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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sociophonetics'
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1
Kwek, Geraldine Su Ching. "An analysis of /r/ variation in Singapore English." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/279690.
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In modern urban Singapore, the variety of English spoken evolves through a continual negotiation of adhering to traditionally standard models and creating local norms in the environment of myriad social and substratum language influences. Singapore English (SgE) speakers constantly navigate a multilingual situation which requires them to simultaneously handle the language systems of the society’s main working language, English, and at least one other language while being immersed in a linguistic environment where interactions in countless other languages and varieties take place. Variation, thus, inevitably exists within SgE as depicted in models of variation developed throughout the years. While this variation manifests itself in many forms, this study focuses particularly on the sociophonetic variation of /r/ realisations, an area of SgE in which the little research done previously provides only impressionistic or preliminary descriptions. Here, /r/ variation is studied through an auditory and acoustic investigation of both read and conversational speech data collected from male and female SgE speakers of Singapore’s major ethnic groups (i.e. Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian). Through the use of an auditory perceptual strength index and a combination of fixed- and mixed- effects statistical modelling methods, this study reveals /r/ variation in SgE on several levels. Results show that SgE speakers produce a range of /r/ variants, both within and between speakers, and also highlight the intertwined roles of language-internal factors (e.g. phonological contexts, word class) and language-external factors (e.g. speech style, ethnicity, speaker sex) in determining variation in both the realisation and distribution of /r/ in SgE. Finer auditory and acoustic distinctions are found in approximant /r/, reflecting both the phonetic complexity of /r/ and the multifaceted nature of SgE. Additionally, supportive evidence for the presence of innovative trends in SgE /r/ realisation (i.e. labiodental /r/) and of fading ones (i.e. taps/trills) is also found. Taken together, these results provide the basis for discussions of a potential situation of natural /r/-weakening and the impacts of speech styles, cross-linguistic influences, and language dominance on /r/ variation. They also postulate trends of change in /r/ realisations in SgE affected by age, ethnicity and speaker sex. Besides contributing to the general on-going discussions of synchronic variation and diachronic change in the story of /r/, this study shares insights into the intricacies of studying linguistic patterns in multilingual urban communities and provides empirical evidence for the need of a multidimensional approach in researching multicultural varieties and/or ‘New Englishes’ like SgE.
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Chan, May T. M. "Alveolarization in Hong Kong Cantonese : a sociophonetic study of neogrammarian and lexical diffusion models of sound change." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2d40e687-83cd-4d93-9c3e-fa6e5569cf6b.
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This thesis is a quantitative study of sociophonetic variation which focuses on the Hong Kong Cantonese velar coda consonants -η and -k. These codas have, under certain linguistic contexts, become increasingly realized as alveolar nasal and oral stop consonants, [-n] and [-t], respectively. For the purpose of this thesis, the phenomenon of sound shift from -η and -k, to [-n] and [-t] respectively will be termed 'alveolarization'. Insofar as the language of a speech community is a shared vehicle for communication and sound changes are constrained by the need for mutual intelligibility, the central aim of this thesis is to uncover the factors which contribute the most to driving this sound change. In describing the variation in these consonants, I examine the concomitant social and linguistic factors which might help explain it. While this study focuses on one specific set of linguistic variables, it aims to analyse a broad set of factors to obtain a picture of the complexity of this sound change. The sound change is of theoretical interest as it provides an opportunity to evaluate the neogrammarian regularity hypothesis and the lexical diffusion model of sound change. The neogrammarian regularity hypothesis states that sound changes are regular and admit no exceptions - they are purely driven by phonological context and show no lexical variation. On the other hand, the lexical diffusion model predicts that sound changes progress through the lexicon in a gradual manner. By examining the effects of neighbouring phonological environment on the velar codas, and by analyzing which lexemes might be leading the change, as well as whether there are any lexical frequency effects, this thesis sets out to test both models of sound change.
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Lesho, Marivic. "The sociophonetics and phonology of the Cavite Chabacano vowel system." The Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388249508.
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Andrews, Peter A. "Contact entre deux langues a travers les siecles: le francais et l'allemand." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors1524826043582167.
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Dabkowski, Meghan Frances. "Variable Vowel Reduction in Mexico City Spanish." The Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531994893143203.
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Toefy, Tracey Lynn. "Sociophonetics and class differentiation: A study of working- and middle- class English in Cape Town's coloured community." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9525.
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Includes bibliographical references.This thesis provides a detailed acoustic description of the phonetic variation and changes evident in the monophthongal vowel system of Coloured South African English in Cape Town. The changes are largely a result of South Africa's post-apartheid socio-educational reform. A detailed acoustic description highlights the most salient changes (compared with earlier reports of the variety), indicating the extent of the change amongst working-class and middle-class speakers. The fieldwork conducted for this study consists of sociolinguistic interviews, conducted with a total of 40 Coloured speakers (half male, half female) from both working-class and middle-class backgrounds. All speakers were young adults, born between 1983 and 1993, thus raised and schooled in a period of transition from apartheid to democracy. Each of the middle-class speakers had some experience of attending formerly exclusively White schools, giving them significant contact with White peers and teachers, while the educational careers of the working-class speakers exposed them almost solely to Coloured peers and educators. The acoustic data were processed using methods of Forced Alignment and automatic formant extraction – methods applied for the first time to any variety of South African English. The results of the analysis were found generally to support the findings of scholars who have documented this variety previously, with some notable exceptions amongst middle-class speakers. The changes are attributable to socio-educational change in the post-apartheid setting and the directionality of the changes approximate trends amongst White South African English speakers. The TRAP, GOOSE and FOOT lexical sets show most change: TRAP is lowering, while GOOSE and FOOT are fronting. Although the changes approximate the vowel quality used by White speakers, middle-class Coloured speakers use an intermediate value between White speakers and working-class Coloured speakers i.e. they have not fully adopted White norms for any of the vowel classes. Working-class speakers were found to have maintained the monophthongal vowel system traditionally used by Coloured speakers.
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Steele, Ariana J. "Non-binary speech, race, and non-normative gender: Sociolinguistic style beyond the binary." The Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu157419067968368.
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Camp, Margaret. "Japanese Lesbian Speech: Sexuality, Gender Identity, and Language." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195371.
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This dissertation examines the relationship between gender and language in Japanese through the often ignored lens of sexuality. Although linguists are increasingly examining these issues for American gay, lesbian, and bisexual speakers, little similar research has been done in Japan. Lesbians, in particular, are relatively invisible in Japanese society. Examining these women, who do not fit neatly into the hegemonic gender ideology, illuminates how speakers can project a specific identity by displaying or rejecting prescriptive gender-specific linguistic norms of Japanese.I analyzed data recorded from interviews with both Japanese lesbian/bisexual and heterosexual women, looking for differences in frequency and range of use of pronouns and sentence-final particles and for phonetic differences in terms of average pitch height and width. I also considered the results of a perception experiment undertaken to investigate the effect of pitch height and width on Japanese speakers' perceptions of sexuality.Although Japanese speakers were generally unable to identify a cohesive lesbian stereotype, especially in terms of language use, the perception experiment indicated that both average pitch height and width significantly affect judgments on whether a voice sounds lesbian or heterosexual. Tokens judged to be lesbian were also judged to be more masculine and less emotional than those judged to be heterosexual. Analysis of the interview data showed that lesbian participants produced an average pitch height that was significantly lower than that of heterosexual participants. In terms of gendered morphemes, lesbians were significantly more likely to use masculine morphemes than heterosexual women, both for sentence-final particles and first-person pronouns, and were significantly less likely to use the feminine first-person pronoun
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Kalev, Jaana. "A Sociophonetic Analysis of the Role of Cultural Identification in L2 English Speech Production." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-157591.
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Research in the relationship between second language (L2) production and study abroad has largely focused on establishing a connection between exchange studies and the success rate of second language acquisition. This Bachelor's thesis investigates L2 production by studying L2 English speakers' attitudes regarding the target language culture in relation to their production of a regionally typical phoneme by formulating the research question “How does cultural identification with the target language environment influence L2 phonetic production in the L1 language community?” in hopes of contributing to sociophonetic studies. This is done by conducting a qualitative study based on the phonetic production of rhoticity and the experiences of nine Swedish former exchange students to the United States. The study draws on existing research that highlights the saliency of rhoticity, as well as provides insight into the importance of identity in language use and into the relevance of motivation and the establishing of social networks for L2 gains during study abroad. To provide a framework for understanding these issues, the Social Network Strength Scale is applied. The results and data analysis suggest that, opposite to expectation, there is no clear relationship between cultural identification and L2 phonetic production for speakers who are no longer immersed into the L2 environment. However, the results establish a possible connection between maintaining a dense social network with native speaker members of the L2 community, as well as of having an awareness and capacity to understand the L2 culture, and a higher percentage of phonetic production of sounds typical for the L2 environment.
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Turton, Danielle. "Variation in English /l/ : synchronic reflections of the life cycle of phonological processes." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2014. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/variation-in-english-l-synchronic-reflections-of-the-life-cycle-of-phonological-processes(dfa11693-a112-45e2-99f6-2a08cf5f117b).html.
