Word final prolongations: acoustic characteristics and influence on speech fluency perception Prolongamentos no final de palavras: características acústicas e influência na percepção da fluência de fala (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Communication Disorders, 2012
The present study examined listeners' identification and rating of words in passages as "stuttered" when the duration and frequency of occurrence of sound prolongations were manipulated. Thirty-six participants listened to a 219-word passage containing voiceless fricatives digitally increased from their normal durations to 200, 300, and 420 ms. Listeners heard one of three passages that contained 5%, 10% or 15% altered stimuli within the passage. In Condition 1, listeners identified words considered "stuttered." In Condition 2, listeners rated specifically selected words in the passage relative to the extent they considered the words "stuttered." The results showed that 1) both the duration and the frequency of occurrence of the altered phonemes within the paragraph length material had an impact on listeners' perception of words identified as a sound prolongation; 2) listeners gave significantly higher ratings in Condition 2 than Condition 1 when determining if a word was stuttered or produced fluently. The implications of these results are discussed.
Journal of Communication Disorders, 1998
Voicing onset changes between control conditions and three fluency-evoking conditions (choral reading [CHORAL], delayed auditory feedback [DAF], and noise [NOISE]) were studied in 12 persons who do not stutter and 10 who do stutter. Voicing onsets were distinguished physiologically using airflow prior to voicing, with zero airflow prevoicing categorized as hard and the rest as breathy. Persons who stutter were more fluent under all fluencyevoking conditions than control conditions. Speaking under fluency-evoking conditions did not significantly increase the overall proportion of breathy onsets from control conditions for either group. However, looking only at hard onsets in the control condition, we found that both groups changed significantly more to breathy (p ϭ 0.001) under CHORAL and NOISE. In persons who stutter, onset type was not associated with whether a word was produced fluently or dysfluently in the control condition. Also, no relationship was found between onsets changing to breathy under fluency-evoking conditions and onsets changing to fluent. The results suggest that although fluency-evoking conditions can modify some voicing onset behaviors, these modifications do not relate to improvements in fluency. Published by Elsevier Science Inc. Educational Objectives : The reader will be able to: (1) provide another defintion of hard and breathy onsets using physiological variables rather than perceptual ones; (2) understand more about laryngeal behavior associated with the onset of voicing in words beginning with vowels in continuous speech; and (3) understand more about how fluency-evoking conditions change speech production.
Objectives: This investigation aimed to compare the performance of two software packages, namely " Computerized Scoring of the Stuttering Severity (CSSS) " and " Praat, " in calculating the mean duration of stuttered syllables. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 35 eligible stuttering subjects (26 male and 9 female), aged between 18 and 42 (m=26.23±6.02) were selected via the non-probability sampling method to enter the study. Spontaneous speech samples of subjects with stuttering were recorded with the help of a video camera. Two separate tasks were used to calculate the Mean Duration of the Three Longest Stuttering Events (MDTLSE) by applying the second version of the CSSS software and the 5.3.78 version of the Praat software. In the first task, MDTLSE was measured 10 times for a subject with mild stuttering and a subject with severe stuttering. In the second task, MDTLSE was measured just one time for each stuttering participant, and comparison was performed by paired t-test using the SPSS Version 22.0 computer software. Results: In the first task, in which Praat and CSSS-2 were used for the calculation of MDTLSE (10 times), the minimum and maximum obtained values were found to differ by 0.007 seconds (7 milliseconds) and 0.2 seconds (200 milliseconds), respectively. In the second task, in which MDTLSE was calculated with the software CSSS-2 and Praat, the differences were 2.34±2.17 and 3.02±2.98, respectively, that were found to be statistically significant (P=0.025). Discussion: Higher reliability and replicability of duration values calculated by Praat software indicates that this software can be applied for more precise determination of duration of stuttered syllables.
Iranian Rehabilitation Journal
This investigation aimed to compare the performance of two software packages, namely "Computerized Scoring of the Stuttering Severity (CSSS)" and "Praat," in calculating the mean duration of stuttered syllables. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 35 eligible stuttering subjects (26 male and 9 female), aged between 18 and 42 (m=26.23±6.02) were selected via the non-probability sampling method to enter the study. Spontaneous speech samples of subjects with stuttering were recorded with the help of a video camera. Two separate tasks were used to calculate the Mean Duration of the Three Longest Stuttering Events (MDTLSE) by applying the second version of the CSSS software and the 5.3.78 version of the Praat software. In the first task, MDTLSE was measured 10 times for a subject with mild stuttering and a subject with severe stuttering. In the second task, MDTLSE was measured just one time for each stuttering participant, and comparison was performed by paired t-test using the SPSS Version 22.0 computer software. Results: In the first task, in which Praat and CSSS-2 were used for the calculation of MDTLSE (10 times), the minimum and maximum obtained values were found to differ by 0.007 seconds (7 milliseconds) and 0.2 seconds (200 milliseconds), respectively. In the second task, in which MDTLSE was calculated with the software CSSS-2 and Praat, the differences were 2.34±2.17 and 3.02±2.98, respectively, that were found to be statistically significant (P=0.025). Discussion: Higher reliability and replicability of duration values calculated by Praat software indicates that this software can be applied for more precise determination of duration of stuttered syllables.
