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Phone durations in multi-syllable words with Czech analogues in Czech English
Růžek, Jan ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee)
This diploma thesis examines the foreign accent of Czech speakers in English. We focus on the factor of phone duration, which relates to both segmental and prosodic levels of phonetic description and is one of the correlates of prosodic prominence and speech rhythm. 84 words were selected from the texts avaible in the Prague Phonetic Corpus that have analogues in the loanword lexicon of Czech. Pronunciations of these words by native speakers (professional radio reporters) were compared with productions by Czech university students. The students were recorded prior to atteding a course in English phonetics. Based on our observations of durational patterns, we infer some plausible tendencies to be expected in Czech production of English. As durational interference from Czech into English has up to this date been a relatively unresearch domain, the present study adopts a qualitative research methodology. Keywords: Duration, Foreign Accent, Czech English, Interference 6
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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.
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Aspiration of English plosives in Czech students of English studies
Pospíšilová, Andrea ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Dušková, Libuše (referee)
Voice onset time (VOT) was shown to provide an effective basis on which to differentiate individual plosives in English. This thesis carries out an analysis of recordings of university students to determine whether specific phonetic in- struction improves pronunciation of non-native speakers of English with focus on aspiration of plosives and VOT. In the first part, a theoretical background is provided with definitions of plosives, VOT and its use and measurement. It also reviews the factors that have been shown to affect the VOT values. In addition, a brief overview of second language acquisition is given, with focus on English pronunciation. The second, empirical part describes the material and method used in the analysis and provides figures and results of statistical tests that were run. The results suggest a significant increase in VOT values as a result of one semester of Phonetics and Phonology course. Furthermore, individual plosives and positions in a word were examined sep- arately to determine whether there are any differences as suggested by the theoretical overview. Keywords: voice onset time, aspiration, Czech English, second language acquisition
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Spectral Changes of Vowels at Different Levels of Articulation Rate
Pavlíková, Helena ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Studenovský, David (referee)
The thesis deals with short vowel changes in different level of articulation rate in Czech. Read texts in three levels of articulation rate from 13 people were used. The duration of vowels and the frequencies of F1-F3 were measured, the frequencies in Hertz were normalized using Lobanov's normalizing method. The data were analyzed with Student's t-test. The duration of the vowels was shortened with the higher level of articulation rate. The vowels were systematically centralized and the vowel space shrank with the higher level of articulation rate. The centralization was strongest at the edges of the vowel space - /i/, /a/, /u/. The least changes were found in /e/. Particularly the frequencies of F1 and F2 were influenced, no systematic changes were found in F3. Even the vowels strongly influenced with preceding consonant were centralized, and there was no difference between stressed and unstressed vowels. The centralization was stronger when the vowels were chosen with regard to their duration (compared to the level of articulation rate). The centralization was stronger in the speakers with higher differences in articulation rate levels. Keywords: articulation rate, vowel formant frequencies, duration, reduction, centralization, coarticulation
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Acoustic properties of word stress in read Czech English
Liska, Jan ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee)
key words: Czech English, foreign accent, word stress, word accent, stressed syllable, duration, f0, acoustic cues. This study investigates the acoustic properties of word stress in Czech English. The notion of foreign accent is introduced and its drawbacks are presented. Further on the various influences on the perceived degree, or strength, of foreign accent are discussed. Faulty realization of word stress is identified as one of the factors that contribute to unintelligibility of non-native speech (Benrabah, 1997; Hahn, 2004; Cutler, 1984). In Chapter 2 we compare the results of studies that used speakers of a variety of languages and form a basic theory on the acquisition of acoustic cues to word stress. We are mostly interested in f0 and duration. This theory, based on the feature hypothesis (McAllister et al., 2002 in Lee, Guion & Harada, 2006), states that languages that have a similar stress system to that of English (Dutch, Arabic) use their native cues to signal word stress, while non-contrastive languages (Vietnamese, Czech) prefer cue/s that are phonologically active on segmental level in their native language. Speakers of Vietnamese, a tone language, were found to prefer f0 over duration (Nguyen, 2003), so for Czech, a language that uses phonological vowel duration, it is expected that...