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This thesis is an articulatory investigation into phonological variation and change in English /l/-darkening. Although syllable-based accounts of /l/-darkening state that light [l] occurs in onsets (e.g. `leap') and a dark variant in codas (e.g. `peel'), numerous works linking phonology with other subfields of linguistics have shown that this simplified distinction cannot fully account for the variation found. Firstly, /l/-darkening is sensitive to morphosyntactic structure, as shown through overapplication of the process in certain morphosyntactically defined positions: e.g. word-finally in phrases such as `heal it', or stem-finally before a suffix in words such as `healing'. In addition, analyses of /l/-darkening from several phonetic studies have led to some arguing against an allophonic distinction altogether, stating that the difference between light and dark variants is merely two extremes of one continuum. Not only does this interpretation challenge the traditional categorisation of /l/-darkening but, given the clear sensitivity to morphosyntactic boundaries that /l/-darkening displays, it also raises questions for a modular architecture of the grammar if phonetics can be morphologically conditioned. This dissertation is an empirical analysis of /l/-darkening, presenting data from nine varieties of English. Given the difficulty in measuring liquid consonants reliably, ultrasound tongue imaging is used to provide a thorough account of the prime articulatory correlations of darkening processes. The present study provides hitherto absent instrumental evidence confirming the varying degrees of morphosyntactic sensitivity across different dialects. I demonstrate that, rather than being contradictory or chaotic, variation to morphosyntactic boundaries cross-dialectally makes complete sense under an analysis that pays due consideration to the diachronic evolution of phonological processes. Moreover, my data show that the majority of speakers display both categorical allophony of light and dark variants, and gradient phonetic effects coexisting in the same grammar. Therefore, an adequate account of English /l/-darkening presupposes both a theory of the morphosyntax-phonology interface, and the phonetics-phonology interface. I interpret these results by assuming the modular architecture of the life cycle of phonological processes, whereby a phonological rule starts its life as a phonetically driven gradient process, over time stabilising into a phonological process at the phrase level, and advancing through the grammar. Not only does the life cycle make predictions about application at different levels of the grammar, it also predicts that stabilised phonological rules do not replace the phonetic processes from which they emerged, but typically coexist with them. Moreover, the obvious intimate link between /l/-darkening and /l/-vocalisation can be explained in terms of the life cycle, in the way of lenition trajectories. The results here show that, as predicted, the more recent stage of the lenition trajectory is harsher in terms of its phonetic effect, as well as less advanced in the grammar, applying at a lower level than darkening when the two co-occur in the same variety. I conclude by arguing that the proposed analysis demonstrates that a full understanding of /l/-darkening in English requires an approach that considers variation under phonetic, phonological and morphosyntactic terms. The wide range of dialectal diversity, for which this thesis provides only a small subset, shows a great deal of orderliness when paying due consideration to the diachronic evolution of variable phonological processes.
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Nodari, Rosalba. "L'italiano degli adolescenti: aspirazione delle occlusive sorde in Calabria e percezione della varietà locale." Doctoral thesis, Scuola Normale Superiore, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11384/86020.
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Boyd, Zac. "Cross-linguistic variation of /s/ as an index of non-normative sexual orientation and masculinity in French and German men." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33201.
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This thesis examines phonetic variation of /s/ in bilingual French and German gay and straight men. Previous studies have shown sibilant variation, specifically the voiceless sibilant /s/, to correlate with constructions of gay identity and 'gay sounding voices' in both production and perception. While most of this work concerns English, researchers have also explored /s/ variation and sexual orientation or non-normative masculinity in Afrikaans, Danish, Hungarian, and Spanish. Importantly, with the exception of only a small number of studies, this body of work has largely left the realm of /s/ variation and sexual orientation in bilingual speakers unexplored, and furthermore there is very little work which examines these voices in the context of French and German. The analyses show that some gay French and German men produce /s/ with a higher centre of gravity (CoG) and more negative skew than the straight speakers of the study, a result which dovetails with previous studies in languages such as English. Unlike English however, French and German listeners do not appear to associate /s/ variation with sexual orientation or (non)normative masculinities. I argue that the gay speakers who produce /s/ with a higher CoG than the other speakers of the study are doing so as a way to distance themselves from hegemonic masculinity. This thesis is structured into three stand-alone journal articles bookended with introductory and conclusion chapters which tie them together in the broader picture of /s/ variation and French/German speakers and listeners. The first of the three articles expands upon the previously established linguistic framework of indexing gayness by exploring /s/ variation in native and non-native speech, examining how the linguistic construction of gay identity interacts between their English production and the constraints of their native language. The data draws on read speech of 19 gay and straight French and German men across their L1 and L2 English to explore the social meaning of /s/. Results show that some gay speakers produce /s/ with a higher centre of gravity (CoG) and more negative skew than the straight speakers. These results are consistent with previous findings, which show sibilant variation to index sexual orientation in monolingual gay men's speech, and provide evidence of this feature correlating with sexual orientation in French and German. Furthermore, the results presented here call for a greater level of inquiry into how the gay speakers who employ this feature construct their gay identities beyond a purely gay/straight dichotomy. The second study reports the results of a cross-linguistic matched guise test examining the role of /s/ variation and pitch in judgements of sexual orientation and non-normative masculinity in English, French, and German listeners. Listeners responded to manipulations of /s/ and pitch in their native language and all other stimuli languages (English, French, German, and Estonian). All listener groups rate higher pitch stimuli as more gay and more effeminate sounding than lower pitch guises. However, only the English listeners hear [s+] guises as sounding more gay and more effeminate than the [s] or [s-] guises. This effect is seen not only in their native language, but across all stimuli languages. French and German listeners, despite previous evidence showing /s/ to vary according to sexual orientation in men's speech, do not hear [s+] guises as more gay or more effeminate in any of the stimuli languages including their native French or German. The final of the three articles takes the findings of the first two papers and attempts to reconcile the production/perception mismatch seen when comparing the results of the first two papers. The first article in this thesis revealed two groups of speakers which form the basis for analysis for this paper. The first group is a heterogeneous group of gay and straight speakers whose average /s/ productions are below 7,000 Hz ([s] speakers) and the second is a homogeneous group of gay speakers producing average /s/ CoG above 7,000 Hz ([s+] speakers). The analysis shows style shifting across task type with both groups of speakers producing higher /s/ CoG productions in L1 read speech contexts than any of the L2 speech contexts. Style shifting across conversation topic reveals that the [s+] speakers are producing higher /s/ CoG when discussing their coming out stories and topics of LGBT involvement. I argue that these [s+] speakers are employing these higher frequency /s/ variants to construct a very specific and identifiable gay persona, that of a counter-hegemonic effeminate gay man. This thesis is among the first to examine phonetic qualities of gay bilingual speakers and the ways in which they may index their sexual orientation. The inclusion of bilingual French and German speakers adds to our growing knowledge of ways in which these individuals navigate and construct their identities within both their L1 and, specifically, within an L2. In this regard, this thesis contributes to the growing body of knowledge concerning socioindexicality in L2 production more generally. This work thus speaks to these gaps within the sociolinguistic literature and provides strong evidence that /s/ variation is a valuable resource for some French and German men in the construction of a certain type of gay identity.
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Durian, David. "A New Perspective on Vowel Variation Across the 19th and 20th Centuries in Columbus, OH." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1356279130.
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Pan, Junquan Pan. "Constructing a Gay Persona: A Sociophonetic Case Study of an LGBT Talk Show in Taiwan." The Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1532014383060877.
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Garcia, Christina. "Gradience and Variability of Intervocalic /s/ Voicing in Highland Ecuadorian Spanish." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437154659.
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Beaton, Mary Elizabeth. "Coda Liquid Production and Perception in Puerto Rican Spanish." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437135547.
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Drummond, Rob John. "Sociolinguistic variation in a second language : the influence of local accent on the pronunciation of non-native English speakers living in Manchester." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2010. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/sociolinguistic-variation-in-a-second-language-the-influence-of-local-accent-on-the-pronunciation-of-nonnative-english-speakers-living-in-manchester(614f2f75-4705-4cc0-a93a-4b1914a88e04).html.
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This study is an investigation into sociolinguistic variation in a second language. More specifically, it is an investigation into the extent to which speakers of English as a second language acquire particular features of the variety of English they are exposed to. The speakers in question are Polish migrants, and the variety of English is that found in Manchester, a city in the North West of England.The research uses data gathered from 41 participants who have been in Manchester for various lengths of time and who came to the UK for a wide range of reasons. The aim was to explore the extent to which local accent features are acquired by second language English speakers, and the linguistic and social factors which influence this acquisition. Methodologically, the research draws on practices from variationist sociolinguistics, but by using them in a second language context, the study has the additional aim of developing the link between these two areas of study. Four linguistic features were identified, on the basis of them each exhibiting local variants that differ from any pedagogical model of English the speakers will have been exposed to in Poland. All four demonstrated some degree of change towards the local variants in the speech of many of the participants, but to greatly differing degrees. Multiple regression analyses helped to determine which factors might be influencing the patterns of variation, with the social constraints of length of residence, level of English, gender, attitude, and identity among those believed to be playing a part. The thesis ends with a discussion exploring the implications of the findings in terms of existing and future research, and looks at how they might usefully be applied to situations outside that of academic linguistics.
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Sella, Valeria. "Automatic phonological transcription using forced alignment : FAVE toolkit performance on four non-standard varieties of English." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-167843.
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Forced alignment, a speech recognition software performing semi-automatic phonological transcription, constitutes a methodological revolution in the recent history of linguistic research. Its use is progressively becoming the norm in research fields such as sociophonetics, but its general performance and range of applications have been relatively understudied. This thesis investigates the performance and portability of the Forced Alignment and Vowel Extraction program suite (FAVE), an aligner that was trained on, and designed to study, American English. It was decided to test FAVE on four non-American varieties of English (Scottish, Irish, Australian and Indian English) and a control variety (General American). First, the performance of FAVE was compared with human annotators, and then it was tested on three potentially problematic variables: /p, t, k/ realization, rhotic consonants and /l/. Although FAVE was found to perform significantly differently from human annotators on identical datasets, further analysis revealed that the aligner performed quite similarly on the non-standard varieties and the control variety, suggesting that the difference in accuracy does not constitute a major drawback to its extended usage. The study discusses the implications of the findings in relation to doubts expressed about the usage of such technology and argues for a wider implementation of forced alignment tools such as FAVE in sociophonetic research.
