Dissertations / Theses: 'Vowels'

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Vaan, Michiel de. "The Avestan vowels /." Leiden : Universiteit van Leiden, 2002. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb39141326c.

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Hunyady, Heather A. "The relative amplitude of vowel formants for vowels in asymmetrical consonant contexts." Connect to resource, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1811/6578.

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Thesis (Honors)--Ohio State University, 2006.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages: contains vii, 29 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-29). Available online via Ohio State University's Knowledge Bank.

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3

Nicolopoulos, I. "Vowels, vowel sequences and stress in standard Modern Greek : A phonological - phonetic investigation." Thesis, University of Reading, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.383129.

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4

Ikawa, Hajime. "On Stress Assignment, Vowel-Lengthening, and Epenthetic Vowels in Mohawk: Some Theoretical Implications." Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/227275.

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Optimality Theory (OT) developed by Prince and Smolensky (1993) assumes that cross - linguistic phonological variations solely derive from different rankings of universal constraints. A question naturally arises as to the adequate formulations of constraints for types of phonological entities which appear to be parametrized, and constraints which appear to apply in different domains. There are at least two possible ways of formulating them. One is to simply assume that UG contains a single constraint with a parameter for types or domains, and the other is to assume that UG contains distinct constraints for different types and different domains, and that all of them are present in every language. In this paper, based on stress assignment and its interaction with epenthetic vowels in Mohawk, a northern Iroquoian language studied by Michelson (1988, 1989) and Piggott (1 992), and Selayarese, an Oceanic language studied by Mithun and Basri (1 986), Goldsmith (1 990), and Piggott (1992), I will argue for the latter. In particular, I will claim that UG contains distinct FT-FORM constraints for different foot types, and distinct FILL constraints and distinct NONFINALITY constraints for different domains. This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 will introduce the basic facts in Mohawk. Section 3 will provide accounts for the relevant facts under OT, employing distinct FT -FORM constraints for different foot types, and distinct FILL constraints for different domains. Section 4 will refine the proposed accounts based on the facts in Selayarese. Section 5 will introduce two species of NONFINALITY for two different domains. Section 6 will discuss important implications of the accounts proposed in this paper for other aspects of the theory. Section 7 will conclude the paper.

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Alrashed, Abdulmajeed S. "Descriptive Analysis of Qassimi Arabic| Phonemic Vowels, Syllable Structure and Epenthetic Vowels, and Affrication." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10752080.

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The present study seeks to provide a descriptive analysis of three phonological topics in Qassimi Arabic (QA)—a local variety of Najdi Arabic spoken mainly in Qassim, Saudi Arabia—based on data collected from a total of twenty-two native QA speakers. The topics are phonemic vowels, syllable structure and epenthetic vowels, and affrication. The participant recruitment was the same for all the three topics, but each topic was investigated using its own materials and methods.

Regarding the phonemic vowels in QA, the study based the results on 157 words collected from three native Qassimi speakers. Previous studies have claimed that QA has eight phonemic vowels—three short and five long. However, the findings argue that QA has nine phonemic vowels—four short vowels and five long ones. The four-short vowel system is an empirical claim since previous studies indicated that /a/ is a conditioned allophone, which is challenged in the present study by providing clear minimal pairs, such as /daf/ ‘warm up’ and /daf/ ‘he pushed’. It also indicates that short vowels have narrow vowel space compared to their long counterparts.

As for the syllable structure and epenthetic vowels, the study based its results on the analysis of 419 words targeting the syllable structure, and 72 words targeting epenthetic vowels. The results reveal that QA has 12 syllable structures, which are CV, CVV, CCV, CCVV, CVC, CVVC, CCVC, CCVVC, CVCC, VC, and VCC. The latter two structures are empirical findings to the study since the previous body of research claim that QA has the first ten structures. Regarding the location epenthetic vowels, the results suggest that they can occur, in a sequence of multiple consonants, after the first consonant, after the second consonant, and after the third consonant. These different locations are conditioned by the surrounding environment and/or the syllable structure. In addition, the quality of epenthetic vowels seems to be inconsistent, in coda group, since the participants inserted either [i], [a], [ϵ], or [i], while it is consistent in across-stem group.

In discussing the affrication, the present study investigates the environment that triggers the affrication process in the Qassimi Arabic (QA), and explores whether the syllabic structure or position in the word play a role in the process. It also investigates the phonological domain of the affrication, and the activeness of the affrication process. Based on the 282 words that have the sounds /ts, dz, k, g/, the study has identified important counter evidence to the claim that the affrication process is triggered by front vowels. This study shows that the alveolar affricates /ts/ and /dz/ occur in the environment of almost all vowels since it is occurred before/after [i, e, a, “special character omitted”, o] as well as providing multiple contrastive environments including several minimal pairs, (e.g. [j

I

mk

I

n] ‘maybe’ [j

I

mts

I

n] ‘overtake’). It also provides counter evidence for the claim that geminate consonants block the affrication. This study also demonstrates that the syllabic structure is irrelevant to the affrication process since it occurs in onset and coda position in monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. Finally, the study reveals that the affrication process cannot be triggered by affixation, even if the claimed environment is met, which might indicate that to domain of the affrication is the stem in which all the affricated words are monomorphemic words.

In sum, the present study suggests that Najdi varieties should be studied individually since they tend to have specific features that might not be shared with other varieties. That is, just because a feature may be found to exist in one type of Najdi Arabic, it cannot be assumed that feature is also attested in all other closely related varieties.

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Narasimhan, Kidambi Rama. "Coronals, velars and front vowels." Thesis, McGill University, 1995. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23728.

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In this thesis, we investigate several processes affecting coronals and velars in Tamil and Malayalam, two Dravidian languages spoken in southern India. We begin by discussing two assimilation processes which apply adjacent to front vowels, Palatalization, where anterior coronals become palatoalveolar, and Coronalization, where velars are fronted to palatoalveolar. We compare and contrast the feature geometries proposed by Sagey (1986) and Hume (1992) in their ability to adequately express these processes. In Sagey's model, front vowels are argued to be Dorsal. It is thus impossible to express either Palatalization or Coronalization as spreading. In Hume's model, where front vowels are Coronal, both processes involve spreading. However, the model does not formally distinguish between these two processes across languages; thus, it fails to capture the fact that Palatalization is widely attested but Coronalization seems to be restricted to diachronic alternations. In order to express this asymmetry, we adopt the model advanced by Goad & Narasimhan (1994), a revision of Goad (1993), where Palatalization involves spreading but Coronalization is a two-step process, spreading followed by reanalysis. In this model, a single feature (front), defined as "front of articulator", is doubly dependent on both Dorsal and Coronal nodes. Its interpretation is thus partly determined by the node to which it links; it marks apicality in coronals and front of tongue body in dorsals. In Chapter 3, we demonstrate how this model allows us to capture the fact that in Malayalam, only a subset of the anterior coronal consonants, the apicals, form a natural class with front vowels. In Chapter 4, we provide support for the model from languages other than Tamil and Malayalam, both Dravidian and non-Dravidian.

