Predicting accentedness: Acoustic measurements of chinese-accented english

Vincent Porretta, Benjamin V. Tucker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Listeners perceive foreign-accented speech as different from native speech because it deviates from native speaker acoustic targets. These deviations may occur across many acoustic dimensions such as word duration, vowel duration, vowel formant values, and voice onset time. Accentedness ratings were modeled using ordinary least squares linear regression performed in R using the rms package. Prior to analysis, formant values were log transformed and plotted revealing considerable variation in vowel space. The vowel-to-word ratio was calculated by dividing the vowel duration of a word by the total duration of that word. If accentedness is a result of non-native productions approaching to varying degrees native-like acoustic targets, quantifying the distance from the native speaker norm allows examination of how variation along different variables affects perceived accentedness.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)34-35
Number of pages2
JournalCanadian Acoustics - Acoustique Canadienne
Volume40
Issue number3
StatePublished - Sep 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Acoustics and Ultrasonics

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