acoustic cues

phonological contrast is signaled by multiple phonetic cues (Lisker, 1986)

[voice]

acoustic cues

phonological contrast is signaled by multiple phonetic cues (Lisker, 1986)

[voice]

cue weights

Dutch [voice]

[+voice] in Dutch is traditionally realized with prevoicing

/t/elg 'descendant'

/d/elg

'paying off debt'

/p/erk

'limit'

/b/erk

'birch tree'

Dutch

Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Coetzee et al. (2018)​

• younger women (20s): 83% devoicing rate

• older women (40s-60s): 44% devoicing rate

• robust difference in following vowel's f0

• listened to a young woman's voice in 2AFC

• artificially manipulated continua varying in VOT and f0

• all participants relied on both VOT and f0 as cues to underlying voicing

• when in conflict, VOT > f0

Afrikaans

Pfiffner (in progress)​

• men and women, ages 20s and 60s-80s

• devoicing rates: women > men of all ages

• robust difference in following vowel's f0, but larger difference in older participants

• listened to four different voices in 2AFC

• artificially manipulated continua varying in VOT and f0

• when prevoicing is present, it's the dominant cue

• in the absence of prevoicing, f0 is a cue for all listener/speaker combos but less for the perception of male speakers

experiment

pad

telg

Randomized wordlist

20 minimal pairs

• ​10 /p,b/

• 10 /t,d/

+ fillers

experiment

pad         bad

tal          dal

2AFC

artificially maniuplated continua

• /pad/-/bad/ 'road', 'bath'

• /tal/-/dal/ 'quantity', 'valley'

experiment

experiment

prevoicing

f0

none

100%

changing

changing

changing

changing

stable; ambiguous

changing

4 different continua

experiment

female

male

younger

older

4 speaker voices

separated by block

results

following vowel's f0

Brunelle et al. (2020)

z-scores --> converted for readability with group means & SDs

 

p < 2e-16 ***

results

following vowel's f0

35 Hz

24 Hz

59 Hz

23 Hz

results

continua type

no prevoicing - f0 changing

 

 

*collapsed across all listeners and speakers

results

continua type

no prevoicing - f0 changing

 

 

*sorted by speaker voice

results

continua type

 

100% prevoicing - f0 changing

 

 

 

*sorted by speaker voice

continua type

 

100% prevoicing - f0 changing

 

 

 

 

listener groups hearing a 60-year-old woman

research questions

devoicing rate: 0-25% (lot of individual variation!)

​

differences in following vowel's f0: significant differences, 23-59 Hz

 

​differences by age and gender: Yes!

 

1. younger speakers devoice more

2. female speakers have larger f0 differences

research questions

which cues signal a [voice] contrast: both prevoicing and f0; though there are place of articulation effects

 

relative cue weighting: prevoicing > f0

 

differences by age and gender:

 

speaker: f0 is stronger with older female voice

listener: no large effects

references

Boersma, P. & Weenink, D. (2019). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 6.1, retrieved 13 July 2019 from http://www.praat.org

Brunelle, M., Tạ Thành Tấn, Kirby, J. & Đinh Lư Giang. (2020). Transphonologization of voicing in Chru: Studies in production and perception. Laboratory Phonology, 11(1), 15. doi: http://doi.org/10.5334/labphon.278

Coetzee, A. W., Beddor, P. S., Shedden, K., Styler, W. & Wissing, D. (2018). Plosive voicing in Afrikaans: Differential cue weighting and tonogenesis. Journal of Phonetics, 66, 185-216.

Lisker, L. (1986). "Voicing" in English: a catalogue of acoustic features signaling /b/ versus /p/ in trochees. Language and Speech, 29(1), 3-11.

Peirce, J. W., Gray, J. R., Simpson, S., MacAskill, M. R., Höchenberger, R., Sogo,H., Kastman, E., & Lindeløv, J. K. (2019). Psychopy2: Experiments in behaviormade easy.Behavior Research Methods, 51:195–203.

Pfiffner, A. M. (2020, July). Tonogenesis in Afrikaans: Age and gender differences in cue weighting. Poster presented at the 17th Conference on Laboratory Phonology, held virtually.

Pinget, A.-F. (2015). The actuation of sound change. PhD thesis, Utrecht University.

Slis, I. H. & Cohen, A. (1969). On complex regulating voiced-voiceless distinction. I. Language and Speech, 12, 80-102.

van Alphen, P. M. (2004). Perceptual relevance of prevoicing in Dutch. PhD thesis, Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen.

van Alphen, P. M. & Smits, R. (2004). Acoustical and perceptual analysis of the voicing distinction in Dutch initial plosives: The role of prevoicing. Journal of Phonetics, 32, 455-491.

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