This thesis is concerned with the perception and production of lexical tone. In the first experiment, categorical perception of asymmetric synthetic tone continua was examined in speakers of tonal (Thai, Mandarin, and Vietnamese) and non-tonal (Australian English) languages. It was observed that perceptual strategies for categorisation depend on language background. Specifically, Mandarin and Vietnamese listeners tended to use the central tone to divide the continuum, whereas Thai and Australian English listeners used a flat no-contour tone as a perceptual anchor; a split based not on tonal vs. non-tonal language background, but rather on the specific language. In the second experiment, tonal (Thai) and non-tonal (Australian English) language speaking musicians and non-musicians were tested on categorical perception of two differently shaped synthetic tone continua. Results showed that, independently of language background, musicians learn to identify tones more quickly, show steeper identification functions, and display higher discrimination accuracy than non-musicians. Experiment three concerns the influence of language aptitude, musical aptitude, musical memory, and musical training on Australian English speakers‟ perception and production of non-native (Thai) tones, consonants, and vowels. The results showed that musicians were better than non-musicians at perceiving and producing tones and consonants; a ceiling effect was observed for vowel perception. Musical training per se did not determine acquisition of novel speech sounds, rather, musicians‟ higher accuracy was explained by a combination of inherent abilities - language and musical aptitude for consonants, and musical aptitude and musical memory for tones. It is concluded that tone perception is language dependent and strongly influenced by musical expertise - musical aptitude and musical memory, not musical training as such. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

English has been taught in Vietnam for about forty years and the number of English learners increases every year. Whatever the course of teaching English may be, the teaching of pronunciation is always a beginning part of it. The materials used in teaching pronunciation vary from schools to colleges, but the way of teaching is always the same. It means that students have to imitate what the teachers have pronounced with a very simple explanation of how to pronounce it. This causes great problems, because not all teachers have correct pronunciation and not all students can imitate the teachers in the right way. At the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, students are trained to be teachers of English. They not only need to have correct pronunciation, but also need to know how to pronounce sounds. In order to teach pronunciation effectively, they need to have a certain knowledge of phonetics and know the difference and similarity between the sound systems of English and Vietnamese. To help awareness of the necessity of good pronunciation and the present problems associated with teaching it, this report: a/ points out the importance of teaching English pronunciation in teaching English; b/ gives an overview of English teaching in general and the teaching of pronunciation in particular. To improve the teaching of pronunciation at the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, this report: c/ makes a comparison between sound systems of English and Vietnamese; d/ proposes material for the teaching of pronunciation for the Vietnamese students of the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, bearing in mind the context of the Vietnamese teaching and learning situation. It is hoped that this report will be of practical use: for teachers and students in the Hanoi Foreign Languages College.

Adults learning a second language (L2) (“late learners”) have difficulty achieving a native speaker’s level of accuracy in both perception and production of L2 phonetic segments. This difficulty often results in deviant production of L2 segments that is perceived as accented speech by native speakers of that language. It is generally agreed that this failure in non native segmental production and perception is caused by previous linguistic experience with the first (L1) language. Late learners are expected to show stronger L1 effects than learners who learnt their L2 in early childhood (“early learners”). However, not all L2 phonetic segments are equally difficult for late learners. The learnability of L2 phonetic segments is thought to be perceptual in nature and depends on the perceived phonetic distance between them and the acoustically, phonetically and/or articulatorily most similar segment(s) in the learner’s L1 phonetic inventory. It is generally assumed that specific L2 segments will be perceptually related or assimilated to the most similar L1 segment(s) even if there is a detectable acoustic difference between them. The studies reported in this thesis examined Serbian-English bilinguals’ perception and production difficulties with two Australian English vowel contrasts that are not contrastive in Serbian: /e/ - /æ/ and /i:/ - //. We compared participants who began learning English before 5 years (“early”) versus those who began after 15 years (“late”). In Study 1and Study 2 early learners discriminated and produced both contrasts equally well, whereas late learners had greater difficulties perceiving and producing /e/ - /æ/. In Study 3 a priming paradigm was applied to discrimination and perceptual assimilation tasks in which the prime and target contain phonologically identical, phonetically similar or phonologically and phonetically unrelated vowels under two interstimulus intervals (ISI) that tap phonological versus phonetic levels of processing, according to prior research. Early versus late group differences suggest that discrimination and production accuracy reflect how listeners assimilate Australian English vowels to native Serbian vowels. “Early” and “late” learners related L2 vowels to L1 differently, which reflects differences in establishment of the L1 phonetic system at the time of L2 onset. