Prosodic Realization of Focus in Bilingual Production of Southern Min and Mandarin.

Previously post-focus compression (PFC) - the lowering of fundamental frequency (F0) and intensity of post-focal words to below those of the same words in identical sentences with neutral focus - was found in Beijing Mandarin but not in Taiwan Southern Min and Taiwan Mandarin. This study investigated whether the presence of PFC would vary with age and language use of societal bilinguals of Southern Min and Mandarin. Three groups of bilingual speakers of Quanzhou Southern Min and Mandarin, age around 20, 40 and 60, were examined for their prosodic realization of focus.

A one-year longitudinal study of English and Japanese vowel production by Japanese adults and children in an English-speaking setting.

The effect of age of acquisition on first- and second-language vowel production was investigated. Eight English vowels were produced by Native Japanese (NJ) adults and children as well as by age-matched Native English (NE) adults and children. Productions were recorded shortly after the NJ participants' arrival in the USA and then one year later.

Relational timing in the production and perception of Japanese singleton and geminate stops.

This work examines the production and perception of the Japanese singleton versus geminate stop contrast in order to investigate properties that distinguish the contrast in the face of variability due to speech rate. The acoustic study found two local relational durations, the ratio of the stop to the preceding mora and the ratio of the stop to the following vowel, to be stable across speaking rates and to accurately classify singleton and geminate productions. However, the subsequent perception study demonstrated an influential role of the preceding mora duration and a marginal role of the following vowel duration on listeners' categorization.

Orienting attention during phonetic training facilitates learning.

The role of consciously directed attention toward speech input in learning has not yet been determined. Previous phonetic learning studies have manipulated acoustic signals and response feedback, but not conscious control over attentional orienting. This study tests whether directed attention facilitates learning of phonetic information.