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Donegan, Patricia J. "On the natural phonology of vowels." New York : Garland Pub, 1985. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/12344168.html.

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Islam, S. M. Arifull. "English Vowels: A World English Perspective." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-1241.

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In spite of having a fixed standard of pronunciation, English is being used in various ways in parts of the world, particularly in its way of utterance. English vowel is playing one of the significant roles in making different varieties of English language. This essay tries to see into detail how some phonetic features (formant movement, frequency, pitch) of English vowels vary in relation to Bengali, Catalan, Italian, Spanish and Swedish speakers. It has been found that all these speakers vary a lot from each other in the utterance of English vowels.

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So, Ka-pak, and 蘇家柏. "Articulatory-acoustic relation in Cantonese vowels." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2003. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B26772449.

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Landick, Marie. "The determination of French mid-vowels." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.301734.

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Shin, D. J. "Training Korean speakers on English vowels and prosody : individual differences in perception, production and vowel epenthesis." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2014. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1425728/.

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This paper investigates whether intangibles might explain the UK productivity puzzle. We note that since the recession: (a) firms have upskilled faster than before; (b) intangible investment in R&D and software has risen whereas tangible investment has fallen; and (c) intangible and telecoms equipment investment slowed in advance of the recession. We have therefore tested to see if: (a) what looks like labour hoarding is actually firms keeping workers who are employed in creating intangible assets; (b) the current slowdown in TFP growth is due to the spillover effects of the past slowdown in R&D and telecoms equipment investment. Our main findings are: (a) measured market sector real value added growth since the start of 2008 is understated by 1.6% due to the omission of intangibles; (b) 0.75pppa of the TFP growth slowdown can be accounted for by the slowdown in intangible and telecoms investment in the early 2000s. Taken together intangible investment can therefore account for around 5 percentage points of the 16% productivity puzzle.

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12

Fee, Elizabeth Jane. "Underspecification, parameters, and the acquisition of vowels." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/30805.

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The goal of this thesis is to develop a parametric model of acquisition which incorporates the idea that phonological systems are underlyingly unspecified for certain feature values. I examine two variants of this model: one based on the theory of Radical Underspecification (Archangeli and Pulleyblank 1986), and one based on the theory of Contrastive Underspecification (Steriade 1987). I assume the principles and parameters framework, where the initial phonological system of the child is assumed to be characterized by the unmarked parameter settings of UG. The two types of parameters that are examined in detail are featural parameters and rule parameters. The unmarked settings of featural parameters are supplied by universal redundancy rules. In most cases, the unmarked settings of rule parameters are assumed to be OFF, or non-application. I provide analyses of the vocalic systems of Hungarian and Spanish, based on the parametric theories of Radical and Contrastive Underspecification, which demonstrate that certain phonological parameters in these languages must be reset to the marked option. The Hungarian analyses focus particularly on spreading processes, while those in Spanish focus on alternations that take place within verb conjugation classes. Given the differences between the initial child state and the adult phonological systems of Hungarian and Spanish, the underspecification acquisition models make certain predictions regarding acquisition in these languages. These predictions are then tested using data from children acquiring both Hungarian and Spanish. The early phonological systems of children acquiring Hungarian and Spanish are found to initially be smaller than predicted by either acquisition model. To account for these results, and still maintain a parametric model, I propose a theory of feature availability, which specifies the order in which features may become part of a child's phonological system. In conjuction with this theory of feature availability, the RU model is able to explain the development of children's early phonological inventories, as well as certain substitution patterns. The contrastive specifications required by the theory of CU cannot account for these aspects of the data.
Arts, Faculty of
Linguistics, Department of
Graduate

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Ahmed, Albashir Abdulhamid Muftah. "Production and perception of Libyan Arabic vowels." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/846.

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This study investigates the production and perception of Libyan Arabic (LA) vowels by native speakers and the relation between these major aspects of speech. The aim was to provide a detailed acoustic and auditory description of the vowels available in the LA inventory and to compare the phonetic features of these vowels with those of other Arabic varieties. A review of the relevant literature showed that the LA dialect has not been investigated experimentally. The small number of studies conducted in the last few decades have been based mainly on impressionistic accounts. This study consists of two main investigations: one concerned with vowel production and the other with vowel perception. In terms of production, the study focused on gathering the data necessary to define the vowel inventory of the dialect and to explore the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the vowels contained in this inventory. Twenty native speakers of LA were recorded while reading target monosyllabic words in carrier sentences. Acoustic and auditory analyses were used in order to provide a fairly comprehensive and objective description of the vocalic system of LA. The results showed that phonologically short and long Arabic vowels vary significantly in quality as well as quantity; a finding which is increasingly being reported in experimental studies of other Arabic dialects. Short vowels in LA tend to be more centralised than has been reported for other Arabic vowels, especially with regards to short /a/. The study also looked at the effect of voicing in neighbouring consonants and vowel height on vowel duration, and the findings were compared to those of other varieties/languages. The perception part of the study explored the extent to which listeners use the same acoustic cues of length and quality in vowel perception that are evident in their production. This involved the use of continua from synthesised vowels which varied along duration and/or formant frequency dimensions. The continua were randomised and played to 20 native listeners who took part in an identification task. The results show that, when it comes to perception, Arabic listeners still rely mainly on quantity for the distinction between phonologically long and short vowels. That is, when presented with stimuli containing conflicting acoustic cues (formant frequencies that are typical of long vowels but with short duration or formant frequencies that are typical of short vowels but with long duration), listeners reacted consistently to duration rather than formant frequency. The results of both parts of the study provided some understanding of the LA vowel system. The production data allowed for a detailed description of the phonetic characteristics of LA vowels, and the acoustic space that they occupy was compared with those of other Arabic varieties. The perception data showed that production and perception do not always go hand in hand and that primary acoustic cues for the identification of vowels are dialect- and language-specific.

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14

McMahon, April M. S. "Constraining lexical phonology : evidence from English vowels." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.236336.

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Homles, Stephen David. "Segregation of concurrent vowels : an auditory model." Thesis, University of Essex, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.268728.

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Yun, Yungdo. "Glides and high vowels in Korean syllables /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8372.

