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This study investigates listeners' ability to track individual speakers' habitual speech rate in a dialogue and adjust their perception of durational contrasts. Previous studies that found such adjustments are inconclusive as adjustments can be attributed to exemplars of target structures in the dialogue rather than perceptual calibration of habitual speech rates. In this study, English listeners were presented with a dialogue between a fast and slow speaker, containing no stressed syllable-initial voiceless stops. Listeners then categorized /pi/-/bi/ syllables differing along a voice onset time continuum. Results did not show conclusive evidence that listeners' response differed systematically depending on speakers' habitual speech rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares bilinguals of 2L1s with monolinguals and second language speakers. The experiment and statistical analysis reveals that the question whether bilinguals adopt a more extreme, intermediate, or monolingual-like approach may not have a clear-cut yes or no answer. Our finding demonstrates that bilinguals are more monolingual-like when they have greater control over their speech production. Additionally, bilinguals employ an extreme approach to positive VOTs, where they must distinguish among all the six stops in Japanese and English, though they adopt an intermediate approach to negative VOTs, where they just need to distinguish among the three voiced stops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous study on voiceless stop aspiration in Heritage Calabrian Italian spoken in Toronto, we found that the transmission of a sociophonetic variable differed from cross-generational phonetic variation induced by increased contact with the majority language. Universal phonetic factors and the social characteristics of the speakers appeared to influence contact-induced variation much more straightforwardly than the transmission of the sociophonetic variable. In the current study, we investigate further, examining possible alternative explanations related to the lexical distribution of the aspiration phenomena. We test two alternative hypotheses, the first one predicting that the diffusion of a majority language's phonetic feature is frequency-driven while change in a sociophonetic feature is not (or not that regularly across generations), and the second one predicting that sociophonetic aspiration decreases across generations by being progressively more dependent on the frequency of lexical items. Our results show that sociophonetic aspiration resists lexicalization and applies to both frequent and infrequent words even in the speech of third-generation speakers. By contrast, the progressive introduction of contact-induced phonetic change is led by high-frequency words. These findings add to the complexity of heritage language phonology by suggesting that the pronunciation features of a heritage language can follow different fates depending on their sociolinguistic roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is a birth defect that can have negative effects on feeding, physical appearance, speech, hearing, and psychological development.VFI-induced hypernasality are high-pressure sounds such as plosives, fricatives, and affricates. In this study, the influence of hypernasality on plosive sounds was investigated. Six children with CLP with hypernasality and six children with typical development participated in this descriptive comparative study. All of the participants were between 10 and 12 years old and were native Turkish speakers. These two groups were matched by age and gender. For the acoustic analysis, the stop component, burst duration, and total duration of each target sound were calculated. Additionally, voice onset time (VOT) was assessed and contrasted between groups. A linear mixed-effects model was used for the statistical analysis. This study demonstrates that children with hypernasality have longer target sound durations. In addition, the burst duration of target sounds is determined to be prolonged in this group. Moreover, hypernasality is linked to a prolonged stop duration. Children without hypernasality experience a shortened duration of VOT than those with hypernasality. According to this study's findings, velofarengeal insufficiency has an effect on the duration of obstruent sounds. This explains the differences between the hypernasality group and the non-hypernasality group. This research suggests that CLP therapy for children may enhance their condition. Using acoustic measurements, this investigation generates theoretical results. Therapies' administration and evaluation could be combined.

The study examines the perception of labial stops by English(L1)/Spanish(L2) [Group A] and Spanish(L1)/English(L2) [Group B] learners of French (L3). We investigate Cross-Linguistic Influence (CLI) processes of L3 speech perception by looking at how the previously acquired languages shape L3 perception (progressive CLI) and how an L3 affects the categorization of L2 and L1 sounds (regressive CLI). The possibility that L3 speakers have a single perception system for all languages was also examined. Participants had to identify stimuli from a VOT continuum as either /p/ or /b/, in different languages. Evidence of hybrid L1/L2→L3 progressive cross-linguistic influence was found for Group A and only L1→L3 for Group B. No patterns of regressive CLI were observed. Finally, it is not always the case that trilinguals make use of different perception systems when listening to L1, L2 and L3.

This study compares Voice Onset Time (VOT) patterns of word-initial English/b/and/p/in three groups: Omani undergraduate students, Omani professors and native English speakers (NES). It aims to investigate whether Omani Arabic students and professors can produce native-like VOTs of the English bilabial stops compared to NESs, and to what extent the findings support speech learning theories, such as the Speech Learning Model and the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis.Words containing/b, p/in two different phonetic environments (CV and CC) were elicited from the participants using a reading task. Also, Arabic words containing word-initial/b/were elicited from Omani professors to compare the VOT of Arabic and English/b/. The results revealed a significant difference between the mean VOT of Arabic and English/b/. A significant difference in the VOT patterns of/p/between students and NESs were also found, but not between professors and NESs. Students'/p/productions were characterized with shorter lag compared to those of professors or NESs. Variability in the production of English/b/existed among Omani speakers. While VOT production in NESs were characterized with short lag, students' and professors’ productions were characterized sometimes with voicing lead and other times with short/long lag. VOT values of/b/and/p/were not significantly affected by the phonetic context. The findings are discussed in relation to the Speech Learning Model and the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis.

