Presentation

Intelligibility Assessment and the Acoustic Vowel Space: An Instrumental Phonetic Account of the Production of English Lax Vowels by Somali Speakers

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Abstract

Previous phonetic attempts to account for the intelligibility of L2 English vowels have relied exclusively on impressionistic acoustic approaches. In the impressionistic framework, native speakers (and sometimes nonnative speakers) are called upon to render comprehensibility and intelligibility judgments regarding speech samples that they hear and transcribe. In this paper a different approach is proposed whereby intelligibility assessments are based solely on the acoustic signals produced by nonnative speakers. This exploratory study deals with the acoustic vowel space of 10 Somali male participants. The first two formants of their lax vowels are measured and compared with those of General American English (GAE) in accordance with Peterson and Barney’s landmark study of 1952. The comparisons make it possible to predict which GAE lax vowels are most likely to cause intelligibility challenges when these Somalis speak English.

How to Cite:

Koffi, E., (2011) “Intelligibility Assessment and the Acoustic Vowel Space: An Instrumental Phonetic Account of the Production of English Lax Vowels by Somali Speakers”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 3(1).