I föreliggande single subject designstudie har tre personer med thai som modersmål och svenska som andraspråk tränats specifikt i svenskt uttal. Syftet med föreliggande studie var därför att utforma samt genomföra en uttalsintervention vilken delades in i en suprasegmentell och en segmentell modul. Syftet var vidare att undersöka hur suprasegmentella och segmentella förändringar i uttalet påverkade uttalets förståelighet. Uttalsträningen utfördes 14 gånger under en fem-veckors period. Interventionen delades upp i två moduler, en med suprasegmentellt fokus (B1) och en med segmentellt fokus (B2). I den suprasegmentella modulen ingick medvetandegörelse av stavelseuppbyggnad samt träning i svenska betoningsmönster. Den segmentella modulen innefattade träning av konsonantförbindelser, [ɧ] samt /r/. Efter varje tillfälle fick deltagarna repetera 50 ord som valts ut innan studiens början. Dessa ord analyserades utifrån deltagarnas förmåga att korrekt producera suprasegmentella och segmentella aspekter och utgjorde studiens mätpunkter. De suprasegmentella aspekterna bedömdes utifrån uppsatta bedömningskriterier och de segmentella aspekterna bedömdes med hjälp av Percentage Phonemes Correct (PPC). Efter genomförd intervention fick tre utomstående lyssnare skatta förståelighet för att undersöka om samband kunde ses mellan deras skattningar och de valda bedömningsverktygen. Enskilda ord ur ordlistorna valdes ut för att bedömningsverktygen även skulle jämföras mot akustiska mätningar. Resultaten i föreliggande studie visade på att samband kunde ses mellan specifik uttalsträning med segmentellt fokus och förbättrat uttal både vad gäller segmentella och suprasegmentella aspekter. Samma resultat visade den suprasegmentella uttalsträningen ge. Vidare kunde samband ses mellan bedömningen av de segmentella aspekterna utifrån mätpunkternas beräknade PPC och förståelighetsskattningarna. När PPC ökade förbättrades också förståeligheten. Då uttalsträning bör ha som fokus att uppnå god förståelighet hos andraspråksinläraren (Pennington, 1996; Levis, 2005) föreslås att segmentella aspekter bör ingå i uttalsträning. Mellan förbättringarna av suprasegmentella aspekter och förståelighet har inte liknande samband kunnat ses vilket dock kan bero på studiens design. Författarna till föreliggande studie anser därför att suprasegmentella aspekter i uttalsträning inte bör bortprioriteras. / Three native Thai speakers with Swedish as their second language have received special training in Swedish pronunciation in the current single-subject design study. The aim of the current study was therefore to devise and implement a set of pronunciation training exercises, divided into suprasegmental and segmental modules. The aim was also to examine how suprasegmental and segmental changes in pronunciation affected the intelligibility of the pronunciation. The pronunciation training consisted of 14 training sessions during a five-week period. The exercises were divided into two modules, one with focus on suprasegmental aspects (B1) and one with focus on segmental aspects (B2). The suprasegmental module included acquainting subjects with the syllabic structure of the Swedish language as well as training of the Swedish language stress pattern. The segmental module contained training of consonant clusters, the Swedish speech sound [ɧ] and /r/. At the end of each session the participants were asked to repeat 50 words chosen before the start of the study. These words constituted the measuring points of the study and were analyzed according to the participants' ability to produce suprasegmental and segmental aspects correctly. The suprasegmental aspects were assessed according to fixed criteria and the segmental aspects were rated by means of Percentage Phonemes Correct (PPC). After completion of the final training session, three independent listeners estimated intelligibility to determine if relationship existed between these and the chosen assessment tools. Single words were selected in order to compare their criteria-based and PPC-ratings with acoustic correlates. The results of the present study indicate that a relationship can be observed between specific pronunciation training with focus on segmental aspects and improved pronunciation in terms of segmental and suprasegmental aspects. The pronunciation training with suprasegmental focus indicated the same conclusion. Further, a relationship can be seen between the judgment of the segmental aspects based on the measuring points' PPC-rating and the ratings of intelligibility. The intelligibility improved when the PPC increased. The focus of pronunciation training should be to achieve good intelligibility (Pennington, 1996; Levis, 2005); therefore it is suggested that segmental aspects should be included in pronunciation training for native Thai speakers when learning Swedish as a second language. No similar relations have been discovered between the suprasegmental aspects and intelligibility, which, however, may be due to limitations in the design of the study. Therefore suprasegmental aspects should not be neglected in pronunciation training.