The current study shows a new allophonic split in Pakistani English, challenging the widely accepted assumption that Pakistani English speakers produce/t/as a retroflex [t], claiming instead that they produce alveolar/t/in [st] cluster. Speech sound utterances of 15 undergrad PakE students were recorded to test this hypothesis. The participants involved in the experiments had spent more than ten years mastering PakE. From the utterances of participants, VOT of coronal stops and F3 of the following vowels were obtained. The findings showed that PakE speakers produced English/t/with a roughly 8-10 ms longer VOT in the words beginning with 'st' cluster. A significant F3 raising was also seen in the vowels after the coronal stops in 'st' clusters on word-initial margins. F3 raising is an indicator of the absence of retroflex gesture from the coronal stops. Based on these results, it is argued that a new allophonic split has emerged in the PakE, that is, it is produced as alveolar [t] in word-initial/st/clusters but a retroflex [ʈ] elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPurposeMethodResultConclusionThe purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-linguistic influences of Jamaican Creole (JC) and English on phonemic and vocal development in bilingual JC-English-speaking preschoolers.Sixteen typically developing children (12 females, M = 4 years; 4 months) completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation in Phonology Word Inconsistency Assessment subtest in JC and in English. Acoustic measures of voice onset time (VOT), VOT variability (VOT SD), mean fundamental frequency (fo), and fo variability (fo SD) were extracted from each target word. Prevoicing was noted. Mixed models and regression models were analysed to understand the patterns of acoustic measures in each language, and the relationship between phonemic and vocal variability, respectively.Analyses showed a significant effect of language on fo SD, wherein SD was greater in English than JC. JC spoken (percentage) was a significant positive predictor of VOT SD for voiced (short lag) productions. There was no relationship between phonemic and vocal variability measures.Greater fo SD in English may be due to linguistic fo differences and speaking environment. Variability for voiced VOT is likely due to the continued maturation of vocal and articulatory control when children are developing adult-like productions, though longitudinal studies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angami has three-way laryngeal contrasts in stops, i.e., voiced, voiceless unaspirated, and voiceless aspirated. Apart from that, Angami also has four phonetically level tones. Due to the level nature of the lexical tones in Angami, consonantal perturbations could be investigated clearly. The results of the study showed that the extent of consonantal perturbation depended on the tonal categories. Voiceless consonantal perturbations were weaker as tone categories got higher. Conversely, voiced stop consonantal perturbations were weaker as tone categories got lower. This study also found a systematic relationship between tone height and VOT duration. High tones induced shorter VOT, while low tones induced longer VOT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different models of L3 acquisition have different predictions about the cross-linguistic effects of previous learning. The 'Cumulative Enhancement Model' predicts that both L1 and L2 have cumulative facilitative effects on L3, but L2 the Status Factor (L2SF) claims that L2 has stronger effects on L3 acquisition. Similarly, while the Typological Primacy Model claims that among the already acquired languages, a typologically similar language transfers more properties to L3, the Linguistic Proximity Model predicts a transfer of structurally similar properties from the previously learnt languages. On the other hand, the Scalpel Model, besides considering linguistic similarity, gives importance to factors such as frequency of use and nature of the input, language dominance, and learning context. The current paper contributes to this debate by presenting data collected from two groups of Balochi learners of English in Balochistan (Pakistan) who were taught British English (BrE) aspiration contrast in plosives at the allophonic level after they had acquired Pakistani English (PakE) as adult L2 learners. Thus, Balochi was L1, PakE L2, and BrE L3 of the learners. After teaching for more than a year, the learners were tested for accuracy in VOTs for BrE plosives. The results support the L2SF and Scalpel Model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) in reading is well-established in both sighted and blind readers. Its role in speech processing remains only partially understood. Here, we test the involvement of the left vOT in phonological processing of spoken language in the blind (N = 50, age: 6.76–60.32) and in the sighted (N = 54, age: 6.79–59.83) by means of whole-brain and region-of-interest (including individually identified) fMRI analyses. We confirm that the left vOT is sensitive to phonological processing (shows greater involvement in rhyming compared to control spoken language task) in both blind and sighted participants. However, in the sighted, the activation was observed only during the rhyming task and in the speech-specific region of the left vOT, pointing to task and modality specificity. In contrast, in the blind group, the left vOT was active during speech processing irrespective of task and in both speech and reading-specific vOT regions. Only in the blind, the left vOT presented a higher degree of sensitivity to phonological processing than other language nodes in the left inferior frontal and superior temporal cortex. Our results suggest a changed development of the left vOT sensitivity to spoken language, resulting from visual deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) in reading is well-established in both sighted and blind readers. Its role in speech processing remains only partially understood. Here, we test the involvement of the left vOT in phonological processing of spoken language in the blind (N = 50, age: 6.76–60.32) and in the sighted (N = 54, age: 6.79–59.83) by means of whole-brain and region-of-interest (including individually identified) fMRI analyses. We confirm that the left vOT is sensitive to phonological processing (shows greater involvement in rhyming compared to control spoken language task) in both blind and sighted participants. However, in the sighted, the activation was observed only during the rhyming task and in the speech-specific region of the left vOT, pointing to task and modality specificity. In contrast, in the blind group, the left vOT was active during speech processing irrespective of task and in both speech and reading-specific vOT regions. Only in the blind, the left vOT presented a higher degree of sensitivity to phonological processing than other language nodes in the left inferior frontal and superior temporal cortex. Our results suggest a changed development of the left vOT sensitivity to spoken language, resulting from visual deprivation.

