While there is a growing body of research on which and how pitch features are perceived as attractive or likable, there are few studies investigating how the impression of a speaker as attractive or likable affects the speech behavior of his/her interlocutor. Recent studies have shown that perceived attractiveness and likability may not only have an effect on a speaker's pitch features in isolation but also on the prosodic entrainment. It has been shown that how speakers synchronize their pitch features relatively to their interlocutor is affected by such impressions. This study investigates pitch convergence, examining whether speakers become more similar over the course of a conversation depending on perceived attractiveness and/or likability. The expected pitch convergence is thereby investigated on two levels, over the entire conversation (globally) as well as turn-wise (locally). The results from a speed dating experiment with 98 mixed-sex dialogues of heterosexual singles show that speakers become more similar globally and locally over time both in register and range. Furthermore, the degree of pitch convergence is greatly affected by perceived attractiveness and likability with effects differing between attractiveness and likability as well as between the global and the local level.
This study investigates the vowel space of trilingual speakers of Saterland Frisian, Low German, and High German. The three vowel systems show differences in the number of distinct categories but share the majority of vowel qualities. The speakers were instructed to read vowels of all three languages in a /hVt/ frame. We examine whether the dispersion and size of the vowel space as well as interlanguage variability of individual vowels correlate with the number of vowel categories. Additionally, systematic cross-linguistic differences were measured regarding duration and mid-vowel F1 and F2. High German monophthongs were found to be produced with longer and more variable duration. Moreover, High German monophthongs were produced with smaller F1 and larger F2 values than the respective Saterland Frisian and Low German categories. These results suggest that the subjects may use the same base-of-articulation for Saterland Frisian and Low German but not for High German.
Previous investigations on Saterland Frisian report a large vowel inventory, including up to 20 monophthongs and 16 diphthongs in stressed position. Conducting a cross-dialectal acoustic study on Saterland Frisian vowels in Ramsloh, Scharrel, and Strücklingen, the objective is to provide a phonetic description of vowel category realization and to identify acoustic dimensions which may enhance the discrimination of neighboring categories within the crowded vowel space of the endangered minority language. All vowels were elicited in a /hVt/ frame. Acoustic measurements included vowel duration, mid-vowel F1 and F2, and the amount of spectral change and the spectral rate of change. The results suggest instances of phonetic attrition, i.e., merged categories, precisely where contrasts were reported to be on the retreat. The cross-dialectal comparison showed differences between the three dialects primarily within the F1 dimension at the 20% measurement point. The findings presented here contribute to the description of an endangered minority language and add to the question of which acoustic variables are used in languages with large vowel inventories to maintain or enhance the existing contrasts. Furthermore, the results underline the importance of the consideration of inter-speaker variability as well as measurements beyond the vowel target.
Prosodic entrainment is connected to various forms of communicative success. One possibility to assess successful communication in non-task-oriented everyday conversations is through the participants' perception of conversational quality. In this study we investigate whether a speaker's degree of prosodic entrainment reflects the perceived conversational quality in dating conversations. Furthermore, we ask whether prosodic entrainment can influence the perceived conversational quality in return. Based on 98 spontaneous mixed-sex dating conversations we find that conversational quality has a significant effect on a speaker's degree of pitch level entrainment. Furthermore, pitch entrainment also has a significant effect on how one's interlocutor perceives the conversational quality. However, we find differences between the two effects which suggests that what a speaker does in reaction to increased perceived conversational quality is not necessarily what an interlocutor perceives as increased conversational quality. Accordingly, while we find a bidirectional influence of prosodic entrainment and perceived conversational quality, this connection is not reciprocal in nature.
Saterland Frisian is spoken in three neighboring villages in North-West Germany, Strücklingen, Scharrel, and Ramsloh. In this study, we examine whether there is regional variation between the vowel systems of the three varieties. Speakers were instructed to read monophthongs and diphthongs in a neutral /hVt/ frame. Acoustic measurements included vowel duration, mid-vowel F1 and F2, the amount of Vowel Inherent Spectral Change (VISC, Nearey and Assmann, 1986), and the spectral rate of change (cf. Fox and Jacewicz, 2009). Results confirm large inventories for the three varieties of Saterland Frisian, although some vowels have undergone a merger with neighboring categories. The comparison of single vowel categories in the three varieties did neither reveal variation of vowel duration nor of dynamic spectral properties. Regarding static spectral properties, however, dialectal variation was observable. In Scharrel, monophthongs are more centralized in the F1 dimension. This finding is discussed with respect to the common view of local people that speakers from Scharrel speak faster than speakers from the other two places.
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