Speech has been the subject of interest for a very long time. Even with so much advancement in the processing techniques and in the understanding of the source of speech, it is, even today, rather difficult to generate speech in the laboratory in all its aspects. A simple aspect like how the speech can retain its intelligibility even if it is distorted or band passed is not really understood. This thesis deals with one small feature of speech viz., the intelligibility of speech is retained even when it is bandpassed with a minimum bandwidth of around 1 KHz located any where on the speech spectrum of 0-4 KHz. Several experiments have been conducted by the earlier workers by passing speech through various distortors like differentiators, integrators and infinite peak clippers and it is found that the intelligibility is retained to a very large extent in the distorted speech. The integrator and the differentiator remove essentially a certain portion of the spectrum. Therefore, it is thought that the intelligibility of the speech is spread over the entire speech spectrum and that, the intelligibility of speech may not be impaired even when it is bandpassed with a minimum bandwidth and the band may be located any where in the speech spectrum. To test this idea and establish this feature if it exists, preliminary experiments have been conducted by passing the speech through different filters and it is found that the conjecture seems to be on the right line. To carry out systematic experiments on this an experimental set up has been designed and fabricated which consists of a microprocessor controlled speech recording, storing and speech playback system. Also, a personal computer is coupled to the microprocessor system to enable the storage and processing of the data. Thirty persons drawn from different walks of life like teachers, mechanics and students have been involved for collecting the samples and for recognition of the information of the processed speech. Even though the sentences like 'This is devices lab' are used to ascertain the effect of bandwidth on the intelligibility, for the purpose of analysis, vowels are used as the speech samples. The experiments essentially consist of recording words and sentences spoken by the 30 participants and these recorded speech samples are passed through different filters with different bandwidths and central frequencies. The filtered output is played back to the various listeners and observations regarding the intelligibility of the speech are noted. The listeners do not have any prior information about the content of the speech. It has been found that in almost all (95%) cases, the messages or words are intelligible for most of the listeners when the band width of the filter is about 1 KHz and this is independent of the location of the pass band in the spectrum of 0-4 KHz. To understand how this feature of speech arises, spectrums of vowels spoken by 30 people have using FFT algorithms on the digitized samples of the speech. It is felt that there is a cyclic behavior of the spectrum in all the samples. To make sure that the periodicity is present and also to arrive at the periodicity, a moving average procedure is employed to smoothen the spectrum. The smoothened spectrums of all the vowels indeed show a periodicity of about 1 KHz. When the periodicities are analysed the average value of the periodicities has been found to be 1038 Hz with a standard deviation of 19 Hz. In view of this it is thought that the acoustic source responsible for speech must have generated this periodic spectrum, which might have been modified periodically to imprint the intelligibility. If this is true, one can perhaps easily understand this feature of the speech viz., the intelligibility is retained in a bandpassed speech of bandwidth 1 K H z . the pass band located any where in the speech spectrum of 0-4 KHz. This thesis describing the experiments and the analysis of the speech has been presented in 5 chapters. Chapter 1 deals with the basics of speech and the processing tools used to analyse the speech signal. Chapter 2 presents the literature survey from where the present problem is tracked down. Chapter 3 describes the details of the structure and the fabrication of the experimental setup that has been used. In chapter 4, the detailed account of the way in which the experiments are conducted and the way in which the speech is analysed is given. In conclusion in chapter 5, the work is summarised and the future work needed to establish the mechanism of speech responsible for the feature of speech described in this thesis is suggested.

