London rhythm NWAV39[1] - Amazon S3 · Rhythm in speech • Syllable-timed languages Duration of...

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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

Transcript of London rhythm NWAV39[1] - Amazon S3 · Rhythm in speech • Syllable-timed languages Duration of...

Page 1: London rhythm NWAV39[1] - Amazon S3 · Rhythm in speech • Syllable-timed languages Duration of units (e.g. syllables, vowels) is near equal Mandarin, Spanish, French • Stress-timed

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

Page 2: London rhythm NWAV39[1] - Amazon S3 · Rhythm in speech • Syllable-timed languages Duration of units (e.g. syllables, vowels) is near equal Mandarin, Spanish, French • Stress-timed

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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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London

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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

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London: vowelsElderly Anglo speaker Young non-Anglo speaker

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London: discourse features

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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

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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

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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

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Time-aligned segmentation

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Vocalic PVI: groups of speakers

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Vocalic PVI: inner vs. outer London

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Vocalic PVI: ethnicity

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Vocalic articulation rate: age

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Correlation vocalic PVI and articulation rate

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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

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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

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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)

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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.