This paper is a phonetic investigation of radio newsreading on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from 1937 to 1987. Recorded newscasts from the first, third, and fifth decades of CBC history are examined. Brief histories of CBC Radio news and of the Office of Broadcast Language are included, and the bibliography brings together much scattered reference material on CBC language. Traditional auditory evaluations of selected aspects of voice quality settings, vowel quality, and voice dynamics are supplemented by instrumental measurements. The descriptive terminology of Laver (1980) is applied to identify the voice quality settings. The majority of newsreaders examined display the vocal settings of lowered larynx, open jaw, and the use of creaky phonation. This configuration enhances vocal resonance and is shown to be an established newsreading model, perceived as suitable to the authoritative presentation of information. The patterns of vocal settings identified for three test decades (1937-47, 1957-67, 1977-87) are supported by the results of acoustic analyses. Individual, group, and across-group statistical tests were executed on the results of acoustical waveform analyses of the peripheral vowels k n u/ produced by each newsreader. To test vowel quality as a sociolinguistic variable, the CBC formant data were compared with compatible /ae o u/ data from informants of the Survey of Vancouver English (Gregg, 1984). The results show that the speech of CBC Radio newsreaders cannot be associated with any particular SES class of the Vancouver Survey. As a result of the extensive variation in production found for both informant groups, the high back vowel phoneme /u/ remains ill-defined for Canadian English. The voice dynamic component in CBC Radio newscasts has changed over the years. Measurements of speech rate show that the duration of pauses post-1966 are dramatically shorter than those pre-1966. Sentence length is shown not to have changed considerably, but phrases have been lengthened and pauses shortened. A marked reduction in the percentage of silent time within the newscast has been the result. It is suggested that pitch fluctuations are now used more extensively than pausing to structure the text orally. Despite the changes in continuity, the articulation rate of the newsreaders, measured in syllables per second, has remained constant. These results indicate that the newsreaders are exceptionally skilled speakers. The prevalent voice settings and the averaged acoustic measurements for CBC vowels are presented as representative of a readily identifiable and publicly recognized standard of formal spoken Canadian English.

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.

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/.

This study is primarily concerned with the issue of determining whether it is worthwhile to try to teach the correct pronunciation of subphonemic segments in ESL courses. It focuses specifically on the allophones [J, J] produced by the Flapping (or Tapping) of medial and final alveolar stops in North American English. Through an exhaustive examination of the ESL and TESL pronunciation manuals that have been published in the last thirty years or so, an assessment is first made of the manner and extent to which this widespread phonological process has been dealt with by the authors of such books. These findings are then compared with the opinions expressed by researchers in the field of second language education in order to determine what sort of consensus currently exists on this issue. The general conclusion is that since flaps are demonstrably the most salient of all NAE allophones and occur as phonemes in the first language of many ESL learners, these segments should be given due consideration in any pronunciation curriculum.

Vocal fold vibration results from an alternating balance between subglottal air pressure that drives the vocal folds apart and muscular, elastic, and restoring forces that draw them together. The aim of the present thesis is to present quantitative data of normal vocal function using a noninvasive method. Measurements are made on the inverse filtered airflow waveform, of estimated average trans glottal pressure and glottal airflow, and of sound pressure for productions of syllable sequences. Statistical results are used to infer mechanisms that underlie differences across ( 1 ) normal, loud, and soft voice, (2) normal, high, and low pitch, and (3) between female and male voices. Interspeaker variation in group data and intra speaker variation across repeated recordings is also investigated. The results showed no significant female-male differences in pressure, suggesting that differences in other measures were not primarily due to differences in the respiratory systems . Most glottal waveforms showed a DC flow offset, suggesting an air leakage through a posterior glottal opening. Results suggested (indirectly) that the males in comparison with the females had significantly higher vocal fold closing velocities (maximum flow declination rate), larger vocal fold oscillations (AC flow), and relatively longer closed portions of the cycle (open quotient) in normal and loud voice. In soft voice, female and male waveforms were more alike. In comparison with normal voice, both females and males produced loud voice with significantly higher values of pressure, vocal fold closing velocity, and AC flow. Soft voice was produced with significantly lower values of these measures and increased DC flow. Correlation analyses indicated that several of the airflow measures were more directly related to vocal intensity than to pitch. Interspeaker variation was large, emphasizing the importance of large subject groups to capture normal variation. Intraspeaker variation across recording sessions was less than 2 standard deviations of the group means. The results should contribute to the understanding of normal voice function, and should be useful as norms in studies of voices disorders as well. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se

This dissertation presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of aspects of the intonation and prosody of an Australian polysynthetic language, Bininj Gun-wok (BGW; also referred to as Mayali). The theoretical framework is autosegmental-metrical phonology, as adapted to the description of intonation by Pierrehumbert (1980); Bruce (1977) and others. The analysis focuses principally on two dialects, Kuninjku and Manyallaluk Mayali (MM), with some reference to the Kunwinjku, Kune, Gun-Djeihmi and Kundedjnjenghmi dialects.