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Walker, Abby Jewel. "Crossing Oceans with Voices and Ears: Second Dialect Acquisition and Topic-Based Shifting in Production and Perception." The Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397802092.
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Isiaka, Adeiza Lasisi. "Ebira English in Nigerian Supersystems: Inventory and Variation." Doctoral thesis, Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz, 2017. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-225496.
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Die vorliegende Arbeit mit dem Titel „Ebíra English in Nigerian Supersystems: Inventory and Variation“ befasst sich mit einer kleinen Varietät des Nigerianischen Englisch, die für eine Untersuchung aus zwei Gründen besonders geeignet erscheint: Einerseits bin ich selbst Mitglied dieser Volksgruppe, was mir einen besonderen Zugang zu guten, aktuellen und vor allem natürlichen Sprachdaten ermöglicht. Diese sind für eine soziophonetische Untersuchung mit den Konzepten und modernen Methoden der Variationslinguistik von besonderer Bedeutung. Andererseits ist die vorliegende Arbeit keine weitere Studie über die großen Systeme des nigerianischen Englisch oder über die beiden größten und bereits relativ gut untersuchten Systeme des Yoruba-Englisch im Südwesten des Landes oder des Hausa-Englisch im Norden, sondern über eine relative kleine Gruppe dazwischen, die historisch zunächst von den Yoruba und später immer mehr von den Hausa-Sprechern beeinflusst wurde und nach wie vor beeinflusst ist. Diese empirische soziophonetische Studie stellt zwei Forschungsfragen:
FF1) Welches Vokalinventar besitzt Ebíra Englisch? Diese Frage ergibt sich aus den widersprüchlichen Ergebnissen vorheriger Untersuchungen (zu Nigerianischen, Yoruba- bzw. Hausa-Englisch) und soll hier erstmals in einer Analyse von digitalen Aufnahmen von 28 jüngeren und älteren Männern und Frauen (16 bzw. 12) aus den Jahren 2014-2016 untersucht werden. Diese Aufnahmen wurden im Rahmen von soziolinguistischen Interviews gemacht, die die bekannten Sprachstile (nach Labov) umfassen: Wortliste, Lesepassage (die bewährte Kurzgeschichte The Boy who Cried Wolf mit jeweils 90 vorkommenden englischen Vokalen) und Konversation. Diese Frage ist auch vor dem Hintergrund des Einflusses der beiden nahen Hauptvarietäten Yoruba- und Hausa-Englisch interessant (FF1b). Auf der Grundlage von fast 15.000 extrahierten Vokalen erfolgte jeweils nach der sorgfältigen Aussortierung unbrauchbarer oder unvollständiger Daten eine quantitative Untersuchung mit Hilfe des Analyseinstruments PRAAT, mit dem sich die Vokalqualität in Form von Formanten messen und darstellen lässt. Die Untersuchung umfasste die bekannten Monophthongkontraste (nach Wells` lexical sets) FLEECE & KIT, FOOT & GOOSE (+ USE ), LOT & THOUGHT & STRUT , TRAP & BATH & lettER , sowie NURSE , und die relativen Diphthonge FACE , GOAT und CURE.
FF2) Welche sprachlichen und sozialen Variablen können die Variation dieses Ebíra Englisch Vokalsystems erklären? Neben den bekannten sozialen Variablen Alter (bzw. Altersgruppe), Geschlecht, Mehrsprachigkeit und Bildung wurden v.a. die sprachlichen Variablen Vokaldauer, phonetische Umgebung der Vokale und Sprachstil untersucht. Interessanterweise war für eine so detaillierte Analyse der Variation die zunächst recht groß wirkende Anzahl der extrahierten Vokale nicht in jedem Fall groß genug oder nicht gut genug verteilt.
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Fiasson, Romain. "Allophonic imitation within and across word positions." Thesis, Aix-Marseille, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013AIXM3137.
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Cette thèse s'intéresse à l'imitation dans la parole, c'est à dire à la tendance pour un locuteur de parler de façon plus similaire à son interlocuteur. Beaucoup d'entre nous font l'expérience de ce phénomène lorsque que nous conversons avec une personne qui possède un accent différent. Certaines caractéristiques de notre propre parole peuvent changer, pour se rapprocher de celle de notre interlocuteur. L'imitation dans la parole a fait l'objet de récentes études. Notre contribution à ce type de recherches est d'étudier l'imitation au niveau allophonique, c'est à dire au niveau des réalisations phonétiques possibles d'un phonème. Nous voulons savoir si l'imitation d'un son phonétique pour un phonème donné, dans une position de mot donnée, peut influencer les autres réalisations de ce phonème, dans la même position de mot. Nous voulons également savoir si l'imitation d'un son phonétique pour un phonème donné, dans une position de mot donnée, peut influencer la réalisation d'autres allophones de ce phonème, dans une position de mot différenteThis dissertation investigates imitation in speech, which is the general tendency shown by a speaker to become more similar to another speaker in the way they speak. Many of us have experienced this while talking to someone who is speaking the same language but with a different accent. Conversing with such a person can affect some characteristics of our speech, so that we come to sound more like them. Imitation in speech has been very extensively studied, especially over recent years. To contribute to this line of research we provide an account of imitation in speech at the allophonic level, that is at the level of the possible phonetic realisations of a phoneme. We are interested in whether imitation of the sound of a given phoneme in a particular word position can influence the other possible realisations of that phoneme in the same word position. We are also interested in determining whether imitation of a speech sound in a particular word position for a given phoneme can affect the realisations of that phoneme in a different word position
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Drager, Katie. "A Sociophonetic Ethnography of Selwyn Girls' High." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/4185.
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This thesis reports on findings from a year-long sociolinguistic ethnography at
an all girls’ high school in New Zealand which is referred to as Selwyn Girls’ High (SGH). The study combines the qualitative methods of ethnography
with the quantitative methods of acoustic phonetic analysis and experimental design. At the school, there were a number of different groups (e.g. The PCs, The Pasifika Group, The BBs), each forming a community of practice where the different members actively constructed their unique social personae within the context of the group. There was a dichotomy between the groups based on whether they ate lunch in the common room (CR) or not (NCR) and this division reflected the individual speakers’ stance on whether they viewed themselves as “normal” or different from other girls at the school.
In-depth acoustic analysis was conducted on tokens of the word like from the girls’ speech. This is a word with a number of different pragmatic functions, such as quotative like (I was LIKE “yeah okay”), discourse particle like (It was LIKE so boring), and lexical verb like (I LIKE your socks). The results provide evidence of acoustically gradient variation in the girls’ realisations of the word like that is both grammatically and socially conditioned. For example, quotative like was more likely to have a shorter /l/ to vowel duration ratio and be less diphthongal than either discourse particle like or grammatical like and there was a significant difference in /k/ realisation depending
on a combination of the token’s pragmatic function and whether
the speaker ate lunch in the CR or not.
Additionally, three speech perception
experiments were conducted in order to examine the girls’ sensitivity to
the relationship between phonetic variants, lemma-based information, and
social factors. The results indicate that perceivers were able to distinguish
between auditory tokens of the different functions of like in a manner that was consistent with trends observed in production. Perceivers were also able to extract social information about the speaker depending on phonetic cues in the stimuli.
Taken together, the results provide evidence that lemmas with a shared
wordform can have different phonetic realisations, that individuals can manipulate these realisations in the construction of their social personae, and that individuals can use lemma-based phonetic trends from production to
identify a word. These results have implications for how phonetic, lemma,
and social information are stored in the mind and, together, they are used
to inform a unified model of speech production, perception and identity construction.
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Temple, Rosalind A. M. "Aspects of sociophonetic variability in French consonants." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270253.
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Arnold, Aron. "La voix genrée, entre idéologies et pratiques – Une étude sociophonétique." Thesis, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015USPCA148/document.
Full textAbstract:
Ce travail de thèse interroge le lien qui existe entre voix et genre. Le triple dispositif analytique sociophonétique, consistant à articuler données phonétiques, expérimentales et ethnographiques, a permis d’étudier comment une voix est perçue comme genrée et comment des locutrices/eurs utilisent des pratiques vocales pour indexer des identités de genre. Deux expériences dans lesquelles étaient utilisés comme stimuli des voix de synthèse et des voix resynthétisées ont permis d’observer que la fréquence fondamentale et les fréquences de résonance jouent des rôles différents dans la perception du genre. Une troisième expérience avec des voix de locutrices/eurs trans (transgenres, transsexuel-le-s) a permis de reproduire les résultats des deux expériences précédentes : en deçà d’un certain seuil de fréquence fondamentale, les voix tendent à être perçues comme « voix d’hommes » ; la perception genrée de voix produites avec des fréquences fondamentales supérieures à ce seuil est cependant largement déterminée par les fréquences de résonance.L’étude de pratiques vocales utilisées par des locutrices/eurs trans a soulevé un ensemble de questions sur le passing de genre et sur la co-indexation d’identités et de postures par la voix. Elle a aussi soulevé la question de la légitimité de chercheurs identifiés comme hommes cisgenres à réaliser ce type d’étude. Une démarche ethnographique a pu apporter des éléments de réponse à ces différentes questions. Une analyse de la littérature phonétique a finalement permis de montrer que celle-ci, à travers ses questions et hypothèses de recherche, ses axiomes, ses analyses et interprétations des données, peut véhiculer une idéologie de genre binaire et sexisteThe aim of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between voice and gender. Phonetic, experimental and ethnographic data have been used to study how the voice is perceived as gendered and how speakers use vocal practices to index gender identities. Two experiments with synthetized and resynthesized voices have shown that fundamental frequency and resonance frequencies play different roles in the perception of gender. The results of these experiments could be reproduced in a third experiment with voices of transgender speakers: under a certain fundamental frequency threshold, voices tend to be perceived as “male voices”; but above this threshold, resonance frequencies define if the voice is perceived as “female voice” or “male voice”. The study of the vocal practices of transgender speakers raised questions about gender passing, and about the indexical link between identities, stances and voice. It also raised the question of the legitimacy of researchers that are identified as cisgender males to do research on trans speaker voices. These different questions could be addressed through ethnographic data. Finally, an analysis of the phonetic literature showed that the research questions and hypotheses, the axioms, the analyses and interpretations of data one can find in phonetic studies can be a vehicle for a sexist and binary gender ideology
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Wenner, Lena. "När lögnare blir lugnare : En sociofonetisk studie av sammanfallet mellan kort ö och kort u i uppländskan." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för nordiska språk, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-122538.