Duration and variability of speech segments in fluent speech of children with and without stuttering
Collegium antropologicum, 2011
The purpose of this study was to compare the duration and variability of speech segments of children who stutter with those of children who do not stutter and to identify changes in duration and variability of speech segments due to the effect of utterance length. Eighteen children participated (ranging from 6.3 to 7.9 years of age). The experimental task required the children to repeat a single word in isolation and the same word embedded in a sentence. Durations of speech segments and Coefficients of variation (Cv) were defined to assess temporal parameters of speech. Significant differences were found in the variability of speech segments on the sentence level, but not in duration. The findings supported the assumption that linguistic factors pose direct demands on the speech motor system and that the extra duration of speech segments observed in the speech of stuttering adults may be a kind of compensation strategy.
Correlation of Perceived Fluency with Phonetic Measures of Speech Rate and Pausing
2019
The paper studies the relationship between perceived fluency of L2 semi-spontaneous utterances and phonetic measures such as speech rate and the number of pauses. The data for the correlation analysis comes from a word guessing experiment conducted with Slovaks speaking English. Subjects provided cues for target words intended to facilitate the correct guessing of those words. In the second phase, speakers were asked to guess the words to which the interlocutors were providing cues. The guessers were also asked to evaluate the fluency of the interlocutors for each of the words that the speakers were guessing. The data from the recordings is analysed through a correlation analysis of the phonetic measures extracted from the acoustic signal and the level of perceived fluency that was elicited for each target word. The study found that phonetic measures do correlate with the levels of perceived fluency. The findings may be used for improvements in automated computer assisted fluency as...
The influence of final‐syllable position on the vowel and word duration of deaf talkers
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1989
Hearing talkers produce shorter vowel and word durations in multisyllabic contexts than in monosyllabic contexts. This investigation determined whether a similar effect occurs for deaf talkers, a population often characterized as lacking coarticulation in their speech. Four prelingually deafened adults and two hearing controls produced three sets of word sequences. Each set included a kernel word and six derived forms (e.g., "speed, .... speedy," "speeding," etc.). The derived forms were created by adding unstressed and stressed syllables to the kernel form. A spectrographic analysis indicated that the deaf subjects did not always decrease word and vowel durations for the derivatives. Unlike hearing speakers, they often did not reduce vowel segments more than consonant segments. Three explanations are forwarded for the shortening effects. One relates to the implementation of temporal rules, the second concerns the organization imposed upon the articulators to produce speech, and the third suggests a language-independent vocal tract characteristic. The role of auditory information in developing the shortening effects is also considered.
2019
Introduction: Stuttering is a speech disorder examined in many studies on motor speech deficiency in people with stuttering. In the area of language, some studies have also shown that people with stuttering are different from people without stuttering in terms of phonological, lexical, and syntactic processing .In this area, studies on the evaluation of phonological processing in Iranian people with stuttering are a few. One of the tasks for evaluating phonological processing is anon-word repetition task. This study aimed to examine the ability of adults who stutter to repeat words/non-words compared with those with fluent speech. Materials and Methods: This research is across-sectional descriptive-correlational study. The participants included 20 adults with stuttering (18-30 years old) selected by the convenience sampling method from those referred to speech therapy centers and hospitals in Tehran Province. Besides, 30 age-matched peers participated in this study as the control. The phonological processing of participants was examined in terms of reaction time and word/non-word repetition accuracy. To detect stuttering, we asked the subjects to read a text in Persian, and its severity was detected by stuttering severity instrument-3. For measuring reaction time, DMDX software was used, and data were analyzed in SPSS V. 21. Results: Mann-Whitney test results showed a significant difference between adults with and without stuttering in terms of repetition accuracy (P<0.05), but no significant difference was found between them in terms of reaction time (P>0.05). Conclusion: Phonological processing in adults who stutter is different compared with those with speech fluency, but this difference is non-significant. Results indicated slow phonological processing in an adult with stuttering. This can raise the awareness of therapists during the evaluation and treatment of stutterers in terms of phonological processing and phonological working memory.
Acoustic Characteristics of the Adaptation of Stuttering
Changes in duration of 90 dysfluent words in three successive readings of a passage by adults who stutter were measured. Durations of initial dysfluent consonants and vowels and vowels following dysfluent consonants were measured. Significant reductions occurred from 1st to 2nd but not 2nd to 3rd reading for both initial dysfluent consonants and vowels. However, vowel durations following dysfluent consonants did not change. Implications for understanding the nature of stuttering and for diagnosis are presented. Technological advancements have given us the ability to quantify the acoustic parameters of adaptation between successive readings; however, very little acoustic analysis of the changes that occur during adaptation has been reported. This study was designed to examine the specific characteristics of whole word length (WWL), length of the consonant in the initial position (CIP), length of the vowel/semi-vowel following the consonant in the initial position (VFCIP), length of t...
The extent and degree of utterance-final word lengthening in spontaneous speech from 10 languages
Linguistics vanguard, 2021
Words in utterance-final positions are often pronounced more slowly than utterance-medial words, as previous studies on individual languages have shown. This paper provides a systematic cross-linguistic comparison of relative durations of final and penultimate words in utterances in terms of the degree to which such words are lengthened. The study uses time-aligned corpora from 10 genealogically, areally, and culturally diverse languages, including eight small, under-resourced, and mostly endangered languages, as well as English and Dutch. Clear effects of lengthening words at the end of utterances are found in all 10 languages, but the degrees of lengthening vary. Languages also differ in the relative durations of words that precede utterance-final words. In languages with on average short words in terms of number of segments, these penultimate words are also lengthened. This suggests that lengthening extends backwards beyond the final word in these languages, but not in languages with on average longer words. Such typological patterns highlight the importance of examining prosodic phenomena in diverse language samples beyond the small set of majority languages most commonly investigated so far.