Reviews

NORM the vowel normalization and plotting suite (Review)

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Abstract

In sociophonetic research investigating language variation, particularly with regard to the perception and production of vowels, vowel normalization methods have been developed to be able “to compare vowel realizations by different speakers in meaningful linguistic and sociolinguistic ways” (Thomas & Kendall, 2007, p. About Vowel Normalization). Ideally, the vowel normalization methods preserve phonemic and sociolinguistic variation while minimizing the physiological variation between speakers (Adank, 2003). Thomas (2010) listed four goals for normalizing formant data: “to eliminate variation caused by physiological differences among speakers (i.e., differences in vocal tract lengths); preserving sociolinguistic/dialectal/cross- linguistic differences in vowel quality; preserving phonological distinctions among vowels; [and] modelling the cognitive processes that allow human listeners to normalize vowels uttered by different speakers” (p. 161). Several vowel norming methods have been developed, and the tool being reviewed here allows one to implement nine normalization methods on formant data. Each normalization method is described in the application along with their advantages and disadvantages as well as the reason for using them.

How to Cite:

Lockwood, J., (2016) “NORM the vowel normalization and plotting suite (Review)”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 8(1).