This study examined the impact of phonetic and phonological properties of L1 German (GE) on the p... more This study examined the impact of phonetic and phonological properties of L1 German (GE) on the perception of the American English (AE) approximant contrasts
Multimodal Speech Animation from Electromagnetic Articulography Data
ABSTRACT Virtual humans have become part of our everyday life (movies, internet, and computer gam... more ABSTRACT Virtual humans have become part of our everyday life (movies, internet, and computer games). Even though they are more and more realistic, their speech capabilities are, most of the time, limited and not coherent and/or not synchronous with the corresponding acoustic signal. We describe a method to convert a virtual human avatar (animated through key frames and interpolation) into a more naturalistic talking head. Speech-capabilities were added to the avatar using real speech production data. Electromagnetic articulography (EMA) data provided lip, jaw and tongue trajectories of a speaker involved in face to face communication. An articulatory model driving jaw, lip and tongue movements was built. Constraining the key frame values, a corresponding high definition tongue articulatory model was developed. The resulting avatar was able to produce visible and partly occluded facial speech movements coherent and synchronous with the acoustic signal.
Research on language-specific tuning in speech perception has focused mainly on consonants, while... more Research on language-specific tuning in speech perception has focused mainly on consonants, while that on non-native vowel perception has failed to address whether the same principles apply. Therefore, non-native vowel perception was investigated here in light of relevant theoretical models: the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) and the Natural Referent Vowel (NRV) framework. American-English speakers completed discrimination and native language assimilation (categorization and goodness rating) tests on six nonnative vowel contrasts. Discrimination was consistent with PAM assimilation types, but asymmetries predicted by NRV were only observed for single-category assimilations, suggesting that perceptual assimilation might modulate the effects of vowel peripherality on non-native vowel perception. Humans are born with the capacity to acquire the language of their environment, but quickly become 'tuned in' to the specific phonetic categories used in their native language. Research on adult cross-language speech perception suggests that the benefits of this perceptual attunement to native speech are often associated with a cost to discrimination of certain pairs of phones that signal a non-native phonological contrast in a language the listener has not previously been exposed to. That is, there is a sort of 'tuning out' of non-native contrasts that are irrelevant in the native language. The extent to which specific non-native contrasts are discriminable varies considerably, however, ranging from poor near-chance performance to excellent near-native performance levels. In recognition of those contrast-specific differences in discrimination, a number of theoretical models have sought to address the causes of the variation in performance. However, the majority of research on this issue has focused on discrimination of non-native consonant contrasts. Relatively little is known about the extent to which performance on non-native vowel contrasts exhibits the same range of variability, nor
All languages employ consonants and vowels as discrete contrastive subcomponents of the basic tim... more All languages employ consonants and vowels as discrete contrastive subcomponents of the basic timing units of words (syllables). These two classes of phonemes are used to differentiate between words, whose meanings can be categorically changed by switching even a single vowel or consonant, as in <pat> vs. <cat> or <pet>. They populate the lowest level of the phonological hierarchy, the segmental tier, and both classes are obligatory across spoken languages. But only some languages also make use of lexical tones, contrastive sub-syllabic fundamental frequency (pitch) variations referred to as tonemes (e.g., Jones, 1944), which for those languages comprise a third class of phonemic elements. Perceptual researchers often assume tones to be suprasegmental (e.g., So
When using ultrasound imaging of the tongue for speech recording/research, submental transducer s... more When using ultrasound imaging of the tongue for speech recording/research, submental transducer stabilization is required to prevent the ultrasound transducer from translating or rotating in relation to the tongue. An iterative prototype of a lightweight three-dimensional-printable wearable ultrasound transducer stabilization system that allows flexible jaw motion and free head movement is presented. The system is completely non-metallic, eliminating interference with corecorded signals, thus permitting co-collection and co-registration with articulometry systems. A motion study of the final version demonstrates that transducer rotation is limited to 1.25 and translation to 2.5 mmwell within accepted tolerances.