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17

Bekker, Ian. "The vowels of South African English / Ian Bekker." Thesis, North-West University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/2003.

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This thesis provides a comparative analysis of vowel quality in South African English (SAE) using the following data: firstly, the existing impressionistic literature on SAE and other relevant accents of English, the former of which is subject to a critical review; secondly, acoustic data from a similar range of accents, including new SAE data, collected and instrumentally analyzed specifically for the purposes of this research. These various data are used to position, on both a descriptive and theoretical level, the SAE vowel system. In addition, and in the service of providing a careful reconstruction of the linguistic history of this variety, it offers a three-stage koin´eization model which helps, in many respects, to illuminate the respective roles played by endogenous and exogenous factors in SAE’s development. More generally, the analysis is focussed on rendering explicit the extent to which the synchronic status and diachronic development of SAE more generally, and SAE vowel quality more particularly, provides support for a number of descriptive and theoretical frameworks, including those provided in Labov (1994), Torgersen and Kerswill (2004), Trudgill (2004) and Schneider (2003; 2007). With respect to these frameworks, and based on the results of the analysis, it proposes an extension to Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model, shows Trudgill’s (2004) model of new-dialect formation to be inadequate in accounting for some of the SAE data, provides evidence that SAE is a possibly imminent but ‘conservative’ member of Torgersen and Kerswill’s (2004) SECS-Shift and uses SAE data to question the applicability of the SECS-Shift to FOOT-Fronting. Furthermore, this thesis provides evidence that SAE has undergone an indexicallydriven arrestment of the Diphthong and Southern Shifts and a subsequent and related diffusion of GenSAE values at the expense of BrSAE ones. Similarly, it shows that SAE’s possible participation in the SECS-Shift constitutes an effective chain-shift reversal ‘from above’. It stresses that, in order to understand such phenomena, recourse needs to be made to a theory of indexicality that takes into account the unique sociohistorical development of SAE and its speakers. Lastly, the adoption of the three-stage koin´eization model mentioned above highlights the merits of considering both endogenous and exogenous factors in the historical reconstruction of new-dialect formation and, for research into SAE in particular, strengthens the case for further investigation into the possible effects of 19th-century Afrikaans/Dutch, Yiddish and north-of-English dialects on the formation of modern SAE.
Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

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Tunley, Alison. "Coarticulatory influences of liquids on vowels in English." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.423951.

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19

Park, Chi-youn 1981. "Recognition of English vowels using top-down method." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28538.

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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-70).
Many recognizers use bottom-up methods for recognizing each phoneme or feature, and use the cues and the context to find the most appropriate words or sentences. But humans recognize words not just through bottom-up processing, but also top-down. In many cases of listening, one can usually predict what will come based on the preceding context, or one can determine what has been pronounced by listening to the following sounds. Therefore, if some cues to a word are given, it would be possible to refine the recognition by using the top-down method. This thesis deals with the improvement of the performance of recognition by using the top-down method. And most of the work will be concentrated on the problem of vowel recognition, when the adjacent consonants are known.
by Park Chi-youn.
S.M.

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20

Kamata, Miho. "An acoustic sociophonetic study of three London vowels." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2008. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/674/.

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The thesis presents an empirical socio-phonetic investigation of the acoustics of the three short vowels in the DRESS, TRAP and STRUT lexical sets (Wells 1982) in London. The vowels have been reported by a number of phoneticians and variationists to have shifted in particular directions in Received Pronunciatioin (RP) and London English during the course of the 20th century; the directions of the movements, however, seem to be rather complicated. Moreover, there have been relatively fewer instrumental studies for these vowels in London. The main purpose of this research, therefore, is to provide detailed patterns of recent vowel shifts involving these three vowels in London English in relation to internal and external factors. Acknowledging RP and Cockney as referential accents on a multidimensional accent continuum in London, it is presumed that Londoners closer to the upper and lower ends of social continuum are distinguished as `London Upper Middle Class (UMC)' speakers and `London Working Class (WC)' speakers respectively. Social class classification is made on the basis of speakers' occupational information. The application of the vowel formant normalisation technique called S-procedure (Watt & Fabricius 2002) allows direct visual and statistical comparisons for multiple speakers regardless of their physical differences. Investigations are made not only by traditional descriptions of relative placements of vowels in a visual two-dimensional FI /F2 vowel space but also by a recent innovative `angle and Euclidean distance calculations' procedure (Fabricius 2007) with thorough statistical analyses. Results show complicated but interesting correlations between the movements of these vowels and the social and phonological characteristics. One of the most interesting findings is an ongoing vowel change process called 'TRAP/STRUT rotation' (Fabricius 2006: 3,2007: 310) among (female) London UMC speakers who show a well progressed anticlockwise chain shift involving DRESS, TRAP and STRUT, whereas there is no evidence for this process among London WC speakers who show a rather moderate vowel shift involving only TRAP and DRESS. In this respect, the most innovative group is discussed to be the female young London UMC speakers, followed by the male young London UMC speakers as far as the data in the current study are concerned. The finding of a clear difference between two different accent groups in the realisations of the vowels is discussed to suggest a correlation between social class and accent variation in London, as well as to enhance the validity of occupation as a single indicator for people's social class. Observing a great number of general and minute patterns from the statistical results, the thesis attempts to provide possible explanations for the vowel changes in London, as well as extends its discussions for possible implications with regard to internal and external factors.

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Halikia, Magdalene Helen. "The perceptual segregation of simultaneous sounds /." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=71970.

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Previous research (Scheffers, 1983) has indicated that differences in the fundamental frequencies (F(,0)s) of the two simultaneous components in a vowel mixture facilitate the perceptual separation of the vowels. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 were an extension of that work using simultaneous synthesized vowels. They investigated (a) the effects of using vowels with gliding F(,0)s, and (b) the effects of using crossing versus parallel glides. The results indicated that perceptual separation was better when the mixture contained gliding vowels than when it contained steady state ones. In addition, it was found that the separation effect was even stronger when the glides were crossing as compared to being parallel. Experiment 4 investigated the role of formant peaks in vowel identification by employing a vowel mixed with a simultaneous pulse train masker. It was found that the vowel was better identified when the masker was a gliding pulse train as compared to a steady state one. In Experiments 5, 6, and 7 mixtures of unfiltered and filtered (high- and low-pass) pulse trains were used with steady state and gliding F(,0)s and different F(,0) separations. The results indicated that increased F(,0) differences and the use of glides facilitate the perceptual separation of simultaneous sounds. The superior effect of the crossing glides can be explained in terms of the common frequency modulation of the harmonics in each subset (component of the mixture) and the subsequent decorrelation of the harmonics in the two subsets. The type of filtering used had no apparent effect indicating that separation was possible for high-pass filtered pulse trains, probably based on periodicity (timing) information. These findings were discussed in terms of mechanisms of processing.

