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Pre-fortis shortening in Czech English
Hrychová, Helena ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Pípalová, Renata (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the role of a phenomenon called pre-fortis shortening in Czech English. This term is used by phoneticians to represent the shortening of vowels before fortis consonants. It is not characteristic only of English, Matthew Chen even suggested that it could be a language-universal phenomenon. In English it is a very significant feature since English vowel duration was proven by various experiments to serve as a cue to the perception of the voicing characteristic of the following consonant. This thesis advances our understanding of pre-fortis shortening in Czech English where vowel duration was hypothesized to correlate with the speaker's proficiency in English. As a result, this work aims to examine the extent to which 20 Czech students divided into two categories depending on their English level (A2, C1) exploit this phenomenon and whether their proficiency has an impact on vowel durations before fortis and lenis consonants. They were recorded while reading 40 English sentences and their vowel durations were compared to those obtained from two native English speakers.
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Relationship between the strength of Czech accent and the duration of vowels before obstruents
Fejlová, Dita ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Tichý, Ondřej (referee)
This bachelor thesis aims to inspect the presence or absence of a feature called pre- fortis shortening in English spoken by Czechs. The term denotes the shortening of a vowel preceding a voiceless obstruent. This feature is known to appear in various languages like Russian, French, Italian; indeed, Matthew Chen even suggests it is language-universal. In English the feature is very prominent and because it affects speech perception, it is even considered a primary indicator of the voicing of the following obstruent. A study included in this thesis examines the extent to which 12 female speakers of Czech English, sorted into 3 categories according to their proficiency in pronunciation, mark the distinction between words like "bet" and "bed" by vowel shortening. The study does not exploit minimal pairs like these, but vowel-obstruent sequences taken from long read passages of BBC news. The the fortis/lenis character of the final obstruent contained in these sequences is a discerning parameter which always separates the data into two groups, the vowel durations of which are then compared. Statistical analysis of the data showed that contrary to the expectations, speakers with native-like pronunciation were not the ones who displayed the most massive usage of pre-fortis shortening. Possible reasons for...
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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...
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Program For Assistance In Learning English Pronunciation
Malucha, Jan
This study presents a compact MATLAB tool to assist students in learning the correctpronunciation of English language, with use of three known methods for estimation of speech signalvoicing. A short introduction into speech voicing analysis is given and the developed programis briefly described. The practical use of the program was verified by test with non-native speaker.
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Influence of airflow control with vocal cords on dynamic stand stabilization
Rybáčková, Kristýna ; Šorfová, Monika (advisor) ; Lopot, František (referee)
Title: The effect of airway control on stance dynamic stability Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to find out whether and how will the influence of vocal cords modulation be manifested on the dynamic stabilization of the standing body during translational shifts of the supporting surface of different intensities and A-P directions. Thus, building on the findings of Massery et al (2013). Methods: The thesis has the character of qualitative research. The experiment was attended by 23 healthy probands, of which 7 men and 16 women aged 20-40 years. Spirometry was used to test the objectivity of airway airflow during breathing / phoning maneuvers with different vocal cords positioning and dynamic computer posturography using the Neurocom Smart Equi Test System and its Motor Control Test, which evaluated the effectiveness of automatic postural responses. We connected the posturograph with the spirometer using the Kistler accelerometer (type 8766A100BB). The course of the experiment was simultaneously recorded by a camera (GoPro Hero 7). The Smart EquiTest System generated three postural perturbations of different intensity (S - sub treshold, M - threshold, L - saturating) in two directions (anterior translation / posterior translation). The measured data were then processed in the program Neurocom...
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Pre-fortis shortening in Czech English
Hrychová, Helena ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Pípalová, Renata (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the role of a phenomenon called pre-fortis shortening in Czech English. This term is used by phoneticians to represent the shortening of vowels before fortis consonants. It is not characteristic only of English, Matthew Chen even suggested that it could be a language-universal phenomenon. In English it is a very significant feature since English vowel duration was proven by various experiments to serve as a cue to the perception of the voicing characteristic of the following consonant. This thesis advances our understanding of pre-fortis shortening in Czech English where vowel duration was hypothesized to correlate with the speaker's proficiency in English. As a result, this work aims to examine the extent to which 20 Czech students divided into two categories depending on their English level (A2, C1) exploit this phenomenon and whether their proficiency has an impact on vowel durations before fortis and lenis consonants. They were recorded while reading 40 English sentences and their vowel durations were compared to those obtained from two native English speakers.
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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...
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Assimilation of voicing in Slovak speakers of English
Ortutayová, Dominika ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Popelíková, Jiřina (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to examine the influence of the mother tongue, more specifically Slovak, in the speech of the Slovak speakers of English and subsequent appearance of the assimilation of voicing in the environments in which it is expected in both Slovak and English and then in those which are typical only for Slovak - and the production of the assimilation of voicing in those environments in English is considered an error. In the first part we introduce and specify the process of voicing in speech in general and then in the second part we proceed with the presentation of the concept of the second language acquisition and language interference. The empirical part is based on the analysis of the material spoken by 18 students, both males and females, reading the BBC bulletins. Our results show that the assimilation of voicing is an integral part of the speech of Slovaks in English, proving that they assimilate extensively in the environments typical for the Slovak language. Those are only partially typical for English as well - and thus they simultaneously produce assimilation errors. This knowledge could be taken in account during the learning process in order to eliminate such errors as much as possible. Key words: voicing, assimilation, Slovak, English, interference
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Synthesis of the voicing characteristics of Czech plosives and their preliminary perceptual verification
Urban, Kristian ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Studenovský, David (referee)
This paper will discuss voicing characteristics of Czech plosives. In the theoretical part of the paper, vocal cords are described as well as their participation on voicing. Next, a brief history, division, and application of voice synthesisers is discussed. Synthesizers allow the user to manipulate individual characteristics of any speech signal. In the practical part of the paper, HLsyn is used to synthesize individual Czech plosives with various voicing characteristics. Perceived voicing is then evaluated based on preliminary perceptual verification. Keywords: voicing, plosives, synthesis, HLsyn, perception test
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Relationship between the strength of Czech accent and the duration of vowels before obstruents
Fejlová, Dita ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Tichý, Ondřej (referee)
This bachelor thesis aims to inspect the presence or absence of a feature called pre- fortis shortening in English spoken by Czechs. The term denotes the shortening of a vowel preceding a voiceless obstruent. This feature is known to appear in various languages like Russian, French, Italian; indeed, Matthew Chen even suggests it is language-universal. In English the feature is very prominent and because it affects speech perception, it is even considered a primary indicator of the voicing of the following obstruent. A study included in this thesis examines the extent to which 12 female speakers of Czech English, sorted into 3 categories according to their proficiency in pronunciation, mark the distinction between words like "bet" and "bed" by vowel shortening. The study does not exploit minimal pairs like these, but vowel-obstruent sequences taken from long read passages of BBC news. The the fortis/lenis character of the final obstruent contained in these sequences is a discerning parameter which always separates the data into two groups, the vowel durations of which are then compared. Statistical analysis of the data showed that contrary to the expectations, speakers with native-like pronunciation were not the ones who displayed the most massive usage of pre-fortis shortening. Possible reasons for...
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