Browsing by Person "Gordeeva, Olga B."

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A phonetically versatile contrast: Pulmonic and glottalic voicelessness in Scottish English obstruents and voice quality
(Cambridge University Press, 2013-11-04) Gordeeva, Olga B.; Scobbie, James M.
This paper presents impressionistic, electroglottographic and acoustic data exploring the distribution of glottalic and pulmonic parameters in word-final Scottish English obstruents. On one hand, we focus on the relationship between these parameters and aspirated or glottalised phonatory settings of individual speakers. On the other hand, we explore the relationship between glottalic airstream and phonological /voice/. We show that laryngeally different phonatory settings such as glottalisation and aspiration can readily co-occur in the same speakers, and can be consistently used as secondary correlates of obstruent /-voice/. The results further show that although /-voice/ with glottalisation as its secondary correlate and ejective stops often co-occur near the same phonetic locus, they are not necessarily bound together in epiphenomenal terms in this variety of English.
Acquisition of Scottish English Phonology: an overview
(2006) Scobbie, James M.; Gordeeva, Olga B.; Matthews, Ben
Scottish English is usually characterized as a language continuum from Broad Scots to Scottish Standard English- (Corbett, McClure & Stuart-Smith, 2003, p.2). A 1996 survey preparatory to the 2001 census by the General Register Office (Scotland) estimated that about 30% of the Scottish population use (Broad) Scots to some extent, rising to 90% in the North East. The linguistic situation on the ground is complicated somewhat by population movement and dialect contact (as well as uncertainty about what constitutes Scots or Scottish Standard English (SSE) in the first place). Scots derives from the Anglian variety of Old English spoken in the 6th century, and varies regionally, whereas SSE is far more homogenous geographically. Scots speakers still tend only to be exposed in childhood to a Scottish English continuum which is rooted in their own local variety of Scots and so are not influenced much by other geographically delimited broad varieties. This continuum is of course just one aspect of sociolinguistic variation and is itself always undergoing language change: large differences should be expected between older more conservative speakers and the young as well as regionally and socio-economically. In the urban setting, local housing variation means that adjacent neighbourhoods may have markedly different linguistic profiles. Even the two ends of the Scots-SSE continuum are largely mutually intelligible, though mastery of SSE will not prepare someone new to Scotland (or indeed nave Scots themselves) for the difficulties they will face in understanding a broad speaker from an unfamiliar area. In general, the closely-related varieties of Scottish English can be thought of as being parallel with - but independent from - the other Englishes of the UK, but with their own national focus, however vague that is. The size, proximity and influence of England, as well as population movements mean, however, that historically and synchronically, the Scottish English continuum is attracted towards its English neighbour.
Interaction between the Scottish English System of Prominence and Vowel Length.
(2006) Gordeeva, Olga B.
This study looks into interaction between the quasi-phonemic vowel length contrast in Scottish English and its word-prosodic system. We show that under the same phrasal accent the phonetically short vowels of the morphologically conditioned quasi-phonological contrast are produced with significantly more laryngeal effort (spectral balance) than the long ones, while the vowels do not differ in quality, overall intensity or fundamental frequency. This difference is explained by employing the concept of functional load-. Duration must be kept short to mark the short vowel length, while both word-stress and phrasal accent require lengthening. Therefore, the additional laryngeal effort in the short vowels serves a prominence-enhancing function. This finding supports the hypothesis proposed by Beckman that phonological categories of word-prosodic systems featuring stress-accent- are not necessarily phonetically uniform language-int
Laryngeal Variation in the Scottish English Voice Contrast: Glottalisation, Ejectivisation and Aspiration
(QMU, 2011-03) Gordeeva, Olga B.; Scobbie, James M.
Preaspiration of fricatives and glottalisation of syllabic coda stops can be important phonetic correlates of obstruent /voice/ in some varieties of Scottish English. Within such varieties, this encoding of /voice/ is based on voice quality (laryngeal settings) and is subject to substantial interspeaker variation. We analyse the occurrence of preaspiration and glottalisation/ejectivisation in relationship to the laryngeal settings of individual speakers to explain the phonetic diversity of the contrast in Scottish English. The paper is intended as an illustration of how various voice quality contrasts can pave ways into phonological systems, and phonetically become the most important acoustical landmarks in the segmental contexts traditionally described in terms of periodicity or its timing.