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The phenomenon of an ongoing sound change leads in some cases to the pronunciation of short ö becoming more like that of short u. This thesis examines the relationship between short ö and u in Uppland Swedish. The localities included in the investigation were Uppsala, Norrtälje, Östervåla and Gräsö. In particular, the thesis examines the effects of age, gender and social status on the acquisition of a pronunciation where the phonemes are produced in a similar way, and whether the change occurs earlier in some words than others. The informants on Gräsö appear to have the highest occurrence of the merger, while those in Norrtälje are best at keeping ö and u apart. In general, men have a smaller difference between ö and u than women. Three different age groups were analysed and the results show that the oldest informants have the largest difference between ö and u and the youngest informants have the smallest difference. There are no significant differences between the three social status groups, but there is a tendency for those with the lowest social status to be better at keeping the phonemes apart than those with the highest social status. 13 minimal (or near-minimal) pairs were analysed to investigate whether the phonetic context has an effect on the degree to which ö and u are becoming more similar. The study shows that the smallest phonetic difference is found for word pairs with r occurring in the preceding or following context. The largest phonetic distance was found in word pairs beginning with a vowel. The study also examined whether there is a relationship between production, perception and attitude to u-sounding ö in Uppsala. By combining the production test results with the informants’ categorisation of u and ö in the perception test, the study shows that the informants with a small phonetic distance in their own speech were better at categorising stimuli correctly than the speakers who had a larger phonetic distance between ö and u in their own speech.
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Leach, Hannah. "Sociophonetic variation in Stoke-on-Trent's pottery industry." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2018. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/21547/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents a sociophonetic analysis of two dialect variables in twenty-six speakers from Stoke-on-Trent; specifically, speakers who worked in the city’s pottery industry. The recordings used come from an oral history archive, and much of the analysis presented considers the impact of the social and spatial structures of the pottery industry on dialect variation. The analysis presented also combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies in order to examine both broader patterns of dialect variation in the selected speakers, and how the same variables may be used in the construction of meaning-in-interaction. Finally, I consider the impact of using oral history data in this kind of sociophonetic analysis. I use literature on the social structures of the industry and the content of the recordings themselves to model an internal hierarchy for the industry, which I then examine alongside auditory and acoustic data from two linguistic variables: /h/-dropping, and the (i) vowel. /h/-dropping is particularly sensitive to industrial role, with speakers in mass production roles more likely to drop /h/ and those in administrative, managerial and design roles less likely to. I demonstrate how this links to the established social meanings of /h/-dropping as a historical dialect feature of English. The (i) vowel is less sensitive to this internal hierarchy quantitatively, but I describe how its realisation is particularly conditional on linguistic factors. Both variables are also examined qualitatively in discourse moments, and according to topic. /h/-dropping (and retention) appears to be associated with meaning on micro-, meso- and macro-social levels, allowing me to design an indexical field (Eckert, 2008) of its potential social meanings in this dataset. Variation in the (i) vowel appears to be less motivated by topic, but I demonstrate that some speakers do use more extreme acoustic tokens in particularly expressive talk.
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Devlin, Thomas. "Sociophonetic variation, orientation and topic in County Durham." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8755/.
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This thesis presents a sociophonetic study of four villages in County Durham which have not previously been explored in sociolinguistic literature. As well as examining socially-conditioned phonological variation across the villages, the study analyses the linguistic relationship between the research site and two larger localities with their own urban varieties of English, which are situated at either side of the research area: the city of Sunderland to the north and the Teesside conurbation to the south. The study examines phonological variability in the linguistic production of a socially-homogeneous group of thirty-two speakers, split equally across the four villages and stratified by emically-defined age groups. More than 6500 tokens of the MOUTH, FACE, GOAT and START variables (following Wells’ 1982 method of classifying sets of vowels) are analysed from recorded sociolinguistic interviews with informants. The findings are compared to previous sociolinguistic investigations of other varieties of North East English in terms of the levelling of variants local to the area. The established methodological comparison of read speech and conversational styles is complemented by detailed investigation of the conversational topic in which the production occurs, and its effect on phonological variation. An Identity Questionnaire (pioneered by Llamas 2001) explores identity construction in County Durham and how this is shaped by local speech patterns. This is achieved by surveying speakers’ individual attitudes and perceptions about their local area and accents. The correlation of this language ideology data and speakers’ actual linguistic performance allows the study to assess the role orientation plays in variant usage. While some variables (GOAT and MOUTH) demonstrate change in the direction of levelled variants, highly local forms are favoured in individual villages in terms of the FACE and START vowels which only pattern with geographical areas below the regional level (younger speakers close to Teesside overwhelmingly use the local START form found in Teesside; younger speakers further north retain the local FACE variant found in Tyneside and Sunderland). However, speakers across all locations produce a higher proportion of local variants in the highly local conversational topic of coal mining.
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Kamata, Miho. "An acoustic sociophonetic study of three London vowels." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2008. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/674/.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis presents an empirical socio-phonetic investigation of the acoustics of the three short vowels in the DRESS, TRAP and STRUT lexical sets (Wells 1982) in London. The vowels have been reported by a number of phoneticians and variationists to have shifted in particular directions in Received Pronunciatioin (RP) and London English during the course of the 20th century; the directions of the movements, however, seem to be rather complicated. Moreover, there have been relatively fewer instrumental studies for these vowels in London. The main purpose of this research, therefore, is to provide detailed patterns of recent vowel shifts involving these three vowels in London English in relation to internal and external factors. Acknowledging RP and Cockney as referential accents on a multidimensional accent continuum in London, it is presumed that Londoners closer to the upper and lower ends of social continuum are distinguished as `London Upper Middle Class (UMC)' speakers and `London Working Class (WC)' speakers respectively. Social class classification is made on the basis of speakers' occupational information. The application of the vowel formant normalisation technique called S-procedure (Watt & Fabricius 2002) allows direct visual and statistical comparisons for multiple speakers regardless of their physical differences. Investigations are made not only by traditional descriptions of relative placements of vowels in a visual two-dimensional FI /F2 vowel space but also by a recent innovative `angle and Euclidean distance calculations' procedure (Fabricius 2007) with thorough statistical analyses. Results show complicated but interesting correlations between the movements of these vowels and the social and phonological characteristics. One of the most interesting findings is an ongoing vowel change process called 'TRAP/STRUT rotation' (Fabricius 2006: 3,2007: 310) among (female) London UMC speakers who show a well progressed anticlockwise chain shift involving DRESS, TRAP and STRUT, whereas there is no evidence for this process among London WC speakers who show a rather moderate vowel shift involving only TRAP and DRESS. In this respect, the most innovative group is discussed to be the female young London UMC speakers, followed by the male young London UMC speakers as far as the data in the current study are concerned. The finding of a clear difference between two different accent groups in the realisations of the vowels is discussed to suggest a correlation between social class and accent variation in London, as well as to enhance the validity of occupation as a single indicator for people's social class. Observing a great number of general and minute patterns from the statistical results, the thesis attempts to provide possible explanations for the vowel changes in London, as well as extends its discussions for possible implications with regard to internal and external factors.
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Taylor, Elisa. "A Sociophonetic Study of /s/ Weakening in Andalusian Spanish." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1220.
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The phenomenon of /s/ weakening is common among many varieties of Spanish, from Latin America to southern Spain (Lipski (2011), Samper Padilla (2011)). This project will focus specifically on coda /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish, the social factors that influence it, and the language ideologies surrounding the dialect. Previous research has found that social factors influencing /s/ weakening include social class, gender, and education level (Lipski (2011), Samper Padilla (2011), Holmquist (2008), Terrell (1981), Fontanella de Weinberg (1973)). Studies on /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish have mainly focused on the functional compensation for the loss of /s/, but little research has been found on the social factors conditioning /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish (Rincon-Perez (2015), Carlson (2006), Ranson (1993), and more). This study will examine how the social factors of gender and class influence the presence of /s/ weakening in participants from Granada. Traditionally in studies of /s/ weakening, the discussion of variation has been limited to the categories of retention, aspiration, or deletion. However, this approach does not fully encompass the entire possibility of variety for /s/ because not all tokens of /s/ are equal in strength. By using the acoustic measurements of center of gravity (COG) and duration as continuous variables, /s/ weakening can be analyzed more precisely and comprehensively (Erker (2010), File-Muriel & Brown (2011)). Data for this research project was gathered in person from ten university-aged Andalusian Spanish speakers (5 female, 5 male) in Granada, Spain. Participants completed a demographic survey, reading passage, and participated in a thirty-minute sociolinguistic interview which included questions about participants’ language ideologies. Data was analyzed by measuring the duration and COG of all tokens of coda /s/ in participants’ speech using a Praat script. Statistical analysis was performed in RBrul to determine the relevant social and linguistic factors influencing /s/ weakening. Results showed that there was a significant correlation between duration and social class, as well as between duration and token position in word and phrase. No significant correlation between COG and any of the social or linguistic variables was found. The language ideologies of participants were also analyzed, and the results revealed that participants were generally aware of their distinctive dialect and its negative perceptions and that the majority of participants said that they had been judged for the way that they talked. These results are mostly consistent with the previous research, but the lack of correlation between COG and any of the variables was surprising.