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Lam, Sin-ting Stephanie. "Spectral and temporal features of tense-lax vowel contrast produced by Cantonese speakers of English a comparative study /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKU Scholars Hub, 2007. http://lookup.lib.hku.hk/lookup/bib/B42005528.

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Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.
"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-32). Also available in print.

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Wong, Chun-ho Eddy. "Reliability of rating synthesized hypernasal speech signals in connected speech and vowels." Click to view the E-thesis via HKU Scholars Hub, 2007. http://lookup.lib.hku.hk/lookup/bib/B4200617X.

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Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.
"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-30). Also available in print.

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Jiao, Lei. "A study of vowel normalization methodologies /." View abstract or full-text, 2009. http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/thesis.pl?HUMA%202009%20JIAO.

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Ballone, Francesc. "An acoustic study of sardinian and algherese catalan vowels." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/317181.

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La present tesi doctoral investiga instrumentalment la qualitat de les vocals del català de l’Alguer i de quatre varietats sardes a fi d’assolir tres objectius. El primer objectiu consisteix a avaluar el possible rol del sard en la modificació de la qualitat de les vocals alguereses. Per aconseguir aquest objectiu, portàrem a terme una anàlisi formàntica de les set vocals tòniques de l’alguerès /i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u/ a partir de 525 realitzacions (7 vocals x 3 contextos consonàntics x 5 repeticions x 5 parlants natius), i comparàrem els valors formàntics obtinguts amb els de 2105 realitzacions vocàliques del sard (7 vocals x 3 contextos consonàntics x 5 repeticions x 5 parlants natius + 5 realitzacions extra). Com a referència per al català, s’han inclòs en el present treball les dades formàntiques de les vocals tòniques corresponents a quatre varietats dialectals d'aquella llengua incloses a Recasens & Espinosa (2006). Els resultats de l’anàlisi han mostrat que la qualitat vocàlica de les vocals de l’alguerès és més semblant a la de les vocals sardes que no pas a la de les vocals de les altres varietats del català. Pel que fa a les diferències entre varietats individuals i tal com era d’esperar, les vocals acústicament més similars a les de l’alguerès han resultat ésser les del logudorès septentrional. Aquestes primeres conclusions han estat confirmades amb anàlisis estadístiques (ANOVA) de les dades formàntiques. D'acord amb els resultats obtinguts i atès que l’alguerès presenta els mateixos fonemes vocàlics que les altres varietats catalanes, el seu sistema vocàlic ha estat caracteritzat com a fonològicament català i fonèticament sard. El segon objectiu del present treball és avaluar dues previsions de l’Adaptive Dispersion Theory (ADT) amb dades instrumentals de l’alguerès, del sard i d’altres varietats catalanes. En concret, la primera previsió suggereix que els sistems vocàlics amb més fonemes presenten espais vocàlics més extensos, i la segona que les vocals pertanyents a sistemes més densos varien menys respecte a les vocals de sistemes amb menys fonemes vocàlics. Aquestes previsions han estat avaluades utilitzant la mateixa base de dades recollida per a l'estudi del primer objectiu de la tesi. La primera previsió ha estat examinada calculant l’àrea de les vocals /i, u, a/ en cada varietat, i la segona calculant les desviacions estàndard dels valors formàntics contextuals per a cada varietat i també a través de dialectes. En termes generals, els resultats contradiuen les dues previsions de l’ADT per tal com, respecte als sistemes vocàlics amb menys fonemes, els sistemes amb més fonemes no presenten sistemàticament espais vocàlics més extensos ni vocals amb menys variació contextual. El tercer objectiu de la tesi és recollir informació sobre la reducció acústica de les vocals mitjanes sardes àtones, i ha estat investigat amb un grup ulterior de 1215 vocals àtones pertanyents a quatre varietats sardes (12 vocals x 5 repeticions x 5 informants x 4 varietats). Algunes dades interessants sobre aquest tema han aparegut publicades a Contini (1987:449), i indiquen que en tres varietats sardes les vocals àtones mitjanes obertes no presenten, per regla general, signes visibles de tancament respecte a les vocals tòniques corresponents. Aquests resultats contrasten amb dos models utilitzats normalment per a descriure la reducció acústica de vocals, a saber, l’undershootbased model, que prediu una elevació general de l’espai vocàlic per a les vocals reduïdes, i el centralisation-based model, segons el qual les vocals reduïdes tendeixen a acostar-se a la regió de la vocal central o schwa. En consonància amb els resultats de Contini, el nostre estudi ha confirmat que les vocals mitjanes obertes del sard en posició àtona no presenten tancament aparent. Així doncs, sembla clar que per tal de portar a terme una avaluació del grau de reducció acústica de les vocals mitjanes sardes caldria prendre en consideració també variables de tipus sistèmic (languagedependent).
The present dissertation sets out to instrumentally investigate the quality of the vowels of Algherese Catalan and of four Sardinian varieties in order to pursue three different aims. The first aim concerns the evaluation of the possible role played by Sardinian in modifying the quality of Algherese Catalan vowels. To fulfil this goal, a formant analysis of the seven Algherese vowels /i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u/ in stressed position has been carried out for 525 realisations (7 vowels x 3 consonantal contexts x 5 repetitions x 5 native speakers), and the corresponding formant frequency values have been compared to those obtained for 2,105 Sardinian realisations (7 vowels x 3 consonantal contexts x 5 repetitions x 5 native speakers x 4 varieties + 5 extra tokens). As a framework of reference for Catalan, the formant data reported in Recasens & Espinosa (2006) for the stressed vowels of four Catalan varieties have also been included in the present work. The analysis results show that the acoustic quality of Algherese vowels is more similar to that of the Sardinian vowels than to that of the vowels of other Catalan varieties. In terms of individual dialects, as expected, the vowels most resembling those of Algherese were found to belong to the Northern Logudorese variety. These tentative conclusions were also strongly supported by statistical analyses (ANOVA) of the formant frequency data. According to this scenario and given the fact that Algherese still possesses the same seven vowel phonemes as Catalan, its vowel system was defined as phonologically Catalan and phonetically Sardinian. The second aim of the present work is to evaluate two predictions of the Adaptive Dispersion Theory (ADT) against instrumental data from Algherese, Sardinian and other Catalan varieties. Specifically, the first prediction suggests that larger vowel inventories should cause the vowel space to expand, while the second suggests that vowels in more crowded inventories should vary less than vowels in less crowded ones. These predictions were evaluated with the same formant frequency database which was used in order to fulfil the first aim of this dissertation. The first prediction was tested by calculating the point-vowel area for each dialectal variety, and the second by calculating the standard deviations of the contextual formant frequency values for each vowel in each dialect and across dialects. In general terms, the results challenged the validity of the two ADT predictions, since, in comparison to less crowded inventories, those which were more crowded did not always exhibit larger vowel spaces and less context-dependent variability. The third aim of this dissertation is to gather information on the acoustic reduction of Sardinian unstressed mid vowels, and was investigated by analysing a further set of 1,215 unstressed vowels of four Sardinian varieties (12 vowels x 5 repetitions x 5 informants x 4 varieties). In this respect, some very interesting data published by Contini (1987:449) indicate that in three Sardinian varieties unstressed /ɛ, ɔ/ do not present, on average, visible signs of rising with respect to their stressed counterparts. This finding is in contrast with two models normally used to describe acoustic vowel reduction, i.e. the undershoot-based model, which predicts an overall elevation of the vowel floor for reduced vowels, and the centralisation-based model, according to which similar contextual and prosodic conditions are expected to trigger a shift of the target vowels towards a central or ‘schwa’ region. Our results confirmed Contini’s finding in that the Sardinian unstressed open-mid vowels analysed in this study lacked visible rising. These data led us to conclude that, when evaluating acoustic vowel reduction for Sardinian mid vowels, language-dependent or systemic variables should also be taken into account.