This study investigates the voice onset time (VOT) of L2 English stops produced by native speakers of Chinese at different L2 proficiency levels. Four factors were examined: English proficiency, gender, place of articulation, and vowel context. High and low achievers of English were recruited as the experimental groups and native speakers of English as the control group. Each group consisted of 16 participants, 8 males and 8 females. Each participant took part in a read-aloud task, in which the target words were presented in an embedded sentence. The results showed that the effects of L2 proficiency were significant in that high achievers outperformed low achievers who were affected by L1 negative transfer more seriously when producing native-like English stops. Additionally, when producing English stops, velar stops had significantly greater VOT values than either bilabial or alveolar ones. However, no significant gender differences were found. Male and female participants produced similar VOT values in English stops. Last, the vowel context was also a significant factor. The VOT lengths differed according to the context of a following vowels. More specifically, the VOT of a stop is significantly longer when followed by a tense vowel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how two different kinds of prominence-induced prosodic strengthening, identificational focus and contrastive focus, are phonetically realized in Seoul Korean. In the experiment, 16 native speakers produced target sentences presented in three different prosodic conditions: default reading, NP1-contrast, and NP2-contrast. The production data presented three crucial characteristics in the phonetic manifestations of prominence-induced prosodic strengthening in Seoul Korean. First, identificational focus gave rise to temporal expansion and pitch enhancement over the constructions under the focus. Second, contrastive focus brought about modification of temporal, pitch, and prosodic structures as well as pre- and post-focus compression. Finally, the two different types of prominence marking interacted with each other; the prosodic realization of contrastive focus overrode the prosodic realization of identificational focus, which was in line with the formal (syntactic) distinction of the two types of focus. To conclude, the current study demonstrates the interplay of information structure and discourse contexts in prosodic strengthening effects induced by prominence, especially in Seoul Korean, which lacks lexical stress and pitch accent.

This research focuses on the preferences of micro-mobility users in urban areas, specifically shared electric bikes (e-bikes), shared conventional bikes (bike), and shared electric scooters (e-scooters). It is found that previous scholars study traveler preferences of traditional transport modes while limited attention has been given to preferences of travelers toward micro-mobility considering electric scooters and bikes over conventional bikes. In order to address this gap, a discrete choice modeling approach is used to study the preferences of people through developing a transport choice model. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) is designed where choice sets that combine the shared micro transport modes where three associated attributes and four levels are included in the DCE for each alternative. A stated preference (SP) survey is designed and distributed in Budapest, Hungary. This research focuses on urban areas where travel time is relatively short. Multinomial Logit (MNL) model is applied where a transport choice model is developed. The effect of several factors on the preferences of people toward the three micro transport modes are evaluated. The developed transport choice model includes trip time, trip cost, walking distance, parking characteristics, and socio-demographic factors. The results indicate that travelers prefer using bikes more than e-bikes and e-scooters. Furthermore, it is found that e-scooter is the least favored by travelers. It is noteworthy that car drivers, individuals with access to or frequent usage of micro-mobility, graduate students, full-time workers, males, and young people are more willing to use shared electric micro-mobility services. The probability of choosing a transport mode based on the changes on parking type attribute is estimated in this research. The results show that travelers prefer free floating parking when they use shared electric micro-mobility services. This research underscores the significance of parking type (docks or dockless) and socio-demographic variables when it comes to micro-mobility modes in urban areas. It is evident that shared electric micro-mobility options require more effort and policy support to be effectively implemented, as shared conventional bikes appear more appealing to users. Overall, these findings contribute to the understanding of micro-mobility preferences and highlight areas for further exploration and potential policy interventions.

