Non-native durational patterns decrease speech intelligibility

In native speech, durational patterns convey linguistically relevant phenomena such as phrase structure, lexical stress, rhythm, and word boundaries. The lower intelligibility of non-native speech may be partly due to its deviant durational patterns. The present study aims to quantify the relative contributions of non-native durational patterns and of non-native speech sounds to intelligibility. In a Speech Reception Threshold study, duration patterns were transplanted between native and non-native versions of Dutch sentences. Results for non-transplanted, original versions show that intelligibility thresholds (critical speech-to-noise ratios) differed by about 4 dB between native and non-native versions. Results for manipulated versions with transplanted

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: SPEECH
• Authors: Hugo Quené, L. E. van Delft
• Keywords: Durational Patterns, Non-native Speech, Non-native Versions, Security Privacy, SPEECH 2010