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Hu, Fang. "A phonetic study of the vowels in Ningbo Chinese /." access full-text access abstract and table of contents, 2005. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/ezdb/thesis.pl?phd-ctl-b19887395a.pdf.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005.
"Submitted to Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 354-373).

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Landera, Mario Alberto. "Effects of spectral slope on perceived breathiness in vowels." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2006. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0014823.

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Abreu, Laurel. "Effects of formal instruction on acquisition of Spanish vowels." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2006. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0014922.

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Syrett, Martin. "A study of the unaccented vowels of proto-Norse." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.319594.

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Samoylova, Ekaterina. "The production and perception of whispered vowels in English." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.504007.

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Yeung, Ho-yan. "Vowels of Hong Kong English from an acoustic perspective /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKU Scholars Hub, 2007. http://lookup.lib.hku.hk/lookup/bib/B42006235.

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Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.
"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-30). Also available in print.

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Gordon, Leslie S. "Factors affecting English speakers' perception of L2 Spanish vowels." Connect to Electronic Thesis (ProQuest) Connect to Electronic Thesis (CONTENTdm), 2008. http://worldcat.org/oclc/436442802/viewonline.

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Shames, Yonit A. "Perception of acoustically similar vowels from English and Hebrew." Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida State University, 2008. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/lib/digcoll/undergraduate/honors-theses/341800.

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Thesis (Honors paper)--Florida State University, 2008.
Advisor: Dr. Richard Morris, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept. of Communication Disorders. Includes bibliographical references.

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JETCHEV, Georgi Ivanov. "Ghost vowels and syllabification : evidence from Bulgarian and French." Doctoral thesis, Scuola Normale Superiore, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/11384/86009.

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Da, Tos Martina. "The Intramorphological Meanings of Thematic Vowels in Italian Verbs." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Padova, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11577/3422109.

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Italian verbs are traditionally classified into three major classes called ‘conjugations’. Membership of a verb in one of the conjugations rests on the phonological content of the vowel occurring after the verbal root in some (but not all) word forms of the paradigm. This vowel is called ‘thematic vowel’. The main feature that has been attributed to thematic vowels throughout morphological literature is that they do not behave as classical Saussurean signs in that lack any meaning whatsoever. This work develops the claim that the thematic vowels of Italian verbs are, in fact, Saussurean signs in that they can be attributed a ‘meaning’ (‘signatum’), or even more than one (‘signata’). But the meanings that will be appealed to are somehow different from those which have traditionally been attributed to other morphological units, be they stems or endings: in particular, these meanings would not be relevant to the interpretation of a word form; rather, they would be relevant at the ‘purely morphological’ (‘morphomic’, in Aronoff’s (1994) terms) level of linguistic analysis. They are thus labelled ‘intramorphological’, remarking that they serve nothing but the morphological machinery of the language. The recognition of ‘intramorphological signata’ for linguistic signs strongly supports the claim about the autonomy of morphology within the grammar. If my analysis is correct, the thematic vowels of Italian verbs should be seen as the dedicated loci for such signata.
I verbi italiani sono tradizionalmente classificati in tre principali classi di flessione dette ‘coniugazioni’. L’assegnazione di un verbo ad una delle tre coniugazioni dipende dal contenuto fonologico della vocale che segue la radice verbale in alcune forme flesse del paradigma. Questa vocale è detta ‘vocale tematica’. In letteratura, la principale caratteristica delle vocali tematiche è la loro mancanza di significato: per questa ragione, le vocali tematiche non possono essere considerate dei ‘segni’ nell’accezione saussuriana del termine. Nel presente lavoro si rivendica che le vocali tematiche dei verbi italiani sono, di fatto, dei ‘segni’ di tipo saussuriano, in quanto è possibile assegnar loro un significato (‘signatum’), o persino più di uno (‘signata’). I significati a cui si farà riferimento, tuttavia, sono diversi da quelli tradizionalmente attribuiti ad altre unità morfologiche, come le radici o le terminazioni: in particolare, tali significati non avrebbero rilevanza per l’interpretazione di una forma flessa, ma sarebbero decodificati ad un livello di analisi puramente morfologico (‘morfomico’, secondo la terminologia di Aronoff (1994)). Essi sono perciò definiti ‘intramorfologici’, a sottolineare che la loro utilità è riservata al componente morfologico della lingua. L’idea che dei segni linguistici possano avere dei significati intramorfologici è un argomento forte a favore dell’autonomia del componente morfologico all’interno della grammatica di una lingua. Se l’analisi proposta in questo lavoro è corretta, le vocali tematiche dei verbi italiani dovrebbero rappresentare le unità formali dedicate all’espressione di tali significati.

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Radhakrishnan, Sreedivya. "Perception of synthetic vowels by monolingual and bilingual Malayalam speakers." [Kent, Ohio] : Kent State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=kent1258953613.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2009.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed May 17, 2010). Advisor: John Hawks. Keywords: Speech perception; Vowels; Malayalam; Second Language. Includes bibliographical references (p. 198-216).

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Arnela, Coll Marc. "Numerical production of vowels and diphthongs using finite element methods." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Ramon Llull, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/286279.

