We present an experimental paradigm to measure changes in characteristics of speech under vocal fatigue. As speech material, we have chosen a vocal load (3 hours) and a cognitive process (aloud continuous reading) that can induce some fatigue of the reader. The fatigue is verified using an analysis of reading errors and of disfluencies. A multivariate analysis based on Wilks' lambda test, on 16...

In Tswana parsing of nasals in syllabic peak position is avoided by deletion. This implies the general ranking *P/NAS >> MAX. However, there are three distinct environments where faithfulness is respected and the marked nasal peaks are preserved onto the surface. These three environments are when the nonparsing of the nasal will result in: (i) a word below the minimal word length requirement of...

Mandarin has a much more limited segmental inventory than English, and permits only nasals in coda position, presenting a challenge for learners of English. However, previous studies have mainly explored this issue using perceptual transcription. This study provides an acoustic analysis of coda consonant productions by Mandarin L2 learners of Australian English. The results indicate that they p...

Parameterisation of the glottal source has become increasingly useful for speech technology. For many applications it may be desirable to restrict the glottal source feature data to only speech regions where it can be reliably extracted. In this paper we exploit the previously proposed set of binary phonetic feature extractors to help determine optimal regions for glottal source analysis. Besid...

A sound change is underway in Australian English where /el/ sequences are realised as [æl] by some speakers. Another less noted and possibly related phenomenon is also occurring, where /æl/ is realised as [el] by speakers in the same region (/æl/-/el/ transposition). In this investigation we introduce /æl/-/el/-transposition, provide experimental data relating to it, and discuss issues surround...

It is shown that pairs of demonstratives in which there is a vocalic opposition have an advantage in their struggle for existence in languages when F2’ is higher in the proximal than in the distal form. It is also shown that nasals are preferred in first person pronouns while stops and other obstruents are preferred in second person pronouns. Explanations are suggested for both findings. They i...

In this paper, we demonstrate the trichotomic realization of voiced velars in Japanese, challenging the traditional plosive/nasal dichotomy of velar allophones, and examine the distribution of these allophones taking phonetic/phonological factors into account. We conducted the quantitative analysis based on some speech production experiments. The results show that voiced velars are more likely ...

acoustic analysis consonants. See entries ‘acoustics’ under approximants/fricatives/laterals/nasals/ rhotics/stops measurement. See under Praat preparing data for analysis, 123–124 spectrograms and waveforms, 136, 137 vowels. See vowels: acoustics allophones acquiring allophonic distributions, 202, 213 acquiring TL phonemes that are L1 allophones, 148, 217, 241–244 learning a new allophonic dis...

Recent discoveries of fossil vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar include several specimens of a large theropod dinosaur. One specimen includes a nearly complete and exquisitely preserved skull with thickened pneumatic nasals, a median frontal horn, and a dorsal projection on the parietals. The new materials are assigned to the enigmatic theropod group Abelisauridae on the basis o...

The Basotho of Lesotho and South Africa speak the same language, namely Sesotho. However, two countries do not use orthography when writing This orthographic representation its variations pose a significant challenge Bible translators translate it into It also presents difficulties to readers in they have read written for first time or who encounter Sesotho African orthography. orthographies ar...