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This study focuses on voicing assimilation across word boundaries in the speech of second language (L2) users. We compare native speakers of British English to speakers of two West Slavic languages, Czech and Slovak, which, despite their many similarities, differ with respect to voicing assimilation rules. Word-final voicing was analysed in 30 speakers, using the static value of voicing percentage and the voicing profile method. The results of linear mixed-effects modelling suggest an effect of first language (L1) transfer in all L2 English speaker groups, with the tendency to assimilate being correlated with the strength of foreign accent. Importantly, the two language groups differed in assimilation strategies before sonorant consonants, as a clear effect of L1-based phonetic influence.

The use of linking or glottalization contributes to the characteristic sound pattern of a language, and the use of one in place of the other may affect a speaker's comprehensibility and fluency in certain contexts. In this study, native speakers of Czech, a language that is associated with a frequent use of glottalization in vowel-initial word onsets, are examined in the second language (L2) context of three Romance languages that predominantly employ linking between words (Spanish, Italian and Portuguese). In total, 29 native speakers and 51 non-native learners were asked to read a short text in the respective language. The learners were divided into two groups based on their experience with the target language. A number of other factors were examined in a mixed-effects logistic regression model (segmental context, lexical stress, prosodic breaks, and the semantic status of the words). The main results show that, regardless of the target language, the more experienced (ME) learners displayed significantly lower rates of glottalization than the less experienced (LE) learners, but significantly higher rates than native speakers. The pedagogical implications of the results are discussed.

This paper presents the results of a brief mixed-methods intervention which sought to modify the production of prominence-related features in L2 English by four native French-speaking university lecturers, in read-aloud speech. Selected parts of participants' productions were acoustically modified and then used as the model in a Listen-and-Repeat protocol, where both quantitative (acoustic measures) and qualitative (free comments from discussion) data were collected. Acoustic measures were taken again from productions realized three months after the protocol, to trace longer term retention of modifications; expert listeners compared a selection of these productions to the original, diagnostic renditions, rating the degree of nativelike rhythm and melody. Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative results confirm that imitating oneself can help individuals to modify prominence-related features of their pronunciation, that such changes can be retained over a 3-month period, but that people cannot reliably judge what they have modified. New potential is thus shown for Listen-and-Repeat, using one's own modified voice, as an effective technique in pronunciation instruction.

Within-speaker variability, which results from the plasticity of speech production, is an inherent feature of speaker comparison. This study examines targeted modifications of voice quality, both phonatory and articulatory, in Czech. Fifteen speakers were instructed to read a text in 15 different versions (e.g. palatalised voice, denasalised voice, breathy phonation, or a combination of open jaw and creaky voice). Acoustic analyses revealed that F3 is relatively stable across various voice quality settings, while harmonicity and spectral slope indicators are sensitive to the phonatory modifications. A perceptual test, administered online to 120 participants, showed that palatalised, pharyngealised, creaky, and pressed voice were regarded as most different from the speakers' habitual voices. Finally, automatic speaker recognition scores were very good with the targeted voice quality modifications, with LLR between 3 and 10. Pressed phonation turned out to have the greatest effect on all three types of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Czech and English are languages which differ with respect to the implementation of voicing. Unlike in English, there is a considerable agreement between phonological (systemic) and phonetic (actual) voicing in Czech, and, more importantly, the two languages have different strategies for the assimilation of voicing across the word boundary. The present study investigates the voicing in word-final obstruents in Czech speakers of English with the specific aim of ascertaining whether the degree of the speakers' foreign accent correlates with the way they treat English obstruents in assimilatory contexts. L2 speakers, divided into three groups of varying accentedness, were examined employing categorization and a voicing profile method for establishing the presence/absence of voicing. The results suggest that speakers with a different degree of Czech accent do differ in their realization of voicing in the way predicted by a negative transfer of assimilatory habits from Czech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]