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Alam, Farhana. "'Glaswasian'? : a sociophonetic analysis of Glasgow-Asian accent and identity." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7269/.
Full textAbstract:
British-Asians have often been stereotyped in the media through their cultural and linguistic practices, and these have been exacerbated by ongoing anti-Islamic international media coverage. Such associations may necessarily impact on the identity of young Pakistani-Muslims living in the West, and by implication, their sociolinguistic choices. However, no systematic study to my knowledge has attempted to uncover the role fine-grained phonetic variation might play in indexing such associations. In addition, Scottish-Pakistanis who are the largest ethnic minority group in Scotland, have been neglected in prior research on ethnic accents of English. With the increasing acknowledgement that ethnic varieties may influence mainstream Englishes as well as contribute to regional and personal identity, Scotland is a prime site for such analysis with its strong sense of national as well as local identity. Moreover, young female identity in the Muslim context is heightened, and can advance the understanding of the role of age, gender and religion in language variation. This study is a sociophonetic analysis of the Glasgow-Asian accent, specifically examining the speech of British-born adolescent Pakistani girls, aged 16-18. It uses both linguistic ethnographic and variationist methods with auditory and acoustic phonetics to ascertain how social identity and ethnicity are reflected in specific accent features of their spoken English. From long-term fieldwork in a Glasgow high school, results show that distinct Communities of Practice (CofPs) emerge in the girls according to their social practices. The consonantal variable /t/, and six unchecked monophthongal vowels /i, e, a, O, o, 0/ were examined revealing fine-grained differences in realisation according to CofP membership. CofP effects were found: for /t/ for Tongue Shape gesture and Centre of Gravity (CoG), and for vowels in interaction effects with adjacent phonetic environment for FLEECE height (F1) and BOOT front-backness (F2). Findings reveal within-ethnic and cross-ethnic differences across the variables. The girls use a system of accent variation in subtle ways to simultaneously denote ethnicity, and personal, regional and social identity. This reflects hybridity at a fine phonetic level, similar to that of ‘Brasian’ (Harris 2006), but here embodied in the concept of ‘Glaswasian’.
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Bekker, Ian. "The vowels of South African English / Ian Bekker." Thesis, North-West University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/2003.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis provides a comparative analysis of vowel quality in South African English (SAE)
using the following data: firstly, the existing impressionistic literature on SAE and other
relevant accents of English, the former of which is subject to a critical review; secondly,
acoustic data from a similar range of accents, including new SAE data, collected and instrumentally
analyzed specifically for the purposes of this research. These various data are
used to position, on both a descriptive and theoretical level, the SAE vowel system.
In addition, and in the service of providing a careful reconstruction of the linguistic history
of this variety, it offers a three-stage koin´eization model which helps, in many respects,
to illuminate the respective roles played by endogenous and exogenous factors in SAE’s
development.
More generally, the analysis is focussed on rendering explicit the extent to which the
synchronic status and diachronic development of SAE more generally, and SAE vowel quality
more particularly, provides support for a number of descriptive and theoretical frameworks,
including those provided in Labov (1994), Torgersen and Kerswill (2004), Trudgill
(2004) and Schneider (2003; 2007). With respect to these frameworks, and based on the results
of the analysis, it proposes an extension to Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model, shows
Trudgill’s (2004) model of new-dialect formation to be inadequate in accounting for some
of the SAE data, provides evidence that SAE is a possibly imminent but ‘conservative’
member of Torgersen and Kerswill’s (2004) SECS-Shift and uses SAE data to question the
applicability of the SECS-Shift to FOOT-Fronting.
Furthermore, this thesis provides evidence that SAE has undergone an indexicallydriven
arrestment of the Diphthong and Southern Shifts and a subsequent and related diffusion
of GenSAE values at the expense of BrSAE ones. Similarly, it shows that SAE’s possible participation in the SECS-Shift constitutes an effective chain-shift reversal ‘from
above’. It stresses that, in order to understand such phenomena, recourse needs to be made
to a theory of indexicality that takes into account the unique sociohistorical development of
SAE and its speakers.
Lastly, the adoption of the three-stage koin´eization model mentioned above highlights
the merits of considering both endogenous and exogenous factors in the historical reconstruction
of new-dialect formation and, for research into SAE in particular, strengthens the
case for further investigation into the possible effects of 19th-century Afrikaans/Dutch, Yiddish
and north-of-English dialects on the formation of modern SAE.Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.
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Lopes, Fernanda Peres. "Cancelamento variável das vogais átonas finais no falar pelotense." Universidade Federal de Pelotas, 2017. http://repositorio.ufpel.edu.br:8080/handle/prefix/3500.
Full textAbstract:
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Este estudo tem por objetivo analisar o processo variável de apagamento das vogais átonas [a, i, u] em posição final na fala de indivíduos da cidade de Pelotas (RS), conforme verificado em tarif[a] ~ tarif∅, equip[e] ~ equip∅, serviço ~ serviç∅, por exemplo. Para isso, partiu-se dos pressupostos da Fonologia de Uso (BYBEE, 2001, 2006, 2010), da Teoria de Exemplares (PIERREHUMBERT, 2001, 2003) e da Sociofonética (THOMAS, 2011; FOULKES; SCOBBIE; WATT, 2010). A amostra sob análise é constituída por oito informantes (quatro homens e quatro mulheres) entre 18 e 50 anos de idade e de dois níveis de escolaridade – sujeitos com até seis anos de escolaridade e sujeitos com, no mínimo, nove anos de escolaridade. A taxa de aplicação do apagamento na amostra analisada foi de 53% (N = 242) para a vogal [i], de 41% (N = 196) para a vogal [u] e de 0,8% (N = 4) para a vogal [a]. Os resultados indicaram que fatores como tipo de vogal, contexto precedente, ordem de produção e frequência lexical favorecem o apagamento, revelando a natureza predominantemente linguística do fenômeno. A única variável extralinguística que teve influência no apagamento foi a variável indivíduo. A análise acústica revelou que as vogais postônicas [i] e [u] produzidas pelos pelotenses tendem a abaixar enquanto a vogal [a] tende a elevar-se. Além disso, percebe-se uma centralização de [u], que ocupa, entre os homens, quase o mesmo espaço acústico que a vogal [a]. [ɐ], [ɪ] e [ʊ] são as vogais que representam o sistema encontrado na amostra. Com relação à duração, comparando-se os valores encontrados com os dados de Quintanilha-Azevedo (2016), percebe-se que tanto homens quanto mulheres produziram vogais mais curtas. Por fim, conclui-se que o apagamento representa o ponto final de uma trajetória que se inicia com a realização plena da vogal, passa pela redução de sua duração e pelo seu desvozeamento.
This thesis aims to analyze the variable process of deletion of the final unstressed vowels [a, i, u] by Brazilian Portuguese native speakers from the city of Pelotas, in the Southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, as noticed in words such as tarif[a] ~ tarif∅, equip[e] ~ equip∅, serviço ~ serviç∅, for instance. In order to achieve said aim, the concepts addressed by Usage-Based Phonology (BYBEE, 2001, 2006, 2010), the Exemplar Theory (PIERREHUMBERT, 2001, 2003) and Sociophonetics (THOMAS, 2011; FOULKES; SCOBBIE; WATT, 2010) were used as this research project's theoretical bases. The sample analyzed in this study consists of 8 informants (4 men and 4 women) from two different educational backgrounds (one group including subjects with up to 6 years of formal learning and the other including subjects with 9+ years of formal learning) with ages ranging from eighteen to fifty. The rate of deletion in the sample was of 53% (N = 242) for the vowel [i], of 41% (N = 196) for the vowel [u], and of 0,8% (N = 4) for the vowel [a]. The results indicate that such factors as type of vowel, preceding context, vowel production order and lexical frequency favor deletion, revealing the predominantly linguistic nature of the phenomenon. The variable "subject" was the only extralinguistic variable to influence deletion. Acoustic analysis showed that the posttonic vowels [i] and [u] produced by the subjects tend to lower as the vowel [a] tends to rise. In addition, the study also revealed a centralization of [u], which occupies among men almost the same acoustic vowel space as does the vowel [a]. Vowels [ɐ], [ɪ] and [ʊ] are representative of the system found in the sample. Regarding duration, when comparing the values included in this research project with those presented by Quintanilha-Azevedo (2016), it can be noticed that both men and women produced shorter vowels. Lastly, it was found that deletion represents the final stage of a process that begins with the production of a full-quality vowel, moves on to its reduction, and ultimately reaches the devoicing of said vowel.
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Matar, Zein Nayla. "Genre et voix en arabe libanais : le cas des femmes avec un oedème de Reinke." Thesis, Aix-Marseille, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015AIXM3070/document.
