2010/09/26 by Francisco Torreira, Mirjam Ernestus · 14 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · Computer Science · Mathematics · #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Natural Language Processing Techniques #Vowel #Phrase #Consonant #Mathematics #Linguistics #Speech recognition #Computer science #Artificial intelligence #Philosophy
paper · open access · doi:10.21437/interspeech.2010-568
openalex publication_date 2010/09/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This study investigates phrase-medial vowel devoicing in European French (e.g. /ty po/ [typo] 'you can'). Our spontaneous speech data confirm that French phrase-medial devoicing is a frequent phenomenon affecting high vowels preceded by voiceless consonants. We also found that devoicing is more frequent in temporally reduced and coarticulated vowels. Complete and partial devoicing were conditioned by the same variables (speech rate, consonant type and distance from the end of the AP). Given these results, we propose that phrase-medial vowel devoicing in French arises mainly from the temporal compression of vocalic gestures and the aerodynamic conditions imposed by high vowels.