CASL
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/22
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Item Similar and different tongue surface contours: intra-speaker controls in ultrasound analysis(2023-08) Scobbie, James M.Ultrasound studies of speech production analyse differences in dependent variables reflecting the tongue surface’s location and shape. Inferential statistics distinguish theoretically-relevant from random effects, somewhat independently of the descriptive size of significant effects. Experimental designs induce measurable dependent changes by manipulating independent variables such as prosody, phonemic target, etc. This paper presents descriptive statistics quantifying holistically all 15 pairwise differences between six monophthongal long vowel phonemes of one variety of English, comparing these to experimental noise differences attributable to the use of two identical blocks of data collection in sequence. Eight speakers were recorded, using two different ultrasound systems, and analysed in AAA using both edge-tracking and DeepLabCut pose estimation. The smallest phonemic contrast (~2mm) was greater than the experimental noise (~1mm), and was well evidenced by AAA’s t-test of radial difference.Item Bulgarian vowel reduction in unstressed position: An ultrasound and acoustic investigation(International Phonetic Association, 2019-08-10) Dokovova, Marie; Sabev, Mitko; Scobbie, James M.; Lickley, Robin; Cowen, Steve; Calhoun, Sasha; Escudero, Paola; Tabain, Marija; Warren, PaulVowel reduction in Contemporary Standard Bulgarian (CSB) has been variously claimed to involve raising, no change or lowering of the high vowels /iəu/. There is a general agreement that the low vowels /ɛaɔ/ are raised when unstressed. This paper directly measures tongue height using Ultrasound Tongue Imaging (UTI) and relates this measure to the acoustic correlate F1 at vowel midpoint. The six vowels of CSB were paired with respect to frontness (/ɛ, i/, /a, ə/, /ɔ, u/), and the overlap in height of the unstressed lower vowel in each pair was assessed relative to (a) its stressed counterpart and (b) the stressed and (c) unstressed realisations of the lower vowel. There was no evidence of the higher unstressed vowel in each pair being different from its stressed counterpart. The articulatory and acoustic results are not completely aligned, but both diverge from the traditional model of vowel reduction in CSB.Item Biological and social grounding of phonology : variation as a research tool(2007-08) Scobbie, James M.; Acknowledgements. Financial support from ESRC (RES-000-22-2032).Phonological-phonetic sound systems are abstractions away from substance, so while they are grounded in biological capacity, they also reflect phonetically un-natural relationships arising from a variety of linguistic factors. Sociolinguistic variation is one of these non-biological factors. Pilot articulatory results are presented from derhoticised Scottish English. It can have onset/ coda allophony far more radical than the systems that are normally examined in articulatory research. Ultrasound analysis shows acoustic rhoticity in codas may have a post-alveolar constriction so delayed that acoustic rhoticity is covert. Perceptual recoverability of social identity has to be considered in addition to plain phonetic factors.Item Effect of phonetic onset on acoustic and articulatory speech reaction times studied with tongue ultrasound(International Phonetic Association, 2015-08-15) Palo, Pertti; Schaeffler, Sonja; Scobbie, James M.We study the effect that phonetic onset has on acoustic and articulatory reaction times. An acoustic study by Rastle et al. (2005) shows that the place and manner of the first consonant in a target affects acoustic RT. An articulatory study by Kawamoto et al. (2008) shows that the same effect is not present in articulatory reaction time of the lips. We hypothesise, therefore, that in a replication with articulatory instrumentation for the tongue, we should find the same acoustic effect, but no effect in the articulatory reaction time. As a proof of concept of articulatory measurement from ultrasound images, we report results from a pilot experiment which also extends the dataset to include onset-less syllables. The hypothesis is essentially confirmed with statistical analysis and we explore and discuss the effect of different vowels and onset types (including null onsets) on articulatory and acoustic RT and speech production.