Yolanda Feimster Holt

Variation in Vowel Duration Among Southern African American English Speakers

PURPOSE Atypical duration of speech segments can signal a speech disorder. In this study, we examined variation in vowel duration in African American English (AAE) relative to White American English (WAE) speakers living in the same dialect region in the South to characterize the nature of systematic variation between the 2 groups. The goal was to establish whether segmental durations in minority populations differ from the well-established patterns in mainstream populations. METHOD Participants were 32 AAE and 32 WAE speakers differing in age who, in their childhood, attended either segregated (older speakers) or integrated (younger speakers) public schools. Speech materials consisted of 14 vowels produced in hVd-frame. RESULTS AAE vowels were significantly longer than WAE vowels. Vowel duration did not differ as a function of age. The temporal tense-lax contrast was minimized for AAE relative to WAE. Vowels produced by females were significantly longer than vowels produced by males for both AAE and WAE. CONCLUSIONS African American speakers should be expected to produce longer vowels relative to White speakers in a common geographic area. These longer durations are not deviant but represent a typical feature of AAE. This finding has clinical importance in guiding assessments of speech disorders in AAE speakers.

Acoustic characteristics of vowels in three regional dialects of American English

Most of the comparative sociophonetic studies of regional dialect variation have focused on individual vowel differences across dialects as well as speaker variables. The present work seeks to define basic acoustic characteristics of entire vowel systems for three different regional variants of American English spoken in southeastern Wisconsin (affected by the Northern Cities Shift), western North Carolina (affected by the Southern Vowel Shift), and central Ohio (not considered to be affected currently by any vowel shift). Three groups of speakers (men and women) aged 20–29 years were recorded from each geographic area defined by two to three counties (creating a highly homogeneous set of speakers). Acoustic measures for the set of 14 monophthongs and diphthongs in /h—d/ context included vowel space area for each speaker, global spectral rate of change for diphthongized vowels (defined over the first three formant slopes), the amount of frequency change for F1 and F2 at two temporal points located close to vowel onset and offset (vector length), and vowel duration. These measures will establish both systemic and vowel inherent characteristics across the three dialects, serving as a basis for future examination of conditioning factors on vowels in chain shifts. Dialectal differences will be discussed. [Work supported by NIH NIDCD R01 DC006871.]

Temporal variation in African American English: The Distinctive Use of Vowel Duration

Introduction: African American English (AAE) is a unique dialect of American English that differs systematically from the variety spoken by the White population. Acoustic-phonetic explorations of segmental structure of AAE including vowel and consonant productions are still rare and the current state and developmental direction of AAE in the United States relative to dialects of White American English (WAE) are largely undetermined. Particularly little is known about timing patterns in AAE such as segmental durations, speech rate and rhythm. Objective: The purpose of this study was to better understand temporal variation in AAE by analyzing vowel duration. Methods: The experiment was conducted in a historically well-established southern speech community of African Americans in Pitt County in North Carolina. Sixteen male speakers, eight AAE and eight WAE, read a randomized set of words containing 11 vowels followed by either a voiced stop /d/ or a voiceless stop /t/ for a total 896 tokens. Two measures were used, the absolute duration and the proportional duration (ratio). Results: Compared with WAE speakers, AAE speakers significantly prolonged vowels preceding voiced consonants but the shorter durations of vowels before voiceless consonants did not differ significantly from those of WAE speakers. The proportional measure further established that the temporal contrast between vowels preceding voiced versus voiceless consonants was significantly enhanced in AAE relative to WAE. Furthermore, the tense-lax vowel distinction was reduced in AAE relative to WAE in both voicing contexts. Conclusions: These findings indicate that both the extensive vowel lengthening before voiced stops and the smaller temporal contrast between tense and lax vowels are distinctive features of AAE, signaling a differential use of vowel duration in AAE. The vowel lengthening before voiced stops may serve as the most salient cue with respect to the voicing status of the word final consonant. It may enhance the temporal contrast between vowels, and this contrast may serve as the primary marker of the consonant voicing distinction even if the consonant itself is devoiced or deleted altogether.

Lexical diversity in Parkinson’s disease

BackgroundParkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative syndrome of the basal ganglia (BG) believed to disrupt cortical-subcortical pathways critical to motor, cognitive and expressive language function. Recent studies have shown subtle deficits in expressive language performance among individuals with PD even in the earliest stage of the disease. The objective of this study was to use measures of lexical diversity to examine expressive language performance during discourse production in a sample of individuals with PD.MethodsTwelve individuals with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) were compared to twelve matched, neurologically intact controls on measures of lexical diversity. Three minute discourse samples describing a typical day were collected and analyzed for lexical diversity with the CHILDES program using measures of type token ratio (TTR) and voc-D (D).ResultsComparisons of three minute discourse samples indicated non-significant differences between individuals with PD and controls in word productivity (387 vs 356; p = .48). Similarly, there were also non-significant differences on measures of lexical diversity between the two groups (TTR = .45 vs.44; p = .50 and D 74 vs 68; p = .23).ConclusionsThese results suggest that lexical diversity during discourse production among individuals with PD is similar to non-neurological controls. These findings indicate that lexical diversity is an aspect of expressive language performance that is not impacted by the disease process in the earliest stages.

