Acoustic analysis of English pure vowels in clear and conversational speech : an experimental study at the University of Basra

Abstract EN

The present study aims at examining the acoustic properties of English pure vowels produced by native and non-native speakers in clear and conversational speech (henceforth CLR and CNV speech respectively).

This study concentrates on the most important aspects of acoustic phonetic research, acoustic analysis, vowel intelligibility, sex-related differences, as well as comparing clear to conversational speech.

It is hypothesized that the acoustic properties of English pure vowels in conversational speech are different from those in clear speech.

Moreover, the strategies employed by non-native speakers, as far as exhibiting the acoustic properties of the vowels involved in both styles, are different from those of native speakers.

The researchers have followed the precise procedures presented by some investigators, particularly those procedures followed by Ferguson and Port (2002) as far as the work on speech styles and vowel intelligibility is concerned.

Two recording sessions are conducted for both groups of talkers and all recordings were saved and analysed using Praat, which is a free scientific, authentic, and academic software for doing phonetics by computer.

The results revealed that all talkers produced the vowels with longer durations, higher values of F0, greater values of pitch range, and larger vowel space areas in clear than in conversational speech.

Most female talkers produced higher values than males for the four acoustic measures.

The findings of the experiment have shown that native and non-native speakers differ in the strategies they employ, and that clear speech is more intelligible than conversational speech.

This paper has been extracted from an M.A.

dissertation submitted by Mr.

Firas F.Ali, under the supervision of Dr.Hamid Al-Hamadi to the Council of the College of Arts, University of Basra.