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The aim of the paper is to study the production of Estonian vowel categories by L2 speakers of Estonian with a Russianlanguage background and to compare the results with perception data from the same subjects. Ten native Estonian subjects... more
The aim of the paper is to study the production of Estonian vowel categories by L2 speakers of Estonian with a Russianlanguage background and to compare the results with perception data from the same subjects. Ten native Estonian subjects and ten L2 speakers participated in both the reading of an Estonian text corpus and the perception experiment. It was found that mostly the production and perception results show similar patterns and thus lend support to the common standpoint that L2 perception predicts the accuracy of L2 production. However, evidence was found that despite the correct perceptual identification of L2 vowels, in L2 production the native categorical vowel representation outweighs the newer L2 category pattern.
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A speech database project has been launched last year, which aims the collection of telephone speech from a large number of speakers for speech and speaker recognition purposes. Up to 2000 speakers are expected to participate in... more
A speech database project has been launched last year, which aims the collection of telephone speech from a large number of speakers for speech and speaker recognition purposes. Up to 2000 speakers are expected to participate in recordings. To achieve this target different recruitment schemes have been implemented. SpeechDat databases, especially Finnish SpeechDat, have been chosen as a prototype for the Estonian database. The paper is a progress report of the project.
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In the study the native (L1) production of Estonian quantity degrees is compared to the non-native (L2) production by two groups of subjects with different language backgrounds – Finnish (L2-FI) and Russian (L2-RU). Estonian and Finnish... more
In the study the native (L1) production of Estonian quantity degrees is compared to the non-native (L2) production by two groups of subjects with different language backgrounds – Finnish (L2-FI) and Russian (L2-RU). Estonian and Finnish are typical examples of quantity languages both exploiting the duration cue contrastively. However, there are significant differences in the quantity systems of the two languages – binary opposition in Finnish vs. ternary opposition in Estonian. In Russian there are no duration based phonological contrasts, instead duration acts as the main cue for word stress.
Estonian and Finnish are closely related languages both exploiting duration cues contrastively; however, the quantity systems in the two languages are different. The Estonian quantity system involves three contrastive patterns referred to... more
Estonian and Finnish are closely related languages both exploiting duration cues contrastively; however, the quantity systems in the two languages are different. The Estonian quantity system involves three contrastive patterns referred to as short (Q1), long (Q2) and overlong (Q3) quantity degrees. These contrasts are manifested by a complex interaction of durational and tonal cues in a disyllabic foot. In Finnish, the quantity contrast is binary and phonologically clearly segmental. Research has shown that L2 subjects with Finnish language background failed to produce the Estonian Q2 vs. Q3 contrast in vowel-peaked structures (CVVCV vs. CVV:CV) not distinguished in the orthography. In order to test the effect of L2 orthographic input on L2 pronunciation target words involving consonant-peaked quantity contrast (CVCCV vs. CVC:CV) have been used in the current study; in the case of plosives between the first and second syllable vowels, the quantity contrast is manifested orthographic...
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The aim of the paper is to report on the perception of Estonian vowel categories by L2 learners of Estonian whose L1 is Russian. The Estonian vowel system includes nine vowels whereas Russian has six. Five of the Estonian vowels have... more
The aim of the paper is to report on the perception of Estonian vowel categories by L2 learners of Estonian whose L1 is Russian. The Estonian vowel system includes nine vowels whereas Russian has six. Five of the Estonian vowels have counterparts in Russian: /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/ and /a/, the new vowel categories for L2 speakers are /u/, /o/, /a/, and partly /o/. For the perceptual experiments four-formant vowel stimuli were synthesized including nine Estonian prototype vowels and the intermediate steps between prototypes; the stimulus set covered 14 vowel category boundaries. The experiments involving native Estonian and non-native (Russian as L1) subjects showed that (1) Estonian vowels /i/, /e/, /u/ and /o/ assimilate well with their Russian counterparts; (2) Estonian /a/ and /a/ assimilate with the allophones of Russian /a/; (3) Estonian /u/, /o/ and /o/ assimilate partly with Russian / /; due to the close phonetic distance the L2 subjects' ability to discriminate these categor...