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis analyses sound changes that affected the lateral approximant inherited from Latin in Occitan dialects, in the Romance languages, and in a number of other languages from around the world. Chapter 1 gives a comprehensive overview of the research carried out on the lateral approximant; it discusses articulation and acoustics as well as abstract representations of the sound. Chapters 2 to 5 are devoted to specific sound changes which occurred in Occitan dialects at different points in time. These developments are systematically compared to similar phenomena in Romance and other languages. In chapter 2, I discuss the vocalisation of the dark lateral in preconsonantal and word-final position as well as intervocalically. It is argued there that Occitan and more generally Romance followed an unexpected pathway towards vocalisation, which cannot be explained by phonetic factors alone. Chapter 3 deals with palatalisation of the lateral in onsetclusters. Rather than in articulatory assimilation, I propose that the origin of this sound change is to be sought in the frication which accompanied the obstruent + lateral onset clusters. Rhoticisation of the lateral, and its opposite, lambdacisation of the rhotic, is the topic of chapter 4. In this chapter, I discuss duration factors in these sound changes and present experimental evidence to substantiate the idea that duration plays an important role. Finally, chapter 5 looks at thedevelopments of the Latin geminate lateral in Gascon and other Romance dialects; according to common opinion, the Latin geminate lateral underwent a retroflexion process, and I discuss how this might have been possible from a phonetic point of view.

<p>This Thesis explores the development of word-initial s+plosive consonant clusters in the speech of Swedish children between the ages of 1;6 and 4;6. Development in the word-initial consonant clusters is viewed as being determined by 1) the children’s ability to articulate the target sequence of consonants, 2) the level of understanding of which acoustic features in the adult model production are significant for the signalling of the intended distinction, and 3) the children’s ability to apply established production patterns only to productions where the acquired feature agrees with the adult target, to achieve a contrast between rival output forms. This Thesis employs a method where output forms are contrasted with attempted productions of potential homonym target words. Thus, development is quantified as an increase in the manifestations of phonetic features where it agrees with the adult norm, coupled by a decrease in the same feature in output forms where it is inappropriate according to the specifications of the phonological system of the ambient language. Acoustic investigations of cues of voicing, aspiration, place of articulation and syllable onset complexity, and auditory investigations of place, manner and syllable onset complexity were conducted. The Thesis has four outcomes. One, a description of the perceptual quality of the productions in terms of place, manner, voicing and syllable onset complexity is presented. Two, a developmental sequence of stable acquisition of these features is proposed; manner is shown to be acquired first, followed by syllable onset complexity and place of articulation. Evidence is provided that the voiced/aspirated distinction is still being acquired at the end of the investigated age period. Three, the developmental use of acoustic cues of place and voicing are described. Voice Onset Time and Spectral Skewness are shown to be used by children in order to increase the likeness to the adult target in terms of voicing and place of articulation. Aspiration Amplitude is shown to be used as an auxiliary cue to Voice Onset Time. The place cues Spectral Tilt Change, F2, Spectral Mean and Spectral Variance were shown to be used in order to refine already produced consonants rather than approach the adult target model. Four, the Thesis provides evidence of periods of confusions in the output of children. With the reductions of these patterns of confusion, evidence is provided of children’s re-organisation of their internal representation of the consonant to be produced.