Full textAbstract:
Objectif : Les femmes avec œdème de Reinke (FR) sont souvent prises pour des hommes au téléphone. Ainsi, leurs voix masculines sont intéressantes pour l’étude des stéréotypes de genre dans la voix. L’objectif de cette étude est de vérifier leur plainte dans un cadre expérimental et de rechercher les paramètres acoustiques utilisés dans l’identification du genre en se basant sur leurs voix.Matériel et Méthode : Une étude d’auto-évaluation met en évidence la perception qu’ont les FR de leurs voix. Une étude de production compare les paramètres acoustiques de voyelles et de phrases produites par 10 FR avec ceux des productions de 10 femmes et de 10 hommes aux voix normales (FN et HN). Un jury naïf évalue le genre vocal des FR, FN et HN. Résultats : Les FR s’auto-évaluent comme ayant une voix masculine et une personnalité féminine. Les paramètres acoustiques qui permettent de distinguer les voix des FR sont liés à la fréquence fondamentale, à la pente spectrale, au ratio des harmoniques par rapport au bruit et à la complexité de l’enveloppe spectrale. Le jury naïf, surtout les femmes, jugent les voix des FR comme « sûrement masculines » plus souvent qu’elles ne jugent les voix des FN quelle que soit la production vocale. Conclusions : Les auditeurs et surtout les auditrices évaluent les FR comme ayant une voix « sûrement masculine » par rapport aux FN. Ce classement est corrélé à la F0 ainsi qu’à des paramètres acoustiques liés à la qualité vocale : CPP, H1H2, HNR05, HNR15 et HNR25. Ces nouvelles informations contribuent à la compréhension de la perception du genre dans la voix et pourraient guider la réhabilitation des personnes se plaignant d’ambiguïté du genre vocalPurpose: Women with Reinke’s edema (RW) are often identified as men over the phone. For this reason, their masculine sounding voice is interesting for the study of gender stereotypes. The study’s objective is to verify their complaint and to understand the cues used in gender identification based on their voices.Methods: We verified, through a self-evaluation study, the perception of their own voice by RW. We compared the acoustic parameters of vowels and sentences produced by 10 RW to those produced by 10 men (NM) and 10 women (NW) with normal voices in Lebanese Arabic. We conducted two perception studies for the evaluation of RW, NM and NW voices by naïve listeners. Results: RW self-evaluated their voice as being masculine and their personality as being feminine. The acoustic parameters distinguishing RW voices concern pitch, spectral slope, harmonicity of the voicing signal and complexity of the spectral envelop. Naïve listeners (especially women) rate RW voices as “surely masculine” more often than they rate NW voices even in sentences. Conclusions: Listeners (especially women) rate RW’s gender as “surely masculine” more often than NW. These incorrect gender ratings are correlated with acoustic measures of voice quality. The most contributing parameters to gender perception are: F0, CPP, H1H2, HNR05, HNR15, and HNR25. This new data contributes to the understanding of the perception of gender in voice and will guide the rehabilitation plan of patients complaining of an ambiguous voice
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Brato, Thorsten [Verfasser]. "A sociophonetic study of Aberdeen English : Innovation and conservatism / Thorsten Brato." Gießen : Universitätsbibliothek, 2012. http://d-nb.info/1064023126/34.
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Brato, Thorsten [Verfasser]. "Variation and Change in Aberdeen English : A Sociophonetic Study / Thorsten Brato." Frankfurt a.M. : Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1123420548/34.
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Rankinen, Wil A. "The Sociophonetic and Acoustic Vowel Dynamics of Michigan's Upper Peninsula English." Thesis, Indiana University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3635760.
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The present sociophonetic study examines the English variety in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP) based upon a 130-speaker sample from Marquette County. The linguistic variables of interest include seven monophthongs and four diphthongs: 1) front lax, 2) low back, and 3) high back monophthongs and 4) short and 5) long diphthongs. The sample is stratified by the predictor variables of heritage-location, bilingualism, age, sex and class. The aim of the thesis is two fold: 1) to determine the extent of potential substrate effects on a 71-speaker older-aged bilingual and monolingual subset of these UP English speakers focusing on the predictor variables of heritage-location and bilingualism, and 2) to determine the extent of potential exogenous influences on an 85-speaker subset of UP English monolingual speakers by focusing on the predictor variables of heritage-location, age, sex and class. All data were extracted from a reading passage task collected during a sociolinguistic interview and measured instrumentally. The findings of this apparent-time data reveal the presence of lingering effects from substrate sources and developing effects from exogenous sources based upon American and Canadian models of diffusion. The linguistic changes-in-progress from above, led by middle-class females, are taking shape in the speech of UP residents of whom are propagating linguistic phenomena typically associated with varieties of Canadian English (i.e., low-back merger, Canadian shift, and Canadian raising); however, the findings also report resistance of such norms by working-class females. Finally, the data also reveal substrate effects demonstrating cases of dialect leveling and maintenance. As a result, the speech spoken in Michigan's Upper Peninsula can presently be described as a unique variety of English comprised of lingering substrate effects as well as exogenous effects modeled from both American and Canadian English linguistic norms.
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Sangster, Catherine M. "Inter- and intra-speaker variation in Liverpool English : a sociophonetic study." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2002. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6d5cbd34-73ab-4c22-b341-9253eac94b3c.
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This thesis presents experiments and interviews which investigate pronunciation variation in the Liverpool accents of young speakers. Experiment One investigates inter-speaker variation, Experiment Two investigates intra-speaker variation, and Experiment Three investigates both inter- and intra-speaker variation. These three experiments are conducted from a sociophonetic perspective, with controlled elicitation of natural speech and acoustic analysis of speech data. The experimental investigations are complemented by interviews, which incorporate the perceptions and opinions of speakers of Liverpool English into the study. The study makes several contributions to the field of sociolinguistic research. It provides a new examination of Liverpool English. Experiment One is specifically designed to explore one of its most complex and ill-defined phonetic features, the realisation of plosives as affricates or fricatives. In addition to this phonetic investigation, Experiment One also examines sociolinguistic variation in this feature, and shows that speakers' individual attributes (such as their social networks and their plans for the future) are as relevant to variation as their socio-economic status. The study also makes important methodological contributions. Instrumental phonetic techniques and standards are successfully applied to sociolinguistic investigation conducted in the field. An interdisciplinary approach, bringing together qualitative interviews and sociophonetic experiments, is adopted. A new quiz-questionnaire technique for data collection, which should prove useful for many kinds of future sociolinguistic research, is developed for Experiment Three. Finally, Experiment Three tests many accounts and models of intra-speaker variation. Speakers are shown to vary their pronunciation as the speech situation varies, but not all the seven phonetic variables investigated show the same patterns of variation. Speakers vary their pronunciation according to audience, and also according to topic. Speakers with a high level of ambition vary their pronunciation of certain phonetic variables more than those with a lower level of ambition, and female speakers vary their pronunciation more than male speakers.
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Arlow, Catriona. "Speech and communication in a Northern Ireland setting: a sociophonetic approach." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.695217.
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This thesis provides insights into the effect of sociophonetic variation on speech production and speech perception among language users in a recently multilingual classroom environment in Northern Ireland. It does so in order to investigate how adolescent children acquire and adapt to the variable phonological input to which they are exposed. While research has been conducted on the role that sociolinguistic and sociophonetic variation pray in SLA for other varieties of English, little research has been conducted on the effect that NIE sociophonetic and phonological variation might have on newcomers' L2 acquisition in the NI classroom. The current study has attempted to bridge that gap. The linguistic and social factors relevant to the study are investigated using a novel research framework that combines statistical, impressionistic, instrumental and quasi-experimental techniques adapted from methodologies in the fields of sociophonetics, variationist SLA, socioperception, and accent recognition. The findings reveal that the study's participants were sensitive to NIE phonological variation and that they evaluated it in relation to their own native phonological systems. It was also found that the newcomer pupils acquired phonological variants typical among their native English-speaking peers, and that their acquisition was most consistent for NIE vowel variants. Further, comments made by the schoolchildren implied that they shared an appreciation for linguistic diversity and language learning, but that the newcomer pupils had experienced difficulties communicating with peers and teachers in the school environment. However, the findings provide evidence that sociophonetic variation has a limited effect on mutual intelligibility, and suggest that perceptions of language proficiency are more fluid than the dichotomous notions of "native" and "non-native" speaker might suggest.
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Daniels, Sara. "A Sociophonetic Study of the Northern Cities Shift in Southwest Michigan." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1369.
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This study was designed to measure the perception of Southwest Michigan residents' perception of the Northern Cities Shift, and compare it to the perceptions of Southeast Michigan residents. Participants, recruited from the Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo areas, were asked to complete a dialect boundary map of the United States in order to discern perceptions of American English dialects and accents and determine the dialect or accent that they most associate with the state of Michigan. Participants were also asked to listen to and judge the personality traits of seven different North American speakers. The results of this study indicate that Southwest Michigan residents may subconsciously be able to detect the NCS in speech, though they were mostly unable to correctly identify the NCS as a characteristic of Michigan speech. Further research with a larger pool of participants could provide more accurate measurements as to the perception of Michigan residents towards the Northern Cities Shift.
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Seibert, Andrew Douglas. "A SOCIOPHONETIC ANALYSIS OF L2 SUBSTITUTION SOUNDS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH INTERDENTAL FRICATIVES." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/700.
