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Aim and objectives/purpose/research questions: The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which multilingual second language (L2) speakers of Norwegian manage to produce lexical pitch accents (L*H¯ or H*LH¯) as expected in natural spontaneous speech. Using native speech as a reference, we analyse realizations of multilingual speakers whose respective dominant languages are Lingala, a lexical tone language, and Swahili, a non-tonal language with fixed stress, and hypothesize that this difference might be reflected in the speakers’ competence in the East Norwegian tone system. Design/methodology/approach: We examined a corpus of spontaneous speech produced by eight L2 speakers and two native speakers of East Norwegian. Acoustic analysis was performed to collect fundamental frequency (f0) contours of 60 accentual phrases per speaker. Data and analysis: For LH and HLH tonal patterns, measuring points were defined for quantitative evaluation of f0 values. Relevant aspects investigated were (a) pattern consistency, (b) f0 dynamic range and (c) rate of f0 change. Pattern consistency data were statistically evaluated using chi-square testing. The dynamic range and rate of f0 change data were explored through to linear mixed effects models. Findings/conclusions: We found no really substantial differences between the speaker groups in the parameters we examined, neither between the L2 speakers and the Norwegian natives nor between the Lingala and Swahili speakers. Originality and significance/implications: This study is a contribution to the scarcely explored area of L2 acquisition of tones. It is concerned with languages that have received little or no attention in the field: Norwegian, Lingala and Swahili. Participants are multilinguals who have extensive language learning experience. Further, the study is based on a corpus of spontaneous speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reports on the results of an investigation of the fortis–lenis contrast in stops and the complementary quantity contrast in Norwegian and compares these same contrasts in two dialects of Swedish. The data show that in initial position one series of stops has consistently long-lag Voice Onset Time (VOT) and this series is also voiceless in post-vocalic position, often with some preaspiration. The other series can be produced with either prevoicing or short-lag VOT in initial position and is almost always fully voiced in post-vocalic position. These results support the claim that both phonological features [voice] and [spread glottis] are active in Norwegian. The quantity contrast (VC: vs. V:C) was robust for all speakers, but the durational difference between the two quantity patterns was greater for females than for males. Overall the durational difference between the two quantity types in Norwegian was found to be similar to that in Central Standard Swedish, but not as great as in Fenno-Swedish. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The intonation system of East Norwegian (EN) is such that a statement often sounds more like a question to a non-native listener. While it may be easy for a phonetically trained person to hear that a final pitch movement of an EN ut-terance is either a rise to a high, or a fall to a low target tone, such a perceived difference has no phonological significance unless it is exploited systematically for a communicative purpose. Imperative sentences are used for the performance of a variety of speech acts ranging from orders to offers. We carried out a listening comprehension test with imperatives produced with systematically varied into-nation contours. Our hypothesis was that an imperative is generally softened by a perceived Low boundary tone but is heard as peremptory if the bound-ary tone is High. This hypothesis was borne out. Having established the exis-tence of a phonological contrast between a Low and a High terminal boundary tone in EN utterance-final syllables, we argue that a phonologically Low bound-ary tone is even a grammatical property of EN utterances whose low-pitched final syllable is the result of a global intonation contour that simply precludes a final rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the perception of English words produced by 45 native talkers presented in moderate noise to native Norwegian listeners. The relative intelligibility of individual talkers is compared with that obtained for native listeners in order to determine whether intrinsic talker clarity is determined by global acoustic-phonetic characteristics. Talker intelligibility was strongly correlated across native and non-native listeners although the acoustic-phonetic characteristics that correlated with intelligibility varied across the two groups. For both groups, intelligibility was correlated with an amount of energy in the mid-frequency region, but whereas mean word duration was another relevant factor for the natives it was the F2 range in the vowel space for the non-natives. There was also a strong correlation across groups as to the lexical items most often misperceived. Results for two different listening conditions (recognition of isolated words vs triplets) suggested that non-native performance was to a certain extent hampered by increased cognitive load in the triplet condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper investigates the realization of word-final /t/ in conversational standard Dutch. First, based on a large number of word tokens (6747) annotated with broad phonetic transcription by an automatic transcription tool, we show that morphological properties of the words and their position in the utterance''s syntactic structure play a role for the presence versus absence of their final /t/. We also replicate earlier findings on the role of predictability (word frequency and bigram frequency with the following word) and provide a detailed analysis of the role of segmental context. Second, we analyze the detailed acoustic properties of word-final /t/ on the basis of a smaller number of tokens (486) which were annotated manually. Our data show that word and bigram frequency as well as segmental context also predict the presence of sub-phonemic properties. The investigations presented in this paper extend research on the realization of /t/ in spontaneous speech and have potential consequences for psycholinguistic models of speech production and perception as well as for automatic speech recognition systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate factors that affect second language speech perception. Listening tests were run in which native and non-native (Norwegian) participants identified English consonants in VCV syllables in quiet and in different noise conditions. An assimilation test investigated the mapping of English consonants onto Norwegian counterparts. Results of the identification test showed a lower non-native performance but there was no evidence that the non-native disadvantage was greater in noise than in quiet. Poorer identification was found for sounds that occur only in English (‘novel category’ consonants) but this was the case for both English and Norwegian listeners, and thus likely to be related to the acoustic-phonetic properties of consonants in that category. Information transfer analyses revealed a certain impact of phonological factors on L2 perception, as the transmission of the voicing feature was more affected for Norwegian listeners than the transmission of place or manner information. The relation between the results of the identification in noise and assimilation tasks suggests that, at least in higher proficiency L2 learners, assimilation patterns may not be predictive of listeners’ ability to hear non-native speech sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the ability of listeners to judge speaker height and weight from speech samples. Correlations between estimated height/weight and actual height/weight for male speakers; Regression analysis of speech rate; Formant frequency values.