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Spectral properties of the source signal as speaker-specific cues
Vaňková, Jitka ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Volín, Jan (referee)
Despite a continuous development in computer sciences and related disciplines, speaker identification remains one of the most challenging tasks in forensic phonetics. The reason for this is the fact that our knowledge of how identity is reflected in the acoustic signal is still limited. The present study aims to contribute to the search of speaker-specific cues by examining spectral properties of the source signal. Specifically, it examines to what extent three short-term measures of spectral tilt, namely H1-H2, H1-A1 and H1-A3, can discriminate 16 Czech female speakers. It also addresses the influence of vowel quality, syllable status with respect to stress and position of stress group in the utterance on the values of these measures. The results show that these parameters do have some discriminative power, though the contribution of individual parameters differs. The study indicates that discrimination of speakers is the most successful in stressed syllables and argues that individual vowels could differ in their usefulness for speaker identification. The results of LDA based on these short- term measures of spectral tilt were complemented with long-term measures, namely alpha index, Kitzing index and Hammarberg index which quantify the slope of the LTAS. The present study suggests that...
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Therapeutical procedures based on acoustic and communicative material
Bečvářová, Jana ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee)
The aim of this thesis was to explain therapeutic possibilities of sound in all its connections. Sound is described in relation to several disciplines. Initially, sound is presented as an acoustic and psychoacoustic phenomenon, followed by characterization of physiology of auditory system and findings from psychology of music. The focus of the thesis is anchored in the chapter dedicated to healing and corrective effects of sound - the music therapy. After short history context is presented, the characteristics and analysis of contemporary situation are discussed. Several types of sound - noise, music and sound of speech - are studied in their positive as well as negative influence on psychic and physical health of human. Current research is represented by selection of relevant papers (n=9) which are assessed by the criterion of credibility and rigidness of methodology. This aspect is also perceived as an essential one for the future research in the area of sound effect on human psychic and physical health.
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Relationship between the strength of foreign accent and the presence of glottalization
Moravcová, Jana ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Weingartová, Lenka (referee)
In this paper, we are interested in what the part of glottalization is in a foreign accent. We focus on Czech speakers of English and an evaluation of their utterances. Those speakers analyzed for the purposes of this paper were evaluated in advance by a perceptual test. In accordance with the results of the test, they were divided into three groups: A, containing those speakers with an English close to the native standard; C, containing speakers with a strong Czech accent; and B, containing speakers with a detectable foreign accent which, however, is not evaluated as a Czech one. The aim of this paper is to determine in what way speakers of each group use glottalization and whether the use is identical to the assumptions of the previous studies.
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Linguopalatal contact in Czech palatal stops
Bartošová, Petra ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Machač, Pavel (referee)
The topic of this bachelor thesis is an articulation analysis of Czech palatal stops [ť] and [ď] using electropalatography. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the average and maximum rate of linguopalatal contact in the palatal area as well as to examine the dynamic process of this contact. It also features a short analysis of occlusion duration of Czech palatal stops. The theoretical part of the thesis contains a description of stop consonants, palatals, and the research method - electropalatography. Since thorough analysis of such speech sounds in Czech has not been extensive, the thesis should contribute to a more detailed look on articulation effects during the production of Czech palatal stops. It should also explore the impact of several factors on the production of those speech sounds - in particular voicing, differences between speakers, vocalic environment and nature of the material. In addition, it might be valuable among EPG studies as a considerable number of different speakers (6) is analysed.
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The occurrence of word-initial glottalization in Slovak English
Uhrinová, Mária ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Popelíková, Jiřina (referee)
The occurrence of word-initial glottalization in Slovak English Mária Uhrinová Praha, 2012 Abstract The features of prosodic structure were shown to influence the occurrence of word-initial glottalization in English. The aim of the present thesis is to analyze the occurrence of glottalization in word-initial vowels in Slovak English in relation to prosodic structure, specifically to word stress and position in the intonational phrase. The semantic status of words (lexical vs. grammatical) is also considered. The first part provides a brief overview of key concepts in second language acquisition with focus on acquisition of second language phonology. In addition, a summary of previous research on glottalization is given. The empirical part of this thesis is based on the recordings of 15 Slovak speakers of English. The results suggest that Slovak speakers use glottalization extensively in their production of English. This should be taken into consideration when looking for better methods for teaching English pronunciation. Keywords: glottalization, prosodic structure, Slovak, English, foreign accent
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