Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton December 11, 2002

Effects of Speaking Rate on Temporal Patterns of English

  • Bruce L. Smith
From the journal Phonetica

Abstract

Individual subjects have been found to show considerable variation in the extent to which they manifest certain temporal patterns of English in their speech. Because at least some differences across speakers appear to be related to the fact that some subjects typically talk faster/slower than others, the present investigation examined variability in temporal patterns by having subjects produce target stimuli in sentences spoken at normal and fast rates. The results from these manipulations of speaking rate generally supported previous findings related to temporal patterns as a function of ‘natural’ variations in rate of speech. That is, there was considerable variability among the 15 subjects in the normal speaking rate condition in the extent to which temporal parameters such as final-syllable vowel lengthening occurred. In addition, there was substantial variation in these parameters in the fast speaking rate condition, and some systematic changes in certain patterns also occurred as a function of the rate change. For example, vowel lengthening preceding voiced obstruents tended to decrease when subjects spoke at a fast versus a normal rate, whereas phrase-final vowel lengthening was typically greater when they spoke at a faster rate.


verified


References

1 Anderson, S.; Port, R.: Evidence for syllable structure, stress and juncture from segmental durations. J. Phonet. 22: 283–315 (1994).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30205-0Search in Google Scholar

2 Baum, S.R.; Blumstein, S.E.: Preliminary observations on the use of duration as a cue to syllable-initial fricative consonant voicing in English. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 82: 1073–1077 (1987).10.1121/1.395382Search in Google Scholar

3 Brown, B.L.; Giles, H.; Thakerar, J.N.: Speaker evaluation as a function of speech rate, accent, and context. Lang. Commun. 5: 207–220 (1985).Search in Google Scholar

4 Chen, M.: Vowel length variation as a function of the voicing of the consonant environment. Phonetica 22: 129–159 (1970).10.1159/000259312Search in Google Scholar

5 Crystal, T.H.; House, A.S.: Segmental durations in connected speech signals: preliminary results. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 72: 705–716 (1982).10.1121/1.388251Search in Google Scholar

6 Crystal, T.H.; House, A.S.: A note on the variability of timing control. J. Speech Hear. Res. 31: 497–502 (1988a).10.1044/jshr.3103.497Search in Google Scholar

7 Crystal, T.H.; House, A.S.: Segmental durations in connected-speech signals: current results. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 83: 1553–1573 (1988b).10.1121/1.395911Search in Google Scholar

8 Davis, S.; Summers, W.V.: Vowel length and closure duration in word-medial VC sequences. J. Phonet. 17: 339–353 (1989).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30449-8Search in Google Scholar

9 Edwards, J.; Beckman, M.E.; Fletcher, J.: The articulatory kinematics of final lengthening. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 89: 369–382 (1991).10.1121/1.400674Search in Google Scholar

10 Harris, M.S.; Umeda, N.: Effects of speaking mode on temporal factors in speech: vowel duration. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 56: 1016–1018 (1974).10.1121/1.1903366Search in Google Scholar

11 House, A.S.; Fairbanks, G.: The influence of consonant environment upon the secondary acoustical characteristics of vowels. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 25: 105–113 (1953).10.1121/1.1906982Search in Google Scholar

12 de Jong, K.: An articulatory study of consonant-induced vowel duration changes in English. Phonetica 48: 1–17 (1991).10.1159/000261868Search in Google Scholar

13 de Jong, K.; Zawaydeh, B.A.: Stress, duration, and intonation in Arabic word-level prosody. J. Phonet. 27: 3–22 (1999).Search in Google Scholar

14 Kent, R.D.; Adams, S.G.; Turner, G.S.: Models of speech production; in Lass, Principles of experimental phonetics (Mosby, St. Louis 1996).Search in Google Scholar

15 Klatt, D.H.: Interaction between two factors that influence vowel duration. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 54: 1102–1104 (1973).10.1121/1.1914322Search in Google Scholar

