effects would suggest a degree of homogeneity in Indian English, at least for the prosodic parameters investigated. Evidence of a shift in pitch span when talking in English, regardless of L1, further suggests a convergent speech variety.
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ItemDurational variability as a marker of prosodic structure in Indian English(es)(International Speech Communication Association, 2018)This paper presents an analysis of systematic durational variability as a marker of prosodic structure in the speech of university educated Indian English speakers from four L1 backgrounds (Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu), with the aim of investigating the degree of uniformity in Indian English prosody. The results reveal a complex picture, with some evidence for L1 influence, alongside possible convergence factors, both in the direction of native English features and in the direction of pan-Indian features. We discuss the implications of these findings with regard to the status and putative homogeneity of Indian English.