@article {35, title = {Aantrekkelijkheid van mannelijke sprekers: Effecten van tempo en toonhoogte}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

Vrouwen beoordelen mannen als meer aantrekkelijk naarmate die mannen een lagere toonhoogte hebben; dit wordt doorgaans toegeschreven aan vrouwelijke seksuele selectie. Mannen spreken echter niet alleen met een lagere toonhoogte maar ook met een gemiddeld hoger tempo dan vrouwen.

In deze studie wordt onderzocht of spreektempo eveneens invloed heeft op de subjectieve aantrekkelijkheid van mannelijke sprekers voor vrouwelijke luisteraars. Daartoe werden 24 mannelijke stemmen gemanipuleerd in gemiddeld tempo (factoren 0.85, 1.00, 1.15) en gemiddelde toonhoogte (+1.5, 0, -1.5 semitoon).

Beoordelingen door vrouwelijke luisteraars laten zien dat zowel tempo als toonhoogte van invloed is op de aantrekkelijkheid. De invloed van toonhoogte was daarbij groter dan die van tempo. Bovendien lijken de effecten van tempo en toonhoogte tussen luisteraars samen te hangen. Tempo en toonhoogte lijken dus beide relevant te zijn voor op spraak gebaseerde seksuele selectie van mannen door vrouwen.

}, author = {Hugo Quen{\'e} and Geke Boomsma and Rome{\'e} van Erning} } @article {35, title = {Another heresy: RAX entails bostrodac-fypaestmo}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

In linguistics/phonetics {\textquoteleft}stress{\textquoteright} is generally treated as some sort of {\textquoteleft}prominence{\textquoteright} one can pick up and move about like cherries on a cake. Rhythm is rarely mentioned. It is terra incognita remaining unexplored.

Indeed, Fraisse{\textquoteright}s ground-breaking Psychologie du rythme (1974) is never even mentioned at all. Postulating a Rhythmic Alternation aXiom saying {\textquoteright}no more than two weaker between stronger beats, etc.{\textquoteright}, this logically entails (hierarchies of) no more than 9 ictus {\textpm} remiss(es) groupings: yamBOS, TROchee, DACtylus, (+)amPHIbrach(+), anaPAEST and MONE, or BTDFPM for short (and thereby a simple notational system inviting further research into forms and functions). This BTDFPM notation is easily converted into an {\textquoteleft}embodied{\textquoteright} oral version (and vice versa!), still further enhancing the analyst{\textquoteright}s rhythmic sophistication. Speech exhibits a three-tier hierarchy and therefore primary, secondary and tertiary ictuses and grouping dividers.

Taking lines 6 and 7 from vBuuren (2015) I shall illustrate some of this, inviting falsification as always.

}, author = {Lucas van Buuren} } @article {35, title = {Articulatory asymmetries in speech production}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

This paper presents the results from an investigation of asymmetries in speech articulation on the basis of 1,502 previously published palatograms of a wide variety of speech sounds in a range of languages. For each palatogram, the direction and degree of tongue-palate contact was quantified by means of an index capturing the degree of lateral asymmetry.

The results of this investigation show that lingual asymmetry in the articulation of speech sounds is substantial: 83 \% of the palatograms are asymmetrical. With respect to the direction of the asymmetry it is found that the asymmetry is more often towards the left side of the palate (45 \%) than to the right side (38 \%). Further analysis reveals that there are significant differences in both the direction and the degree of the asymmetry as a function of manner and place of articulation.

}, author = {Jo Verhoeven and Ilke De Clerck and Peter Mariën} } @article {35, title = {Correlaten van intonatie in medeklinkers: fricatieven in fluister- versus normale spraak}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

Intonatie is enigszins hoorbaar in fluisterspraak, maar de belangrijkste perceptieve cue, de grondfrequentie van de spreker, ontbreekt: er is geen stembandtrilling. De vraag is hoe we perceptie van intonatie in fluisterspraak kunnen verklaren.

Eerder werden akoestische correlaten en perceptieve cues van intonatie in fluisterspraak voornamelijk gezocht in klinkers; formantfrequenties vertonen systematische verschuivingen met hoog dan wel laag bedoelde, gefluisterde klinkers. Recenter onderzoek laat zien dat in normale spraak ook de akoestiek van medeklinkers beïnvloed wordt door hun prosodische context, en dat die veranderingen informatief kunnen zijn voor luisteraars. Medeklinkers zouden daarom ook een bijdrage kunnen leveren aan intonatie in fluisterspraak. En omdat de middelen om intonatie uit te drukken voor de spreker beperkter zijn in fluisterspraak, zou het medeklinker-effect in die spraakmodus wel eens groter kunnen zijn.

Daarom heeft deze studie gekeken of stemloze fricatieven in gefluisterde en in normale spraak (1) akoestisch beïnvloed worden door de toonhoogte-context, (2) of dat sterker is in fluisterspraak dan in normale spraak, en (3) of luisteraars deze informatie gebruiken om toonhoogteverschillen te horen. Resultaten laten zien dat er systematische akoestische verschillen zijn tussen intonatiecondities, dat die vergelijkbaar zijn tussen normale en fluisterspraak, en dat ze voor luisteraars beperkt informatie bevatten.