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Eesti keele kui võõrkeele õpetamise ja õppimisega seotud probleemide uurimine ning vastava keeleainestiku kogumine on viimasel kümnendil hoogustunud. tallinna tehnikaülikooli Küberneetika instituudis loodav aktsendikorpus1 sisaldab eesti... more
Eesti keele kui võõrkeele õpetamise ja õppimisega seotud probleemide uurimine ning vastava keeleainestiku kogumine on viimasel kümnendil hoogustunud. tallinna tehnikaülikooli Küberneetika instituudis loodav aktsendikorpus1 sisaldab eesti keelt võõrkeelena kõnelevate inimeste hääldusnäiteid aktsendi akustilis-foneetiliseks uurimiseks. Aktsendi tekkepõhjused ja olemus on keeleteadlastele ja psühholoogidele huvi pakkunud pikka aega. Põhimõtteliselt on iga inimene võimeline peale emakeele omandama mis tahes võõrkeele, selleks on tal olemas kõik anatoomilised ja kognitiivsed eeldused. Kuid kui võõrkeele õppimisega alustatakse teismeeas või alles täiskasvanuna, on tavaliselt paratamatu kaasnähtus sihtkeele tüüpilisest hääldusest hälbiv kõne, mida selle keele sünnipärased kõnelejad tajuvad võõrkeelse aktsendina. Kuid aktsent pole ainult keeleteaduslik uurimisobjekt – aktsendiprobleem on tõusnud päevakorda ka seoses keeletehnoloogia arengu ja rakendustega. Juba aastaid on saadaval kõnetuvas...
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The paper studies the impact of intrinsic vowel duration on category perception in boundary conditions by examining the short vs. long category boundary perception in Estonian. Since the intrinsic duration of a close vowel /i/ is about... more
The paper studies the impact of intrinsic vowel duration on category perception in boundary conditions by examining the short vs. long category boundary perception in Estonian. Since the intrinsic duration of a close vowel /i/ is about 10-15 ms shorter than that of an open vowel /a/, we hypothesize that the short vs. long category boundary in /i/ occurs at a shorter duration than in the case of /a/. Twelve native Estonian subjects participated in the perception tests involving binary category decision in CV(:)CV stimuli where the duration of the primary stressed vowel was manipulated in a range from 100 ms to 190 ms embracing the short vs. long category boundary. The test results support our hypothesis and show that the differences in vowel quality, hence in intrinsic duration of vowels play a role in short vs. long category perception.
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The paper studies the production and perception of Estonian quantity oppositions by native Estonians (L1 subjects) and non-native speakers with Russian-language background (L2 subjects). Estonian quantity system involves three contrastive... more
The paper studies the production and perception of Estonian quantity oppositions by native Estonians (L1 subjects) and non-native speakers with Russian-language background (L2 subjects). Estonian quantity system involves three contrastive prosodic patterns referred to as short (Q1), long (Q2) and overlong (Q3) quantity degrees. These phonological contrasts are manifested by a complex interaction of durational and tonal cues in a disyllabic foot. For L2 subjects the Estonian quantity contrasts constitute a difficult issue in both perception and production since there are no similar patterns in Russian to rely on. The production of quantity contrasts was examined in twosyllable CVCV-words read in sentence context; for the perception experiments a stimulus set involving isolated CVCV-words with varying duration of vowels in both syllables and varying F0 contour was created. Ten L1 and ten L2 subjects participated in both the reading of test sentences and the perception experiment. The ...
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This study explores the production of Estonian vowel categories by second-language (L2) speakers of Estonian whose native language (L1) is Japanese. The Estonian vowel system includes nine vowels whereas Japanese has only five. The... more
This study explores the production of Estonian vowel categories by second-language (L2) speakers of Estonian whose native language (L1) is Japanese. The Estonian vowel system includes nine vowels whereas Japanese has only five. The results by six native Japanese and ten native Estonian subjects when reading Estonian target words in sentence show that Japanese subjects were successful in production of Estonian vowels which assimilate well to the corresponding Japanese vowels (/i/, /e/, /o/) and faced difficulties in discrimination of vowel contrasts involving single-category assimilation (Estonian /ü/, /ö/, /õ/, /u/ to Japanese /u/).
