Voicing Assimilation in Czech and Slovak Speakers of English: Interactions of Segmental Context, Language and Strength of Foreign Accent

Abstract

This study focuses on voicing assimilation across word boundaries in the speech of second language (L2) users. We compare native speakers of British English to speakers of two West Slavic languages, Czech and Slovak, which, despite their many similarities, differ with respect to voicing assimilation rules. Word-final voicing was analysed in 30 speakers, using the static value of voicing percentage and the voicing profile method. The results of linear mixed-effects modelling suggest an effect of first language (L1) transfer in all L2 English speaker groups, with the tendency to assimilate being correlated with the strength of foreign accent. Importantly, the two language groups differed in assimilation strategies before sonorant consonants, as a clear effect of L1-based phonetic influence.

Dialectal differences in voicing assimilation patterns: The case of Moravian Czech English

“…The current study presents new data but also uses acoustic data from our previous study (Skarnitzl & Šturm, 2017). The "new" dataset involves speakers of Moravian Czech L2 English (MorCZ), whereas the "previous" dataset was based on speakers of Bohemian Czech L2 English (BohCZ) and Slovak L2 English (SK), in addition to a control British English (BrE) L1 group not considered here.…”

“…Each recording was approximately 4 minutes long and consisted of 450-500 words, depending on the text version. The speakers from Skarnitzl and Šturm (2017) were recorded in the Prague studio under the same conditions but, due to the corpus structure, the text versions were not matched between the "la" and "ma" groups, and a wider range of texts was used as well (16 versions).…”

“…The implementation of the voicing contrast was examined by Fejlová (2013) or by Skarnitzl and Šturm (2016), whereas the process of voicing assimilation itself was analysed by Skarnitzl and Poesová (2008), Kanioková (2011) and Šturm (2014, 2017). The latter work (Skarnitzl & Šturm, 2017) focused on voicing assimilation in L1 British English and in the L2 speech of Czech and Slovak speakers. An interesting finding was that whereas the two L2 groups showed comparable patterns before obstruents, the context before sonorant consonants yielded disparate patterns: the (Bohemian) Czech participants tended to produce voiceless pre-sonorant obstruents (at[t] least), but the Slovak speakers had a tendency to assimilate voicing to the following sonorant segment, producing a voiced sound (at[d] least).…”

“…Evaluation of foreign accent strength (degree of nativeness) for an L1 British English (BrE) control group and for L2 groups of more ("ma") and less accented ("la") Moravian Czech (MorCZ) and Slovak (SK) speakers. For Bohemian Czech speakers, see Skarnitzl and Šturm (2017).…”

Phonetic aspects of strongly-accented Czech speakers of English

“…Pospíšilová's (2011) analysis showed that even relatively advanced speakers, with no explicit instruction in the sound patterns of English, aspirate significantly less (i.e., produce shorter voice-onset-time values) than after having received instruction in phonetics and phonology. Skarnitzl and Šturm (2017) focused on the assimilation of voicing in Czech (and also Slovak) speakers of English across the word boundary. They found that both more and less accented speakers tend to assimilate voiceless consonants to the following voiced one (e.g., nice day as [naɪz deɪ]) to a similar extent, but that the more accented group devoiced phonologically voiced consonants more in pre-sonorant contexts (e.g., phase one as [feɪs wʌn]).…”