}, author = {Willemijn Heeren} } @article {35, title = {FAME! - The Frisian Audio Mining Enterprise}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

We have recently presented a new speech database containing 18.5 hours of annotated radio broadcasts in the Frisian language. Frisian is mostly spoken in the province Fryslân and it is the second official language of the Netherlands. The native speakers of Frisian are mostly bilingual and often code-switch in daily conversations due to the extensive influence of the Dutch language.

Considering the longitudinal and code-switching nature of the data, an appropriate annotation protocol has been designed and the data is manually annotated with the orthographic transcription, speaker identities, dialect information, code-switching details and background noise/music information. This data has been collected in the scope of the FAME! (Frisian Audio Mining Enterprise) Project which aims to build a spoken document retrieval system for the disclosure of the archives of Omrop Fryslân (Frisian Broadcast) covering a large time span from 1950s to present and a wide variety of topics. Omrop Fryslân is the regional public broadcaster of the province Fryslân and the main data provider of this project with a radio broadcast archive containing more than 2600 hours of recordings.

In this presentation, we will address both the disclosure of this "big data", especially its phonetic aspects, and the rich potential of code switching research using this new database.

}, author = {Emre Y{\i}lmaz and Maaike Andringa and Sigrid Kingma and Frits van der Kuip and Hans Van de Velde and Frederik Kampstra and Jouke Algra and Henk van den Heuvel and David van Leeuwen} } @article {35, title = {How speech rate shapes perception}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

Speech can be delivered at different rates and, as a consequence, listeners have to normalize the incoming speech signal for the rate at which it was produced. This perceptual process, known as rate normalization, is contrastive in nature: for instance, the perception of an ambiguous Dutch vowel in between short /ɑ/ and long /a:/ is biased towards hearing long /a:/ when preceded by a fast sentence context.

Rate normalization has (primarily) been explained in terms of durational contrast: the ambiguous vowel is perceived as longer because it has a relatively long duration compared to the preceding shorter vowels in the fast context. In this presentation, novel experimental data will be presented that challenge this account of durational contrast by (1) demonstrating that it is the contextual rate, not duration, that elicits rate normalization; and (2) suggesting that vowel categorization is sensitive to the phase of the contextual rhythm.

In order to explain these new findings, a neurobiologically plausible account of rate normalization is proposed involving neural entrainment of endogenous brain oscillations to the speech rate of the spoken signal.

}, author = {Hans Rutger Bosker} } @article {35, title = {Long term stability of tracheoesophageal voice quality}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

As part of the treatment for laryngeal tumors, the larynx is often removed. These laryngectomized patients lose their voice box and with it, their voice and speech. To restore speech, patients obtain an indwelling voice prosthesis. With this prosthesis, patients can use the upper part of their esophagus as a substitute glottis, the neo-glottis.

It is currently not clear how the neo-glottis responds to long term use in speech. Tissue characteristics might change over the years which might affect voice and speech quality. Therefore, the question arises whether the quality of the substitute voice of our patients changes over time. We collected pairs of speech samples, a reading of the "80 dappere fietsers" text, from 13 patients recorded with an interval of 7 years or more. Ten experienced speech and language pathologists rated these recordings on intelligibility and voice quality.

Our results show no definite change during this time. Some patients are evaluated as having better speech after this time, some worse. On average, there might be a small, statistically non-significant decrease in speech intelligibility and voice quality that might possibly be related to aging. We conclude that the long time quality of TE voices is remarkably stable.

}, author = {Rob van Son and Klaske van Sluis and Michiel van den Brekel} } @article {35, title = {MAS+: an adapted methodology in the context of Frisian-Dutch prosody}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

For many languages, prosody in contact linguistics is a relatively under-explored topic. Hardly any research has been published on the prosodic traits of the minority language Frisian. In this light, this study will briefly compare Frisian and Dutch sentence intonation patterns in declarative, polar interrogative and imperative constructions. It uses the Melodic Analysis of Speech (MAS) method to describe these patterns, and will then address a weakness in the existing method; the inability to investigate variation at utterance onset.

This study describes the subsequent implementation and validation of an adapted method, MAS+, which, in combination with the original method, allows for more fine-grained analysis. In MAS+, a balanced application of the original normalisation method does allow for analysis at onset by normalising across the entire utterance instead of only at onset. This new method is validated as application to the same dataset yields the same general results.

The main differences can still be found between speaker groups, i.e. Frisian-Dutch bilinguals on the one hand and local Dutch monolinguals on the other hand, instead of between the two languages. Additionally, some results still hint at divergence, instead of the often-expected convergence of a minority language towards a majority language.

