london rhythm nwav39[1] - amazon s3 · rhythm in speech • syllable-timed languages duration of...
TRANSCRIPT
A study of rhythm in London:Is syllable-timing a feature of Multicultural London English?
Eivind Torgersen (Sør-Trøndelag University College) & Anita Szakay (University of British Columbia)
NWAV 39 San Antonio
Rhythm in speech
• Syllable-timed languages▫ Duration of units (e.g. syllables, vowels) is near
equal▫ Mandarin, Spanish, French
• Stress-timed languages▫ Larger durational variability of units▫ English, German, Dutch
• Continuum from syllable- to stress-timed languages
Pairwise Variability Index (PVI)
• Low et al. (2000), Grabe & Low (2002)▫ Average relative difference (e.g. duration) between
successive pairs of units• Low PVI▫ Regularity from unit to unit▫ Considered more syllable timed
• High PVI▫ Lack of regularity from unit to unit▫ Considered more stress timed
Different languages and vocalic PVI(Deterding 2001, Grabe & Low 2002)Language PVI
Mandarin 27.0
Spanish 29.7
French 43.5
Singapore English 52.3
British English (RP) 57.2
German 59.7
Dutch 65.5
New Zealand English
• Szakay (2008) examined vocalic PVI for Maori and Pakeha NZ English
• Maori NZ English was significantly more syllable-timed than Pakeha NZ English▫ Maori is mora-timed: considered more syllable
timed▫ Effect of language and dialect contact on rhythmic
patternsLanguage PVI
Maori NZ English 46.4
Pakeha NZ English 57.2
PVI and speech rate in Pakeha NZE
• Correlation between vocalic PVI and speech rate• Speech rate goes up, vocalic PVI goes down▫ Faster speech is more syllable timed for Pakeha
NZ English speakers▫ Faster articulation rate is a feature of syllable-
timed languages (Arvaniti 2009, Dauer 1983)
London
Multicultural London English (MLE)
• Linguistic innovation in inner London▫ Young male non-Anglo speakers in lead
• Dialect and language contact a probable cause▫ Innovations spreading to majority ethnic groups
via multicultural friendship groups• Innovation documented for phonological,
grammatical and discourse features
London: vowelsElderly Anglo speaker Young non-Anglo speaker
London: discourse features
Suprasegmental innovation?
• Dialect and language contact lead to more syllable-timed rhythm in NZ English▫ Inner-London speakers should be more syllable
timed than outer-London and RP speakers▫ Non-Anglo speakers should be more syllable
timed than Anglo speakers
Data
• 36 young speakers from Hackney▫ Born 1986-88
• 7 old speakers from Hackney▫ Born 1918-38
• 4 speakers from Eva Sivertsen’s Hackney data▫ Born 1874-92
• 7 old speakers from Havering▫ Born 1914-43
Methodology
• 45-90 seconds of uninterrupted speech▫ Narratives to control for stylistic variation
• Segmentation of vocalic and consonantal elements and pauses▫ >10,000 vocalic elements
Time-aligned segmentation
Vocalic PVI: groups of speakers
Vocalic PVI: inner vs. outer London
Vocalic PVI: ethnicity
Vocalic articulation rate: age
Correlation vocalic PVI and articulation rate
Conclusions 1
• Inner London is more syllable timed than outer London▫ Hackney speakers in relation to Havering▫ Havering is more similar to the PVI value for RP
(Grabe & Low 2002)▫ The data suggest that inner London has been more
syllable-timed for a long time
Conclusions 2
• Young non-Anglo speakers are more syllable timed than young Anglo speakers▫ More syllable-timed rhythm may be a feature of
MLE• Fast speech is a feature of MLE?▫ Correlation between PVI and articulation rate for
non-Anglos
Comparison with work elsewhere
• More syllable-timed rhythm is a feature of contact varieties of English▫ Maori NZ English▫ Singapore English
• Multicultural Copenhagen Danish appears to be more syllable timed than Copenhagen Danish (Hansen & Pharao 2010)
References• Arvaniti, A. (2009) Rhythm, timing and the timing of rhythm. Phonetica 66: 46-63.• Cheshire, J., Fox, S., Kerswill, P. & Torgersen, E. (2008) Ethnicity, friendship network and social practices as the motor of
dialect change: Linguistic innovation in London. Sociolinguistica 22: 1-23.• Dauer, R. M. (1983) Stress-timing and syllable-timing reanalyzed. Journal of Phonetics 11: 51-62.• Deterding, D. (2001) The measurement of rhythm: A comparison of Singapore and British English. Journal of Phonetics 29:
217-230.• Gabrielatos, C., Torgersen, E., Hoffmann, S. & Fox, S. (2010) A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of indefinite article forms
in London English. Journal of English Linguistics.• Grabe, E. & Low, E. L. (2002) Durational variability in speech and the rhythm class hypothesis. In Gussenhoven, C. &
Warner, N. (eds.) Papers in Laboratory Phonology 7. Berlin: Mouton. 515-546.• Hansen, G. F. & Pharao, N. (2010) Prosody in the Copenhagen multiethnolect. In Quist, P. & Svendsen, B. A. (eds.)
Multilingual Urban Scandinavia. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 79-95.• Kerswill, P., Torgersen, E. & Fox, S. (2008) Reversing “drift”: Innovation and diffusion in the London diphthong system.
Language Variation and Change 20:451-491.• Low, E. L., Grabe, E. & Nolan, F. (2000) Quantitative characteristics of speech rhythm: ‘Syllable–timing’ in Singapore
English. Language & Speech 43: 377-401.• Nolan, F. & Asu, E. L. (2009) The pairwise variability index and coexisting rhythms in language. Phonetica 66: 64-77.• Szakay, A. (2008) Ethnic dialect identification in New Zealand: The role of prosodic cues. Saarbrücken: VDM.• Torgersen, E., Gabrielatos, C., Hoffmann, S. & Fox, S. (forthcoming) A corpus-based study of pragmatic markers in London
English. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory.• Yuan, J. & Liberman, M. (2008) Speaker identification on the SCOTUS corpus. Proceedings of Acoustics ’08.