The purpose of this work is to measure the degree of intelligibility of native and non-native English speech as well as analyse the major sources of intelligibility failure when speakers of these varieties of English interact. British and American English (henceforth BrE and AmE) and Cameroon English (hereafter CamE) are used as a case study with focus on segmental and supra segmental features. The study was motivated by a number of concerns, several of which are more prominent: First, it was motivated by the trepidation scholars like Gimson (1965, 1980); Prator (1968); etc. nursed that the unprecedented spread of English across the globe and the emergence of non-native varieties would cause English to disintegrate into mutually unintelligible languages, in the way Romance languages devolved from their Latin ancestor. The second motivation was that previous researchers (Bansal 1969, Tiffen 1974) on intelligibility have often concentrated their efforts on the traditional approach, which sees intelligibility from a one-sided perspective. To them, the non-native varieties of English are deficient and not different varieties from the native varieties. They were seen as substandard, incorrect, and unintelligible and thus needed remediation at all costs. The native varieties were seen as prestigious, correct, intelligible and the sole norm that must be emulated by non-native English speakers. In this way any interaction between a native speaker and a non-native speaker should be characterised by the non-native speaker making all the efforts to be understood as well as to understand the native English-speaking partner. This explains in large part why these researchers concentrated on measuring the intelligibility of non-native speech to native speakers and never vice versa. It was as if it was treasonable to measure the intelligibility of native speech to non-native speakers. Even if some researchers managed to do this, the comments that followed such data still showed that the aim was not to test the intelligibility of native speakers but to find out how efficient the non-native speakers were in understanding the native speaker. Another aim could also be to reinforce the teaching of the native norm, which was seen as “correct” against non-native features, which were seen as “incorrect”, to measuring intelligibility. While accepting that these studies reflected the conventional wisdom of the time, this study aims to move the debate forward by looking at intelligibility from a two-sided perspective. It sees communication between speakers of different varieties as a game of give and take, where both participants “tune in” to make the process successful rather than one participant being obliged to make all the efforts because s/he speaks a new English variety. That explains why we are testing not only the intelligibility of non-native speakers to native speakers but also native speakers to non-native speakers. / Gegenstand der vorgelegten Promotionsarbeit ist die Untersuchung der gegenseitigen Verständlichkeit von muttersprachlichem und nicht-muttersprachlichem Englisch. Im besonderen werden die Hauptquellen und Ursachen des Scheiterns von Verständlichkeit in einer empirischen Studie bestimmt, klassifiziert und analysiert. Die Untersuchung wird exemplarisch anhand des Kamerunischen Englisch einerseits und des Britischen und Amerikanischen Englisch anderseits vorgenommen. Motiviert ist diese Arbeit vor allem durch folgende Punkte. Erstens bedarf es der Auseinandersetzung mit den durch eine Reihe von Autoren geäußerten Befürchtungen (z.B. Gimson 1965, 1980 und Prator 1968), daß die Herausbildung und Entwicklung neuer Varianten des Englischen letztlich zu einer Auflösung des Englischen in gegenseitig nicht mehr verständliche Sprachen führt, ein Prozeß, wie er sich historisch bei der Entstehung der romanischen Sprachen aus dem Lateinischen vollzog. Derartige Befürchtungen werden genährt durch die bisher ohnegleichen fortschreitende Verbreitung des Englischen über den gesamten Globus. Hier ergibt sich die dringende Notwendigkeit vergleichender Studien zur gegenseitigen Verständlichkeit zwischen den bestehenden Varianten. Zweitens folgen die meisten zu diesem Thema vorliegenden Untersuchungen im wesentlichen einer traditionellen, überkommenen Grundperspektive: die nicht-muttersprachlichen Varianten des Englischen werden als „abweichend“ bzw. sogar „defizitär“ aus Sicht der muttersprachlichen betrachtet, nicht aber als eigenständige Sprachformen (z.B. Bansal 1969; Tiffen 1974). Dies führt nach Auffassung des Autors zu einer einseitigen Betrachtung und Bewertung. Im besonderen wird in der sprachlichen Interaktion bei einem solchen Zugang die Last zu verstehen und für den Kommunikationspartner verständlich zu sein einseitig dem nicht-muttersprachlichen Sprecher übertragen. Auf diesem Hintergrund untersuchen die vorliegenden Studien anderer Autoren primär die Verständlichkeit nicht-muttersprachlicher Sprachformen für den muttersprachlichen Sprecher, nicht jedoch die umgekehrte Konstellation. Wenn die umgekehrte Perspektive überhaupt berücksichtigt wird, so zeigen die Kommentare, daß nicht die Verständlichkeit muttersprachlicher Sprecher für den Nichtmuttersprachler eigentliches Ziel und Gegenstand der Untersuchung war, sondern vielmehr die Frage, wie effizient sich Nichtmuttersprachler beim Verstehen muttersprachlicher Äußerungen zeigten. Des weiteren stehen diese Studien oft im Kontext des Bestrebens, im institutionalisierten Spracherwerb die muttersprachlichen Normen gegen die nicht-muttersprachlichen Merkmale durchzusetzen, die als „nicht korrekt“ angesehen werden. Diese Positionen, der zugrundeliegende Zugang und die einseitige Ausrichtung bedürfen einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung.