Learnability of laryngeal abduction in voiceless fricatives : cross-linguistic evidence
(2007-08) Gordeeva, Olga B.; UK Economics Social and Research Grant Council (grant PTA-026-27-0368)
Previous research of laryngeal-oral gestural coordination in vowel-voiceless fricative sequences (Vf) shows that earlier timing of glottal opening relative to oral constriction is a languageindependent aerodynamic property. In this paper, we provide evidence that the extent of this gestural dissociation is nonetheless learnable in a varietyspecific way, and is, thus, actively controlled. This study shows that in some British English varieties, large temporal laryngeal-oral dissociation in Vf transitions is a correlate of the fricative /voice/ contrast, while the dissociation is much tighter in a language neutralising /voice/ such as Russian. The learnability of Vf-gestures is important in the context of theories on gestural phonology and acoustic multidimensionality of the /voice/ contrast.
Non-normative preaspirated voiceless fricatives in Scottish English: Phonetic and phonological characteristics
(2007) Gordeeva, Olga B.; Scobbie, James M.
Preaspiration is usually associated with stops rather than fricatives, both at phonological and phonetic levels of description. This study reports the occurrence of phonetic (nonnormative)preaspiration of voiceless fricatives in Scottish Standard English (SSE)spoken in the Central Belt of Scotland. We classify it as non-normative because it is variably present in different speakers, but the distribution is nevertheless understandable on phonetic grounds. The paper analyses the phonetic distribution of preaspiration and its functions in SSE. Preaspiration is shown to occur more frequently after open vowels and phrase-finally. Sociophonetic conditioning by speaker's sex is not found to be relevant. Functional analysis shows that preaspiration (reflected in the amount of noise in mid/high spectralfrequencies) is a systematic correlate of phonological fricative /voice/ contrast phrase finally. In this context, it appears to be even stronger predictor of /voice/ than such traditionally-considered correlates as voicing offset and segmental duration. The results show that abstract non-neutralised /voice/ is phonetically multidimensional such that fricative preaspiration can maintain the contrast in the contexts where phonetic voicing is demoted. The extent and functioning of preaspiration in SSE suggests that it is a varietyspecific optional characteristic resulting from a learned dissociation of lingual and laryngeal stricture gestures in voiceless fricatives.
Preaspiration as a correlate of word-final voice in Scottish English fricatives
(Mouton de Gruyter, 2010) Gordeeva, Olga B.; Scobbie, James M.; Å»ygis, M.; Fuchs, Susanne; Toda, M.
This chapter investigates the acoustics of aspiration noise in the intersegmental transition between a vowel and a following fricative, and how Scottish English speakers use this turbulence to convey phonologicalphonetic structure. 'Preaspiration' - the perceptually salient aspiration present in vowel-obstruent transitions - is usually associated with stops rather than fricatives, both at phonological and phonetic levels of description. This study describes the occurrence of phonetic (nonnormative) preaspiration of voiceless fricatives in Scottish Standard English (SSE), spoken in the Central Belt of Scotland. This variety-specific optional characteristic is variably present in different SSE speakers, and results from a learnt dissociation of the lingual and supralaryngeal gestures required for voiceless fricatives. The aims of this study are to explore the acoustic characteristics of preaspirated fricatives in SSE and the potential linguistic functioning of preaspiration as a correlate of the fricative /voice/ contrast. In doing so, we will contribute to the sparse acoustic literature on preaspirated fricatives; bridge the gap between possible functional and co-articulatory explanations of this phenomenon; and present a new analytical method to quantify the glottal aperiodic turbulence in the vowel and vowel-fricative transitions independently from the offset of periodic phonation.
Scottish English speech acquisition.
(Thomson Delmar Learning, 2007) Scobbie, James M.; Gordeeva, Olga B.; Mathews, B.; McLeod, Sharynne