Consonantal timing and release burst acoustics distinguish multiple coronal stop place distinctions in Wubuy (Australia)
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Oct 1, 2016
Substantial research has established that place of articulation of stop consonants (labial, alveo... more Substantial research has established that place of articulation of stop consonants (labial, alveolar, velar) are reliably differentiated using a number of acoustic measures such as closure duration, voice onset time (VOT), and spectral measures such as centre of gravity and the relative energy distribution in the mid-to-high spectral range of the burst. It is unclear, however, whether such measurable acoustic differences are present in multiple place of articulation contrasts among coronal stops. This article presents evidence from the highly endangered indigenous Australian language Wubuy, which maintains a 4-way coronal stop place contrast series in all word positions. The authors examine the temporal and burst characteristics of / t̪ t ʈ/ in three prosodic positions (utterance-initial, word-initial but phrase medial, and word-medial). The results indicate that VOT, closure duration, and the spectral quality of the burst may indeed differentiate multiple coronal place contrasts, i...
Perceptual evidence of modern Greek voiced stops as phonological categories
Interspeech, 2008
The Big Australian Speech Corpus (the Big ASC)
Proceedings of the 13th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology 14 16 December 2010 Melbourne Australia, 2015
Page 1. The Big Australian Speech Corpus (The Big ASC) Michael Wagner 1 , Dat Tran 1 , Roberto To... more Page 1. The Big Australian Speech Corpus (The Big ASC) Michael Wagner 1 , Dat Tran 1 , Roberto Togneri 2 , Phil Rose 3 , David Powers 4 , Mark Onslow 5 , Debbie Loakes 6 , TrentLewis 4 , Takaaki Kuratate 7 , Yuko Kinoshita 1 , Nenagh Kemp 8 , ...
A blueprint for a comprehensive Australian English auditory-visual speech corpus
Selected Proceedings of the 2008 Hcsnet Workshop on Designing the Australian National Corpus Mustering Languages University of New South Wales 4 5 December 2008, 2015
The assimilation of L2 australian English vowels to L1 Japanese vowel categories: vocabulary size matters
Interspeech, 2008
Learning to perceive the sound patterns of English
Do English speakers assimilate Mandarin tones to English prosodic categories?
Unfamiliar regional accents disrupt spoken word recognition by L2 and L1 learners and L1 adults, ... more Unfamiliar regional accents disrupt spoken word recognition by L2 and L1 learners and L1 adults, and confuse ASR and smart systems. Little is known, however, about which aspects of non-native accents hinder word recognition, or what processes are involved. We assessed how Australian English (AusE) listeners' recognition of words in unfamiliar accents is affected by two types of cross-accent perceptual assimilation: 1) other-accent phones that constitute 'deviant' versions of the matching AusE phonemes (Category Goodness assimilation: CG); 2) phones that cross a native phonological boundary, i.e., assimilate to mismatching AusE phonemes (Category Shift: CS). Eyetracking ("visual world") revealed the timecourse of lexical competition during online identification of words spoken in Jamaican (JaME: vowel differences from AusE) and Cockney English (CknE: consonant differences), while choosing among four printed choice words: target, onset and offset competitors, unrelated distracter. Recognition was slower, and both competitor types were considered more and longer for JaME and CknE than AusE pronunciations; these effects were stronger for CS than CG differences. We conclude that: 1) perceptual assimilation plays a key role in cross-accent word recognition; 2) lexical competition involves not only onsets but also later aspects of words; 3) vowel and consonant variations affect lexical competition similarly.
Peeling back the layers of time : integrating speech perception on the scales of stimulus time, experiential time, and developmental time
Journal of Phonetics, 2015
What is the role of temporal integration in the development of speech perception? The answer depe... more What is the role of temporal integration in the development of speech perception? The answer depends on how one construes ''temporal integration.'' Over which time scale does the integration take placethe microscopic scale of stimulus time, the more extended scale of ...
Agostini, T. & Best, C. T. (in press, 2014). Exploring Processability Theory-based hypotheses in the second language acquisition of a child with autism. In C. Bettoni & B. Di Biase (eds.) Grammatical development in second languages: Exploring the boundaries of Processability Theory. EUROSLA Monog...
Accommodation in Mean f During Mother-Infant and Father-Infant Vocal Interactions: A Longitudinal Case Study
Journal of Child Language, 1997
!Xóõ click perception by English, Isizulu, and Sesotho listeners
Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences Barcelona 3 9 August 2003, 2015
Accent on language development : using dialects to trace how children come to recognise spoken words
Psychology, 2015
Six- and twelve-month-olds' discrimination of native versus non-native between- and within-organ fricative place contrasts
Uploads
Papers by Catherine Best