School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications

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    Preaspiration in Italian voiceless geminate and singleton stops
    Dian, A ; Hajek, J ; Fletcher, J ; Skarnitzl, R ; Volín, J (Guarant, 2023-08-07)
    This study is the first to explore from a cross-regional perspective acoustic phonetic features of preaspiration in both voiceless geminate and singleton stops in Italian, a language for which preaspiration is most typically associated with voiceless geminate stops. Frequency of preaspiration occurrence and duration are investigated in a controlled production experiment involving twelve speakers from two regional areas with different dialect substrata. Results reveal that preaspiration occurs for both geminates and singletons in both regions, with area-specific differences in frequency possibly linked to regional differences in phonetic voicing patterns of intervocalic singletons. We conclude that preaspiration in Italian stops may be best associated with phonetic voicing status, not phonological length.
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    Prosodic phrasing, pitch range and word order variation in Murrinhpatha
    Fletcher, J ; Kidd, E ; Stoakes, H ; Nordlinger, R ; Rosey, B (ASSTA, 2022)
    Like many Indigenous Australian languages, Murrinhpatha has flexible word order with no apparent configurational syntax. We analyzed an experimental corpus of Murrinhpatha utterances for associations between different thematic role orders, intonational phrasing patterns and pitch downtrends. We found that initial constituents (Agents or Patients) tend to carry the highest pitch targets (HiF0), followed by patterns of downstep and declination. Sentence-final verbs always have lower Hif0 values than either initial or medial Agents or Patients. Thematic role order does not influence intonational patterns, with the results suggesting that Murrinhpatha has positional prosody, although final nominals can disrupt global pitch downtrends regardless of thematic role.
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    Nasal aerodynamics and coarticulation in Bininj Kunwok: Smoothing Spline Analysis of Variance
    STOAKES, H ; Fletcher, J ; Butcher, AR ; Carignan, C ; Tyler, M (ASSTA, 2016-12-06)
    Nasal phonemes are well represented within the lexicon of BininjKunwok.1 Thisstudyexaminesintervocalic,wordmedial nasals and reports patterns of coarticulation using a Smooth- ing Spline Analysis of Variance (SSANOVA). This allows for detailed comparisons of peak nasal airflow across six female speakers of the language. Results show that in a VNV sequence there is very little anticipatory vowel nasalisation and greater carryover into a following vowel. The maximum peak nasal flow is delayed for coronals when compared to the onset of oral closure in the nasal, indicating a delayed velum opening gesture. The velar place of articulation is the exception to this pattern with some limited anticipatory nasalisation. The SSANOVA has shown to be an appropriate technique for quantifying these patterns and dynamic speech data in general.
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    Japanese Vowel Devoicing Modulates Perceptual Epenthesis
    Kilpatrick, A ; Kawahara, S ; Bundgaard-Nielsen, R ; Baker, B ; Fletcher, J ; Epps, J ; Wolfe, J ; Jones, C (Australian Speech Science and Technology Association, 2018)
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    Phrasing and constituent boundaries in Lifou French
    Fletcher, J ; Torres, C ; Wigglesworth, G ; Calhoun, S ; Escudero, P ; Tabain, M ; Warren, P (Australasian Speech Science and Technology Australia (ASSTA), 2019)
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    Predictability, Word Frequency and Japanese Perceptual Epenthesis
    Kilpatrick, A ; Kawahara, S ; Bundgaard-Nielsen, R ; Baker, B ; Fletcher, J ; Calhoun, S ; Escudero, P ; TABAIN, M ; Warren, P (Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019)
    Speakers typically invest less effort in the articulation of sounds and words that are highly predictable from their contexts. Recent research reveals a perceptual corollary to this behaviour, showing that listeners pay less attention to acoustic signal in predictable contexts. The present paper expands on this finding by testing the acceptability and discriminability of sequences of speech with varying levels of predictability. Stimuli are contrast pairs and are either phonotactically attested or else contain an illicit nonhomorganic consonant cluster. Such clusters violate Japanese phonotactics and have been found to elicit perceptual epenthesis in Japanese listeners. The results show that unattested consonant clusters are perceived as more acceptable in high-frequency sequences than in low-frequency sequences.