Clear speech is a type of speaking style that improves speech intelligibility for many individuals. For example, one study showed a 17 percentage point increase in intelligibility over conversational speech for individuals with sensorineural hearing loss (Picheny et al., 1985). The clear speech benefit also extends to children with learning disabilities (Bradlow et al., 2003), non-native listeners (Bradlow and Bent, 2002), and other populations. Although clear speech is typically slower than conversational speech, it can be produced, naturally, at normal rates with training. For young listeners with normal hearing, clear speech at normal rates (clear/normal) is more intelligible than conversational speech (conv/normal) and is almost as beneficial as clear speech at slow rates (clear/slow) (Krause and Braida, 2002). However, a preliminary study by Krause (2001), found that clear/normal speech may benefit some older listeners with hearing loss but not others, suggesting that age may be a factor in the clear speech benefit at normal rates. It is evident, though, that clear speech at slow rates benefits this population (Picheny et al., 1985; Payton et al., 1994; Schum, 1996; Helfer, 1998). Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine older listeners with normal hearing to determine how speech intelligibility, measured by % correct keyword scores, varies with speaking mode, speaking rate, talker and listener. Results were then compared to previously collected data from younger listeners with normal hearing (Krause and Braida, 2002) in order to isolate the effect of age on the size of clear speech benefit at slow and normal speaking rates.Eight adults (ages 55-68) with normal hearing participated in speech intelligibility tests.

The object of the study. Short impulse acoustic signals in the frequency range from 500 to 4000 Hz and intensity from 30 to 85 dB. The aim of the study. To estimate and assess the quality of the speech and acoustic signals from the perspective of various background noises of different frequency spectra. The tasks of the study: 1. To evaluate the effects of noise of various intensity on identification of short impulse signals and speech intelligibility in noise; 2. To analyse the audibility of signals in the frequency range of verbal communication (500–4000 Hz) in noise of various intensity and frequency content and to determine the characteristics of signals to be identified in noise; 3. To determine the influence of signals’ duration to the quality of its qualitative subjective identification; 4. To assess the masking effects of the background noise on speech and other informative signals under the combinations if different intensity. Practical value. The data obtained and method developed can be used for the assessment of the acoustic signals in noise. The method is also applicable to the description of background noise from the perspective of verbal communication. Such methodology and results can be adopted for the quality prognostication of audible information and its loss in various background noises of different spectral pattern. / Temos aktualumas. Triukšmo poveikis darbo aplinkoje dažnai siejamas su dirbančiųjų produktyvumo mažėjimu, o triukšmingoje aplinkoje neišgirsti arba neadekvačiai išgirsti akustiniai signalai dažnai būna mašinų trikčių ar traumų darbe pasekmė. Šie pavyzdžiai aiškiai rodo būtinybę spręsti problemas, susietas su girdimosios informacijos sklaida ir kokybe triukšmingoje aplinkoje. Įspėjamųjų ar pavojaus signalų darbo aplinkoje naudojimas standartizuotas ir dažniausiai sprendžiamas energiniu požiūriu, t. y. teikiant ženkliai didesnio intensyvumo akustinius signalus. Šių signalų girdimumas vidutinio intensyvumo triukšmingoje