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Recentment, les simulacions tridimensionals per ordinador han esdevingut bastant populars per modelar l’acústica del tracte vocal. Aquestes són capaces de superar algunes de les limitacions clàssiques de les tècniques unidimensionals i permeten incloure tots els detalls de la geometria del tracte vocal, millorant d’aquesta manera la qualitat dels sons generats. El mètode dels elements finits (FEM) és probablement l’aproximació més indicada per resoldre les equacions subjacents de la veu. En la primera part de la tesi s’aborda el problema de generació de vocals. S’utilitza FEM per resoldre l’equació d’ones per a la pressió acústica, la qual es combina amb una capa perfectament adaptada (PML) per tal de considerar condicions de radiació en camp lliure. Això permet la simulació d’ones acústiques propagant-se a través del tracte vocal i emanant de l’obertura de la boca. L’aproximació FEM proposada es valida després mitjançant experiments realitzats en rèpliques simplificades del tracte vocal. A continuació s’adapta el mètode de la funció de transferència entre dos micròfons per tal de calcular impedàncies del tracte vocal. Aquest s’utilitza a posteriori per a analitzar els efectes de radiació en vocals que comporten simplificacions del cap humà. Finalment, es proposa realitzar simulacions en dues dimensions (2D) basades en un procés d’ajust que permet a tractes vocals 2D imitar en gran mesura l’acústica de tractes vocals 3D, aconseguint un molt bon balanç entre cost computacional i qualitat de la veu. En la segona part de la tesi es generen diftongs. Per a aquesta finalitat es desenvolupa un esquema estabilitzat d’elements finits que resol l’equació d’ones en forma mixta expressada en un marc Lagrangià-Eulerià Arbitrari (ALE). Es produeixen diftongs tant usant tractes vocals mòbils 3D com ara tractes vocals 2D. L’enfocament proposat per a vocals i diftongs permet no només visualitzar ones propagant-se a través del tracte vocal sinó també escoltar-ne els corresponents sons generats.
Recientemente, las simulaciones tridimensionales por ordenador han resultado bastante populares para modelar la acústica del tracto vocal. Éstas son capaces de superar algunas de las limitaciones clásicas de las técnicas unidimensionales y permiten incluir todos los detalles de la geometría del tracto vocal, mejorando de esta manera la calidad de los sonidos generados. El método de los elementos finitos (FEM) es probablemente la aproximación más indicada para resolver las ecuaciones subyacentes de la voz. En la primera parte de la tesis se aborda el problema de generación de vocales. Se utiliza FEM para resolver la ecuación de ondas para la presión acústica, la cual se combina con una capa perfectamente adaptada (PML) para considerar condiciones de radiación en campo libre. Esto permite la simulación de ondas acústicas propagándose a través del tracto vocal y emanando de la obertura de la boca. La aproximación FEM propuesta se valida después mediante experimentos realizados en réplicas simplificadas del tracto vocal. A continuación se adapta el método de la función de transferencia entre dos micrófonos para calcular impedancias del tracto vocal. Éste se utiliza a posteriori para analizar los efectos de radiación en vocales que conllevan simplificaciones de la cabeza humana. Finalmente, se propone realizar simulaciones en dos dimensiones (2D) basadas en un proceso de ajuste que permite a tractos vocales 2D imitar en gran medida la acústica de tractos vocales 3D, consiguiendo un muy buen balance entre coste computacional y calidad de la voz. En la segunda parte de la tesis se generan diptongos. Per a esta finalidad se desarrolla un esquema estabilizado de elementos finitos que resuelve la ecuación de ondas en forma mixta expresada en un marco Lagrangiano-Euleriano Arbitrario (ALE). Se produce diptongos tanto usando tractos vocales móviles 3D como tractos vocales 2D. El enfoque propuesto para vocales y diptongos permite no solo visualizar ondas propagándose a través del tracto vocal sino que también escuchar los correspondientes sonidos generados.
In recent times, three-dimensional computer simulations have become quite popular to model the acoustics of the vocal tract. They can overcome some of the classical limitations of one-dimensional techniques and include all intricate details of the vocal tract geometry, greatly improving the quality of the generated sounds. The finite element method (FEM) is probably the most appropriate approach for solving the underlying equations of voice. In the first part of this thesis the problem of vowel production is addressed. FEM is used to solve the wave equation for the acoustic pressure combined with a Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) to account for free-field radiation conditions. This allows the simulation of acoustic waves propagating through the vocal tract and emanating from the mouth aperture. The proposed FEM approach is then validated against experiments performed with simplified vocal tract replicas. Following is an adaptation of a two-microphone transfer function method to compute vocal tract impedances, which becomes later used to analyze the radiation effects of human head simplifications on vowels. Finally, it is proposed to perform two-dimensional (2D) simulations based on a tuning process that allows 2D vocal tracts to mimic the acoustics of 3D vocal tracts, to a large extent. This results in a very good balance between computational cost and voice quality. In the second part of the thesis diphthong sounds are generated. A stabilized finite element scheme for the mixed wave equation in an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) framework is derived for that purpose. Diphthongs are produced using both, 3D moving vocal tracts as well as 2D tuned vocal tracts. The proposed approach for vowels and diphthongs allows not only to visualize waves propagating within the vocal tract but also to listen to the corresponding generated sounds.

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Samimi, Hamed. "Automatic Recognition of Speech-Evoked Brainstem Responses to English Vowels." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/32975.

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The objective of this study is to investigate automatic recognition of speech-evoked auditory brainstem responses (speech-evoked ABR) to the five English vowels (/a/, /ae/, /ao (ɔ)/, /i/ and /u/). We used different automatic speech recognition methods to discriminate between the responses to the vowels. The best recognition result was obtained by applying principal component analysis (PCA) on the amplitudes of the first ten harmonic components of the envelope following response (based on spectral components at fundamental frequency and its harmonics) and of the frequency following response (based on spectral components in first formant region) and combining these two feature sets. With this combined feature set used as input to an artificial neural network, a recognition accuracy of 83.8% was achieved. This study could be extended to more complex stimuli to improve assessment of the auditory system for speech communication in hearing impaired individuals, and potentially help in the objective fitting of hearing aids.

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Gibson, Andy. "Production and perception of vowels in New Zealand popular music." AUT University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/962.

