Influence of English r-resonances on intelligibility of speech in noise for native English and German listeners

Antje Heinrich (1) , Yvonne Flory , Sarah Hawkins (1)

1 Department of Linguistics

Non-rhotic British English speakers and Germans living in England were compared in their use of short- and long-domain -resonances (cues to an upcoming [ɹ]) in read English sentences heard in noise. The sentences comprised 52 pairs differing only in /r/ or /l/ in a minimal-pair target word (). Target words were cross-spliced into a different utterance of the same sentence-base (match) and into a base originally containing the other target word (mismatch), making a four-stimulus set for each sentence-pair. Intelligibility of target and some preceding unspliced words was measured. English listeners were strongly influenced by -resonances in the sonorant immediately preceding the critical /r/. A median split of the German group showed that those who had lived in southeast England for 3-20 months used the weaker long-domain -resonances, whereas Germans who had lived in England for 21-105 months ignored all -resonances, possibly in favour of word frequency. A preliminary study of German speech showed differences in temporal extent and spectral balance (frequency of F3 and higher formants) between English and German -resonances. The perception and production studies together suggest sophisticated application of exposure-induced changes in acoustic-phonetic and phonological knowledge of L1 to a partially similar sound in L2.

Mots clés: speech intelligibility; L2 acquisition; r-resonances

Domaines: Linguistique

Antje Heinrich, Yvonne Flory, Sarah Hawkins. Influence of English r-resonances on intelligibility of speech in noise for native English and German listeners. Speech Communication, 2010, 52 (11-12), pp.1038. ⟨10.1016/j.specom.2010.09.009⟩. ⟨hal-00698850⟩