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This study investigates how California English speakers adjust nasal coarticulation and hyperarticulation on vowels across three speech styles: speaking slowly and clearly (imagining a hard-of-hearing addressee), casually (imagining a friend/family member addressee), and speaking quickly and clearly (imagining being an auctioneer). Results show covariation in speaking rate and vowel hyperarticulation across the styles. Additionally, results reveal that speakers produce more extensive anticipatory nasal coarticulation in the slow-clear speech style, in addition to a slower speech rate. These findings are interpreted in terms of accounts of coarticulation in which speakers selectively tune their production of nasal coarticulation based on the speaking style.
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Variation in the production of nasal coarticulation by speaker age and speech style
This study investigates apparent-time variation in the production of anticipatory nasal coarticulation in California English. Productions of consonant-vowel-nasal words in clear vs casual speech by 58 speakers aged 18–58 (grouped into three generations) were analyzed for degree of coarticulatory vowel nasality. Results reveal an interaction between age and style: the two younger speaker groups produce greater coarticulation (measured as A1-P0) in clear speech, whereas older speakers produce less variable coarticulation across styles. Yet, duration lengthening in clear speech is stable across ages. Thus, age- and style-conditioned changes in produced coarticulation interact as part of change in coarticulation grammars over time.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2140183
- PAR ID:
- 10578472
- Publisher / Repository:
- Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- JASA Express Letters
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 2691-1191
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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