16 Klatt, D.H.: Vowel lengthening is syntactically determined in a connected discourse. J. Phonet. 3: 129–140 (1975).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)31360-9Search in Google Scholar

17 Klatt, D.H.: Linguistic uses of segmental duration in English: acoustic and perceptual evidence. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 59: 1208–1221 (1976).10.1121/1.380986Search in Google Scholar

18 Laeufer, C.: Patterns of voicing-conditioned vowel duration in French and English. J. Phonet. 20: 411–440 (1992).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30648-5Search in Google Scholar

19 Lehiste, I.: Suprasegmentals (MIT Press, Cambridge 1970).Search in Google Scholar

20 Miller, J.L.; Baer, T.: Some effects of speaking rate on the production of /b/ and /w/. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 73: 1751–1755 (1983).10.1121/1.389399Search in Google Scholar

21 Miller, J.L.; Green, K.P.; Reeves, A.: Speaking rate and segments: a look at the relation between speech production and speech perception for the voicing contrast. Phonetica 43: 106–115 (1986).10.1159/000261764Search in Google Scholar

22 Miller, J.L.; Grosjean, F.; Lomanto, C.: Articulation rate and its variability in spontaneous speech: a reanalysis and some implications. Phonetica 41: 215–225 (1984).10.1159/000261728Search in Google Scholar

23 Moon, S.-J.; Lindblom, B.: Interaction between duration, context and speaking style in English stressed vowels. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 96: 40–55 (1994).10.1121/1.410492Search in Google Scholar

24 Oller, D.K.: The effect of position in utterance on speech segment duration in English. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 54: 1235–1247 (1973).10.1121/1.1914393Search in Google Scholar

25 Peterson, G.E.; Lehiste, I.: Duration of syllable nuclei in English. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 32: 693–703 (1960).10.1121/1.1908183Search in Google Scholar

26 Port, R.F.: The influence of tempo on stop closure duration as a cue for voicing and place. J. Phonet. 7: 45–56 (1979).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)31032-0Search in Google Scholar

27 Ray, G.B.: Vocally cued personality prototypes: an implicit personality theory approach. Commun. Monogr. 53: 266–276 (1986).10.1080/03637758609376141Search in Google Scholar

28 Smith, B.L.: Variations in temporal patterns of speech production among speakers of English. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 108: 2438–2442 (2000).10.1121/1.1290514Search in Google Scholar

29 Smith, B.L.; Brown, B.L.; Strong, W.J.; Rencher, A.C.: Effects of speech rate on personality perception. Lang. Speech 18: 145–152 (1975).10.1177/002383097501800203Search in Google Scholar

30 Smith, B.L.; Hillenbrand, J.; Ingrisano, D.: A comparison of temporal measures of speech using spectrograms and digital oscillograms. J. Speech Hear. Res. 29: 270–274 (1986).10.1044/jshr.2902.270Search in Google Scholar

31 Summers, W.V.: Effects of stress and final-consonant voicing on vowel production: articulatory and acoustic analyses. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 82: 847–863 (1987).10.1121/1.395284Search in Google Scholar

32 Tsao, Y.-C.; Weismer, G.: Interspeaker variation in habitual speaking rate: evidence for a neuromuscular component. J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. 40: 858–866 (1997).10.1044/jslhr.4004.858Search in Google Scholar

33 Umeda, N.: Vowel duration in American English. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 58: 434–445 (1975).10.1121/1.380688Search in Google Scholar

34 Weismer, G.; Ingrisano, D.: Phrase-level timing patterns in English: effects of emphatic stress location and speaking rate. J. Speech Hear. Res. 22: 516–533 (1979).10.1044/jshr.2203.516Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2002-12-11
Published in Print: 2002-12-01

© 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel

Downloaded on 26.1.2025 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1159/000068348/html
Scroll to top button