</p> / <p>Denna avhandling undersöker utvecklingen av ordinitiala konsonantkluster av formen s+klusil i talet hos svenska barn mellan åldrarna 1;6 och 4;6. Utvecklingen av de ordinitiala klustren betraktas som bestämd av 1) barnets förmåga att artikulera den konsonantsekvens som utgör målet, 2) barnets förståelse för vilka akustiska särdrag i den vuxna målproduktionen som är signifikanta för att signalera en viss distinktion och 3) barnets förmåga att tillämpa ett etablerat produktionsmönster endast på de produktioner där det tillägnade draget överensstämmer med den vuxna målproduktionen, så att en kontrast uppnås mellan konkurrerande utformer. Avhandlingen tillämpar en metod där producerade utformer kontrasteras med produktioner av målord som utgör potentiella homonymer till dessa. Utvecklingen kan då kvantifieras som en ökning av antalet förekomster av ett fonetiskt drag som överensstämmer med den vuxna normen för den relevanta kontexten, kopplad till en minskning av antalet förekomster av samma drag i kontext där draget är inkorrekt givet det fonologiska systemet i det språk som tillägnas. De drag som undersöktes var de akustiska korrelaten till stämbandston, aspiration, artikulationsställe och komplexitet i stavelseansatsen, och vidare de auditiva korrelaten till artikulationsställe, artikulationssätt och komplexitet i stavelseansatsen. Fyra resultat redovisas. För det första presenteras en beskrivning av den perceptuella kvaliteten hos barnens produktioner i termer av artikulationsställe, artikulationssätt och komplexitet. För det andra föreslås en utvecklingssekvens för stabilt tillägnande av dessa drag: artikulationssätt tillägnas först, följt av komplexitet hos stavelseansatsen och artikulationsställe. Sist tillägnas distinktionen mellan tonande och aspirerad klusil, där data visar att draget inte tillägnats till fullo vid slutet av det undersökta åldersintervallet. För det tredje ger avhandlingen en beskrivning av hur barnen utvecklar sitt bruk av akustiska korrelat till artikulationsställe och ton. Voice Onset Time och snedhet i spektrum används för att närma sig det vuxna målet gällande aspiration och artikulationsställe. Aspirationsamplitud används som ett hjälpkorrelat till VOT vad gäller fonetisk aspiration. Andra korrelat för artikulationsställe, som förändring i spektral lutning, F2, spektralt medelvärde och spektral varians, används för att förfina de egna produktionerna snarare än för att få produktionen att närma sig det vuxna målet. För det fjärde ges i avhandlingen evidens för perioder då barnens produktion uppvisar förväxlingar vad avser distributionen hos vissa fonetiska drag. Minskade förekomster av sådana förväxlingar visar på en omstrukturering av barnens underliggande representation för den konsonant som ska produceras.</p>

This Thesis explores the development of word-initial s+plosive consonant clusters in the speech of Swedish children between the ages of 1;6 and 4;6. Development in the word-initial consonant clusters is viewed as being determined by 1) the children’s ability to articulate the target sequence of consonants, 2) the level of understanding of which acoustic features in the adult model production are significant for the signalling of the intended distinction, and 3) the children’s ability to apply established production patterns only to productions where the acquired feature agrees with the adult target, to achieve a contrast between rival output forms. This Thesis employs a method where output forms are contrasted with attempted productions of potential homonym target words. Thus, development is quantified as an increase in the manifestations of phonetic features where it agrees with the adult norm, coupled by a decrease in the same feature in output forms where it is inappropriate according to the specifications of the phonological system of the ambient language. Acoustic investigations of cues of voicing, aspiration, place of articulation and syllable onset complexity, and auditory investigations of place, manner and syllable onset complexity were conducted. The Thesis has four outcomes. One, a description of the perceptual quality of the productions in terms of place, manner, voicing and syllable onset complexity is presented. Two, a developmental sequence of stable acquisition of these features is proposed; manner is shown to be acquired first, followed by syllable onset complexity and place of articulation. Evidence is provided that the voiced/aspirated distinction is still being acquired at the end of the investigated age period. Three, the developmental use of acoustic cues of place and voicing are described. Voice Onset Time and Spectral Skewness are shown to be used by children in order to increase the likeness to the adult target in terms of voicing and place of articulation. Aspiration Amplitude is shown to be used as an auxiliary cue to Voice Onset Time. The place cues Spectral Tilt Change, F2, Spectral Mean and Spectral Variance were shown to be used in order to refine already produced consonants rather than approach the adult target model. Four, the Thesis provides evidence of periods of confusions in the output of children. With the reductions of these patterns of confusion, evidence is provided of children’s re-organisation of their internal representation of the consonant to be produced. / Denna avhandling undersöker utvecklingen av ordinitiala konsonantkluster av formen s+klusil i talet hos svenska barn mellan åldrarna 1;6 och 4;6. Utvecklingen av de ordinitiala klustren betraktas som bestämd av 1) barnets förmåga att artikulera den konsonantsekvens som utgör målet, 2) barnets förståelse för vilka akustiska särdrag i den vuxna målproduktionen som är signifikanta för att signalera en viss