2. Ultrasound-based tongue root imaging and measurement James M Scobbie QMU With thanks to collaborators Jane Stuart-Smith, Marianne Pouplier, Alan Wrench, Eleanor Lawson, Olga Gordeeva

3. 2 Introduction Pros and cons of Ultrasound Tongue Imaging EPG/UTI experiment on English /l/ –Alveolar contact or vocalisation –Light and dark allophones of /l/ The ECB08 UTI corpus –Scottish derhoticisation and articulation of /r/ –Vowel system –A handful of /l/ again… Demo of AAA software

4. 3 UTI From qualitative “transcription” to quantitative laboratory-based studies with stabilisation

5. 4 Pros and cons of UTI Pro –Tongue root to blade in one image –Instant, real-time, easy, safe, cheap –Qualitative and quantitative analysis –Can be combined with other techniques Con –Image quality is variable –Hardly any constriction or info on passive articulator –Frame rate of video output is only ~30Hz (~33ms) –Synchronisation with acoustics is problematic –Quantitative analysis is time-consuming and as yet poorly developed… what to measure?

6. 5 Future: corrected high speed data

7. 6 English /l/ /l/ is lighter in onset, darker in coda Many accents have “vocalisation” in coda EPG + UTI study of 10 speakers –UTI image quality uniformly awful  –EPG results very interesting –Context was /i/+/l/ (+ {/b/, /h/, /l/}) +/i/ Pee leewards, peel beavers, peel heaps of, etc. EPG results –Reduction or loss of alveolar contact in codas –Reduced palatal contact (compared to /i/) due to /l/

8. 7 Example onset Alveolar contact in orange, palatal in green S2 typical in losing palatal contact in onset (can we pee leeward in a gentle breeze)

9. 8 No alveolar contact, more palatal contact (can we peel BBC advertising from the shop window) Example coda_b retraction

10. 9 EPG results: loss of palatal contact E + S1: light onset and dark coda in palatality Scots S2,3,4 show darker (less [i]-like) onset Question 1: what about intergestural timing? Question 2: what about the pharyngeal aspect of darkness rather than loss of palatality?

11. 10 EPG results: timing Relatively simultaneous alveolar contact and loss of palatality in onset Alveolar contact is delayed in coda (or missing) and loss of palatality occurs earlier

12. 11 Coda = vocalised and darker

13. 12 UTI: Scottish pharyngealisation? Measurement of Tongue root retraction in [i] and in [l] for a single sample speaker S2 –Coping with terrible quality UTI Find frames of maximum advancement and maximum retraction of root just above hyoid shadow) –Typical problems in measuring images

14. 13 Example onset Poor image quality Time and location of root: top of hyoid shadow

15. 14 Example onset This is only a bit better than guessing, but impression is of slight pharyngealisation

16. 15 Results (S2, n = 18) Tongue root retracts earlier in coda_b (p<0.01) –Max advancement appears to be near end of [i] vowel in onset condition and mid-way through [i] in coda_b condition –Max retraction apparently at end of [l] in onset condition and towards the end of [b] in coda_b condition [i] is less advanced in coda_b than onset (p<0.005) –There is a n.s. trend for greater pharyngealisation in coda [l]

17. 16 Conclusions Darkness as measured by decrease in palatality in /i/ context shows onset/coda differences for only some speakers –Probably dialectal: Scots /l/ is less [i]-like in onset “All” speakers show a strong timing difference –Front and back gestures dissociate in coda so that posterior gesture is earlier and alveolar (if present at all in coda) is later (“gestural dissociation”) Qualitative (and quantitative) analysis of UTI data probably shows greater pharyngealisation for all speakers’ coda than onset.

18. 17 ECB08 Ultrasound/acoustic corpus –15 teenagers (12-14) in friendship pairs (+4 11yrs) –Wordlist and some spontaneous discourse –Half from a WC and half from a MC school –Main purpose to test effect of use of UTI on vernacular speech variables Secondary purpose –Derhoticisation of coda /r/ - pharyngealisation? –Vowel space But sadly not much room for –Vocalisation of coda /l/ - pharyngealisation?

