Accent Profile Qin Yan Dept of Electronic & Computer Engineering, Brunel University November, 2002

Accent Profile (AP) ParametersCommentsRank Phonetic Parameters (%) Substitutions, insertion, deletion Difference in phonetic transcription*** Timing and Delivery Correlates Speaking RatePhonemes or words per min* Phoneme DurationVowel duration elongation and complete pronunciation all affect duration * Excessive Co-articulationClipped or short duration sounds** Supra-laryngeal and Laryngeal Correlates Formants of the vowels2 nd formants of vowel is most sensitive to the accent *** Glottal pulse (Voice Quality) Duration and shapes of opening and closing of glottal folds * Prosody Correlates F 0 meanAverage of pitch* F 0 rangeRange of pitch* Pitch NucleusProminent point (stressed) within an intonation group (Tone Unit) *** Initial Pitch RisingFirst pitch slope of a narrative utterance** Final Pitch LoweringFinal fall pitch slope of a narrative utterance** High rise terminal (HRT)Final rise pitch slope of a narrative utterance**

Content X Phonetic Difference : Phonetic Parameters X Acoustic Difference : X Super-laryngeal and Laryngeal Parameters X Prosody Parameters X Time and Delivery Parameters

Phonetic Parameters WordAmericanBritishAustralian Johnʤ^ n ʤƆn daydei dæidæi immediateı ’ mi:ʤ^ti ’ mi:ʤətə ’ mi:di:ət chassisʃ æ sı ʃ æ zi:  Phonetic System i.e. BEEP has five extra vowels: /ax ea ia ua oh/ Compared with CMU, Australian has distinctive vowels /æ i/--/ai/, / æ u/--/au/ X Phoneme substitution/deletion/insertion Examples of Phonetic Difference

Super-laryngeal Parameters Formants of Vowels X Formants Spaces of UK US and AU English accents 1. Australian has higher 2 nd formants than British and American 2. Australian has lower 1 st formants than British and American 3. 2 nd formants has the widest frequency range up to 2kHz ---- the most sensitive formants to accents Formants Comparison of Australian, British and American (female)

Super-laryngeal Parameters Formants of Vowels II X F1/F2 Panel of British American and Australian 1. /ae/ and /eh/ in BAusE are raised 2. /uw/ and /aa/ in BAusE are fronted 3. /iy/ and /ih/ in BAusE are closer 4. GenAm has the lowest /ao/

Laryngeal Parameters X Glottal pulse : Duration and shapes of opening and closing of glottal folds X Voice Type : creaky, normal, harsh etc. X British with received pronunciation tend to go into creak in the end of utterance with a low fall nucleus

Prosody Parameters X F0 mean * X F0 Range * X Pitch Nucleus *** X Initial Pitch Rising ** X Final Pitch Lowering ** X Final Pitch Rising **

Pitch Nucleus X Prosody Hierarchy X Pitch Accent : either a pitch rise or fall X Pitch Event : a combination of pitch rise or fall or vice versa X Tone Unit : a continuous sequence of several pitch events within a phrase or utterance X Utterance :composite trajectory of the pitch signal across a number of tone-unit in an utterance. X Rise/Fall/Connection (RFC) model X British speaker has steeper rise/fall than American speakers on average X American speaker tends to speak lower in pitch than British speakers in final words

Time and Delivery Parameters X Australian possess slowest speaking rate and longest vowel Duration X Excessive Co-articulation