ObjectiveThegoalofthisstudyistomodelgeographicvariationofUKpronunciationbasedonthepronunciationofthevowel/aɪ/.Thousandsoftokensofthevowelintheword‘five’wereminedfromtheAudioBritishNationalCorpusandcomparedacrossseventeenregionsoftheUK.Thisstudywasdesignedwithanexpectationofaspectrumofdialectsexistingacrossthecountrywithmonophthongal realizations(/i/asin‘feeve’)primarilyfoundintheNorth,i.e.,someScottishvarieties,andmorediphthongization(/aɪ/asin‘five’)occurringintheSouth.
MethodologyDataMining• 8,567tokensof‘five’wereretrievedfromtheBNC.• “Baddata”wasexcluded(whispery,overlapping,or
exceptionallyhigh-pitchedspeech),yielding1,773tokenstomanuallytrimandanalyze.
FunctionalDataAnalysis(seefig.1)• OrthogonalcubicpolynomialswerefittedtoeachF1and
F2track.• Tokenswithslopesthatlinedupwithexpectations
(fallingF1andrisingF2values)wereincludedinthestudy,yielding1,049tokenstotal.
ModalAnalysis(seefig.2)• Speakermediansforeachwordwerebinnedandthen
modallyplottedinincrementsof50HzforF1Maxand100HzforF2Min.
• Distinctareasofhighvowelqualityconcentrationsuggestthatourdatasetof/aɪ/F1MaxandF2Minvaluesisbimodal.
GeographicAnalysis(seefigs.3,4)• DistancefromOrkney(northernmostlocation)wasestablishedasanindependentvariable.
• Foreachlocation,mediangeographiccoordinateswereloaded,andDistancefromOrkneycalculated.
• AcorrelationwasfoundbetweenDistancefromOrkneyandF2Min.
References1. JohnColeman,LadanBaghai-Ravary,
JohnPybus,andSergioGrau(2012)AudioBNC:theaudioeditionoftheSpokenBritishNationalCorpus.PhoneticsLaboratory,UniversityofOxford.http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/AudioBNC
2. Ferragne,Emmanuel,andFrancoisPellegrino.“FormantFrequenciesofVowelsin13AccentsoftheBritishIsles.”JournaloftheInternationalPhoneticAssociation,vol.40,no.1,2010,pp.1–34.
3. Kretzschmar,WilliamA.LanguageandComplexSystems.NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2015.Print.
4. Morrison,GeoffreyS.VowelInherentSpectralChange.Springer,2015.Print.
5. ScottishCorpusofTexts&Speech.2007.DepartmentofEnglishLanguage,UniversityofGlasgow,Scotland,UK.
6. Wells,J.C.AccentsofEnglish.Cambridge,Cambridgeshire.NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,1982.Print.
AcknowledgementsThisprojectwasmadepossiblebytheUniversityofGeorgia’sCenterforUndergraduateResearchOpportunitiessummerfellowshipandtheOxfordUniversityPhoneticsLaboratory.IwouldalsoliketothankmentorsProf.JohnColemanandDr.WilliamA.Kretzschmar,alongwithGISlibrarianMeaganDuever,whodedicatedtheirtimeandexpertisetothisproject.
ModelingGeographicVariationinPronunciationofUnitedKingdomEnglishHowareBritishaccentsdistributedacrosstheUK?
KatieHenley,UniversityofGeorgia– [email protected],UniversityofOxford– [email protected]
Fig.2:Thecontourmapof‘five’speakers’medianfrequenciesillustratesclustersofF1/F2valuesandsuggestsamultimodaldistributionofvowelqualities.
Fig.3:TheF2minimumvariableissignificantlycorrelatedwithDistancefromOrkney:(N=229,“p=.000,”1-tailed).TheNorth-to-SouthdeclineinF2minimumindicatessuccessiveloweringofthevowel,from[i:]to[eI]to[aI],illustratingthehistorical"GreatVowelShift"mappedoutinUKgeography.
Fig.4:Thismapillustratesthegeographicdistributionof230‘five’speaker’saverageF2MinvaluesacrossseventeenrepresentativelocationsintheUK.Whilethesevaluesarenotthesameatanylocation,theincreaseinproportionoflightercoloredpointsaslatitudedecreasessuggeststhatF2Minvaluesarecontinuousacrossthespaceandnotsharplyboundedasbyisoglosses.
Fig.1:F1andF2frequenciesofthevocalicportion(/aɪ/andtransitionintothe/v/)ofarepresentativetokenof‘five’.Solidline:observeddata;dashedline:cubicpolynomialoftheformy=a1x3 +a2x2 +a3x+a4 .Coefficientsrepresentamountof~-shapedwiggle,breadthofcurvature,slope(steepnessanddirection),andaverageheight,respectively.
(Hz)
Representativelocation
F2Minimum
F1Maximum
Recommended