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Previous research done in sociophonetic variation of second language speakers has often looked at constraints of formality affecting degree of foreign accent and how this degree of formality can have effects on what speaking styles speakers choose to employ. Furthermore, other social constraints of convergence and divergence of speech affect speaker speaking style. However, no known previous research has examined interdental fricative /θ ð/ substitution based on each speaker's interlocutor. This study explores second language speakers' English interdental fricative substitution sounds in terms of sociophonetic variation of formality and speaker interlocutor(s). Five native language pairs of Arabic, Cantonese, French, Portuguese, and Vietnamese origin were part of the study, comprising ten participants in total. The study finds age of English onset, as verified by the literature, to be the most determining factor for accurate articulation of these marked fricatives. However, other constraints for substitution choice are at hand including phonological limitations and estimated linguistic experience based on demographic information given by survey participants. The primary aim of the study is to associate some of the interdental fricative substitutions with a social variable. Data for the study include recordings of each participant reading a poem by him/herself, a dialogue with the other same native language participant, and a dialogue with a native speaker of American English. The data analysis examined the replacement sounds in terms of native language background, linguistic experience variables, and phonological constraints. In addition, quantities and ratios of specific replacement sounds for each participant per recording and per native language pair were compared and contrasted to find if speech accommodation theory (SAT), as proposed by Giles et al. (1991), played a role in any of the participants' choices for substitution. The study finds both convergence and divergence of interdental fricative substitutions to be characteristic of speakers with less linguistic experience in English. An additional stronger finding is that most participants' most common sound substitutions for the voiced and voiceless interdental fricatives were independent in place and manner, the voiced most commonly replaced by dental and alveolar plosives [ḏ d] and the voiceless most commonly replaced by labiodental fricative [f], which could be an indication of each fricative's acoustic and phonemic representation in each non-native speaker's phonological component, supported by findings of Brannen (2002). Some literature suggests that varying values of [continuant] in speakers' native languages are the means by which speakers choose the replacement sounds they do. However, such an explanation cannot be the only valid one when inherent variability comes into play and different places and manners of articulation are chosen for both interdental fricatives.
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Brown, Justin. "Focusing and diffusion in 'Cape Flats English': a sociophonetic study of three vowels." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12078.
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Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.
This research contributes to the wider fields of sociophonetics and the social dialectology of English in South Africa. The study looks at three vowel sets; GOOSE, BATH and KIT taken from Wells (1982). The study was designed to identify and attempt to explain potential differences in pronunciation amongst speakers in an English-speaking community living in Cape Town and classified as 'Coloured' during apartheid. The community in question has used English as their first language for several generations and has enjoyed some of the economic advantages attached to this while at the same time being the victims (historically) of discrimination and marginalization. The study looks at the speech of twenty speakers. Using the methods of variationist sociolinguistics, it aims to investigate what correlations can be drawn between these speakers. It examines whether the speech of the informants can be correlated along lines of social class, education, personal background and occupation. In addition, the study looks (albeit briefly) at issues of language usage and social identity with regard to these twenty speakers.
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Kotsoni, Zoi. "A sociophonetic analysis of the production of mid-vowel contrasts in Catalan spoken in Barcelona." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/669724.
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La presente investigación trata de la variación del lenguaje y presumiblemente cambio desde la perspectiva teórica de los estudios en tiempo aparente. Su objetivo es explorar la retención o fusión de los contrastes vocálicos medios-delanteros y medios-posteriores catalanes, y si la fusión está completa o produce un escenario cercano a la fusión, basado en la producción de vocales medias por bilingües con un dominio más fuerte del catalán. (catalán-dominante), así como por bilingües con un dominio más fuerte del español (español-dominante), todos siendo residentes de Barcelona, España. En la comunidad de doble discurso de Barcelona, los miembros se encuentran en una situación de bilingüismo territorial y social. La variedad de catalán que se habla en Barcelona (catalán central) posee dos conjuntos de vocales medias fonémicas (/ e / - / ε / y / o / - / ↄ /), a diferencia del español que tiene una sola vocal por conjunto (/ e / y / o /). Se evalúa el impacto de las variables independientes de género, edad, dominio del idioma y lengua materna en la producción de vocales medias, lo que proporciona una idea de la naturaleza no lineal de la variación y el cambio del lenguaje.
Setenta y dos residentes bilingües catalanes / españoles de Barcelona de diferentes generaciones (sus edades oscilan entre los 15 y los 75 años) se grabaron leyendo en voz alta un pasaje catalán que incluye las siguientes instancias de vocales estresadas, / e /, / ε /, / o / y / ↄ /, que se sometieron a un análisis acústico junto con / i /, / a /, / u /. Los valores F1 y F2 de las siete vocales que están implicadas en los datos se sometieron a un procedimiento de normalización del hablante. Se aplicó un método para determinar si las diferencias de frecuencia F1 entre las vocales medias-cerradas y medias-abiertas correspondían a un contraste de vocales o un escenario (cercano) de fusión. Se analizó estadísticamente el efecto del género, de la edad, del dominio del idioma y de la lengua materna en la diferenciación de las vocales medias.
Se extraen varias conclusiones basadas en los análisis estadísticos realizados y las tendencias del conjunto de datos. Se descubrió que los bilingües catalanes lograban una mejor distinción entre vocales que los bilingües españoles. En general, las vocales medio-delanteras se diferenciaron mejor que las vocales medias-posteriores a nivel de producción. También se descubrió que los hablantes mayores tendían a retener mejor el contraste de las vocales medias-posteriores. Los jóvenes hispanohablantes, cuyos padres son españoles, obtuvieron mejores resultados que los hispanohablantes de edad mediana y que los mayores. Los resultados demostraron además que las mujeres bilingües catalanas tendían a tener una diferenciación de vocales medias más sólida que los hombres bilingües catalanes y las mujeres bilingües españolas. Se discuten las implicaciones que sugieren que la variación está involucrada en este estudio y se ofrecen posibles explicaciones.The present research deals with language variation and presumably change from the theoretical perspective of apparent-time studies. It aims to explore the retainment or merging of the Catalan mid-front and mid-back vowel contrasts, and whether merging is complete or yields a near-merging scenario, based on the production of mid-vowels by bilinguals with a stronger command of Catalan (Catalan-dominant) as well as by bilinguals with a stronger command of Spanish (Spanish-dominant), all residents of Barcelona, Spain. In the dual speech community of Barcelona, members find themselves in a situation of both territorial and societal bilingualism. The variety of Catalan spoken in Barcelona (Central Catalan) possesses two sets of phonemic mid-vowels (/e/-/ε/ and /o/-/ↄ/), unlike Spanish which has a single vowel per set (/e/ and /o/). The impact of the independent variables of gender, age, language dominance and mother tongue on mid-vowel production is assessed, providing insight into the non-linear nature of language variation and change. Seventy-two Catalan/Spanish bilingual residents of Barcelona of different generations (their ages range from 15 to 75) were recorded reading aloud a Catalan passage including the following stressed vowel instances, /e/, /ε/, /o/ and /ↄ/, which were subjected to an acoustic analysis alongside the /i/, /a/, /u/. F1 and F2 values of all seven vowels that are implicated in the data were submitted to a speaker normalisation procedure. A method was applied for determining whether F1 frequency differences between close-mid and open-mid vowels corresponded to a vowel contrast or (near-) merging scenario. The effect of gender, age, language dominance and mother tongue on the mid-vowel differentiation was analysed statistically. A number of conclusions based on the statistical analyses performed and dataset trends are drawn. It was first found that Catalan bilinguals achieved a better mid-vowel distinction than Spanish bilinguals. Overall, mid-front vowels were better differentiated than mid-back vowels at a production level. It was also found that older speakers tended to better retain the mid-back vowel contrast. Youngsters and young Spanish speakers, whose parents are both Spanish, performed better than middle-aged and older Spanish speakers. The results further demonstrated that Catalan female bilinguals tended to have a more robust mid-vowel differentiation than Catalan male and Spanish female bilinguals. Implications which suggest that variation is involved in this study are discussed and potential explanations are offered.
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Kraus, Janina [Verfasser], and Stephanie [Akademischer Betreuer] Hackert. "A Sociophonetic Study of the Urban Bahamian Creole Vowel System / Janina Kraus ; Betreuer: Stephanie Hackert." München : Universitätsbibliothek der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 2017. http://d-nb.info/1151818429/34.
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Wileman, Bruce Rory. "A sociophonetic investigation of ethnolinguistic differences in voice quality among young, South African English speakers." Thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28362.
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Prior research has suggested that there may be differences in voice quality between black and white speakers of South African English who had attended well-resourced middle-class schools. The principal objective of the study is to address the question of whether there is any acoustic evidence of such differences. The study then proceeds to describe such acoustic evidence for differences in voice quality. The author interviewed 36 female South African English speakers (18 white and 18 black) between the ages of 18 and 22. The research subjects had all attended well-resourced middleclass schools. In order to control for the possibility of substrate influences on voice quality, all black participants were of an isiXhosa language background. High quality sound recordings were conducted, consisting of both a set of read sentences as well as semi-structured interviews, the latter of which formed the core dataset for the subsequent acoustic analysis. The acoustic data were analyzed using VoiceSauce, a program specifically designed for the acoustic analysis of voice quality. Measurements were based on automatically segmented speech samples using FAVE and PRAAT. The VoiceSauce measurement data were statistically analyzed by means of a linear mixed effects regression analysis and Wilcoxon rank sum tests using the statistical package R to evaluate the significance of ethnicity as a variable. The effect of ethnicity was found to be significant for several measures of spectral tilt (including for example, 2K*-5K, H4*-2K*, H1*-H2* and H1*-A1*) and cepstral peak prominence with a nearly significant effect for the subharmonics-to-harmonics ratio. Black speakers exhibited consistently higher values for most harmonic differential measures (for example, H1*-A1*) overall, while white speakers exhibited higher values for fundamental frequency, harmonics-tonoise ratio and cepstral peak prominence. The author concludes that the acoustic evidence is most consistent with the hypothesis that the white speakers overall typically use a voice quality iii characterized by greater vocal fold constriction, thickness and stiffness in comparison to the black speakers, hypothesized to use a voice quality characterized by more breathiness. By providing a description of voice quality variation, the research contributes towards a more complete account of sociolinguistic variation in South African English.