Evaluating Nasalance Values Among Bilingual Mandarin–English Speakers:

Objective: The goals of this research are (1) to establish normative nasalance values for bilingual Mandarin–English speakers and compare values to those of previously reported monolingual Mandarin speakers, and (2) to examine whether sex, age, dialect, and language proficiency affect levels of nasalance among Mandarin–English speakers in both English and Mandarin. Design: All participants recorded the speech stimuli, constructed to include oral sentences, nasal sentences, oronasal sentences, and vowels /ɑ, i, u/ in Mandarin and English. Nasalance measurements were recorded using the Nasometer II 6450. Participants and Setting: A total of 45 (20 males and 25 females) native Mandarin speakers between 20 and 54 years of age from mainland China participated in the study. Results: Mean nasalance scores of the Mandarin oral sentence (Mean [M] = 17.64, standard deviation [SD] = 7.33), oronasal sentence (M = 54.62, SD = 7.81), and nasal sentence (M = 68.73, SD = 8.09) are reported. Mean nasalance scores of the English oral sentence (M = 20.02, SD = 7.83), oronasal sentence (M = 58.71, SD = 7.59), and nasal sentence (M = 65.27, SD = 7.45) are reported. A repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant sex difference in nasalance scores for English stimuli (P = .031) and Mandarin stimuli (P = .040). There was no significant effects of age, dialect, and language proficiency on Mandarin or English stimuli. Conclusions: This is the first study to report normative values for Mandarin–English speakers using the Nasometer II. Values reported can be used for objective assessment of bilingual speakers.

Nasometric Comparison Between Spanish–English Bilingual and English Monolingual Children

Objective: It is well established in the literature that English diagnostic tests should not be directly applied to speakers whose primary language is Spanish. Normative nasalance data across word and sentence-level stimuli among Spanish–English bilingual children living in the United States have not been provided. The present study aims to (1) compare differences in nasalance between typically developing Spanish–English bilingual children and English-speaking monolingual children and (2) determine whether within-speaker nasalance differences exist in Spanish–English bilingual children when presented with English and Spanish speech stimuli. Design: Thirty-four typically developing children including 17 monolingual English speakers and 17 Spanish–English bilingual speakers with normal velopharyngeal anatomy between 5 and 7 years of age participated in the study. Speakers were recorded using a nasometer producing sets of stimulus items at the word and sentence level in English (English monolinguals) and in both Spanish and English for bilingual children. Results: Results indicated no statistically significant difference between nasalance values across the different stimuli between monolingual and bilingual participants. However, within-subject effects showed statistical significance between English and Spanish word stimuli among the bilingual group. Conclusions: These findings emphasize the importance of using language-specific diagnostic materials for nasalance testing, which would be of importance in the treatment of individuals with cleft palate.

F 0 declination and reset in read speech of African American and White American women

Abstract This study evaluates F0 declination and reset in read speech produced by African American and White women speakers of American English as an active, linguistically-controlled process. The results demonstrate that African American women have less change in F0 over the duration of the breath group unit than White peers. There was no evidence of the use of final level or rising pitch as documented in informal African American English. The results indicate that in formal interactions, such as those expected in the educational and therapy settings, adult female African American speakers will use F0 declination and reset in sentence level breath groups in a manner consistent with White peers. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Mechanisms of Vowel Variation in African American English

Purpose This research explored mechanisms of vowel variation in African American English by comparing 2 geographically distant groups of African American and White American English speakers for participation in the African American Shift and the Southern Vowel Shift. Method Thirty-two male (African American: n = 16, White American controls: n = 16) lifelong residents of cities in eastern and western North Carolina produced heed,hid,heyd,head,had,hod,hawed,whod,hood,hoed,hide,howed,hoyd, and heard 3 times each in random order. Formant frequency, duration, and acoustic analyses were completed for the vowels /i, ɪ, e, ɛ, æ, ɑ, ɔ, u, ʊ, o, aɪ, aʊ, oɪ, ɝ/ produced in the listed words. Results African American English speakers show vowel variation. In the west, the African American English speakers are participating in the Southern Vowel Shift and hod fronting of the African American Shift. In the east, neither the African American English speakers nor their White peers are participating in the Southern Vowel Shift. The African American English speakers show limited participation in the African American Shift. Conclusion The results provide evidence of regional and socio-ethnic variation in African American English in North Carolina.

Same or different: Narrative retells in bilingual Latino kindergarten children

ABSTRACT The present study examines the association of micro- and macrostructural components in narrative retells within and across languages in Spanish-English bilingual Latino kindergarten children. Using a within-subject research design, fourteen Spanish-English speaking Latino kindergarten children were individually read a scripted picture book, after which narrative retells were elicited separately in each language using the pictures of the book as an aid. Cross-sectional data of the children’s retell transcriptions were coded and analyzed for macrostructure using the narrative scoring scheme and for microstructure by computing the mean length of utterance in words, the number of different words, and the subordination index. Results of the study suggest that elements of macrostructure retells are associated across languages. Microstructure components do not seem to be related across languages but are strongly associated within the same language. Performance in microstructural measures in each language was observed to vary across languages, suggesting that children in the sample acquired the lexical and grammar skills associated with microstructure independently in each of their two languages. Findings from this study have clinical and educational implications for the assessment and instruction of Spanish-English bilingual kindergarten children.

Pitch accents in read speech: Black and White southern women

Prosodic variation between African American English and General American English has been attested to in numerous works, yet few studies have collected measures of F0 in African American English and fewer have examined F0 beyond the word level. Additionally, the analysis of prosodic variation in regional dialects of American English is not well studied. F0 movement at the level of the Intonational Phrase (IP) is known to convey both local and global information. Research on F0 movement in General American English has analyzed combinations of H(igh) and (L)ow pitch accents as categorical markers of prosodic alignment to the segmental string. Understanding the alignment of F0 contours provides key information on phonetic realization and phonological alignment in the creation of intonational categories. This pilot data explores the interaction of F0, vowel duration and word duration of prenuclear and nuclear pitch accents in the read speech of Black and White southern women. This study seeks to determine if ...