aplinkoje keblumų nesukelia, tačiau realiomis sąlygomis tokios aplinkybės retai pasitaikančios. Daugelyje mokslinių darbų, nagrinėjant garsinės informacijos kokybės klausimus, keliamos tik visiško arba pakankamo suprantamumo problemos, tačiau praktikoje svarbus dalinis šių signalų suvokimas (egzistavimo fakto nustatymas), kuris tyrinėtas menkai. Šiame darbe tiriami ir nagrinėjami reiškiniai, turintys įtakos akustinių garsų girdimumui triukšmingoje aplinkoje bei girdimumą sąlygojančios aplinkybės o taip pat siūlomi sprendimai garsinės informacijos kokybės sistemoje „žmogus – mašina – aplinka“ patikimumo didinimui. Darbo tikslas – triukšmo šaltinių sukuriamą triukšmo foną akustinėje erdvėje ištirti trumpalaikių informacinių akustinių garsų suvokimo požiūriu ir įvertinti triukšmingos aplinkos įtaką naudingų akustinių signalų identifikavimo kokybei. Darbo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

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Thesis (M.Eng.(Bio-Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Summaries in Afrikaans and English. Includes bibliographical references.

O presente estudo buscou investigar os efeitos do VOT Positivo (com ou sem informação contextual) na inteligibilidade de sentenças curtas em Inglês, produzidas por brasileiros, por parte de falantes nativos de Inglês Americano (6) e aprendizes proficientes de Inglês (12). Esses 18 participantes transcreveram sentenças com e sem informação contextual, produzidas com plosivas-alvo sonoras, surdas sem aspiração e surdas com aspiração. Cada participante transcreveu 112 sentenças através do software E-Prime 2.0 (SCHNEIDER, ESCHMAN & ZUCCOLOTTO, 2012) com um tempo-limite para respostas de 20 segundos. Os dados obtidos através da tarefa foram analisados objetivamente, dividindo as transcrições em categorias binárias “correta” (alto grau de inteligibilidade/inteligibilidade plena) e “incorreta” (baixo grau de inteligibilidade/inteligibilidade praticamente inexistente). Em geral, os níveis de acuidade não variaram consideravelmente entre os 18 participantes, embora possamos dizer que falantes nativos de Inglês Americano tiveram desempenho relativamente melhor. A análise das transcrições sugere que, enquanto é possível que fatores externos às variáveis controladas por este estudo tenham tido papel fundamental no desempenho dos participantes, a informação contextual talvez tenha remediado a falta do VOT Positivo como uma pista para atingir inteligibilidade. / The present study aimed to investigate the effects of Positive VOT (with or without contextual information) on the intelligibility of short English sentences produced by Brazilians to native speakers of American English (6) and proficient Brazilian learners (12). These 18 participants transcribed sentences produced with voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated stop segments, with and without contextual information. Each participant transcribed 112 sentences through software E-Prime 2.0 (SCHNEIDER, ESCHMAN & ZUCCOLOTTO, 2012) with a response-time limit of 20 seconds. The data obtained from the task was analyzed objectively, assigning transcriptions to binary accurate (high intelligibility) or inaccurate (low-to-no intelligibility) categories. Overall, accuracy levels did not vary considerably amongst the 18 participants, although it can be said that native speakers of American English performed slightly better. The analysis of the transcriptions suggests that, while factors external to the variables controlled by this study might have played fundamental roles in the overall performance of the task, contextual information may possibly have remedied the absence of Positive VOT as a cue for achieving sentence intelligibility.

