dc.contributor.author | Volín, Jan | en |
dc.contributor.author | Weingartová, Lenka | en |
dc.contributor.author | Skarnitzl, Radek | en |
dc.date.accessioned | 2015-06-12T12:36:25Z | |
dc.date.available | 2015-06-12T12:36:25Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2013-05-04 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 1731-7533 | en |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11089/9662 | |
dc.description.abstract | The English central mid lax vowel (i.e., schwa) often contributes considerably to the sound differences between native and non-native speech. Many foreign speakers of English fail to reduce certain underlying vowels to schwa, which, on the suprasegmental level of description, affects the perceived rhythm of their speech. However, the problem of capturing quantitatively the differences between native and non-native schwa poses difficulties that, to this day, have been tackled only partially. We offer a technique of measurement in the acoustic domain that has not been probed properly as yet: the distribution of acoustic energy in the vowel spectrum. Our results show that spectral slope features measured in weak vowels discriminate between Czech and British speakers of English quite reliably. Moreover, the measurements of formant bandwidths turned out to be useful for the same task, albeit less direct | en |
dc.publisher | Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego | en |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | Research in Language;11 | en |
dc.rights | This content is open access. | en |
dc.subject | foreign accent | en |
dc.subject | prominence | en |
dc.subject | schwa | en |
dc.subject | spectral slope | en |
dc.title | Spectral Characteristics of Schwa in Czech Accented English | en |
dc.page.number | 31-39 | en |
dc.contributor.authorAffiliation | Volín Jan - Metropolitan University Prague | en |
dc.contributor.authorAffiliation | Weingartová Lenka - Institute of Phonetics in Prague | en |
dc.contributor.authorAffiliation | Skarnitzl Radek - Institute of Phonetics in Prague | en |
dc.identifier.eissn | 2083-4616 | |
dc.references | Ashby, M., Ashby, P., Baldwin, J., Holmes, F., House, J. and Maidment, J. 1995. Broad transcription in phonetic training. Proceedings of the XIIIth ICPhS: 170-173. Stockholm: IPA. | en |
dc.references | Barry, W. J. 1998. Time as a factor in the acoustic variation of schwa. Proceedings of 5thInt. Conf. on Spoken Language Processing, Sydney: 3071-3074. | en |
dc.references | Boersma, P. and Weenink, D. 2012. Praat: doing phonetics by computer (version 5.3.14). Retrieved from http://www.praat.org/. | en |
dc.references | Browman, C. P. and Goldstein, L. 1992. “Targetless” schwa: an articulatory analysis. In G. J. Docherty and D. R. Ladd (eds.) Papers in Laboratory Phonology II. Cambridge: CUP: 26-56. | en |
dc.references | Derwing, T. M. and Munro, M. J. 2009. Putting accent in its place: rethinking obstacles to communication. Language Teaching 42 (4): 476-490. DOI: 10.1017/S026144480800551X Flemming, E. and S. Johnson. 2007. Rosa’s roses: reduced vowels in American English. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37: 83-96. DOI: 10.1017/S0025100306002817 doi: 10.1017/S026144480800551X.S.Johnson.2007.Rosasroses:.37:83-96.DOI:10.1017/S0025100306002817 | en |
dc.references | Fry, D. B. 1947. The frequency of occurrence of speech sounds in Southern English. Archives Néerlandaises de Phonétique Expérimentale 20: 103-106. | en |
dc.references | Gobl, Ch. and Ní Chasaide A. 2003. The role of voice quality in communicating emotion, mood and attitude. Speech Communication 40: 189-212. DOI: doi: 10.1016/S0167-6393(02)00082-1 | en |
dc.references | Hammarberg, B., Fritzell, B., Gauffin, J., Sundberg, J. and Wedin, L. 1980. Perceptual and acoustic correlates of abnormal voice qualities. Acta Otolaryngologica 90: 441-451. | en |
dc.references | Hanson, H. M., Stevens, K. N., Kuo, H-K. J, Chen, M.Y. and Slifka, J. 2001. Towards models of phonation. Journal of Phonetics 29: 451-480. DOI: doi: 10.1006/jpho.2001.0146 | en |
dc.references | Lev-Ari, S. and Keysar, B. 2010. Why don’t we believe non-native speakers? The influence of accent on credibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46: 1093-1096. DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.025 ThomsonISI: http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=000284440200032&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=b7bc2757938ac7a7a821505f8243d9f3 | en |
dc.references | Lindblom, B. 1963. Spectrographic study of vowel reduction. Journal of the AcousticalSociety of America 35: 143-162. | en |
dc.references | Nakatani, L. H., O’Connor, K. D. and Aston, C. H. 1981. Prosodic aspects of American English speech rhythm. Phonetica 38: 84-105. doi: 10.1159/000260016 | en |
dc.references | Sluijter, A. M. C. and Van Heuven, V. J. 1996. Spectral balance as an acoustic correlate of linguistic stress. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 100: 2471-2485. | en |
dc.references | Sundberg, J. and Nordenberg, M. 2006. Effects of vocal loudness variation on spectrum balance as reflected by the alpha measure of long-term-average spectra of speech. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 120/1: 453-457. DOI: doi: 10.1121/1.2208451 | en |
dc.references | Volín, J. and Zimmermann, J. 2011. Spectral slope parameters and detection of word stress. Technical Computing Prague: 125 - 5 pages. Praha: Humusoft. | en |
dc.contributor.authorEmail | Volín Jan - Jan.Volin@ff.cuni.cz | en |
dc.contributor.authorEmail | Weingartová Lenka - Lenka.Weingartova@ff.cuni.cz | en |
dc.contributor.authorEmail | Skarnitzl Radek - Radek.Skarnitzl@ff.cuni.cz | en |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.2478/v10015-012-0008-6 | en |