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An acoustic comparison of sung and spoken vowels for three New Zealand singers investigates the phonetics of pronunciation in popular music. The singers recited the lyrics to their songs and recordings of their sung vocals were also obtained, creating a dataset of paired sung and recited words. Interviews with the singers were conducted so that the pronunciation used in reciting could be compared with a more conversational style. Eight vowels were analysed in these three conditions: DRESS, TRAP, THOUGHT, LOT, START, GOOSE, GOAT and PRICE. As well as providing data for phonetic analysis, the interviews elicited information about the singers’ musical influences, and investigated the singers’ stances towards the use of New Zealand English (NZE) in singing. The results of the comparison of singing and speech reflect the singers’ various stances to some extent. Overall, however, there are strikingly few cases where pairs of sung and spoken vowels have similar pronunciations. The predominance of ‘American’ vowels in the singing of all three participants, despite stated intentions to use New Zealand forms, suggests that the American-influenced singing style is the default in this context. This finding contrasts with early research on singing pronunciation in popular music, which described the use of American pronunciation in pop music as an act of identity which involved effort and awareness (Trudgill, 1983). The results presented here support the claims of more recent studies which suggest, conversely, that it is the use of non-American accent features which requires a wilful act of identity (Beal, 2009; O'Hanlon, 2006). An important consideration in the interpretation of vowel differences between singing and speech is the role played by the act of singing itself. It has been argued that there may be a general preference for increased sonority in singing (Morrissey, 2008) which would lead to the use of more open vowel sounds. This issue is explored and some evidence is found for a sonority-related effect. However, singing inherent effects like this can only explain a portion of the variability between singing and speaking. Most of the differences between singing and speech appear to be caused by social and stylistic motivations. To investigate why American-influenced pronunciation might be the default in the singing of pop music, a perception experiment was conducted to examine the phenomenon from the perspective of the listener. Participants were played words from a continuum that ranged between bed and bad, and they responded by circling whichever word they heard on a response sheet. The perception of ambiguous tokens was found to differ significantly according to whether or not the words were expected to be spoken or sung. These results are discussed with reference to exemplar theories of speech perception, arguing that the differences between singing and speech arise due to context-specific activation of phonetically detailed memories. This perspective can also be applied to the processes which underlie the production of vowels in sung contexts. Singers draw on their memories of popular music when they sing. Their use of American pronunciation in singing is therefore the result of the fact that a majority of their memories of pop singing involve American-influenced phonetic forms.

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Hutto, Megan. "Vowels in Kotiria and Wa'ikhana| A diachronic and synchronic analysis." Thesis, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1589966.

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This study first postulates a set of vowels for Proto-Kotiria and Wa'ikhana informed by previous studies which reconstructed the vowels for Proto-Tukanoan, the family to which Kotiria and Wa'ikhana belong, and by the modern vowel inventories of these languages. Then, a comparative description of vowel pronunciation between two time points, 1905 and 2010, is undertaken. This description reveals that, while there has not been a change in vowel inventory, there are differences in speakers' production of vowels between these two times. The suprasegmental systems as well as the aspiration patterns of each of these languages is also looked at as possible explanation for changes in pronunciation.

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Bullock, Bennett (Bennett Charles). "Auditory pathway responses to parametrized vowels in autism spectrum disorders." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/63225.

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Thesis (S.M.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-84).
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by many behavioral symptoms, including delays in social and communicative development. A cluster of symptoms concentrate on speech and language development, especially manipulation of non-verbal information conveyed in prosody. It is largely unknown whether this is due to functional or structural differences in the brain regions involved in auditory and speech processing, although recent studies have shown that ASD individuals do exhibit different activation patterns in various brain regions in response to speech stimuli. This study investigated responses in regions of the auditory pathway to short recorded and synthesized vowel stimuli. These regions were the Inferior Colliculus, the Left Thalamus, the left Posterior Insula, the Auditory Cortex, Wernicke's area, and Broca's area. The stimuli were parametrized so as to target different signal processing capabilities associated with each region. They were presented to ASD and typically developing (TD) subjects while the salient regions were subject to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results suggest that there were not gross differences in how ASD individuals responded from TD individuals in the subcortical regions. Results from the Auditory Cortex, however, showed a significant hemisphere dominance in TD subjects with more temporally complex stimuli that did not appear in ASD subjects. Moreover, the results showed that it was temporally-measured periodicities in the signal that were responsible for this difference. The results also show slightly different activation patterns in cortical regions which could have implications for attentiveness, and semantic and emotional processing. These results suggest that deficiencies in the temporal processing capabilities of the left Auditory Cortex play a major role in ASD speech processing.
byBennett Bullock.
S.M.

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Honey, Christian. "On the processing of vowels in the mammalian auditory system." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9931670b-2cec-423a-bfcf-013f17a2b206.

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The mammalian auditory system generates representations of the physical world in terms of auditory objects. To decide which object class a particular sound belongs to, the auditory system must recognise the patterns of acoustic components that form the acoustic “fingerprint” of the sound’s auditory class. Where in the central auditory system such patterns are detected and what form the neural processing takes that underlies their detection are unanswered questions in sensory neurophysiology. In the research conducted for this thesis I used artificial vowel sounds to explore the neural and perceptual characteristics of auditory object recognition in rats. I recorded cortical responses from the primary auditory cortex (A1) in anaesthetised rats and determined how well the spiking responses, evoked by artificial vowels, resolve the spectral components that define vowel classes in human perception. The recognition of an auditory class rests on the ability to detect the combination of spectral components that all member sounds of the class share. I generated and evaluated models of the integration by A1 responses of the acoustic components that define human vowels classes. The hippocampus is a candidate area for neural responses that are specific to particular object classes. In this thesis I also report the results of a collaboration during which we investigated how the hippocampus responds to vowels in awake behaving animals. Finally, I explored the processing of vowels behaviourally, testing the perceptual ability of rats to discriminate and classify vowels and in particular whether rats use combinations of spectral components to recognise members of vowel classes. For the behavioural training I built a novel integrated housing and training cage that allows rats to train themselves in auditory recognition tasks. Combining the results and methods presented in this thesis will help reveal how the mammalian auditory system recognises auditory objects.

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Von, Berg Shelley. "The effect of vowels on nasalance measures and nasality judgments /." abstract and full text PDF (UNR users only), 2002. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3060378.

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Rauber, Andréia Schurt. "Perception and production of english vowels by brazilian efl speakers." Florianópolis, SC, 2006. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/88701.

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Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.
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This study investigated the relationship between the perception and production of English vowels by 18 highly proficient Brazilian EFL speakers, most of them M.A. and doctoral students of the Graduate Program in English of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Two experiments were carried out: A production test to measure the first two formants of the learners' English and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) vowels, and an identification test with synthetic stimuli to investigate the L2 (second language) perception of English vowels. The production and perception results reveal that the Euclidean distance between the three English target pairs (/i/-/I/, /E/-/ae/, /U/-/u/) was significantly larger for the American English monolinguals than for the L2 learners, thus indicating that the Brazilians have difficulty in both producing and perceiving these vowels in a native-like fashion. Importantly, some relationship between vowel perception and production was found because the target pairs which were better perceived were also the ones produced more accurately by the L2 learners. These results provide further evidence for the fact that L2 perception outperforms L2 production.

