Cross-linguistic <i>f</i>0 differences in bilingual speakers of English and Korean

Cheng, Andrew

doi:10.1121/10.0000498

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…For the same reason and, additionally, to account for the non-linear perception of F0 ranges in different frequency regions ( Patterson, 2000 : 42), pitch range (or span) was measured as the difference between the 90th and 10th percentile in semitones (80% range; see e.g., Busà & Urbani, 2011 ; Mennen et al, 2012 for other studies using these metrics). Pitch dynamism (or overall variability of pitch / coefficient of variation) was operationalized using the pitch dynamism quotient (pdq) ( Hincks, 2004 ; see e.g, Cheng, 2020 ; Lee & Van Lancker Sidtis, 2017 for other studies using this metric), defined as the standard deviation of the F0 distribution of a given speaker divided by its mean in Hz.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Trini Sing-Song: Sociophonetic variation in Trinidadian English prosody and differences to other varieties

Meer

Fuchs

2021

Lang Speech

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The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of variability in pitch may be considered a characteristic, endonormative feature of Trinidadian English (TrinE) at the level of speech production and contribute to what is popularly described as ‘sing-song’ prosody. Based on read and spontaneous data from 111 speakers, we analyze pitch level, range, and dynamism in TrinE in comparison to Southern Standard British (BrE) and Educated Indian English (IndE) and investigate sociophonetic variation in TrinE prosody with a view to these global F0 parameters. Our findings suggest that a large pitch range could potentially be considered an endonormative feature of TrinE that distinguishes it from other varieties (BrE and IndE), at least in spontaneous speech. More importantly, however, it is shown that a high degree of pitch variation in terms of range and dynamism is not as much characteristic of TrinE as a whole as it is of female Trinidadian speakers. An important finding of this study is that pitch variation patterns are not homogenous in TrinE, but systematically sociolinguistically conditioned across gender, age, and ethnic groups, and rural and urban speakers. The findings thus reveal that there is a considerable degree of systematic local differentiation in TrinE prosody. On a more general level, the findings may be taken to indicate that endonormative tendencies and sociolinguistic differentiation in TrinE prosody are interlinked.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Trini Sing-Song: Sociophonetic variation in Trinidadian English prosody and differences to other varieties

Meer

Fuchs

2021

Lang Speech

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“…Languages can differ in terms of whether a suprasegmental dimension is exploited at all, in addition to how a language might carve up a potential suprasegmental space (e.g., number of tonal contrasts). Within an individual bilingual, the acoustic variability within each language can also be related to the social identities a talker adopts within each language (see discussion in [8]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an effort to understand what aspects of an individual's voice vary across languages and what are more or less fixed talker-specific attributes, researchers have compared spectral properties of bilingual speech. Results have been decidedly mixed [8,9,10]. For example, a small group of English-Cantonese bilinguals (n = 9) in did not differ in mean fundamental frequency (F0), but exhibited greater variability in F0 [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Together, these bodies of literature invite us to consider whether bilingual talkers have the "same" voice in each of their languages. Using a new corpus of conversational Cantonese-English bilingual speech-SpiCE [12]-we look at spectral properties [8,9,10,11], and also examine how acoustic variation is structured, following the work of [2,3,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bilingual acoustic voice variation is similarly structured across languages

Johnson¹,

Babel²,

Fuhrman³

2020

Preprint

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When a bilingual switches languages, do they switch their "voice"? Using a new conversational corpus of speech from early Cantonese-English bilinguals (N = 34), this paper examines the talker-specific acoustic signature of bilingual voices. Following prior work in voice quality variation, 24 filter and source-based acoustic measurements are estimated. The analysis summarizes mean differences for these dimensions, in addition to identifying the underlying structure of each talker's voice across languages with principal components analyses. Canonical redundancy analyses demonstrate that while talkers vary in the degree to which they have the same "voice" across languages, all talkers show strong similarity with themselves.

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“…However, while there is no shortage of research in cultural psychology pertaining to the ethnocultural practices and beliefs of Korean Americans and the effects of assimilation, biculturalism, and the like, the main focus of linguistic inquiry has tended to be on the maintenance of Korean as a heritage language in this populations (Lee 2002;Shin 2005Shin , 2016 rather than on the characteristics of Korean Americans' English. Despite the overall under-representation of Korean American English in sociophonetic literature, three recent studies examined the production of some segmental and suprasegmental variables, including the THOUGHT and TRAP vowels of Koreans in New Jersey (Lee 2016), the GOAT vowel of Koreans in Texas (Jeon 2017), and the vocalic fundamental frequency of Koreans in California (Cheng 2020a). These studies are limited to production work and do not address the perception of Korean American speech.…”

Section: Korean Americans and Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Ethnicity on Identification of Korean American Speech

Cheng

Cho

2021

Languages

Self Cite

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Research on ethnic varieties of American English has found that listeners can identify speaker ethnicity from voice alone at above-chance rates. This study aims to extend this research by focusing on the perception of race and ethnicity in the voices of ethnically Korean speakers of English. Bilingual Korean Americans in California provided samples of English speech that were rated by 105 listeners. Listeners rated the speakers on their likelihood of being a certain race or ethnicity (including Asian and White). Listeners who were Korean themselves rated the speakers as more likely to be Asian and Korean, whereas non-Asian listeners rated the speakers as more likely to be White. Non-Asian listeners also demonstrated a negative correlation between rating a voice as Asian and rating a voice as belonging to a native-born American, while Asian listeners did not. Finally, a positive correlation between pitch and perceived Asianness was found for female speakers, corresponding to listeners’ metalinguistic commentary about the hallmarks and stereotypes of Asian or Asian American speech. The findings implicate the listener’s own ethnic identity and familiarity with a speech variety as an important factor in sociolinguistic perception.

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Cross-linguistic f0 differences in bilingual speakers of English and Korean

Cited by 12 publications

References 17 publications

The Trini Sing-Song: Sociophonetic variation in Trinidadian English prosody and differences to other varieties

The Trini Sing-Song: Sociophonetic variation in Trinidadian English prosody and differences to other varieties

Bilingual acoustic voice variation is similarly structured across languages

The Effect of Ethnicity on Identification of Korean American Speech

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