Infants with hearing loss (HL) are being diagnosed and fitted with amplification earlier than ever before. In order to acquire speech and language abilities that are on par with their normal-hearing (NH) peers, hearing-impaired (HI) infants require amplification that provides appropriate exposure to the sounds of their native language. To date, no research has addressed this issue and thus, there is a need to examine the type of amplification that is most suitable for infants during the early stages of language acquisition. In this thesis, three different amplification types were compared: one that preserves the natural spectral shape of speech (unmodified speech); a second that emphasises high-frequency speech information (positive spectral tilt); and a third that emphasises low-frequency information (negative spectral tilt). NH infants were tested to examine how each of these amplification types affects speech perception and to explore whether infants at different stages of language acquisition find modified spectral tilt a help or hindrance in perceiving native-language speech contrasts. A visual habituation (VH) procedure was used to test 288 6- and 9-month-old NH infants on their ability to discriminate the high-frequency fricative contrast /f/- /s/; the mid-frequency approximant contrast /l/-/r/; and the low-frequency vowel contrast /5/-/N/ under modified spectral tilt conditions. For each speech contrast, 96 infants were tested in one of three conditions: (a) unmodified spectral tilt (n = 32); (b) with a positive 6 dB/octave spectral tilt (n = 32); or (c) with a negative 6 dB/octave spectral tilt (n = 32). The results showed that both 6- and 9-month-olds discriminated the three speech contrasts in the unmodified condition. However, when the contrasts were spectrally modified, a consistent developmental trend emerged. Six-month-olds’ discrimination performance improved when the spectral tilt modification amplified the relevant frequency information. That is, for the consonant contrasts (fricatives /f/-/s/ and approximants /l/-/r/) 6-month-olds performed best when high-frequency information was emphasised, whereas for the vowel contrast (/5/-/N/) the best discrimination performance was found when low-frequency information was enhanced. Nine-month-olds, on the other hand, showed no evidence of discriminating any of the contrasts when spectral tilt was modified. For all three contrasts, the older infants’ best discrimination performance was in the unmodified spectral tilt condition. The findings reflect the early stages of linguistic development. Six-month olds, whose acoustically driven speech perception operates in a language-general mode, demonstrated a broad-based ability to discriminate speech sounds. They not only accommodated speech with positive or negative spectral tilt, but a facilitation effect was observed when relevant frequency information was amplified. In contrast, 9-month-olds, whose perception is linguistically driven, found that spectral tilt modifications hinder speech perception. It seems that because older infants are attuning to native phonemic categories, their attention is constrained to native language spectral profiles only. Thus, even those spectral tilt modifications that should have been beneficial for perception were eschewed by 9-month-olds because they were incompatible with the older infants���� narrow focus on spectrally intact native speech sounds. Only NH infants were tested in this study, so it is not possible draw firm conclusions about amplification schemes until HI infants are tested too. Nevertheless, the results have a number of implications for infants with HL. The demonstration that spectral tilt modifications interfere with older NH infants’ speech perception suggests that future research should investigate whether HI infants also show this developmental pattern. That is, do HI infants progressively attune to the native language, and if so, does this affect their perception of spectrally modified speech sounds? Moreover, if HI infants are to attune to the native language and acquire speech and language in the same way as their NH peers, then the research reported here suggests that, throughout infancy, HI infants will need access to amplified speech that maintains the spectral shape of natural speech. Thus, the current research demonstrates, for the first time, a developmental difference in the way that infants perceive spectrally modified speech, one that is closely linked to the infant’s stage of native-language attunement. This research provides a solid foundation on which to conduct further research with HI infants and offers preliminary suggestions with regard to amplification and intervention to ensure that HI infants have the opportunity to emulate the native-language attunement process and subsequently achieve language development outcomes comparable with their NH peers. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Research indicates that adult Second Language (L2) learners typically do not become native-like in their perception or production of their L2, likely as a result of interference from their native language (L1). Research also indicates that L2 perception and production nonetheless improves with increased experience with the L2. Until recently, however, theories of L2 acquisition (e.g., SLM: Flege, 1995; PAM: Best, 1994) have been vague in their account of the processes underlying this improvement. The recent PAM-L2 (Best and Tyler, 2007), however, opens up new ways to understand experiential change in L2 perception and production. Centrally, PAM-L2 suggests that a large L2 vocabulary curtails change in L2 perception and production because it forces the learner to settle on an accented version of the L2 phonology. The present thesis introduces the Vocabulary-Tuning Model of L2 Rephonologisation (Vocab Model). This model extends PAM-L2 by highlighting the facilitating effect of L2 vocabulary expansion, in early L2 immersion when the L2 vocabulary is still small, on the perception and production of an L2. It is further argued that the processes underpinning this improvement are analogous to those that underpin L1 acquisition in infants and toddlers. The thesis tests the Vocab Model in a series of studies (cross-sectional as well as longitudinal) of the perception and production of Australian English vowels by native speakers of Japanese, who have recently arrived in Australia for the purpose of acquiring English. The results show that L2 vocabulary size is indeed associated with L2 vowel perception and production and thus support the predictions of the Vocab Model. The thesis examines the usefulness of different criteria for L2-L1 vowel assimilation and discusses the findings in relation to results from L1-vowel perception research. The research design also pioneers a ‘whole system’ approach to cross-language vowel perception research that allows the learners to use all native vowels and all native vowel combinations (all three thesis studies), and to apply them to the full inventory of L2 vowels (Study 1). It is argued that results from such an approach more appropriately reflect the actual perceptual flexibility of the learners in a natural L2-immersion context than would a smaller subset of L1 and/or L2 vowels. This ‘whole system’ approach further suggests that L1 phonotactics is worthwhile to consider in future studies of L2 segmental perception and production. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-53).

Thesis (Ph.D) -- University of Western Sydney, 2008. / A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, MARCS Auditory Laboratories, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references.