19. 18 Derhoticised coda /r/ Hiya my name's Kaj McInally My company's FinesseDecor (Scotland) Ltd I'm not a manager. I'm a painter and decorator to trade, first and foremost who just so happened to start work for myself, and then we’ve been that... kinda... successful that we've had to take on people

20. 19 Losing /r/ in Scotland Since the 1970s coda /r/-“loss” has been reported in working class speech –Not the RP-like middle-class non-rhoticity Stuart-Smith (2003) in a Glasgow corpus including 14- 15 year old children showed that WC girls have no overtly rhotic consonant for coda /r/ in approximately 90% of cases, boys in about 80% –Middle class children and older adults are rhotic, so the stratified derhoticisation is indicative of change in progress. –/r/ seems to be turning into a vowel right now –Strong impression of pharyngealisation offglide on vowels with monophthongal pharyngealisation on low back ones

21. 20 rain, with an anterior approximant, usually described as being “retroflex” (note low F3) ferry, with a tap (an approximant is more common) F3 F2 Typically rhotic tokens of Scottish /r/

22. 21 Word-final derhoticisation in ECB08 Rhotic ear (above) car (below) F3 F2 F3 F2 F3 F2 F3 F2 Derhoticised ear (above) car (below)

23. 22 Rhotic (MC) speakers Lexical sets BIRD WORD HERD merged (8/11) –Earth, verb, berth, (err) = third, word, surf, birth, fur –Could be a rhotic vowel / ɚ / No /a/ split (Pam/palm are homophones) / ʉ / is central and not very high i ɹ ʉɹ o ɹ e ɹ ɚ ɔɹ ɑɹ i ʉ o e ı ɔ ɛ a ʌ

24. 23 MC Edinburgh

25. 24 WC West Lothian

26. 25 Articulation of vowels (EF4) Phonologically, only / ɛ I  / are “lax”

27. 26 Sample ultrasound images of /r/ Tipup (LM17 onset) or tipdown (LM15 onset)

28. 27 Waterfall time sequence: hair Tongue root retraction Tongue blade raising [he] [ɹ][ɹ] [ɹ][ɹ] [ə]

29. 28 iə ʉ ə o ʌ eə ɔˤ ɛˤ ɑː  ( ʕ ) More vowels (and environments) with weak /r/ –No merger of / ɛ r/ and / ʌ r/ (8/8) –/a/ split (hat/heart) [a] vs. [ ɑ ] for the most derhotic –/ ʌ r/ is short without compensatory lengthening –High vowels create diphthongs –Pre-pausal /r/ tends to devoice Potential / ʌ / merger (hut/hurt, bud/bird) i ʉ o e ı ɔ ɛ a ʌ Derhoticising (WC) speakers

30. 29 Pre-pausal /r/ may have late (covert?) tip car Low vowels sound derhoticised, acoustically lack F2/F3 approximation, and are near-monophthongs. Articulatorily a clear rhotic gesture was retained

31. 30 Covert rhoticity occurs even in weak syllables and in spontaneous speech

32. 31 What about /l/? –If dark, is it pharyngealised? –If vocalised, is it a pharyngeal? –How are derhoticised /r/ & vocalised /l/ kept apart? –Hiphumhut –Fur/firhurt –Pillfilm –Mullbulbcult Clear difference between /r/ and /l/ in open and closed syllables /l/ in a derhoticising (WC) speaker

33. 32 UTI of laterals –Red = /  / mull (cons) & bulb (vocalised) –Blue = /ı/ film (cons) & pill (vocalised) Pharyngealisation vs. velarisation?

34. 33 UTI of laterals –Red = cult (cons /lt/) –Green = hurt (cons /t/) /l/ pharyngealised + velarised? Pharyngealised postalveolar /r/ with saddle

35. 34 /l/ compared to /o/ and / ɔ / Pharyngealisation and velarisation more extreme than in vowels

36. 35 Conclusions Onset/coda differences in /l/ in a high vowel context are well-known to involve loss of palatality and a greater pharyngeal constriction (Sproat and Fujimura 1993), plus subtle loss of alveolar contact (eg Giles & Moll) Scottish speakers who have no onset/coda difference in palatality do show increased pharyngealisation in coda (and may show very strong vocalisation, not gestural undershoot) Vocalised /l/ may be velarised while pharyngealisation occurs for consonantal /l/

37. 36 Conclusions Derhoticisation often sounds like pharyngealisation But in prepausal and other masking contexts there can be delayed covert post-alveolar constriction, due to “gestural dissociation” WC /r/ seems to be changing from consonant into vowel, with some increase in vowel space Meanwhile, MC rhotic speakers merge vowels WC /l/ and /r/ seem to be keeping distinct –Is the pharyngealised /l/ also velarised? –Is the difference purely anterior?

38. 37 AAA demo Let’s look at pharyngealisation in a derhoticising speaker –Hut vs. hurt –Bud vs. bird –Far vs. fir

39. 38 Who says you need ultrasound?