maral asiaee

This study investigates rhythmic patterns in Persian-English bilingual speech, focusing on duration-based measures in a sample of late bilingual adult males. Using various rhythmic measures, including consonantal and vocalic duration, we explored cross-linguistic differences, individual consistency, and speaker identification potential. The results revealed significant differences between Persian (L1) and English (L2), particularly in vocalic measures, whereas consonantal measures exhibited greater consistency. Cross-linguistic correlations were stronger for consonantal measures than for vocalic measures, suggesting higher individual consistency in consonant timing. Speaker identification, conducted through linear discriminant analysis, achieved the highest accuracy with consonantal measures, with stronger performance in L1 than in L2. These findings indicate that while bilingual speakers adjust their rhythmic patterns to suit L2 demands, they retain individual characteristics, especially in consonant timing. This research has implications for understanding bilingual speech production and enhancing speaker recognition technology.

Human voices are unique, and for this reason, speakers can be identified by their voices. This shows that speech sounds contain speaker-specific information that can be reflected in the acoustic properties of speech signals. There are many individuals around the world who speak two or more languages, adding a fascinating dimension of variability to language perception and production. However, it remains unclear whether bilinguals alter their voice when switching between languages. A holistic view of bilingualism suggests that bilinguals are an integrated whole that cannot be separated into distinct parts; instead, they possess their own specific linguistic configuration (Grosjean, 1989). Moreover, languages differ in their segment inventories, rules of segmental combinations, as well as spectral and rhythmic characteristics of speech. Speaking styles can also contribute to within-speaker variability in acoustic parameters. Despite these factors, little is known about the influence of language and speaking style on within- and between-speaker vocal variability. This study aims to investigate how acoustic features, specifically long-term F0 and long-term formant frequencies (F1-F4), contribute to speaker individuality in Persian-English bilingual speakers and to what extent these features can discriminate between bilingual speakers.

Using the auditory-acoustic approach, the present study examines the possibility of using durational acoustic parameters of speech rhythm for detecting the Persian speakers’ use of Azeri as a form of voice disguise. To do so, continuous speech of 5 speakers of Standard Persian and 5 speakers of Azeri, Tabrizi variety, were chosen for the acoustic and statistical analysis after completing the validity procedures. All Persian speakers were monolingual and all Azeri speakers were bilingual speakers of Azeri and Persian, who spoke Azeri as their mother tongue and Persian as their second language. Each Persian speaker was asked to narrate a lifetime experience once in Persian (Persian- Persian data), and once as an imitation of Azeri (Persian- Azeri data). Azeri speakers were also asked to narrate a lifetime experience once in Azeri (Azeri- Azeri data) and once in Persian (Azeri-Persian Data). Persian-Azeri data is the type that is considered as the disguised data in this survey. The recorded data were then annotated in five tiers: segment, CV-segment, CV-segment interval, CV-interval and syllable. In order to control the effect of any unwanted variable, one minute (±5 seconds SD) of each sound file was extracted for further acoustic and statistical analyses. A Praat script, DurationAnalyzer, was used to automatically calculate the acoustic correlates of durational parameters of speech rhythm. These parameters are: %V (the proportion which speech is vocalic), ΔC (ln) (standard deviation of the natural-log normalized duration of consonantal intervals), ΔV (ln) (standard deviation of the natural-log normalized duration of vocalic intervals), nPVI- V (rate-normalized averaged durational differences between consecutive vocalic intervals) and syllable rate.  Results revealed there was a significant difference between the proposed types of data and that%V and syllable rate best discriminated between them; however, none of the above-mentioned parameters were significantly different between Persian-Azeri and Azeri-Persian data.

