Code-switching offers an interesting methodology to examine what happens when two linguistic systems come into contact. In the present study, two experiments were conducted to see if (1) listeners were able to anticipate code-switches in speech-innoise, and (2) prosodic cues were present in the signal as potential cues to an upcoming code-switch. A speech-in-noise perception experiment with early Spanish-English bilinguals found that listeners were indeed able to accurately identify words in code-switching sentences with the same accuracy as in monolingual sentences, even in highly-degraded listening conditions. We then analyzed the stimuli used in the perception experiment, and found that the speaker used different prosodic contours for code-switching productions compared to monolingual productions. We propose that listeners use specific code-switching prosody to anticipate code-switches, and thus ease processing costs in word identification.

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This study examines how ethnophonetic sounds are perceived in three different language/cultural groups. Specifically, Japanese, Chinese and American listeners were asked to listen to samples of voices of Japanese cake-selling street voices, and to rate which voice was the "best". The results indicate Japanese listeners are quite sensitive to what voice is best as a seller of fashionable Western cakes, and that this voice is different from sellers in less fashionable stores. The non-Japanese listeners rated the experienced Japanese cake-street seller voice considerably lower than did the Japanese listeners; moreover, Chinese and American listeners' differed on which street-seller voice they preferred. Tentative analysis suggests that Chinese listeners preferred a street selling voice with a higher F0, one that sounds like the moe anime voice, while American listeners preferred the voice with a more dynamic range of F0. Japanese listeners, on the other hand, preferred the voice that sounded "more elegant"-one with a touch of twang and some breathiness, a voice quality that is often perceived as being nasal (hana ni kakatta koe). An interesting question to be explored in the future is why the same voice is interpreted differently in different cultures. .

This paper studies articulatory, acoustic and perceptual characteristics of Mandarin Chinese emotional utterances as produced by two speakers, expressing Neutral, Angry, Sad and Happy emotions. Articulatory patterns were recorded using ElectroMagnetic Articulography (EMA), together with acoustic recordings. The acoustic and articulatory analysis revealed that Happy and Angry were generally higherpitched, louder, and produced with a more open mouth than Neutral or Sad. Sad is produced with low back tongue dorsum position and Happy, with a forward position, and for one speaker, duration was longer for Angry and Sad. Moreover, F1 and F2 are more dispersed (i.e., hyperarticulated) in emotional speech than Neutral speech. Perception tests conducted with 18 native listeners suggest that listeners were able to perceive the expressed emotions far above chance level. The louder and higher pitched the utterance, the more emotional the speech tends to be perceived. We also explore specific articulatory and acoustic correlates of each type of emotional speech, and how they impact perception.