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MacLeod, Andrea Asenath Nora. "Production and perceptions of VOT and high vowels by bilingual and monolingual speakers of Canadian English and Canadian French /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8248.

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Lopez, Lydda. "Vowels in the 305: A First Pass at Miami Latino English." FIU Digital Commons, 2015. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1797.

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In this paper, I present preliminary findings of the first-large scale, systematic study of English Latino vowels in Miami. Sociolinguistic interviews were conducted with 25 Miami-born participants: 10 Anglo Whites and 15 Latinos with varying degrees of Spanish fluency. Here I focus on the vowel quality (/i, ɪ, ai, æ, ɔ, u /) in the speech of the 2nd and 3rd generations to examine the nature of influence of Spanish on English in Miami over the past 60 years. I conduct an in-depth analysis of the vowel productions of two female speakers, Maria & Blaze, to show the range of vowel productions in Miami Latino English. The vocalic analysis is comprised of a minimum of 15 non-repeating tokens of each vowel. These vowels were extracted from interview data and analyzed for F1, F2, and F3 values using PRAAT. Two allophones of /æ/ were considered: pre-nasal and pre-non-nasal, since Latinos in other regions have shown to resist pre-nasal /æ/ raising (Thomas 2001).

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Cox, Neil Bernard. "Assessment of vocal pathology through computerized analysis of perturbation in vowels." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/29081.

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This thesis involved the development, validation and "calibration" of computerized methodologies for analysis of short-time perturbations in vowels, including mathematical analyses of the effect of measurement errors, verification using synthesized data, and evaluation using real data. Such methodologies have been proposed for improved diagnosis and management of laryngeal pathology. Significant effects were observed in mathematical analyses of quantization and pitch-period demarcation for three popular algorithms; the harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), the relative average perturbation (RAP) and the directional perturbation quotient (DPQ). A severe underestimation of the HNR caused by such errors was demonstrated. The effect was shown to depend on high frequency components of the vowel. Errors affecting the use of the RAP in measurement of jitter and shimmer were quantified, and methods of compensation were proposed. The DPQ demonstrated a dependence on perturbation magnitude. Such errors influence the interpretation and comparison of results. A number of new measures were developed. The RAP and the DPQ were generalized for variation of the number and spacing of points. The HNR was modified to account for a data offset and for reduction of the influence of jitter and shimmer. A new measure of time domain noise called the correlation factor (CF) was introduced, along with new measures of cyclic perturbation. Issues in Fourier spectrum analysis that affect measures of spectral noise were discussed. Methods for taking advantage of fast Fourier transforms and window tapering were described, along with methods for reducing dependence on formant structure. A new method for "optimizing" pitch-period demarcation markers was shown to be effective at reducing errors for all but the most severely perturbed waveforms. Cross-correlation was combined with parabolic interpolation to obtain high resolution pitch-period demarcation at moderate sampling frequencies. An analysis of synthetic vowels was used to comparatively evaluate the influences of fundamental frequency, vowel type, perturbation type, perturbation level, pitch-period demarcation and quantization. Some findings were: 1) Interpolation is recommended for most measures when the sampling frequency is 20 kHz or less. 2) Optimization of pitch-period markers significantly improved the analyses. 3) Both the offset and the accuracy of pitch-period demarcation can significantly affect measures of time domain noise. 4) Measures of shimmer and noise were affected by fundamental frequency and vowel type. 5) Jitter affected measures of other characteristics. 6) Window tapering reduced the sensitivity of measures of spectral noise to pitch-period demarcation errors. 7) Measures of spectral noise were far more sensitive to jitter than measures of time domain noise. Prolongations of /a/ from 206 male subjects and 194 female subjects were analyzed. The computed measures were correlated with subjective judgements of hoarseness, and used to discriminate among pathologies. Some findings were: 1) Logarithmic transformation was recommended for measures of jitter and shimmer. 2) Measures of time domain noise were generally superior to measures of jitter, shimmer or spectral noise. 3) The best single measure was the correlation factor (CF). 4) The correlation with hoarseness was improved through linear combination of the CF with a measure of jitter, leading to r≈.84 for males and r≈.80 for females. 5) Segregation of sexes was recommended. 6) Improved classification for males was obtained through separation into four diagnostic classes. 7) Improved classification for both males and females was obtained through inclusion of measures of perturbation patterns. 8) In an open test, the best classifiers had an average recognition rate of approximately 74% for distinguishing normal speakers, and 71% for detecting cancer subjects. 9) Computer classification matched or exceeded the ability of trained listeners.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of
Graduate

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BharrathSingh, Kathy. "Prototypes and the perceptual magnet effect in the perception of vowels." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ57602.pdf.

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Krothapalli, Chandrika. "Developing Predictor Surfaces for Vowels and Voiced Fricatives for Lip Synchronization." NCSU, 2001. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-20010318-122753.

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KROTHAPALLI, CHANDRIKA. Developing Predictor Surfaces for Vowels and Voiced Fricatives for Lip Synchronization. (Under the direction of David F. McAllister, Robert D. Rodman and Donald Bitzer.)This paper describes a method to construct predictor surfaces for mouth parameters, using Delaunay triangulation. The first and second moments of the input speech signal are mapped to the shape of the mouth. Predictor surfaces are built for four external shape parameters of the mouth. The surfaces include shapes for vowels and some voiced fricatives. Described also is a method for developing real time animation synchronized with sound for vowel and voiced fricative utterances with or without silence and sequences of utterances. The content or kind of speech is not known in advance. Spectral analysis is used to classify the type of sound. Training sounds are used to generate predictor surfaces. Voiced samples containing single sound without any mouth movement during utterance are used to train the system. All the extreme mouth positions and frequently occurring mouth shapes are taken into consideration during training. Relative values of the mouth parameters are set for these sounds; interpolatory surfaces are built using this known data and are used to predict the parameter values for future recordings. Hermite cubic polynomials are used to generate the shapes necessary to depict a human mouth and the jaw. Voice of three speakers is recorded and a comparison of the surfaces of these speakers is made. A speaker-dependent lip synchronization system that develops animation for vowel and voiced fricative utterances is developed.

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Van, den Heever Cornelius Marthinus. "Tswana first language interference on English vowels / C.M. van den Heever." Thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/2283.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Vowels'

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