DISSERTATIONES PHILOLOGIAE ESTONICAE UNIVERSITATIS TARTUENSIS 30 DISSERTATIONES PHILOLOGIAE ESTONICAE UNIVERSITATIS TARTUENSIS 30 LYA MEISTER Eesti vokaali-ja kestuskategooriad vene emakeelega keelejuhtide tajus ja häälduses ...
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This paper deals with the perceptual assessment of Russian-accented Estonian. Speech samples were recorded from 20 speakers with a Russian background; clips of about 20 seconds from each speaker were selected for this perceptual study.... more
This paper deals with the perceptual assessment of Russian-accented Estonian. Speech samples were recorded from 20 speakers with a Russian background; clips of about 20 seconds from each speaker were selected for this perceptual study. The accentedness was rated in two tests: first, 20 native Estonian speakers judged the samples and rated the degree of foreign accent on a six-point interval scale; secondly, two experienced phoneticians carried out a perceptual study of the same samples and compiled the list of pronunciations errors. The results of both listening tests were highly correlated ‐ the higher the degree of accentedness given to a L2-speaker by naive listeners, the more pronunciation errors were found by trained experts. The classification of most frequent pronunciation errors based on acoustic-phonetic features is given, as well.
DISSERTATIONES PHILOLOGIAE ESTONICAE UNIVERSITATIS TARTUENSIS 30 DISSERTATIONES PHILOLOGIAE ESTONICAE UNIVERSITATIS TARTUENSIS 30 LYA MEISTER Eesti vokaali-ja kestuskategooriad vene emakeelega keelejuhtide tajus ja häälduses ...
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Estonian and Japanese are quantity languages both exploiting the duration cue to implement phonological contrasts. However, the quantity systems of the two languages are different – Estonian features a three-way quantity contrast while... more
Estonian and Japanese are quantity languages both exploiting the duration cue to implement phonological contrasts. However, the quantity systems of the two languages are different – Estonian features a three-way quantity contrast while Japanese has a binary contrast. This paper studies how L2 subjects with Japanese-language background (L2-JP) produce the Estonian quantity contrasts. For the acoustic analysis the speech recordings by six L2-JP subjects and 12 native Estonian (L1-EE) subjects were used. The material analyzed consists of read sentences comprising triplets of segmentally identical disyllabic target words in the quantities Q1 (short), Q2 (long) and Q3 (overlong). In their production, the L2-JP subjects successfully produced the Q1/Q2 contrast but failed in contrasting vocalic Q2 and Q3 (CVVCV vs. CVVːCV) oppositions; however, the subjects managed to produce the Q2/Q3 consonantal quantity contrasts (CVCCV vs. CVCːCV). The L2-JP subjects’ segment durations differing from t...
This paper deals with the perceptual as- sessment of Russian-accented Estonian. Speech samples were recorded from 20 speakers with a Russian background; clips of about 20 seconds from each speaker were selected for this perceptual study.... more
This paper deals with the perceptual as- sessment of Russian-accented Estonian. Speech samples were recorded from 20 speakers with a Russian background; clips of about 20 seconds from each speaker were selected for this perceptual study. The accentedness was rated in two tests: first, 20 native Estonian speakers judged the samples and rated the degree of foreign ac- cent on
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In the study, we examined the production of Estonian vowel categories by second language (L2) speakers of Estonian (native language Finnish) and compared them to those of native Estonian (L1) speakers. The vowel systems of the two... more
In the study, we examined the production of Estonian vowel categories by second language (L2) speakers of Estonian (native language Finnish) and compared them to those of native Estonian (L1) speakers. The vowel systems of the two languages are very similar: all eight Finnish vowels have close counterparts in Estonian, though Estonian has one more vowel category. The vowels for acoustic analysis were extracted from the target words embedded in sentences read by both L1 and L2 informants. The results showed that using the native Finnish vowel patterns for the Estonian counterparts has been a successful strategy – due to phonetic similarity of the shared vowels in the two languages, the L2 vowels assimilate well to Finnish L1 vowel categories. The L2 learners have acquired proper tongue position for the new vowel category /õ/ in tongue height and in front-back dimension, but deviate from the L1 speakers in use of the lip rounding gesture. Kokkuvõte. Einar Meister ja Lya Meister: Eesti...