distinktion och 3) barnets förmåga att tillämpa ett etablerat produktionsmönster endast på de produktioner där det tillägnade draget överensstämmer med den vuxna målproduktionen, så att en kontrast uppnås mellan konkurrerande utformer. Avhandlingen tillämpar en metod där producerade utformer kontrasteras med produktioner av målord som utgör potentiella homonymer till dessa. Utvecklingen kan då kvantifieras som en ökning av antalet förekomster av ett fonetiskt drag som överensstämmer med den vuxna normen för den relevanta kontexten, kopplad till en minskning av antalet förekomster av samma drag i kontext där draget är inkorrekt givet det fonologiska systemet i det språk som tillägnas. De drag som undersöktes var de akustiska korrelaten till stämbandston, aspiration, artikulationsställe och komplexitet i stavelseansatsen, och vidare de auditiva korrelaten till artikulationsställe, artikulationssätt och komplexitet i stavelseansatsen. Fyra resultat redovisas. För det första presenteras en beskrivning av den perceptuella kvaliteten hos barnens produktioner i termer av artikulationsställe, artikulationssätt och komplexitet. För det andra föreslås en utvecklingssekvens för stabilt tillägnande av dessa drag: artikulationssätt tillägnas först, följt av komplexitet hos stavelseansatsen och artikulationsställe. Sist tillägnas distinktionen mellan tonande och aspirerad klusil, där data visar att draget inte tillägnats till fullo vid slutet av det undersökta åldersintervallet. För det tredje ger avhandlingen en beskrivning av hur barnen utvecklar sitt bruk av akustiska korrelat till artikulationsställe och ton. Voice Onset Time och snedhet i spektrum används för att närma sig det vuxna målet gällande aspiration och artikulationsställe. Aspirationsamplitud används som ett hjälpkorrelat till VOT vad gäller fonetisk aspiration. Andra korrelat för artikulationsställe, som förändring i spektral lutning, F2, spektralt medelvärde och spektral varians, används för att förfina de egna produktionerna snarare än för att få produktionen att närma sig det vuxna målet. För det fjärde ges i avhandlingen evidens för perioder då barnens produktion uppvisar förväxlingar vad avser distributionen hos vissa fonetiska drag. Minskade förekomster av sådana förväxlingar visar på en omstrukturering av barnens underliggande representation för den konsonant som ska produceras.

The goal of this dissertation was to investigate experimentally the phonetic qualities of the palatalized consonants of Standard Bulgarian. The term ‘palatalized’ refers to consonants (e.g., [tʲ, dʲ]) which are articulated with a secondary palatal gesture superimposed on the primary gesture associated with their plain counterparts (e.g., [t, d]). An acoustic study investigated the claim (Horálek, 1950; Choi, 1998; Ignateva-Tsoneva, 2008) that the palatalized consonants of Standard Bulgarian have undergone depalatalization, which was defined as the decomposition of a secondary palatal [ ʲ ] gesture into a palatal glide [j]. A cross-language comparison was performed. Russian (e.g., [tʲulʲ], ‘silk net’) and British English (e.g., [tju:lip], ‘tulip’) data served as a baseline against which the Bulgarian data (e.g., [tʲul], ‘silk net’) was evaluated. Subjects’ productions of words were recorded for acoustic analyses. The F1, F2 and F3 frequencies of the critical segments were analyzed with a Smoothing Spline ANOVA (Gu, 2002). The analyses indicated that Bulgarian palatalized consonants were identical to those of the Russian palatalized consonants, but different from the consonant-palatal glide sequences of British English. It was concluded that Bulgarian palatalized consonants have not undergone depalatalization. A perception study employed two variations of the gating task (Grosjean, 1980): audio-only and audio-visual. The results of the audio-only experiment indicated that Bulgarian and Russian listeners needed only the information associated with the palatalization portion of the consonant to identify it as palatalized. Bulgarian subjects did not need the transitions with the following vowel (Tilkov, 1983) to identify a consonant as palatalized. The Russian subjects of Richey’s (2000) experiment did not need the formant transitions either to identify the secondary palatal gesture. These findings provide further evidence that the palatalized consonants of the Standard Bulgarian have not undergone depalatalization. The purpose of the audio-visual experiment was to investigate if Bulgarian and Russian listeners use visual information to identify palatalized consonants. The results from this experiment were not as clear cut as those from the audio-only experiment. Factors such as insufficient visual information at earlier gates, as well as attentional load are being considered as possible confounds. In addition, an improved methodology for an audio-visual perception study is outlined. Experimental evidence from the acoustic and perception studies points to similarities in the phonetic shape of the palatalized consonants of Bulgarian and Russian. However, the phonological distribution of these segments is very different in the respective languages. I argue against a one-to-one mapping between the phonetic and phonological representations of the Bulgarian palatalized consonants. Based on distributional evidence, I propose that at the level of phonology they consist of a sequence of /CjV/.

