Closure duration as an acoustic correlate of the word-initial singleton/geminate consonant contrast in Kelantan Malay

Hamzah, Mohd Hilmi; Fletcher, Janet; Hajek, John

doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2016.08.002

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Following Lisker and Abramson (1964), positive VOT for voiceless stop tokens was measured in ms over the periods of the release of stops in both utterance contexts (marked as '+h' in Figure 2). The measurement of negative VOT for voiced stop tokens usually corresponded to the closure duration measurement of voiced stops (see, e.g., Hamzah, 2010;Hamzah, Fletcher, & Hajek, 2016). That is, negative VOT was calculated utterance-initially from the onset of prevoicing to the release of the stop.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The production of the English stop voicing contrast by Arab L2 speakers of English

Hamzah

Madbouly

Halim

et al. 2020

Indonesian J. Appl. Linguist.

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The English voiceless stop /p/ and voiced stop /ɡ/ are absent in the consonant inventory of Arabic. This difference provides a fertile ground for empirical research in L2 speech learning among Arab L2 speakers of English. The current study, therefore, aims to explore the English stop voicing contrast as produced by Arab native speakers. Focusing on Voice Onset Time (VOT) as an acoustic parameter, the study seeks to examine the extent to which (1) Arab L2 speakers of English maintain the English stop voicing contrast for /p-b/ and /k-ɡ/, and (2) the L2 VOT continuum by Arab L2 speakers follows or deviates from the L1 VOT continuum in English. The acoustic phonetic experiment involved elicited materials of /p-b/ and /k-ɡ/ from four male native speakers of Arabic. The tokens were recorded in isolation (utterance-initial position) and in a carrier sentence (utterance-medial position). The data were then acoustically analysed following standard segmentation, annotation and measurement criteria. Results reveal that the Arab L2 speakers can, to a large extent, maintain the English stop voicing contrast across all places of articulation, with voiced stops usually being produced with “normal” negative VOT (prevoicing) and voiceless stops usually being produced with “normal” positive VOT and also accompanied with aspiration in the long-lag region. There are also exceptional cases of “abnormal” negative VOT (prevoicing) for voiceless stops and “abnormal” positive VOT (devoicing) for voiced stops, with an extremely larger number of devoiced tokens for voiced stops in comparison to prevoiced tokens for voiceless stops. The results accord well with the Speech Learning Model’s prediction that phonetically “new” sounds are relatively easier to learn than phonetically “similar” sounds. The conclusion is drawn that languages sharing the same sound contrast may exhibit different phonetic implementations in marking a phonological contrast.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The production of the English stop voicing contrast by Arab L2 speakers of English

Hamzah

Madbouly

Halim

et al. 2020

Indonesian J. Appl. Linguist.

Self Cite

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“…Most of the cross-linguistic studies on the perception of phonemic geminate consonants concern second language learning , for example the difficulties encountered by English or Korean learners of Japanese with Japanese geminates in either production or perception (e.g., Hayes, 2002 ; Hardison and Saigo, 2010 ; Sadakata and McQueen, 2011 ; Sonu et al, 2013 ). The majority of psycholinguistic or phonologically-oriented perceptual studies on gemination are within-language studies of native speakers (Pattani Malay: Abramson, 1986 ; Kelantan Malay: Hamzah, 2013 ; Cypriot Greek: Muller, 2001 ; Swiss German: Kraehenmann, 2001 ; Tashlhiyt Berber: Ridouane and Hallé, 2010 ). The situation is similar for vowel quantity contrasts, with most of the cross-linguistic studies on native vs. second language learners of languages with contrasting vowel quantity such as Japanese, Swedish, Finnish, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Difficulties in Perception of Tashlhiyt Berber Consonant Quantity Contrasts by Native Tashlhiyt Listeners vs. Berber-Naïve French Listeners

2016

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In a discrimination experiment on several Tashlhiyt Berber singleton-geminate contrasts, we find that French listeners encounter substantial difficulty compared to native speakers. Native listeners of Tashlhiyt perform near ceiling level on all contrasts. French listeners perform better on final contrasts such as fit-fitt than initial contrasts such as bi-bbi or sir-ssir. That is, French listeners are more sensitive to silent closure duration in word-final voiceless stops than to either voiced murmur or frication duration of fully voiced stops or voiceless fricatives in word-initial position. We propose, tentatively, that native speakers of French, a language in which gemination is usually not considered to be phonemic, have not acquired quantity contrasts but yet exhibit a presumably universal sensitivity to rhythm, whereby listeners are able to perceive and compare the relative temporal distance between beats given by successive salient phonetic events such as a sequence of vowel nuclei.

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“…As for singleton–geminate contrasts, in a literature overview Hamzah et al (2016) report ratios ranging from a minimum of 1.45 in Cypriot Greek, through 1.70 in Russian and 2.35 in Japanese, to a maximum of 2.93 in Turkish, for stops in word-medial intersonorant position. For Standard Italian as spoken in Tuscany, Payne (2005) measures a singleton–geminate ratio of 2.31.…”

Section: An Acoustic Study Of Laryngeal Contrasts In Tyroleanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial laryngeal neutralisation in Tyrolean

2018

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In the Southern Bavarian variety of Tyrolean, laryngeal contrasts undergo a typologically interesting process of neutralisation in word-initial position. We undertake an acoustic analysis of Tyrolean stops in word-initial, word-medial intersonorant and word-final contexts, as well as in obstruent clusters, investigating the role of the acoustic parameters VOT, prevoicing, closure duration and F0 and H1–H2* on following vowels in implementing contrast, if any. Results show that stops contrast word-medially via [voice] (supported by the acoustic cues of closure duration and F0), and are neutralised completely in word-final position and in obstruent clusters. Word-initially, neutralisation is subject to inter- and intraspeaker variability, and is sensitive to place of articulation. Aspiration plays no role in implementing laryngeal contrasts in Tyrolean.

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Closure duration as an acoustic correlate of the word-initial singleton/geminate consonant contrast in Kelantan Malay

Cited by 15 publications

References 39 publications

The production of the English stop voicing contrast by Arab L2 speakers of English

The production of the English stop voicing contrast by Arab L2 speakers of English

Differential Difficulties in Perception of Tashlhiyt Berber Consonant Quantity Contrasts by Native Tashlhiyt Listeners vs. Berber-Naïve French Listeners

Initial laryngeal neutralisation in Tyrolean

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