Previous studies show that Ibanic phonology studies that use acoustic phonetics (spectrographic analysis) as a research approach are very limited. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine phonetic realization of plosive sounds in the Iban language. The Production Test involved a total of 41 native Iban speakers. This research uses an acoustic phonetic approach, which is a spectrographic analysis of the acoustic characteristics of Iban plosives occur at the beginning of words. The parameters for all spectrograms in this study are set with a standard value of 0-5000 Hz for the frequency range, 1 second for the window length and 60 dB for the dynamic range. Measurement of the VOT value is done by placing the cursor on the vertical strip that indicates the presence of sound referred to as Transient Burst of Noise. The results of the acoustic analysis highlight the phonetic realization of voiceless and voiced plosives in the Iban language. Findings show that the Iban plosive sounds are in the group of languages that have voice onset time (VOT) characterized by short delayed voicing (SVL) for voiceless plosives and initial voicing (VLd) for voiced plosives. This research found that VOT is capable of being a competent acoustic signal that highlights the acoustic characteristics of each plosive studied. The spectrogram data highlight the specific acoustic characteristics of language sounds and become authentic evidence in explaining the sound characteristics of the study. The difference in voicing contrast between voiceless plosives and voiced plosives is determined by the presence of a Transient Burst of Noise and a voice bar that determines whether the VOT is positive or negative. Studies involving the sounds of the Iban language should consider acoustic phonetics as a research approach because this approach is more scientific in researching and describing issues or problems that arise in the previous literature studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endangered Indo-Aryan language Mankiyali, spoken in northern Pakistan, lacks linguistic documentation and necessitates research. This study explores the Voice Onset Time (VOT) values of Mankiyali's stop consonants to determine the duration of sound release, characterized as negative, positive, and zero VOTs. The investigation aims to identify the laryngeal categories present in the language. Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected from five native male speakers via the Zoom H6 platform. The study employed the theoretical framework of Fant's (1970) source filter model and analyzed each phoneme using PRAAT software. Twenty-five tokens of a single phoneme were recorded across the five speakers. The results reveal that Mankiyali encompasses three laryngeal categories: voiceless unaspirated (VLUA) stops, voiceless aspirated (VLA) stops, and voiced unaspirated (VDUA) stops. The study highlights significant differences in VOTs based on place of articulation and phonation. In terms of phonation, the VLUA bilabial stop /p/, alveolar stop /t/, and velar stop /k/ exhibit shorter voicing lag compared to their VLA counterparts /ph, th, kh/. All VLUA and VLA stops display +VOT values, while all VDUA stops exhibit -VOT values. Regarding place of articulation, the bilabial /p/ demonstrates a longer voicing lag than the alveolar /t/ but a shorter lag than the velar /k/. Additionally, the results indicate similarities in voicing lag among the VDUA stops /b, d, g/. This study offers valuable insights into the phonetic and phonological aspects of Mankiyali and holds potential significance for the language's preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent exposure to a second or foreign language (FL) can influence production and/or perception in the first language (L1), a phenomenon referred to as phonetic drift. The smallest amount of FL exposure shown to effect drift in perception is 1.5 h. The present study examined L1 perception at earlier timepoints of FL exposure, to determine whether the phonetic system is able to resist FL influence at an incipient stage. In a longitudinal pre-test/post-test design, L1 English listeners were exposed to Tagalog under different conditions varying in attention directed to the voice onset time (VOT) plosive contrast in the FL; they then completed an identification task on L1 tokens from VOT continua. In every condition, the likelihood of "voiceless" identifications decreased. This change indicates a shift towards a longer VOT crossover point between "voiced" and "voiceless", consistent with dissimilatory drift in perception. Listeners in a control condition, however, displayed a similar, albeit less lasting, change in L1 judgments, suggesting that the change arose partly from a task effect. We conclude by discussing directions for future research on phonetic drift in perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phoneticians have presented several ways and theories for knowing the features and characteristics of plosive consonants. Acoustic ways are ones that languages’ plosive consonants are determined by them. In the last 60 years VOT was widely used as an acoustic parameter by phoneticians for comparing voicing contrast and determining the categories and features of plosive consonants as an acceptable way. Until now it’s not known that plosive consonants are determined in badini dialect according to the VOT parameter. This study is an attempt to what extent we can benefit from the mentioned parameter for specifying voicing contrast distinction, voicing categories and their properties and features. For this purpose the two plosive consonants /b, p/ are used as a stimulus of this investigation in the initial 6 monosyllabic words in the environment of the two vowels /ɑ æ,/. The collected data are taken from (20) badini dialect speakers. It’s assumed that voicing contrast, VOT values and the categories of plosive (voiced and voiceless) consonants are different in baddini dialect. Depending on procedures and statistical analysis tests it concludes that; VOT is formed in three ways and three separate values. This study consists of five sections; the first section is the introduction, the second one is theoretical framework, in the third section the procedures of doing this study are shown, statistical results and discussing them are mentioned in the fourth section and the conclusions of the study are shown in the fifth section.

• L2 experience has a positive effect on L2 voiced stop production. • L2 experience does not have a notable effect on the production of L1 voiced stops. • English learners of Spanish produce L2 voiced stops with values closer to native speakers than Spanish learners of English. • English learners of Spanish produce L1 and L2 stops differently, regardless of L2 experience. Previous studies investigating the acquisition of L2 stops have found a positive effect of L2 experience, but few have focused on voiced stops, particularly on prevoicing. This study investigates the acquisition of /b/ and /g/ by two populations, English learners of Spanish and Spanish learners of English. Three groups varying in amount of L2 experience (mainly length of residence, but also L2 use and L2 instruction) were investigated for each L1 population. Participants completed a carrier sentence reading task in their L1 and L2. Results showed that amount of L2 experience had a positive effect on L2 stop production, as the least experienced groups were outperformed by the experienced ones. No clear effect of L2 experience was observed on the L1, as learners did not differ from monolingual controls, but some differences between learner groups emerged. Moreover, overall, L2 learners were able to produce L1 and L2 stops differently, which indicates that their L1 and L2 categories were not merged. Still, the L1-English L2-Spanish speakers produced L2 stops more accurately than the L1-Spanish L2-English groups, suggesting that learning to rely on an existing L1 cue may be easier than learning to use a cue associated with a different L1 category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract According to the economic theory assumption, travelers tend to monetize travel time based on factors related to their individual and trip characteristics. In the literature, a limited number of studies evaluating onboard activities on traveler’s utility in the presence of the autonomous vehicle (AV) are found. In the current research, traveler preferences on board of three transport modes: individual-ride autonomous vehicle (IR-AV), shared-ride autonomous vehicle (SAV), and public transport (PT) are studied. The focus of this paper is the examination of travelers in urban areas, where traveling is relatively short, and the study of the travelers’ main trip purposes. The impact of travel time, travel cost, and main onboard activity is estimated based on a discrete choice experiment (DCE). The in-vehicle onboard activities are divided into six onboard activities, where active and passive activities are considered. An experimental design and a stated preference (SP) survey are carried out. The result of the SP survey is analyzed, where a Mixed Logit (ML) model, which includes various explanatory variables, is applied. The developed model contains such variables as trip time, trip cost, main onboard activity, frequent transport mode, job, age, and car ownership. These variables show various effects on the probability of choosing a transport mode. The impact of change in travel time, travel cost, and each of the six onboard activities on traveler preferences is highlighted. As a result, variations on the impact of time, cost, and onboard activities are demonstrated. Furthermore, it is presented that people prefer using IR-AV over SAV and PT, while the probability of choosing SAV is the lowest. Besides, reading and using social media affect the utility of travelers positively (i.e., higher probability) to a greater extent than other activities, while writing alone demonstrates negative utility.