Focuses on acoustic parameters in human speaker recognition. Conduction of speaker tests using female speakers known to the listeners; Investigation on the perceptual importance of the different factors; Examination on the ability of human listeners to identify a speaker solely on the basis of an isolated speech sample.

Investigates the speech rhythm and pitch to speaker recognition in two experiments by systematically varying selected parameters of the Lx signal. Use of a Fourcin laryngograph, Lx recordings of three male speakers; Description of stimuli in speaker discrimination and identification; Relevance of all three parameters such as speech rhythm, pitch contour and pitch height under laboratory conditions; Relative importance of acoustic parameters for auditory speaker recognition.

Proposes a re-evaluation of data from a speaker-identification experiment by Whiteside and Rixon to investigate whether the experiment allows reliable conclusions. Identification of a pair of twins from their recorded voices; Signs of correlation coefficients conflict with acoustic measurements; Mismatch between correlations for both twins; Monosyllables used in the experiment.

Abstract: Processing speech in a non-native language requires listeners to cope with influences from their first language and to overcome the effects of limited exposure and experience. These factors may be particularly important when listening in adverse conditions. However, native listeners also suffer in noise, and the intelligibility of speech in noise clearly depends on factors which are independent of a listener’s first language. The current study explored the issue of language-independence by comparing the responses of eight listener groups differing in native language when confronted with the task of identifying English intervocalic consonants in three masker backgrounds, viz. stationary speech-shaped noise, temporally-modulated speech-shaped noise and competing English speech. The study analysed the effects of (i) noise type, (ii) speaker, (iii) vowel context, (iv) consonant, (v) phonetic feature classes, (vi) stress position, (vii) gender and (viii) stimulus onset relative to noise onset. A significant degree of similarity in the response to many of these factors was evident across all eight language groups, suggesting that acoustic and auditory considerations play a large rôle in determining intelligibility. Language-specific influences were observed in the rankings of individual consonants and in the masking effect of competing speech relative to speech-modulated noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]