Phonetics and Speech Sciences Group, Department of Computational Linguistics, University of Zurich, Zurich CH-8050, Switzerland.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2021 Oct;150(4):2836. doi: 10.1121/10.0006537.
Foreign-accented speech typically deviates segmentally and suprasegmentally from native-accented speech. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the role of amplitude envelope (ENV), segment duration (DUR), and speech rate (SR) on Italian listeners' ability to identify native-accented Italian in utterances produced by Zurich German speakers. In experiment 1, listeners judged in a two-alternative forced-choice perception task which of the two stimuli in a trial they perceived as more native-like. Stimuli in each trial only varied in ENV and DUR, which were retrieved either from a native Italian speaker [first language (L1) donor] or from a German speaker of Italian [second language (L2) donor]. Results revealed that listeners make use of both DUR and ENV to identify the more native-like stimuli, but the effect of ENV was more subtle. In experiment 2, SR differences (resulting from native and non-native segment duration differences in experiment 1) were normalized for. It was found that this drastically reduced the effect of segment durations in terms of perceived nativeness; however, the ENV effect still remained. This was not the case in a control group of listeners without competence in Italian. Though effects were subtle, the study shows that ENV cues contribute to the percept of nativeness in L2 speech.
带有外国口音的语音通常在分段和超分段上与母语口音的语音有所不同。本研究进行了两项实验，旨在探究幅度包络（ENV）、音段时长（DUR）和语速（SR）对意大利语母语者识别苏黎世德语说话者母语口音的影响。在实验 1 中，被试在一个二选一的感知任务中进行判断，他们认为哪个刺激更像母语者的发音。在每个实验中，刺激仅在 ENV 和 DUR 上有所不同，这些差异分别来自母语为意大利语的说话者（第一语言[L1]捐献者）或母语为德语的意大利语说话者（第二语言[L2]捐献者）。结果表明，被试可以利用 DUR 和 ENV 来识别更像母语者的刺激，但 ENV 的影响更为微妙。在实验 2 中，标准化了由于实验 1 中母语和非母语音段时长差异而导致的语速差异。结果发现，这极大地降低了音段时长对感知母语度的影响；然而，ENV 的影响仍然存在。对于不具备意大利语能力的对照组被试来说，情况并非如此。尽管影响较小，但该研究表明，ENV 线索对第二语言语音的母语度感知有贡献。