This study examines the production of emphatic consonants as produced by American L2 learners of Arabic. To this end, 19 participants, 5 native speakers and 14 L2 learners, participated in a production experiment in which they produced monosyllabic CVC pairs that were contrasted in terms of whether the initial consonant was plain or emphatic. The acoustic parameters that were investigated are VOT of voiceless stops, COG of fricatives, and the first three formant frequencies of the target vowels. The results of the native speakers showed that VOT is a reliable acoustic correlate of emphasis in MSA. The results also showed that vowels in the emphatic context have higher F1 and F3 and lower F2. The results showed that the L2 learners produced comparable VOT values to those of native Arabic speakers. Further, L2 learners produced a significantly lower F2 of the vowels in the emphatic context than that in the plain context. Proficiency in Arabic played a role on the F2 measure; the intermediate learners tended to be more native-like than the beginning learners. As for F3, the results of the L2 learners unexpectedly showed that the beginning learners produced a higher F3 in the context of fricatives only. This suggests that the relationship between emphasis and proficiency depends on whether the preceding consonant is a stop or fricative.

El Voice Onset Time (VOT) es una medida acústica que hace referencia a la diferencia entre el tiempo de la liberación de la oclusión y el inicio de la vibración de las cuerdas vocales en los sonidos oclusivos; el VOT ratio (VOTr), por su parte, se refiere a la relación entre el VOT y la duración de la sílaba que busca modelar el efecto de la velocidad del habla sobre el VOT. Ambas medidas han sido estudiadas en hablantes con Enfermedad de Parkinson (EP) en tareas de habla experimentales, pero existen pocos trabajos en personas con EP que sean hispanohablantes y en el contexto de habla conectada. En este estudio se investigó el comportamiento del VOT y VOTr en habla conectada en hispanohablantes colombianos con EP. Mediante el software Praat se calculó el VOT y VOTr de los sonidos /p, b, t, d, k, g/ en grabaciones tomadas del corpus PC-GITA que correspondían a 50 personas con EP y 50 sin EP pareadas por edad y sexo. Se encontró que, con algunas variaciones, el VOT y el VOTr en habla conectada se comportan de manera similar entre sí y respecto a otros contextos de análisis previamente estudiados; comparado con el grupo control, se hallaron diferencias en las personas con EP, pero estas solamente fueron significativas en el VOT y VOTr de /p/, que fue más largo para las mujeres con EP(p < .05) así como en el VOT y VOTr de /d/ para ambos sexos con EP, pues fueron menores(p ≤ .05). Las diferencias relacionadas con el sexo solamente estuvieron entre hombres y mujeres con EP en el VOT de /p/, que fue más largo en las mujeres (p < .05). Esta evidencia podría indicar que en español, en habla conectada, el VOT y el VOTr son igual de sensibles a los cambios en el VOT asociados a la EP y al parecer el sexo no tiene un efecto significativo sobre ellas.

