Evaluation of Phonatory Behavior of German and French Speakers in Native and Non-Native Speech

Abstract

Phonatory behavior of German speakers (GS) and French speakers (FS) in native (L1) and non-native (L2) speech was instrumentally examined. Vowel productions of the two groups were analyzed using a parametrization of phonatory behavior and phonatory quality properties in the acoustic signal. The behavior of GS is characterized by more strained adduction of the vocal folds whereas FS show more incomplete glottal closure. Furthermore, GS change their phonatory behavior in the foreign language (=French) by adapting phonatory strategies of FS, whereas FS do not show this tendency. In addition, German beginners (BEG) and partly German advanced learners (ADV) are already orientated on production characteristics of the L2. French BEG however retain their phonatory behavior in L2 (=German) by showing less vocal fold adduction in comparison to their L1. French ADV show the opposite behavior. Finally, ADV of the two speaker groups generally show more strained behavior in L2 productions than BEG. The results provide evidence that GS and FS apply different laryngeal phonatory settings and that they altered their settings in L2 differently. Perceptual evaluation of voice quality of the speech material and a correlation analysis between acoustic and perceptual results are suggested for future research.

Attractiveness of French Voices for German Listeners — Results from Native and Non-Native Read Speech

“…As in other studies on voice attractiveness the voice quality can play an important role [6]. In an investigation of the laryngeal phonatory settings of the corpus data also used in this study [18] it could be shown that the behaviour of German speakers is characterised by more strained adduction of the vocal folds whereas French speakers show more incomplete glottal closure.…”