O presente estudo buscou investigar os efeitos do VOT Positivo (com ou sem informação contextual) na inteligibilidade de sentenças curtas em Inglês, produzidas por brasileiros, por parte de falantes nativos de Inglês Americano (6) e aprendizes proficientes de Inglês (12). Esses 18 participantes transcreveram sentenças com e sem informação contextual, produzidas com plosivas-alvo sonoras, surdas sem aspiração e surdas com aspiração. Cada participante transcreveu 112 sentenças através do software E-Prime 2.0 (SCHNEIDER, ESCHMAN & ZUCCOLOTTO, 2012) com um tempo-limite para respostas de 20 segundos. Os dados obtidos através da tarefa foram analisados objetivamente, dividindo as transcrições em categorias binárias “correta” (alto grau de inteligibilidade/inteligibilidade plena) e “incorreta” (baixo grau de inteligibilidade/inteligibilidade praticamente inexistente). Em geral, os níveis de acuidade não variaram consideravelmente entre os 18 participantes, embora possamos dizer que falantes nativos de Inglês Americano tiveram desempenho relativamente melhor. A análise das transcrições sugere que, enquanto é possível que fatores externos às variáveis controladas por este estudo tenham tido papel fundamental no desempenho dos participantes, a informação contextual talvez tenha remediado a falta do VOT Positivo como uma pista para atingir inteligibilidade. / The present study aimed to investigate the effects of Positive VOT (with or without contextual information) on the intelligibility of short English sentences produced by Brazilians to native speakers of American English (6) and proficient Brazilian learners (12). These 18 participants transcribed sentences produced with voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated stop segments, with and without contextual information. Each participant transcribed 112 sentences through software E-Prime 2.0 (SCHNEIDER, ESCHMAN & ZUCCOLOTTO, 2012) with a response-time limit of 20 seconds. The data obtained from the task was analyzed objectively, assigning transcriptions to binary accurate (high intelligibility) or inaccurate (low-to-no intelligibility) categories. Overall, accuracy levels did not vary considerably amongst the 18 participants, although it can be said that native speakers of American English performed slightly better. The analysis of the transcriptions suggests that, while factors external to the variables controlled by this study might have played fundamental roles in the overall performance of the task, contextual information may possibly have remedied the absence of Positive VOT as a cue for achieving sentence intelligibility.

O presente estudo buscou investigar os efeitos do VOT Positivo (com ou sem informação contextual) na inteligibilidade de sentenças curtas em Inglês, produzidas por brasileiros, por parte de falantes nativos de Inglês Americano (6) e aprendizes proficientes de Inglês (12). Esses 18 participantes transcreveram sentenças com e sem informação contextual, produzidas com plosivas-alvo sonoras, surdas sem aspiração e surdas com aspiração. Cada participante transcreveu 112 sentenças através do software E-Prime 2.0 (SCHNEIDER, ESCHMAN & ZUCCOLOTTO, 2012) com um tempo-limite para respostas de 20 segundos. Os dados obtidos através da tarefa foram analisados objetivamente, dividindo as transcrições em categorias binárias “correta” (alto grau de inteligibilidade/inteligibilidade plena) e “incorreta” (baixo grau de inteligibilidade/inteligibilidade praticamente inexistente). Em geral, os níveis de acuidade não variaram consideravelmente entre os 18 participantes, embora possamos dizer que falantes nativos de Inglês Americano tiveram desempenho relativamente melhor. A análise das transcrições sugere que, enquanto é possível que fatores externos às variáveis controladas por este estudo tenham tido papel fundamental no desempenho dos participantes, a informação contextual talvez tenha remediado a falta do VOT Positivo como uma pista para atingir inteligibilidade. / The present study aimed to investigate the effects of Positive VOT (with or without contextual information) on the intelligibility of short English sentences produced by Brazilians to native speakers of American English (6) and proficient Brazilian learners (12). These 18 participants transcribed sentences produced with voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated stop segments, with and without contextual information. Each participant transcribed 112 sentences through software E-Prime 2.0 (SCHNEIDER, ESCHMAN & ZUCCOLOTTO, 2012) with a response-time limit of 20 seconds. The data obtained from the task was analyzed objectively, assigning transcriptions to binary accurate (high intelligibility) or inaccurate (low-to-no intelligibility) categories. Overall, accuracy levels did not vary considerably amongst the 18 participants, although it can be said that native speakers of American English performed slightly better. The analysis of the transcriptions suggests that, while factors external to the variables controlled by this study might have played fundamental roles in the overall performance of the task, contextual information may possibly have remedied the absence of Positive VOT as a cue for achieving sentence intelligibility.