Syllable rate and speech rhythm in multiethnolectal Zurich German: a comparison of speaking styles (original) (raw)
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Speech rhythm in multiethnolectal Zurich German
Speech Prosody 2020, 2020
Multiethnolects have been observed in (Western) Europe for about 30 years, also in Zurichthe biggest city in German-speaking Switzerland, characterized by ethnic and linguistic diversity. Speech rhythm appears to be a salient feature of several European multiethnolects and has been described as a 'staccato' rhythm. However, a sociophonetic investigation of rhythm in Swiss German multiethnolects is lacking so far. To investigate rhythmic characteristics of multiethnolectal Zurich German, we recorded read speech of 48 adolescents of two schools in Zurich. Forty adolescents from a third school rated speech samples to indicate how multiethnolectal the speakers sound on a 7-point Likert scale. These rating scores were then correlated with various rhythm metrics (%V, ΔC, ΔV; varcoC, varcoV; nPVI-C, nPVI-V). We found significant correlations between vowel variability measurements and rating scores as well as between syllable rate and rating scores. In contrast, we found no correlations with consonantal variability measurements. Our results support the view that multiethnolectal Zurich German uses less vowel reduction in unstressed syllables which leads to the impression of a 'staccato' rhythm of this variety.
Rhythmic variability between speakers: Articulatory, prosodic, and linguistic factors
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2015
Between-speaker variability of acoustically measurable speech rhythm [%V, ΔV(ln), ΔC(ln), and Δpeak(ln)] was investigated when within-speaker variability of (a) articulation rate and (b) linguistic structural characteristics was introduced. To study (a), 12 speakers of Standard German read seven lexically identical sentences under five different intended tempo conditions (very slow, slow, normal, fast, very fast). To study (b), 16 speakers of Zurich Swiss German produced 16 spontaneous utterances each (256 in total) for which transcripts were made and then read by all speakers (4096 sentences; 16 speaker × 256 sentences). Between-speaker variability was tested using analysis of variance with repeated measures on within-speaker factors. Results revealed strong and consistent between-speaker variability while within-speaker variability as a function of articulation rate and linguistic characteristics was typically not significant. It was concluded that between-speaker variability of a...
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2017
The present study compares the acoustic realization of Saterland Frisian, Low German, and High German vowels by trilingual speakers in the Saterland. The Saterland is a rural municipality in northwestern Germany. It offers the unique opportunity to study trilingualism with languages that differ both by their vowel inventories and by external factors, such as their social status and the autonomy of their speech communities. The objective of the study was to examine whether the trilingual speakers differ in their acoustic realizations of vowel categories shared by the three languages and whether those differences can be interpreted as effects of either the differences in the vowel systems or of external factors. Monophthongs produced in a /hVt/ frame revealed that High German vowels show the most divergent realizations in terms of vowel duration and formant frequencies, whereas Saterland Frisian and Low German vowels show small differences. These findings suggest that vowels of different languages are likely to share the same phonological space when the speech communities largely overlap, as is the case with Saterland Frisian and Low German, but may resist convergence if at least one language is shared with a larger, monolingual speech community, as is the case with High German.
Rhythmic variability in Swiss German dialects
2012
Speech rhythm can be measured acoustically in terms of durational characteristics of consonantal and vocalic intervals. The present paper investigated how acoustically measurable rhythm varies across dialects of Swiss German. Rhythmic measurements (% ...
Rhythm and Vowel Quality in Accents of English
Research in Language, 2010
This paper will examine rhythmic differences among native and non-native accents of English, and report on a pilot experiment investigating a hypothesized interaction between rhythm and vowel quality. A new metric, % SteadyState, an acoustic measure that quantifies the purity of vowels, appears to capture rhythmic differences that have been reported among various native and non-native accents of English. In the tradition of other recently developed rhythm metrics, these findings suggest a link between rhythm and segmental phonology. Additionally, the perspective gained from this study may be beneficial to learners whose goal is native-like vowel quality, offering an understanding of the dynamic properties of English vowels.
Proceedings of the Conference on Phonetics & Phonology in German-speaking countries (P&P 13)
2018
Background: Apraxia of Speech (AOS) is assumed to be caused by a timing deficit during the planning and control of speech movements which leads to prolonged segments, among other distortions and seems to distinguish AOS from Phonemic Paraphasia (PA), a disorder in the central speech system on the level of the phonological speech respect to vowel and word durations. The hypothesis is that the apraxic group will show longer mean vowel and word durations than the paraphasic group and a group of agematched controls. Method: 12 subjects (4 per group: Group AOS, group PA, Group NOM) completed a repetition task of 104 German, monosyllabic, monomorphemic words (50 % CVC, 50 % CCVC or CVCC). Results: Group AOS showed only significantly longer duration for /o/ than group PA. But the apraxic group produced significantly longer mean word durations than the paraphasic group. The results of this study partly confirmed the assumed timing deficit in AOS.
Interplay of sociolinguistic factors in rhythmic variation in a minority French dialect
Speech Prosody 2016, 2016
A contact setting often limits speakers’ possibilities to practice the minority language in an array of contexts and thus affects its stylistic and sociolinguistic variation. This paper examines rhythmic variation in read and spontaneous speech samples from speakers of minority Ontario French (Canada). Rate, nPVI-V, VarcoV, %V and the CC model are used to examine the extent of sociolinguistic variation in the dataset and test the hypotheses of convergence to English and of sociolinguistic discontinuity. Age, gender and speaking style each appear to be significant factors, without showing interaction. Females and older speakers showed a more syllable-timed pattern than males and younger participants. In spontaneous speech, all speakers had a less syllable-timed rhythmicity, despite a faster rate. Overall, speakers did not converge to English.
The Effect of Ageing on Speech Rhythm: A Study on Zurich German
9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018, 2018
Speech segmental and suprasegmental characteristics vary considerably across the life span, for example, due to degenerative changes in speech production mechanisms and neuro-muscolar control. A great deal of research on the acoustic correlates of adult speakers' voice has focussed on changes in voice quality, vowel formant patterns, f0, amplitude and speech rate. Only little attention has been paid on speech rhythm variability due to advancing age. Here we quantified between-language rhythmic variability in terms of the durational characteristics of consonantal and vocalic intervals (henceforth CV intervals). We compared the segmental durational variability of two groups of Zurich German speakers. Group 1: 16 young adults, aged from 18 to 32 years; group 2: 10 older adults, aged from 66 to 81 years. For both groups we analyzed 20 sentences in Zurich German from the TEVOID Corpus. Between-speaker durational variability across age was quantified through a variety of interval-based metrics: segment rate, %V, deltaC, deltaV, VarcoC, VarcoV, rPVI-C and nPVI-V. Results showed that rhythmic differences between younger and older adults are largely accountable for by speech rate differences. Segment rate, %V and raw measures of CV interval durational variability (deltaV, deltaC and r-PVI-C) showed effects between younger and older adults. Rate normalized metrics (VarcoC, VarcoV and n-PVI-V) did not differ significantly between the two age-groups.