}, author = {Amber Nota and Nanna Hilton and Matt Coler} } @article {35, title = {Nog een foneem erbij in het Nederlands}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

Omdat ik graag fonemen tel, heb ik me jarenlang afgevraagd hoe het zit met de geschreven \<w\> in het Nederlands, en dan in het bijzonder wat er gebeurt als de "vocale" \<w\>, zoals in \<eeuw\>, botst met de "consonantale" zoals in \<wisseling\>, dus bijvoorbeeld in het woord \<eeuwwisseling\>. Mijn student Ilaria Colombo heeft het nu uitgezocht met een aantal proefpersonen, die ieder een stuk tekst van het KNMI over sneeuw twee keer voorlazen (en alleen de vlot uitgesproken tweede versie is getoetst).

Fonetisch gesproken blijken eind-\<w\>{\textquoteright}s inderdaad meer vocalisch te noemen en begin- \<w\>{\textquoteright}s meer consonantaal. Wat er in \<ww\> gebeurt is echter opvallend: het geheel heeft de duur van een typische eind-\<w\> *plus* de duur van een typische begin-\<w\>, en de eerste helft heeft de akoestische eigenschappen van een typische eind-\<w\>, terwijl de tweede helft de akoestische eigenschappen van een typische begin-\<w\> heeft.

Nu zeggen de fonetische eigenschappen van de \<w\> niet *alles* over de fonologie van de \<w\>, maar toch wel *wat*. Want als de \<w\> mee zou doen aan de door verschillende fonologen geclaimde algemene Nederlandse regel van degeminatie, dan zou je verwachten dat \<eeuwwisseling\> zou klinken als "ee+wisseling" of als "eeuw+isseling", of misschien als een soort ambisyllabische tussenvorm, maar niet als "eeuw+wisseling", en dat doet het dus wel.

De conclusie is dat er ofwel 1 foneem "w" is dat zich toevallig aan degeminatie onttrekt, ofwel dat de fonologie van het Nederlands netjes generaliseert over alle consonanten, en dat er dus 2 fonemen "w" zijn. Met deze laatste mogelijkheid correspondeert waarschijnlijk het gebrek aan alternanties. In mijn praatje laat ik zien hoe een computergesimuleerde leerder van het Nederlands vanzelf een voorkeur krijgt voor een analyse in 2 fonemen.

Over de spreker:

Prof. Paul Boersma is hoogleraar Fonetiek aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Zijn onderzoek richt zich vooral op het expliciet modelleren van fonetische en fonologische perceptie, productie, verwerving en verandering.

}, author = {Paul Boersma} } @article {35, title = {Prosodic prominence production in the babbles of Cochlear Implanted (CI) and normally hearing (NH) infants: A perceptual experiment}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

A recent acoustical study of prominence production has shown that infants with CI differentiate less between syllables in terms of fundamental frequency and intensity, even from babbling on [1]. The present study investigates if this acoustical difference beween infants with CI and NH infants is also perceivable by listeners.

The stimuli used in this study were disyllabic babbles produced by Dutch-acquiring infants with CI (n=9) and NH infants (n=9). The stimuli (n=527) were presented one by one to adult judges (n=30) in a perceptual rating task. The raters had to indicate the prosodic differentiation between the two syllbales by moving a slider on a visual analogue scale (VAS).

The first analysis on the entire dataset showed that the babbles of the CI infants were not perceived as having less differentiated prominence. A second analysis was conducted on the ratings at the extremes of the VAS. The results showed that NH babbles were more likely to be rated at the extremes and thus as having differentiated prominence. It is concluded that even in prelexical utterances there is a slight perceivable discrepancy between the prominence production of CI and NH infants, confirming previous acoustical findings [1].

  1. Pettinato, M., De Clerck, I., Verhoeven, J., \& Gillis, S. (2015). The production of word stress in babbles and early words: a comparison between normally hearing infants and infants with cochlear implants. Paper presented at the 18th international congress of phonetic sciences, Glasgow, Scotland.
}, author = {Ilke De Clerck} } @article {35, title = {The increasing effect of complexity in children with cochlear implants: Consonant cluster development}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen}, address = {Utrecht, The Netherlands}, abstract = {

Research has shown that children with cochlear implants (CI) use the same phonological processes as normally hearing (NH) peers with respect to consonant cluster development. However, the incidence of those phonological processes has not been examined in the literature thus far. Furthermore, a quantified comparison between both groups of children is missing in the literature, as well as studies on the spontaneous speech of Dutch-speaking children with CI.

The present study has taken up from these observations and examines the frequency of each phonological process in consonant cluster production and compares it in both groups of children. Nine children with CI and 84 NH children were followed longitudinally: monthly from the onset of word production up to 24 months of age and yearly between three and seven years of age. Word onset two-element consonant clusters are analysed using multilevel models.

Results show that children with CI produce consonant clusters less frequently and less accurately than their NH peers. In addition, children with CI reduce consonant clusters for a longer period than their NH peers. However, the effect of sonority (sonority hypothesis, Ohala 1999) on these cluster reductions is similar in both groups of children. The differences between both groups of children disappear by age five. Thus, children with CI show a delay in consonant cluster production, but seem to catch up on their normally hearing peers by age five.

}, author = {Jolien Faes} }