Phonetic accommodation is the process whereby speakers in an interaction modify their speech in response to their interlocutor. The social-psychological theory of Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles 1973) predicts that speakers will converge towards (become more similar to) their interlocutors in order to decrease social distance, whereas they will diverge from (become less similar to) their interlocutors to accentuate distinctiveness or show disdain. Previous studies have found that phonetic accommodation is affected by many social, situational and linguistic factors (Abrego-Collier et al. 2011; Black 2012; Babel 2009, 2010, 2012; Babel et al. 2012; Kim, Horton & Bradlow 2011; Nielsen 2011; Pardo et al. 2012). With respect to accommodation across dialects, a handful of studies have suggested that the perceptual salience of the various differences between two dialects might affect the pattern; however, these studies make conflicting predictions. Trudgill (1986) predicts that speakers will converge more towards the more salient dialectal differences, while Kim et al. (2011) and Babel (2009, 2010) suggest the opposite: that speakers will converge on the less salient differences. This thesis investigates how the perceptual salience of 6 differences between Buenos Aires Spanish and Madrid Spanish affect the pattern of phonetic accommodation in conversation. The results are considered both in terms of the magnitude of the changes that the participants make as well as the direction of the change (convergence or divergence). The results show that perceptual salience has a significant effect on the magnitude of the change, with all participants making greater changes as perceptual salience increases. On the other hand, perceptual salience was found not to have a consistent effect for all speakers on the likelihood of converging or diverging on the dialectal differences. I argue that the lack of consistent effect of salience on the direction of the change stems from individual differences in motivation to take on the opposing dialect norms and issues of personal identity, whereas the very consistent effect of salience on the magnitude of the change suggests that there is something more basic or systematic about how salience interacts with the extent to which speakers accommodate.

Entablar contacto con un aspecto humano, con la razón interpuesta siquiera como afán, es una tarea que se convierte muy pronto en apasionante, mientras aquel aspecto crece su tamaño a mucha mayor velocidad que nuestro impulso: el plan inicial de trabajo, materializado en un programa de cinco hojas, abarcaba todos los niveles fonéticos que una bibliografía me sugirió sobre mi lengua materna. Quise decirlo todo; desde el dato minúsculo de un rasgo redundante hasta la frase enterna como emisión fónica en sus posibles perspectivas, pasando por la sílaba, fonética y estadísticamente estudiada. Vivir este problema –ese contacto entablado– hizo evolucionar en seguida las intención por etapas. Ahora, a poco más de un año de distancia, la parte descriptiva se ha concentrado definitivamente sobre el timbre vocálico, en un programa impsoible de esbozar en menos de seis hojas. A veces, aunque parezca mentira, detrás de un pequeño factor minuciosamente aprisionado se esconde una grandiosidad tan digna de ser contemplada como al fenómeno total del lenguaje en el primer atisbo de la consciencia. La parte general, por su lado, continúa preludiando como al princpio la labor de conjunto que, más pronto que tarde, será consumada. El presente estudio ha sido dividido en dos Partes: General (A) y Descriptiva (B). La primera de ellas consta de cinco Capítulos, que contienen sucesivamente el Objetivo y fines de esta tesis (I), el detalle de los Materiales utilizados (II), los Medios de Investigación aplicados (III), un apartado sobre Generalidades y Metodología (IV) y un último capítulo (V), con las formas de aplicación lingüística (V). Por su parte, la Parte Descriptiva incluye dos Capítulos: uno sobre el timbre vocálico (I) y otro recogiendo las conclusiones generales (II). Una bibliografía y dos índices (el primero de figuras y el segundo de materias) completan el articulado de la tesis.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the most common phonetic and phonological difficulties in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language. The study has been based on the following questions: Which difficulties can teachers encounter when teaching phonetics and phonology? Which difficulties can students encounter when learning phonetics and phonology? How is phonetics and phonology taught? In order to be able to investigate the difficulties, a questionnaire has been handed out to five experienced teachers. The results of the questionnaires, together with the theory, has been analysed in the analysis. The outcome of the analysis shows that several difficulties can be detected in both the teaching and in the learning process. The results of the questionnaires also show us that the teachers mostly teach phonetics the same way: through repetition and imitation, the conductive method, and very few think outside of the box to encounter new methods.