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This study is concerned with the aperture of the mid vowel /E/ in nonfinal syllables in Quebec French. The hypothesis tested is that in underived disyllabic words, the aperture of /E/ would be determined via harmony with the following vowel. Based on predictions from a classifier trained on acoustic properties of word-final vowels, nonfinal vowels were labeled as mid-close or mid-open. Although distant coarticulatory effects were observed, the harmony hypothesis was not supported. The results revealed a bias toward a mid-open quality and a reduced acoustic distinction, which warrant further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The F-POD is designed for passive acoustic monitoring of odontocetes. The offline classifiers can identify and separate porpoise-like sounds from dolphin-like sounds. We show that these two classifiers are not working independently. Run together, virtually no detections of both species were reported within the same minute, whereas 10% of the detection positive minutes were reported positive for both species when the two classifiers were run sequentially. This has important implications for interpretation of data in areas containing both species groups, and we call for reporting all analysis details in such studies and for further description and analysis of the classifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored a database covering seven dialects of British and Irish English and three different styles of speech to find acoustic correlates of prominence. We built classifiers, trained the classifiers on human prominence/nonprominence judgments, and then evaluated how well they behaved. The classifiers operate on 452 ms windows centered on syllables, using different acoustic measures. By comparing the performance of classifiers based on different measures, we can learn how prominence is expressed in speech. Contrary to textbooks and common assumption, fundamental frequency (f0) played a minor role in distinguishing prominent syllables from the rest of the utterance. Instead, speakers primarily marked prominence with patterns of loudness and duration. Two other acoustic measures that we examined also played a minor role, comparable to f0. All dialects and speaking styles studied here share a common definition of prominence. The result is robust to differences in labeling practice and the dialect of the labeler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]