Collaborative Research: Prosodic Analysis and Visualization of Phonetic Samples for Improved Understanding of Stress and Intonation

节奏和语调是发音的重要组成部分。虽然不同语言在节奏和语调模式上有一些基本的相似之处，但也有一些有趣的差异。其中一些差异与语言中单词的结构方式有关，例如，单词是短的还是由许多子部分组成的。该项目调查并记录了未被记录的语言的节奏和语调，或韵律系统，以更好地理解人类如何调节音高运动（即语调）和片段持续时间（即元音和辅音的长度）。该项目使用存档的和新的录音来获得音高和持续时间的声学测量和可视化，创建一个数据库，可以用于韵律和其他领域（如音节、单词、脚、韵律词、韵律短语和语调单位）相互作用的研究。该项目包括对Aaniiih Nakoda学院的研究生和本科生进行培训。研究人员挖掘由母语人士产生的单词，短语和连接语音的存档录音或新录音，以改进和理解形态学复杂语言的韵律系统进行分析。他们通过团队为此目的开发的软件来表示他们的发现。该项目的一个主要产品是一个数据库，具有跨不同韵律域（例如音节或单词）的语音分析。这些材料将通过在线网络服务提供，对研究人员分析和表示具有音调和音长显著变化的其他语言非常有用。该软件包括一个自我发音检查功能，允许用户听，重复，并检查准确性再现的音高和持续时间值的母语人士。这一特征将用于理解这种显性输入对第二语言发音习得的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Rhythm and intonation are important part of pronunciation. While there are some basic similarities in rhythm and intonation patterns across languages, there are also interesting differences. Some of these differences are linked to the way words are structured in languages, for example, are the words short or are they composed of many sub-parts. This project investigates and documents the rhythm and intonation, or prosodic system, of under-documented languages to better understand how humans modulate pitch movement (i.e. intonation) and segmental duration (i.e. the length of vowels and consonants). The project uses archived and new recordings to arrive at acoustic measurements and visualizations of pitch and duration, creating a database that can be mined for the study of the interplay of prosody and other domains such as the syllable, word, foot, prosodic word, prosodic phrase, and intonation unit. The project includes training for graduate students and undergraduate students from Aaniiih Nakoda College.The investigators mine archived recordings or new recordings of words, phrases and connected speech produced by native speakers to improve and understand the prosodic system of the morphologically complex languages for analysis. They represent their findings through the software in development by the team for this purpose. A major product of this project is a database with phonetic analyses across different prosodic domains, e.g, the syllable or word. These materials will be made available through an online webservice and will be useful for researchers working to analyze and represent other languages with significant modulations of pitch and duration. The software includes a self-pronunciation check feature allowing the user to listen, repeat, and check accuracy in reproducing the pitch and duration values of native speakers. This feature will be used to understand how well such overt input impacts second language pronunciation acquisition.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.