Barry Heselwood

Learning and teaching phonetic transcription for clinical purposes

This paper explores the theoretical issues surrounding clinical phonetic transcription which are pertinent to the education of speech and language therapy students. It draws on theoretical literature and practical experience, to consider issues of rationale, timing, structure, and content of courses in phonetic transcription for clinical purposes, and explores the problems and pitfalls inherent in the process. It is not a tutorial in clinical practical phonetics, but an examination of the issues which teachers of the subject need to consider in delivering such courses.

The 'tight approximant' variant of the Arabic 'ayn

Previous studies of the Arabic pharyngeal ‘ayn have reported stop, fricative and approximant realisations within and across dialects. This paper presents an approximant variant that has not been specifically identified before. Described as a ‘tight approximant’, it is characterised acoustically by a pattern of filtering in which the lowest half dozen or so harmonics, including the fundamental, are markedly reduced in amplitude. Auditory responses to this kind of spectrum are characterised in terms of residue pitch. The variant can be thought of as compressed or ‘squeezed’ in the articulatory, acoustic and auditory domains in a chain of phonetic cause and effect. Laryngopharyngeal tension creates a low F0 and a compressed bandpass-filtered spectrum, which is processed auditorily by adjacent harmonics being squeezed through the same auditory filter. Acoustic and laryngographic data from selected tokens of a corpus of 436 realisations of ‘ayn , produced by 21 speakers from 11 different North African and Middle Eastern countries, are presented in support of the description of this variant. Its frequency of occurrence in the corpus suggests it is a common variant in Arabic speech. Some suggestions concerning the diachrony of ‘ayn are made in light of the reported observations.

Instrumental and perceptual phonetic analyses: The case for two-tier transcriptions

In this article, we discuss the relationship between instrumental and perceptual phonetic analyses. Using data drawn from typical and atypical speech production, we argue that the use of two-tier transcriptions, which can compare and contrast perceptual and instrumental information, is valuable both for our general understanding of the mechanisms of speech production and perception and also for assessment and intervention for individuals with atypical speech production. The central tenet of our case is that instrumental and perceptual analyses are not in competition to give a single ‘correct’ account of speech data. They take instead perspectives on complementary phonetic domains, which interlock in the speech chain to encompass production, transmission and perception.

Breathing-impaired speech after brain haemorrhage: A case study

Results are presented from an auditory and acoustic analysis of the speech of an adult male with impaired prosody and articulation due to brain haemorrhage. They show marked effects on phonation, speech rate and articulator velocity, and a speech rhythm disrupted by “intrusive” stresses. These effects are discussed in relation to the speakers very short breath‐groups and consequent need to take breath within intonation‐groups and even within rhythm‐groups. The speaker appears to have various strategies for dealing with his speech problems to preserve the structural cohesion of his utterances, some seemingly more successful than others, including planning his frequent breath pauses, using falsetto phonation, control of pitch and inspiring air orally for rapid intake. Finally, it is suggested that these and other strategies designed to compensate for limitations and shortcomings in the speech production system should be recognized as a form of linguistic creativity.