Towards a Phonetic Explanation for Universal Preferences in Implosives and Ejectives

Javkin, Hector

doi:10.3765/bls.v3i0.2267

Cited by 40 publications

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“…This unvoiced-voiced relationship was not systematic as the [p]-[b] confusions almost always occurred in onsets (92.6%), showing that the labial locus of articulation is less subject to asymmetry in recognition. In fact, of the three voiced stops, [b] is known to be the most compatible with sustained voicing [27] , [28] .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech Recognition in Natural Background Noise

2013

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In the real world, human speech recognition nearly always involves listening in background noise. The impact of such noise on speech signals and on intelligibility performance increases with the separation of the listener from the speaker. The present behavioral experiment provides an overview of the effects of such acoustic disturbances on speech perception in conditions approaching ecologically valid contexts. We analysed the intelligibility loss in spoken word lists with increasing listener-to-speaker distance in a typical low-level natural background noise. The noise was combined with the simple spherical amplitude attenuation due to distance, basically changing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Therefore, our study draws attention to some of the most basic environmental constraints that have pervaded spoken communication throughout human history. We evaluated the ability of native French participants to recognize French monosyllabic words (spoken at 65.3 dB(A), reference at 1 meter) at distances between 11 to 33 meters, which corresponded to the SNRs most revealing of the progressive effect of the selected natural noise (−8.8 dB to −18.4 dB). Our results showed that in such conditions, identity of vowels is mostly preserved, with the striking peculiarity of the absence of confusion in vowels. The results also confirmed the functional role of consonants during lexical identification. The extensive analysis of recognition scores, confusion patterns and associated acoustic cues revealed that sonorant, sibilant and burst properties were the most important parameters influencing phoneme recognition. . Altogether these analyses allowed us to extract a resistance scale from consonant recognition scores. We also identified specific perceptual consonant confusion groups depending of the place in the words (onset vs. coda). Finally our data suggested that listeners may access some acoustic cues of the CV transition, opening interesting perspectives for future studies.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech Recognition in Natural Background Noise

2013

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“…Velars have longer VOT and bursts than labials or alveolars, which is unsurprising since velars are produced with a smaller intra-oral cavity and therefore higher intra-oral pressure (Javkin, 1977). Conversely, /k'/ had the shortest duration, and its VPT was significantly longer than that of /t'/.…”

Section: [ T D $ I N L I N E ]mentioning

confidence: 95%

Grounded constraints and the consonants of Setswana

Gouskova¹,

Zsiga²,

Boyer³

2011

Lingua

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“…This is reminiscent of the argument put forward by Ladefoged (2001: 131), who highlights the fact that speakers and listeners fundamentally like languages to have distinct sounds, such as ejectives, that are easy both to hear and to make. Building on Greenberg's (1970: 127) assertion – later supported by Javkin (1977: 559) and Maddieson (1984: 105) – that languages with an ejective inventory will have velar ejectives at the top of the hierarchy, Ladefoged points out that this illustrates the balance between ease of articulation and ease of hearing: [’] is perhaps favoured slightly more because it may be auditorily more distinct than either [’] or [’].…”

Section: Ejectives In Englishmentioning

confidence: 98%

Ejectives in Scottish English: A social perspective

McCarthy

Stuart‐Smith

2013

Journal of the International Phonetic Association

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This paper presents the results of an analysis of the realization of word-final /k/ in a sample of read and casual speech by 28 female pupils from a single-sex Glaswegian high school. Girls differed in age, socioeconomic background, and ethnicity. Ejectives were the most usual variant for /k/ in both speech styles, occurring in the speech of every pupil in our sample. Our narrow auditory analysis revealed a continuum of ejective production, from weak to intense stops. Results from multinomial logistic regression show that ejective production is promoted by phonetic, linguistic and interactional factors: ejectives were used more in read speech, when /k/ occurred in the /-ŋk/ cluster (e.g. tank), and when the relevant word was either at the end of a clause or sentence, or in turn-final position. At the same time, significant interactions between style, and position in turn, and the social factors of age and ethnicity, show that the use of ejectives by these girls is subject to a fine degree of sociolinguistic control, alongside interactional factors. Finally, cautious comparison of these data with recordings made in 1997 suggests that these results may also reflect a sound change in progress, given the very substantial real-time increase in ejective realizations of /k/ in Glasgow over the past fourteen years.

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Towards a Phonetic Explanation for Universal Preferences in Implosives and Ejectives

Abstract: Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1977), pp. 557-565

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

Speech Recognition in Natural Background Noise

Speech Recognition in Natural Background Noise

Grounded constraints and the consonants of Setswana

Ejectives in Scottish English: A social perspective

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