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    Acoustic correlates of lexical stress in Wubuy
    Baker, B ; Bundgaard-Nielsen, R ; Babinski, S ; Fletcher, J ; Calhoun, S ; Escudero, P ; TABAIN, M ; Warren, P (Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019)
    We examined the acoustic correlates of lexical stress in the non-Pama-Nyungan language Wubuy (Northern Territory, Australia). We tested two hypotheses about stress: that stress is determined by (1) a combination of syllable position in prosodic word and quantity sensitivity, or (2) by position alone. To test these hypotheses, we elicited trisyllabic noun roots differing in position of heavy syllables in frame-final environments from 3 speakers. We found that both position and predicted stress based on prior phonological descriptions could account for many correlates (segment and syllable duration, f0, intensity, vowel formants) although overall syllable position appeared to account for more of the variance.
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    Prosodic marking of focus in Nafsan
    Fletcher, J ; Billington, R ; Thieberger, N ; Calhoun, S ; Escudero, P ; Tabain, M ; Warren, P (Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association, 2019)
    Languages use a variety of means to realise informational structure categories like topicalisation and focus. The interaction between prosody and focus realisation strategies was examined in Nafsan, a Southern Oceanic language of Vanuatu, in a series of tasks that were designed to explore prosodic realisation of informational and contrastive focus on nouns that were subjects or objects in mini-dialogues where word-order was manipulated. All speakers produced utterance-initial or utterance-final focal elements with a major pitch movement associated with the focused noun (subject or object). Focused nouns were also realised with a wider pitch and often realised in their own prosodic phrase compared to the same item in non-focal contexts. There was also significant syllable lengthening at the right edge of in-focus words. In utterance-initial contexts, post-focal material in Nafsan was almost always produced in a relatively compressed pitch range and there was evidence of de-phrasing of non-focal nouns regardless of utterance position, suggesting prosodic phrasing patterns similar to other languages with edge-marking prominence.
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    The secondary roles of amplitude and F0 in the perception of word-initial geminates in Kelantan Malay
    Hamzah, MH ; Fletcher, J ; Hajek, J ; Calhoun, S ; Escudero, P ; TABAIN, M ; Warren, P (Australasian Speech Science and Technology Australia (ASSTA), 2019)
    This study examines the extent to which amplitude and F0 play secondary roles in perceptually cueing the word-initial singleton/geminate consonant contrast in Kelantan Malay (KM). Three voiceless stop word-pairs produced in isolation, i.e. utterance-initial position, were chosen for manipulation in three perception experiments involving KM native listeners. Results show that amplitude and F0 have limited perceptual functions on their own, although the combined values of the two parameters do have some effect on the perception of the consonant contrast. These results are expected for the utterance-initial voiceless stop pairs given the absence of closure duration information as a perceptual cue in this context. The findings support the view that the consonant length distinction in word-initial position, particularly for voiceless stops, can be potentially cued by a set of secondary parameters, e.g. amplitude and F0, alongside the primary acoustic parameter of closure duration.
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    Acoustic analysis of the effects of 24 hours of sustained wakefulness
    Vogel, AP ; Fletcher, J ; Maruff, P (Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association, 2010)
    The effect of 24 hours of sustained wakefulness on the speech of healthy adults is poorly documented. Therefore, speech samples were systematically acquired (e.g., every four hours) from 18 healthy adults over 24 hours. Stimuli included automated and extemporaneous tasks, sustained vowel and a read passage. Measures of timing and frequency were derived acoustically using Praat and significant changes were observed on all tasks. The effect of fatigue on speech was found to be strongest just before dawn (after 22 hours). Key features of timing (e.g., mean pause length), frequency (e.g., F4 variation) and power (alpha ratio) changed as a function of increasing levels of fatigue. Index Terms: fatigue, voice, tiredness, clinical marker