Mechtild Tronnier

The same or different : A comparison of the rhythmic structure of Swedish and Albanian

Abstract The purpose of this contribution is to give an account of the similarities or dissimilarities of the speech rhythm of Swedish and Albanian. In this study, temporal features were focused on to ascertain rhythmic differences between the two languages. The interest for this study arose when a clear rhythmic variation was observed in the accented Swedish L2 speech produced by L1-speakers of Albanian, namely the lack of attributes like reduction in unstressed syllables. It was thus hypothesised that speakers of L1-Swedish would produce larger variation in length of vocalic and/or consonantal intervals than L1-speakers of Albanian. The recorded material comprised read speech produced by seven L1-speakers of both languages. Various acoustic metrics were applied to analyse the rhythm. Results show differences between Swedish and Albanian speech for both non-normalised and normalised metrics only for the vocalic intervals, but with an unexpected outcome. In that way, larger length variation for vocalic intervals in the Albanian material than in the Swedish material was found. Therefore, the occurrence of reduction phenomena also in Albanian can be stated. These findings contradict the assumption that transfer from L1-Albanian was the reason for lack of reduction in L2-Swedish, as observed previously.

Child voice and noise; acoustic effects of a day at the day‐care related to background noise levels

Several studies have found that high background noise levels are detrimental to health parameters. In particular, this seems to apply to developing voices were future vocal habits are established. Thus, it is important to study vocal function and environmental effects on the developing child voice. This study analyzed the effects of background noise on children’s voices, specifically vocal intensity, and fundamental frequency. The investigated vocal parameters were (1) the relationship of background noise levels to F0 and vocal intensity, (2) F0 and vocal intensity variations over the day, and (3) F0 perturbation variations over the day. Ten 5‐year‐old children from three day‐cares participated, six boys and four girls. The audio signal was recorded by two microphones mounted in front of the subjects’ ears. By adding these signals it is possible to separate the voice from background noise. The material analyzed contained data from three 60‐min recordings per child from morning, noon, and afternoon during ...

Nasal vibration spectra in vowels

An accelerometer microphone attached to the upper part of the nose for measuring pathological nasality has been applied. The advantage of this technique is the easy application, the minor degree of invasiveness, and the minimal speaker distraction. The analysis of the obtained signal has been subject to discussion. Some researchers judged from signal intensity whether speech was produced on a hypernasal level or not. Others calculated the intensity ratio of the accelerometer signal to a voice source signal to eliminate intensity variation. The analysis of the spectral pattern of the accelerometer signal is suggested here. Spectral information in such a signal is a good indicator to reflect the velar port opening, which results in nasal resonance and nasal vibration at the nasal surface. Different vowels induce a different degree of velar opening, which does not necessarily reflect the degree of perceived nasality and measured acoustic resonance. This is due to different nasal and oral impedance of the vow...