National Repository of Grey Literature 33 records found  previous11 - 20nextend  jump to record: Search took 0.01 seconds. 
Final schwa in Dutch
Kratochvíl, Tomáš ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Elšík, Viktor (referee)
This thesis deals with final schwa in Dutch in final segments -e and -en, which are in most of contemporary Dutch dialects homophonous because of the elision of the final nasal. The first part of the research was designed as a study of the pronunciation of native Dutch speakers. The subject of this part of research was an analysis of recordings of the text designed specifically for the purposes of the analysing of the final schwa focusing on the homophony of final -e and -en. This part used a pair of sentences which containing potentially homophonous substantives which differed in their grammatical number. The second part of this research consisted of the perception test using short recordings of semantically ambiguous sentences in order to find out how native speakers of Dutch differentiate grammatical number in cases where singular and plural forms of words in sentences are homophonous. Although I didn't find any convincing evidence of the influence of elision of nasal on the preceding schwa, the results of the perception test show that the perception of homophonous words differing in their grammatical number is based mainly on the semantics of the word in question and its context. Keywords: Dutch - phonology - phonetics - homophony - schwa
Final schwa in Dutch
Kratochvíl, Tomáš ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Elšík, Viktor (referee)
This thesis deals with final schwa in Dutch, especially in ending segments -e and -en, which are today in most of Dutch dialects homophonous because of the elision of final nasal. The first part of the research was designed as a study of the pronunciation of native Dutch speakers. The subject of this part of research was an analysis of recordings of text designed specially for the purpose of the analysis of final schwa with focus on the homophony of final -e and -en. This part used sentences which differed only in the grammatical number a substantive; in some cases verbs were also used. The second part of this research consisted of the perception test with short recordings of semantically ambiguous sentences, with purpose of finding out how native speakers of Dutch differentiate grammatical number in cases where singular and plural forms of words in sentences are homophonous. Keywords: Dutch - phonology - phonetics - homophony - schwa
The Czech fricative trill /ř/ and its realization by non-native speakers of Czech
Zábojová, Lenka ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Štěpánová, Veronika (referee)
The thesis in its theoretical part discusses the rhotics, including the Czech trills, and especially focuses on articulatory, perceptual and acoustic properties of the fricative trill [ř]. Attention is also paid to possible corrections of disorders of pronunciation. In the experimental part the research of the realization of the trill [ř] by non-native speakers of Czech is described. This research mainly deals with differences in articulation, which are produced by the non-native speakers of Czech (specifically the native speakers of German, Polish, Russian and Vietnamese language). Key words: rhotics, trills, devoicing, trilling, foreigner accent, language level.
Characteristic of hesitation sounds in Czech and the level of their perceptional intrusiveness
Průchová, Tereza ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Zíková, Magdalena (referee)
This thesis deals with the issue of hesitation sounds in spoken Czech. The theoretical and the descriptive part focuses primarily on the description of hesitation sounds as one of the relatively common features of a spontaneous speech, their typology, mapping possible pragmatic functions they may have in different communication situations, and the tendency of their positioning in a discourse. By using a perception test, the aim of the practical part is to discover how the perceptional intrusiveness of hesitation sounds in the form of filled pauses is perceived by a listener, compared to silent pauses. The hypothesis behind this experiment is based on the assumption that silent pauses will be perceived as more intrusive than filled pauses. The statistically supported results confirm this hypothesis; however, due to a relatively narrow range and a low number of respondents and the specific choice of test items, such conclusion cannot be generalized beyond the frame of the given material. Key words: hesitation sound, level of intrusiveness, perception test
Electropalatographic study of voicing assimilation in Czech alveolar plosives
Vaněčková, Kateřina ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Machač, Pavel (referee)
The phonological contrast of voicing is based on several phonetic differences which are yet to be satisfactorily explained. The most obvious of them is the presence of vocal cords vibration which has so far been considered crucial in Czech. For capturing the differences in other dimensions, the concept of the strength of articulation, or fortis/lenis contrast have been established. There are some rare cases in languages when the couple of phonemes with the voicing contrast differs also in another feature that cannot be explained by the fortis/lenis dimension correlates. This is the case of Czech alveolar plosives which have been described to differ in their place of articulation: the linguopalatal contact is more anterior for [t] that for [d]. The main aim of this study is to ascertain whether this contrast can indicate the original phoneme in the contexts where the voicing contrast is neutralized due to assimilation. Nevertheless, our electropalatographic data from 7 speakers of Czech show that not only the phonemes do not seem to influence the anteriority of the voicing realisation, but also the very asymmetry of linguopalatal contact in the voicing realisations tends to be neutralised in the segmental context used in our study, that is in coda position in the word-final syllable followed by the...