A multilingual country such as India with numerous languages and dialects provides fertile grounds for evasive language crimes. From threat letters to ransom demands, the scope of crime is huge. The cases of illegal immigrants have only added to the fragility of international boundaries especially, during political upheavals. This leads to further vulnerability of society and also creates challenges for the police and law enforcement agencies towards timely intervention. The purpose of the study is to exhibit dialectal variation in Indian English by comparing two varieties. The current paper is based on the acoustic analysis of Indian English spoken by two distinct groups with different mother tongues. Ten native speakers of Hindi and Bangla were recorded in an anechoic chamber. A phonetically balanced passage was selected to be read. The analysis is based on Native Language Influence Detection (Perkins & Grant, 2018) to derive acoustic phonetic correlates that can be used as significant identifying markers to distinguish Indian English speakers of Bangla and Hindi speech communities. The paper highlights that dialect profiling in the Indian context can be efficiently correlated with formant frequencies and Voice Onset Time for speech data. Acoustic analysis was done on PRAAT. PRAAT was used in this study because it has often been used by other similar studies to measure desired acoustic parameters simultaneously. Formant frequencies were measured at the midpoint of the vowels in the PRAAT using the LPC formant measurement algorithm. The normalization procedure was applied to the measured formant frequencies of vowels. The research affirms that acoustic analysis can provide verifiable cues for NLID. The framework can be used in the detection of native language influence in speech-centric criminal cases. The acoustic analysis shows that Indian English has subvarieties that could help in dialect profiling. The variation in Indian English vowel patterns could be due to the influence of the native language of the speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The health care system in Thailand has struggled to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in decreased administration of community-based directly observed therapy (DOT) for tuberculosis (TB). As an alternative to failed DOT, video-observed therapy (VOT) or the Thai asynchronous VOT system, "TH VOT," was devised. We developed a protocol for a study to test the superiority of VOT over DOT in ensuring treatment compliance. Objective: We aim to compare the mean cumulative compliance days of TB patients and their observers under the VOT program with that of individuals under the DOT program during the intensive phase of TB treatment. Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial of pulmonary TB patients and their observers will be conducted over a 2-month period. This study will be conducted in the Hat Yai and Meuang Songkhla districts of Songkhla Province, Southern Thailand. A total of 38 observers working at 38 primary care units (PCUs) will be randomized equally into VOT and DOT groups. The TH VOT system will be implemented in 19 PCUs in the VOT group while the other 19 PCUs will continue with the traditional DOT program. Approximately 1-5 TB patients will be under observation, depending on the PCU jurisdiction in which the patients reside. The inclusion criteria for TB patients will be as follows: patients diagnosed with newly active pulmonary TB with a positive acid-fast bacilli sputum smear, aged >18 years, own a smartphone, and are able to use the LINE (Line Corporation) app. The exclusion criteria will be patients with a condition that requires the intervention of a specialist, rifampicin resistance according to a cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (GeneXpert MTB/RIF), unable to continue the treatment, and/or alcohol dependence. After the 2-month observation period, all sessions and follow-up clinical outcomes recorded will be retrieved. An intention-to-treat analysis will be performed to assess the compliance of both patients undergoing drug administration and their observers. Results: The Human Research Ethics Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University approved the trial on February 19, 2021 (approval number 64-03618-9). The trial was funded in May 2021. The recruitment period will be from January 2022 to July 2022. The observation is scheduled to end by September 2022. Conclusions: If the VOT shows superiority in observational compliance among patients and observers, the existing DOT policy will be replaced with VOT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study longitudinally explores regressive phonological cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in seven adolescents (aged 12–13) and seven adults (aged 21–39) by examining voice-onset time (VOT) of /p,t,k/ in their first, second, and third language (L1, L2, and L3, respectively). All participants had the same language combination (L1 German, L2 English, L3 Polish) and were recorded completing a range of production tasks in all three languages four times over the course of the first year of L3 learning. The scope of previous research on phonological CLI is thus broadened in two ways: (1) by tracing the development of all languages upon the arrival of a new language in a multilingual's system longitudinally, and (2) by investigating CLI patterns in two age groups when input and learning environment are comparable. Previous L2 age studies have mostly only made retrospective assumptions about (target) language development, so that longitudinal data, including the entire language repertoire of multilingual speakers, are needed to substantiate claims made in that regard. For the adolescent group, significant changes to both their L1 and L2 over time were found, while the adults' background languages remained relatively stable on the group level. However, for both groups, much individual variation was uncovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent exposure to a second or foreign language (FL) can influence production and/or perception in the first language (L1), a phenomenon referred to as phonetic drift. The smallest amount of FL exposure shown to effect drift in perception is 1.5 h. The present study examined L1 perception at earlier timepoints of FL exposure, to determine whether the phonetic system is able to resist FL influence at an incipient stage. In a longitudinal pre-test/post-test design, L1 English listeners were exposed to Tagalog under different conditions varying in attention directed to the voice onset time (VOT) plosive contrast in the FL; they then completed an identification task on L1 tokens from VOT continua. In every condition, the likelihood of “voiceless” identifications decreased. This change indicates a shift towards a longer VOT crossover point between “voiced” and “voiceless”, consistent with dissimilatory drift in perception. Listeners in a control condition, however, displayed a similar, albeit less lasting, change in L1 judgments, suggesting that the change arose partly from a task effect. We conclude by discussing directions for future research on phonetic drift in perception.

