Ultrasound/Acoustic Analysis
Linguistics
WHO: Tony Butorovich, Jennifer Goi, Cassidy Hatfield, Lorelei Howe, Jaye Padgett, Claire Wellwood
WHAT: The team developed and experimented with the driving question – why do distinctions among sounds in languages tend to be lost at the ends of words? To specifically address this question, we are using ultrasound to explore how Russian speakers do or do not adapt the timing of word-final speech gestures in ways that make phonological contrast clearer.
WHY: We are curious about how sound change happens and why sound contrasts tend to be lost, especially at the end of words and phrases. Phonological distinctions may be more difficult to perceive at the ends of words. However, languages may adapt in ways to counteract this tendency. While some languages tend to lose sound distinctions over time, could some organize the timing of speech gestures in ways that preserve distinctions? On a larger scale, we wonder how much production vs. perception pressures influence historical sound changes.
WHAT'S NEXT: We are close to finalizing the experiment design, so our next steps will be finishing stimuli creation, and then gathering and running participants. After participants have been run, data analysis will be the next step so we can make conclusions about the perceptual adaptiveness of speech gesture organization within the parameters of our study. Our results from Russian, will help influence future research about sound change on a broader scale.
THE WOW: As research assistants, we develop the research at every phase. From the very beginning, deciding what data would be used and how we would run the experiment, to learning about the ultrasound and the technology we use to interpret our data, we’ve experienced how experiments are run and how our academic knowledge applies in real circumstances.
We have also been learning how to approach research realistically, gradually developing the most efficient ways to organize our time and efforts. When encountering unexpected issues, we navigate around them as a team and have documented how to use the ultrasound equipment and software for future linguistics researchers.