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One of the problems in testing the proficiency of Estonian as a first or second language is that high-stake exams are assessed against the standards of the written language. Given this, we set out to describe the features of the actual... more
One of the problems in testing the proficiency of Estonian as a first or second language is that high-stake exams are assessed against the standards of the written language. Given this, we set out to describe the features of the actual use of educated language in different types of text. The goal was to develop L1 and L2 teaching and testing through models of educated language use which a language learner can approach step by step. To achieve this goal we compared the following features of educated use of Estonian as L1 and L2 in different situations: (1) lexical richness and vocabulary range; (2) contextuality and formality of the text; (3) syntactic complicacy; (4) temporal characteristics of the dialogue; (5) strength and disruptiveness of the foreign accent; (6) sentence intonation. The results show that educated language use is mainly genre-dependent. This moves the focus of language learning onto texts of specific genres and confirms the suitability of an action-based approach centred on genres in L1 and L2 teaching and testing, and the need for regular assessor training.
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A foreign accent can cause difficulties for the listener to understand a language learners’ speech, especially when the correct pronunciation of the foreign speech sounds is problematic for the learner due to category goodness... more
A foreign accent can cause difficulties for the listener to
understand a language learners’ speech, especially when the
correct pronunciation of the foreign speech sounds is
problematic for the learner due to category goodness
correspondence between speech sounds (Best 1991). For
Hungarian Finnish learners the most problematic Finnish
vowels are /æ/ and /e/, due to phonemic and orthographic
differences. This can sometimes create confusions and
amusing sentences, such as Hän lehti takaisin instead of Hän
lähti takaisin (‘she leaf back’ instead of ‘she went back’). The
current paper is an on-going quantitative investigation on
which factors affect the categorization and goodness rating of
foreign pronounced vowels. The stimuli were extracted from
recordings of a previous study (Peltola 2011). The different
ways of production were reading and imitating. In the present
study Finnish university students rated the goodness of these
problematic vowels pronounced by Hungarian students
separately and in simple CV-syllables /kV, pV, tV/ on the
Likert scale (from 1–7).
understand a language learners’ speech, especially when the
correct pronunciation of the foreign speech sounds is
problematic for the learner due to category goodness
correspondence between speech sounds (Best 1991). For
Hungarian Finnish learners the most problematic Finnish
vowels are /æ/ and /e/, due to phonemic and orthographic
differences. This can sometimes create confusions and
amusing sentences, such as Hän lehti takaisin instead of Hän
lähti takaisin (‘she leaf back’ instead of ‘she went back’). The
current paper is an on-going quantitative investigation on
which factors affect the categorization and goodness rating of
foreign pronounced vowels. The stimuli were extracted from
recordings of a previous study (Peltola 2011). The different
ways of production were reading and imitating. In the present
study Finnish university students rated the goodness of these
problematic vowels pronounced by Hungarian students
separately and in simple CV-syllables /kV, pV, tV/ on the
Likert scale (from 1–7).
Research Interests:
The Estonian quantity system involves three contrastive patterns referred to as short (Q1), long (Q2) and overlong (Q3) quantity degrees. Our previous studies have shown that for L2 learners the distinction between Q2 and Q3 is a... more
The Estonian quantity system involves three contrastive patterns referred to as short (Q1), long (Q2) and overlong (Q3) quantity degrees. Our previous studies have shown that for L2 learners the distinction between Q2 and Q3 is a difficult task in both production and perception. While Q1 and Q2 structures are always distinguished in the orthography, this is not the case in most Q2 and Q3 words excluding the words with plosives between first and second syllable vowels (see examples later in the text). Thus, the orthography might be the reason for the use of the same L2 production pattern for both Q2 and Q3. The current paper studies the role of L2 orthographic in-put on the L2 production of Estonian quantity degrees by two groups of subjects with different language backgrounds: Finnish and Russian. The material used in the study involves word structures with and without orthographic manifestation of quantity contrasts. The results confirm the role of Estonian orthography on the L2 pr...