According to the economic theory assumption, travelers tend to monetize travel time based on factors related to their individual and trip characteristics. In the literature, a limited number of studies evaluating onboard activities on traveler's utility in the presence of the autonomous vehicle (AV) are found. In the current research, traveler preferences on board of three transport modes: individual-ride autonomous vehicle (IR-AV), shared-ride autonomous vehicle (SAV), and public transport (PT) are studied. The focus of this paper is the examination of travelers in urban areas, where traveling is relatively short, and the study of the travelers' main trip purposes. The impact of travel time, travel cost, and main onboard activity is estimated based on a discrete choice experiment (DCE). The in-vehicle onboard activities are divided into six onboard activities, where active and passive activities are considered. An experimental design and a stated preference (SP) survey are carried out. The result of the SP survey is analyzed, where a Mixed Logit (ML) model, which includes various explanatory variables, is applied. The developed model contains such variables as trip time, trip cost, main onboard activity, frequent transport mode, job, age, and car ownership. These variables show various effects on the probability of choosing a transport mode. The impact of change in travel time, travel cost, and each of the six onboard activities on traveler preferences is highlighted. As a result, variations on the impact of time, cost, and onboard activities are demonstrated. Furthermore, it is presented that people prefer using IR-AV over SAV and PT, while the probability of choosing SAV is the lowest. Besides, reading and using social media affect the utility of travelers positively (i.e., higher probability) to a greater extent than other activities, while writing alone demonstrates negative utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous production studies have reported differential amounts of closure voicing in plosives depending on the location of the oral constriction (anterior vs. posterior), vocalic context (high vs. low vowels), and speaker sex. Such differences have been attributed to the aerodynamic factors related to the configuration of the cavity behind the oral constriction, with certain articulations and physiological characteristics of the speaker facilitating vocal fold vibration during closure. The current study used perceptual identification tasks to examine whether similar effects of consonantal posteriority, adjacent vowel height, and speaker sex exist in the perception of voicing. The language of investigation was Russian, a prevoicing language that uses negative VOT to signal the voicing contrast in plosives. The study used both original and resynthesized tokens for speaker sex, which allowed it to focus on the role of differences in VOT specifically. Results indicated that listeners' judgments were significantly affected by consonantal place of articulation, with listeners accepting less voicing in velar plosives. Speaker sex showed only a marginally significant difference in the expected direction, and vowel height had no effect on perceptual responses. These findings suggest that certain phonetic factors can affect both the initial production and subsequent perception of closure voicing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigates multiple acoustic cues–voice onset time (VOT), spectral center of gravity (SCG) of burst, pitch (F0), and frequencies of the first (F1) and second (F2) formants at vowel onset—associated with phonological contrasts of voicing and emphasis in production of Arabic coronal stops. The analysis of the acoustic data collected from eight native speakers of the Qatari dialect showed that the three stops form three distinct modes on the VOT scale: [d] is (pre)voiced, voiceless [t] is aspirated, and emphatic [ṭ] is voiceless unaspirated. The contrast is also maintained in spectral cues. Each cue influences production of coronal stops while their relevance to phonological contrasts varies. VOT was most relevant for voicing, but F2 was mostly associated with emphasis. The perception experiment revealed that listeners were able to categorize ambiguous tokens correctly and compensate for phonological contrasts. The listeners' results were used to evaluate three categorization models to predict the intended category of a coronal stop: a model with unweighted and unadjusted cues, a model with weighted cues compensating for phonetic context, and a model with weighted cues compensating for the voicing and emphasis contrasts. The findings suggest that the model with phonological compensation performed most similar to human listeners both in terms of accuracy rate and error pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two acoustic studies were carried out with L1 Polish learners of English. One study examined L1 phonetic drift, comparing learners of L2 English who were undergoing intensive L2 phonetic training with quasi-monolingual Polish speakers. The other study looked at L2 acquisition, comparing learners at two different levels of proficiency. Unlike most previous studies of Polish-English bilinguals, VOT data of both voiced and voiceless consonants were analyzed. In both experiments, an asymmetry was observed by which voiced stops were more susceptible to cross-language phonetic influence (CLI) than voiceless stops. These results build on evidence of a similar asymmetry observed in a number of other L1–L2 pairings. Predictions of competing phonological models are evaluated with regard to equivalence classification and phonetic CLI. It is shown that both traditional approaches to the phonological representation of voice contrasts fail to predict the observed asymmetry. An alternative theory, which predicts the asymmetry, is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent innovation to help patients adhere to daily tuberculosis (TB) treatment over many months is video (or virtually) observed therapy (VOT). VOT is becoming increasingly feasible as mobile telephone applications and tablet computers become more widely available. Studies of the effectiveness of VOT in improving TB patient outcomes are being conducted.

A recent innovation to help patients adhere to daily tuberculosis (TB) treatment over many months is video (or virtually) observed therapy (VOT). VOT is becoming increasingly feasible as mobile telephone applications and tablet computers become more widely available. Studies of the effectiveness of VOT in improving TB patient outcomes are being conducted.