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Chevalier, Alida. "Social class differentiation in South African Indian English : a sociophonetic study of three vowel variables." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10190.
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Since Mesthrie's (1992) pioneering work on South African Indian English (SAIE), very little work has been done on SAIE exclusively. Therefore enough time has passed to test his findings and postulations with current data, new variables, and new techniques. In particular the paper draws on progress in acoustic sociophonetics in the description of the vowels of the GOOSE, NURSE and THOUGHT sets, and basic statistics.
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Barajas, Jennifer. "A Sociophonetic Investigation of Unstressed Vowel Raising in the Spanish of a Rural Mexican Community." The Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1403808807.
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Alexander, Katarzyna. "Perception of the boundary between singleton and geminate plosives by Greek Cypriots : a sociophonetic perspective." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8720/.
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Standard Modern Greek (SMG) and Cypriot Greek (CG), two language varieties used by Greek Cypriots living in Cyprus, differ in their plosive inventories, as CG includes voiceless geminate plosives which are absent in SMG. Words containing geminate plosives may be divided into two groups; in one, replacing a geminate plosive with a singleton plosive changes the meaning of the word, whereas in the other group replacing a geminate with a singleton does not cause any change to the word’s literal meaning. Matched-guise technique (MGT) tests carried out as a part of this study suggest that substituting a singleton plosive [t] with a geminate [t:h] tends to alter the social characteristics attributed to the speaker uttering words containing the target sounds. Forced-choice perceptual tests were carried out with Greek Cypriot listeners in three conditions, (1) in the presence of the Greek flag (symbolising the Greek culture and/or region), (2) in the presence of the Cypriot flag (symbolising the Cypriot culture and/or region), and (3) in the absence of the two flags. The results indicate that the perception of the boundary between singleton and geminate plosives tends to be affected by several variables such as the length of the plosive embedded in the test stimuli, the presence of the flags, the gender of the listeners and the way listeners produced singleton and geminate plosives themselves. Socio-economic background and cultural affiliation of the listeners, which were assumed to be indicators of the amount of exposure to singleton plosives in the discussed context, were also among the variables affecting the perception of the boundary. The results of this study seem to add evidence to some of the assumptions of exemplar theory relating to the importance of amount of exposure to a sound category, the role of acoustic properties of stored exemplars, and processing of indexical information in speech perception. Also, the results of the study appear to suggest that factors such as listeners’ linguistic insecurity or listeners’ satisfaction with their social position might also have an effect on the way they process speech by increasing or decreasing their sensitivity to acoustic properties of sounds. It is suggested that the role of listeners’ linguistic insecurity and the role of their satisfaction with social position in increasing and decreasing sensitivity to phonetic cues should be further investigated in future research and possibly incorporated into models of speech perception.
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Mooney, Damien. "Linguistic transfer and dialect levelling : a sociophonetic analysis of contact in the regional French of Béarn." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:94335403-43f6-419a-b13a-9de0557a86b2.
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This thesis investigates the genesis and evolution of the regional variety of French spoken in Béarn, southwestern France, by considering phonetic and phonological changes taking place in two different contact situations: language contact between French and Béarnais, and dialect contact with other contemporary varieties of French. Through an examination of linguistic transfer, in a situation of bilingualism, and of levelling and diffusion during dialect contact, the thesis challenges two long-standing assumptions about regional French: that it results from ‘substrate residue’ and that this ‘residue’ is ephemeral and will therefore be lost over time. The methodology is sociophonetic, combining traditional Labovian data collection techniques with detailed acoustic phonetic analysis. The acoustic analyses focus on the mid-vowel and nasal unit systems of Béarnais and French, first examining L1-to-L2 transfer and subsequently investigating apparent-time changes taking place in regional French as a result of dialect contact. The findings show that, while this variety of regional French contains clear cases of ‘substrate residue’ from Béarnais, its formation during language contact is better accounted for by a combination of linguistic transfer, divergence and innovation, with structural correspondences between the surface phonologies of the languages influencing the outcomes of contact in each case, as predicted by Flege’s Speech Learning Model. The assumption that regional French features are transitory is refuted: the results of the apparent-time study show that young speakers in Béarn are not simply involved in the wholesale adoption of the northern French norm over time. Contemporary regional French in Béarn is shown to constitute a distinctive combination of local, supralocal and innovative features resulting primarily from the various mechanisms which constitute Kerswill’s model of Regional Dialect Levelling.
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West, Helen Faye. "Accent variation and attitude on the Merseyside/Lancashire border : a sociophonetic study of Southport and Ormskirk." Thesis, University of York, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9052/.
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Recent sociolinguistic studies have argued that speaker identity is accentuated in border regions due to speakers’ desire to project a strong sense of identity (Llamas 2007; 2010; Beal 2010, Britain 2010). The AISEB (Accent and Identity on the Scottish/English Border) project shows the effect of national political affiliation on linguistic output, observing that linguistic diversity along the Scottish/English border appears to be increasing in some areas in a way that coincides with heightened speaker attitudes in relation to the nearby boundary. In the light of these findings, increased attention has been paid to urban zones which are geographically either next to perceptual and/or physical boundaries or within areas which have undergone a political boundary change. Following the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, the creation of the administrative county of Merseyside provides us with fertile ground for the study of the relationship between language variation and regional identity. Although Liverpool sits at the heart of the administrative county and the wider region, Merseyside and its immediate environs are a diverse mix of the urban, suburban and rural with quite different social, industrial and economic histories. In particular, the town of Southport, situated seventeen miles north of Liverpool, are often positioned by both residents of Liverpool and the towns themselves as quite distinct entities from the urban centre of the administrative county, despite both having been included within the borders of Merseyside from its inception (West 2013). These locations, peripheral to the urban core of the region, provide us with the opportunity to examine the interplay of language variation, speaker identity and the subsequent direction of linguistic change. This thesis investigates the diffusion of local Liverpool features – the lenition of intervocalic and word-final /t/ and /k/ and the fronted merger of NURSE and SQUARE (Knowles 1973) – in speech from a corpus of 63 speakers stratified by age, socioeconomic status and gender. I show that despite the links with Liverpool, the features of the Liverpool accent are not diffusing as rapidly as originally hypothesised. To investigate possible reasons for this, the thesis examines whether there is a correlation between speakers’ language use and their spatial mobility patterns by mapping their contact and attitudinal behaviour onto their linguistic production. I suggest that Liverpool’s negative stereotype (Montgomery 2007) may be acting as a barrier to the diffusion of Liverpool features: a negativity that could potentially be heightened in Southport due to the movement of the political border.
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Aubanel, Vincent. "Variation phonologique régionale en interaction conversationnelle." Thesis, Aix-Marseille 1, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011AIX10002/document.
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C'est dans l'interaction sociale, lieu d'occurrence premier du langage parlé (Local, 2003) que la parole est apprise, qu'elle est produite quotidiennement et qu'elle évolue. De nouvelles approches interdisciplinaires de l'étude de la parole, notamment la sociophonétique ou les récents développements de l'interaction conversationnelle, ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives dans la modélisation du traitement de la parole. Une question centrale à cette entreprise est la caractérisation des représentations mentales associées aux sons de la parole. Pour traiter cette question, nous utilisons l'approche exemplariste du traitement de la parole, qui propose que les sons de la parole sont mémorisés en incorporant des informations contextuelles détaillées. Nous présentons une nouvelle tâche interactionnelle, GMUP (pour "Group ’em up"), destinée à recueillir les réalisations de matériel phonologique finement contrôlé produit par deux interactants dans un cadre expérimental écologiquement valide. Les variables phonologiques décrivent les différences existant entre deux variétés de français parlé, le français standard et le français méridional. Des outils de reconnaissance automatique de la parole ont été développés pour évaluer la convergence phonétique, observable de l'évolution des représentations mentales, à deux niveaux de granularité : au niveau catégoriel de la variable phonologique et au niveau plus fin, subphonémique. L’emploi de mesures acoustiques détaillées à grande échelle permet de caractériser finement les différences inter-individuelles dans l'évolution de la forme des réalisations acoustiques associées aux représentations mentales en interaction conversationnelleIt is in social interaction, the primary site of the occurrence of spoken language (Local, 2003) that speech is learned, that it is produced everyday and that it evolves. New interdisciplinary approaches to the study of speech, particularly in sociophonetics and in recent developments in conversational interaction, open new avenues for modeling speech processing. A central question in this enterprise relates to the caracterization of the mental representations of speech sounds. We address this question using the exemplarist approach of speech processing, which proposes that speech sounds are stored in memory along with detailed contextual information. We present a new interactional task, GMUP (which stands for "Group ’em up"), designed to collect realizations of highly-controlled phonological material produced by two interactants in an ecologically valid experimental setting. The phonological variables describe differences between two varieties of spoken French, Northern French and Southern French. Automatic speech recognition tools were developed to evaluate phonetic convergence, an observable of the evolution of the mental representations of speech, at two levels of granularity: at the categorical level of the phonological variable and at a more fine-grained, subphonemic level. The use of large-scale detailed acoustic measures allows us to finely caracterize interindividual differences in the evolution of the acoustic realizations associated with the mental representations of speech in conversational interaction