Voicing in German speakers'pronunciation of Czech
Pospíšilová, Lucie ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Martínek, František (referee)
The thesis is concerned with the German speakers' pronunciation of the Czech language, specifically with the issue of the voicing of obstruents. The phonological voicing is realized differently in Czech and German and the assimilation of voicing follows diverse principles. The pronunciation is often underestimated in education. The objective of the thesis is to find out the most frequent mistakes and to propose some improvements for tuition. I have thoroughly analysed 20 read speeches made by German speakers. I have also compared course books from the point of view of pronunciation engagement. The most problematic issue appeared to be the assimilation of voicing on the boundaries of syllables and words. The main contribution of the thesis should be the summary of German speakers' pronunciation difficulties and the materials which can be used for further tuition.
The effect of education on the ability to disguise one's voice
Vyhnálková, Lenka ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Machač, Pavel (referee)
(in English): Voice disguise can potentially occur in every utterance that is associated with any criminal case. In order to identify the perpetrator it is necessary to analyze the speech and understand how the different types of voice disguise can affect the speaker's voice qualities. This thesis focuses on the ability of voice disguise, portraying three groups of speakers in relation to their educational background. The aim of this work is to determine the strategies adopted by the speaker to conceal his/her identity and furthermore it poses the question whether differences among the three groups of speakers, their choice of strategy and its inherent success can be found. The basis for this research stems from 86 recordings which were undertaken in Pilsen and Prague with 43 young people aged 20 to 31. Two read utterances, one undisguised and the other freely disguised, were obtained from each of the participants and were compared with each other. The results show that the preferred forms of voice disguise appeared to involve changes in phonation - especially decrease or increase of fundamental frequency of the speaker's voice. Among the three groups of speakers, their choice and the success of the chosen strategy only minor differences could be found, yet for a final confirmation of this...
Parametric synthesis and perceptual verification of Czech trills
Koppová, Martina ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Machač, Pavel (referee)
There is a parametric description of American English sounds suitable for parametric synthesis using high-level parametres in the HLSyn system, upon which the Stevens and Bickley system was created as the type of synthesis based on Denis Klatt's formant synthesis and combining the aspects of formant and articulatory synthesis. The aim of this work was to create a parametric description of Czech vibrants, i. e. /r/ and /ř/, synthesize these sounds and examine whether they are considered natural or not in a perception test. The perception test has shown that it is possible to synthesize the simple vibrant /r/ without any problems; the synthesis was based on modification of sounded alveolar explosive parametres and the modification was perceived as natural. However, the fricative vibrant /ř/ proved to be too complicated to be synthesized and even though we tried to follow its development according to real data it was still perceived as unnatural.
Word-level pronunciation reduction in spotaneous speech and identification of speech units
Tomanová, Eliška ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Zíková, Magdalena (referee)
The thesis deals with the issue of word-level pronunciation reductions and with the identification of reduced word forms. The first part of the thesis focuses on the degree of the phonetic features' stability and presents an analysis of selected words from dialogues with a high degree of spontaneity. The results of this research confirm that the most stable features of speech are the fricativness of sibilants and / /ř , voice, the formant structure of vowels and the nasality of the nasal consonant. The closure of the explosives and the quality of vowels prove, on the other hand, to be relatively unstable features. The second part of the thesis focuses on perceptual tests, which are used to verify the identifiability of the selected words in relation to the degree of reduction and the type and complexity of the context. Furthemore, the thesis tries to determine the phonetic features, which are under given conditions relevant for the appropriate identification of words. The research proved, that the most often noted phonetic features correspond to the above mentioned features with high stability. Moreover, it was also confirmed, that the recognizability of words depends on the degree of their reduction and the type of the context: strongly reduced words without any context tend to be very difficult...
Word-level phonetic variability in public speaking
Kodytková, Carmen ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Zíková, Magdalena (referee)
This thesis concentrates on phonetic variability of words in public speaking. In the first part of the thesis, the aim was to summarize the existing knowledge about the characteristics and principles of spontaneous speech, about phonetic features of Czech speech sounds and about factors that may influence type and degree of reduction. Then we summarize the results of older studies done on other languages (esp. on Dutch and German) and outline a possible application of results from word variability analyses. In the second part of this thesis we look at five Czech words - protože, prostě, myslím, samozřejmě and určitě. We set several groups of variants according to the degree of reduction for each word, we examine stability of their phonetic features and survey whether position (initial, medial, final and I = F) in intonation unit and/or speed of pronunciation of the chosen word has an influence on degree of reduction. Five to eight hierarchical groups of variants were set for each chosen word. Stability of phonetic features in four types of speech sounds (vowels, nasals, unvoiced plosives and unvoiced sibilants) is in line with the existing observations (e.g. Machač, 2004). Speed of pronunciation of the word had an influence on the degree of reduction in words protože, prostě, samozřejmě and určitě,...

National Repository of Grey Literature : 33 records found   previous11 - 20nextend  jump to record:
See also: similar author names
1 Machač, P.
5 Machač, Petr
1 Macháč, Patrik
6 Macháč, Pavel
2 Macháč, Peter
5 Macháč, Petr
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