This study compared Spanish-English bilinguals' and English monolinguals' VOT values for /b, d, g/ in cognates and non-cognates. Twenty-six young adult participants (fourteen bilinguals and twelve monolinguals, mean age 24 years) were administered a picture-naming task, balanced for cognate and non-cognate forms. VOT values of 30 target words per participant and per language were measured. The data support cross-linguistic interaction in bilinguals' phonologies and indicate that cognates can interfere with bilinguals' phonemic distinctions. In English, bilinguals' VOTs exhibited significantly greater lead voicing than monolinguals', and, for all participants, /b/ had longer lead voicing than /d/ and /g/. Comparing bilinguals' VOTs for Spanish versus English revealed significant differences by language (English shorter), between /b/ and /g/, and between cognates and non-cognates, with shorter lead voicing in cognates than in non-cognates. More detailed results showed that in bilinguals' Spanish productions with word-initial /d/ and English productions with word-initial /b/, cognates exhibited shorter lead voicing (more English-like) than non-cognates. The conclusion is that the bilinguals' VOTs exhibited some cross-linguistic influence in relation to cognate usage, in the direction toward their dominant language, English. Further analyses also revealed a role of current daily usage in VOT performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we study the relationship that united Vicente Carducho with the Venerable Third Order of St Francis of Madrid from a religious, administrative and artistic point of view. To this end, we examine in depth the documentation preserved in the archive of the order, which shows us a painter playing an important role in the organization of the brotherhood and in the construction and decoration of its first chapel. Secondly, based on references that Palomino and Ceán make to Carducho's paintings in the chapel of the lay brothers of Saint Francis, we study the two works currently preserved in the institution that can be ascribed to his catalogue: the Stigmatization of St Francis and St Francis rescuing souls from purgatory. Finally, given the difficulty of dating these paintings, which lack the author's signature, we propose that they should be placed within the context of Carducho's activity in the Third Order, documented in the 1620s and 1630s, and we highlight their formal proximity to other cycles of the artist's late production, such as the paintings for the charterhouse of El Paular (1626-1632). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the perception and production patterns of non-native speakers are correlated in the context of using acoustic cues to differentiate between Korean lenis and aspirated stops. A perception test was conducted identifying tokens in which VOT and F0 values were systematically manipulated between /kan/ and /khan/. A production test was conducted in which words starting with a lenis or aspirated stop were read in a carrier sentence. Relative cue weightings were estimated via perceptual and production coefficients that were obtained from binary logistic regression analyses and discriminant function analyses of individual learner data (e.g., Shultz et al. 2012; Schertz et al. 2015). It was found that the correlation between perceptual and production coefficients was not significant for either VOT or F0. In general, individual learners used F0, which is the primary cue for the Korean stops, in perception, but did not use it in production, indicating a tendency for L2 perception to precede production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Neuromuscular models of stuttering consider that making transitions between phones results in inappropriate temporal arrangements of articulators in people who stutter (PWS). Using this framework, the current study examined the acoustic productions of two fine-grained phonetic features: voice onset time (VOT) and second formant (F2). The hypotheses were that PWS should differ from fluent persons (FP) in VOT duration and F2 onset frequency as a result of the transition deficit for environments with complex phonetic features such as Arabic emphatics. Ten adolescent PWS and 10 adolescent FPs participated in the study. They read and memorized four monosyllabic plain-emphatic words silently. Data were analyzed by Repeated Measures ANOVAs. The positive and negative VOT durations of/t/vs./tˁ/and/d/vs./dˁ/and F2 onset frequency were measured acoustically. Results showed that stuttering was significantly affected by emphatic consonants. PWS had atypical VOT durations and F2 values. Findings are consistent with the atypicality of VOT and F2 reported for English-speaking PWS. This atypicality is realized differently in Arabic depending on the articulatory complexity and cognitive load of the sound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• L1 perception by Korean–English bilinguals is different from L1-i speakers. • Heritage speakers of Korean underuse onset f0 cue to Korean laryngeal contrasts. • Long-term Korean immigrants overuse onset f0 cue to Korean laryngeal contrasts. • Individual cue weighting predicts discrimination performance. • L1 experience and input affect presence and direction of cross-linguistic influence. This study investigates cross-linguistic influence of a second language (L2) on the first language (L1) perception in two distinct bilingual populations: Korean heritage speakers (n = 30) and long-term immigrants (n = 26) in the USA, compared to Korean-immersed speakers in South Korea (n = 30). By leveraging the differences in language-specific cue primacy in stop consonants between Korean and English, the present study examined L2 (English) influence in participants' perceptual cue weighting and discrimination of Korean laryngeal categories through a three-alternative forced-choice identification task and a speeded AX discrimination paradigm. The results indicated divergent patterns of cross-linguistic influence for the two bilingual groups. While heritage speakers showed a decreased reliance on the onset f0 cue, suggesting an assimilatory effect of English, long-term immigrants relied more heavily on this cue than Korean-immersed speakers, suggesting dissimilation with English. Furthermore, in discriminating Korean stops based on f0 differences, heritage speakers demonstrated decreased accuracy while long-term immigrants outperformed Korean-immersed speakers. In addition, individual weighting of f0 in the identification task was found to be predictive of discriminatory performance. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of L1 input and experience in determining the nature of cross-linguistic influence in L1 speech perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All writing systems represent units of spoken language. Studies on the neural correlates of reading in different languages show that this skill relies on access to brain areas dedicated to speech processing. Speech-reading convergence onto a common perisylvian network is therefore considered universal among different writing systems. Using fMRI, we test whether this holds true also for tactile Braille reading in the blind. The neural networks for Braille and visual reading overlapped in the left ventral occipitotemporal (vOT) cortex. Even though we showed similar perisylvian specialization for speech in both groups, blind subjects did not engage this speech system for reading. In contrast to the sighted, speech-reading convergence in the blind was absent in the perisylvian network. Instead, the blind engaged vOT not only in reading but also in speech processing. The involvement of the vOT in speech processing and its engagement in reading in the blind suggests that vOT is included in a modality independent language network in the blind, also evidenced by functional connectivity results. The analysis of individual speech-reading convergence suggests that there may be segregated neuronal populations in the vOT for speech processing and reading in the blind.

Previous studies have shown that reading skill in 3- to 6-year-old children is related to the automatic activation of the posterior left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) during spoken language processing, whereas 8- to 15-year-old children and adult readers activate the anterior vOT. However, it is unknown how children who are between these two age groups automatically activate orthographic representations in vOT for spoken language. In the current study, we recruited 153 7- to 8-year-old children to fill the age gap from previous studies. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured children’s reading-related skills and brain activity during an auditory phonological task with both a small (i.e. onset) and a large (i.e. rhyme) grain size condition. We found that letter fluency, but not reading accuracy, was correlated with activation in the anterior vOT for the rhyme condition. There were no reading-related skill correlations for the posterior vOT or for activation during the onset condition in this age group. Our findings reveal that automatic activation in the anterior vOT during spoken language processing already occurs in higher skilled 7- to 8-year-old children. In addition, increases in naming automaticity is the primary determinant of the engagement of vOT during phonological awareness tasks.

Previous production studies have reported differential amounts of closure voicing in plosives depending on the location of the oral constriction (anterior vs. posterior), vocalic context (high vs. low vowels), and speaker sex. Such differences have been attributed to the aerodynamic factors related to the configuration of the cavity behind the oral constriction, with certain articulations and physiological characteristics of the speaker facilitating vocal fold vibration during closure. The current study used perceptual identification tasks to examine whether similar effects of consonantal posteriority, adjacent vowel height, and speaker sex exist in the perception of voicing. The language of investigation was Russian, a prevoicing language that uses negative VOT to signal the voicing contrast in plosives. The study used both original and resynthesized tokens for speaker sex, which allowed it to focus on the role of differences in VOT specifically. Results indicated that listeners’ judgments were significantly affected by consonantal place of articulation, with listeners accepting less voicing in velar plosives. Speaker sex showed only a marginally significant difference in the expected direction, and vowel height had no effect on perceptual responses. These findings suggest that certain phonetic factors can affect both the initial production and subsequent perception of closure voicing.

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