Many studies in phonology and phonetics have considered a CV(C(C)) pattern for Persian syllable structure. Considering such pattern means that first, no syllable begins with a vowel in Persian and second, no two vowels can be said to be in hiatus (occur in adjacent syllables). But it seems that the situation is different in spoken mode. This article aims to study the possibility of occurrence of two vowels in adjacent syllables together, in continuous spoken Persian language. It also explores the effect of morphological elements (namely the clitics) on the degree and manner of occurrence and non-occurrence of hiatus in 1500 spoken data from Persian. To do so, we recorded the speech of 5 men and 5 women, all of whom are native Persian speakers. Their age ranges between 20 to 33, with the mean of 28.2 and a standard deviation of ±4.28. A set of data consisting of Vowel Context (No. 1)* Morphological Context* Vowel Context (No. 2) were presented to the speakers in form of 150 sentences. In Vowel Context (No. 1), we have words which end in an open syllable; since no word ends in /a/ in Persian, we only considered five vowels to end the words with (i.e. /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/ & /ɑ/). Vocalic Enclitics include /i/ as the indefinite marker in Persian, /o/ as a conjunction, /o/ which is the short form of “ra” that is an object marker in Persian and /e/ as a genitive marker. Apart from these enclitics, we also added /e/ as the definite marker which is an affix, to be able to compare two homophonous sounds with different morphological roles; thus, we have 5 environments here (4 clitics and 1 affix). Vowel Context (No. 2) consists of words which start with a vowel; all six Persian vowels can be used at the onset of a syllable. Thus, the 150 sentences were made combining 5 vowels (Vowel context No. 1) * 5 Morphological Contexts (4 enclitics + 1 affix)* and 6 vowels (Vowel Context No. 2). The speakers were asked to read each sentence loud and in their natural voice. The data were recorded in a soundproof room, at Alzahra Phonetics Laboratory. After doing the segmentation of the recorded voices, we analyzed them acoustically using PRAAT 6.0.19. The statistical analysis of the results was done by SPSS version 21. To test our hypothesis that the type of enclitic has an effect on the occurrence the hiatus, we examined two homophonous enclitics: /o/ as the conjunction marker and /o/ as the short form of ra which is an object marker in Persian. A chi-square test was performed to examine the relation between the type of enclitics and occurrence of hiatus. The relationship between these variables was significant, X2 (1, N = 600) = 4.275, p < .05. Based on the result of the study, hiatus will occur more if the enclitic is /o/ as the short form of “ra” ϕ= .84, p < .05. We also studied two other homophonous elements with two different morphological categories: one is /e/ as the genitive case marker which is an enclitic; the other, is /e/ as the definitive marker which is an affix. Comparing these two morphologically different elements give us the opportunity to see how effective the morphological categories of elements are in the occurrence of hiatus. A chi-square test was done to investigate the relation between the type of morphological elements and occurrence of hiatus. The relationship between these variables was not significant in Vowel Context No. 1, X2 (1, N = 600) = 1.113, p < .05. However, the difference between these two morphological categories was significant in Vowel Context No. 2, X2 (1, N = 600) = 4.127, p < .05. Based on the result of the study, hiatus will occur more if the morphological element is the genitive case marker /e/, ϕ= .83, p < .05. Based on the results of the acoustic analysis of vocalic enclitics, we believe that VC pattern can also be postulated for Persian syllable structure. Moreover, in 55.73% of the occurrence of two vowels in adjacent syllables, no linking consonant was inserted. In the remaining 44.27% of the data, the type of consonants inserted inter-vocalically was dependent on the phonetic and morphological conditions of the final vowel of the host word and the vocalic enclitic. Besides, the difference between the degrees of linking –consonant – insertion emphasizes the effect of morphological and phonological conditions of vocalic enclitics on the type and degree of occurrence of hiatus.

Gogani is one of the varieties of Azeri spoken in Iran. One remarkable feature of this variety is the conversion of /r/ to [j] in speech. This research aims to study the effect of social variables such as age, education and style and linguistic context (i.e. intervocalic and other contexts) on the phonetic representation of /r/. Following Labov’s (1966, 2006) framework and through the interview method, 1200 words from the speech of 30 Gogani speakers were collected. The corpus was then divided into three groups based on the variables of age and education. The corpus was also classified into two styles of casual and formal speech. In all these categorizations, two phonetic contexts including intervocalic and non-intervocalic contexts were taken into consideration. The results of chi-square analyses show that age, education, style and phonetic context have a significant effect on the phonetic representation of /r/. In fact, the phonetic representation of this phoneme is a function of interaction between social and phonetic variables.

McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon in which subjects use information from both auditory and visual modalities to come into a unified percept. In the classic example of McGurk, when auditory /bɑ/ is dubbed over the lip movements of /ɡɑ/ , subjects report perceiving /da/. Although this illusion is not considered a universal one, it is experienced by the majority of subjects. The effect had been the subject of multiple studies in different languages. The present study is the first survey which examines this effect in Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish language. Our main question is to examine whether the effect is significant in Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish language. We also investigated the effect of gender on the occurrence of this phenomenon. It investigated McGurk in Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish subjects. 121 (11*11) audiovisual stimuli were presented to 120 subjects (60 Persian speakers and 60 Kermanshahi Kurdish speakers). The Results demonstrate a reduced McGurk effect in both Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish subjects; however, the probability of its occurrence is significant in Kermanshahi Kurdish. The phenomenon is highly significant when an auditory labial CV is dubbed with a visual velar CV for Persian subjects; however, for Kermanshahi Kurdish subjects the effect was robust when an auditory velar CV is dubbed with a visual palatal CV. The effect of gender (both presenter and subjects) on the occurrence of this effect is also studied in this research. Results show significant effect of gender on audio-visual perception of consonants. However, if the percept happens, female presenters significantly affect the audio-visual perception of the subjects.