TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of dialect-specific features and familiarity on cross-dialect phonetic convergence
AU - Ross, Jory
AU - Lilley, Kevin D.
AU - Clopper, Cynthia G.
AU - Pardo, Jennifer S.
AU - Levi, Susannah V.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Talkers imitate the speech of others through phonetic convergence. The current study examined the influence of dialect-specific features and dialect familiarity on the extent and perceptibility of phonetic convergence. Talkers with Mid-Atlantic and General American dialects repeated words after model talkers with Mid-Atlantic and General American dialects in a shadowing task. Half of the target words contained phonetic variables differing between the two dialects, including /ɔ/, /æɹ/, and word-initial /stɹ/, and half contained no distinguishing dialect features. In an AXB task, listeners from the Mid-Atlantic region with greater exposure to the Mid-Atlantic dialect and listeners from the Midwestern United States with less exposure to the Mid-Atlantic dialect assessed the perceptual similarity of the two shadowing productions to the original productions of the model talkers. Together, acoustic analyses of the shadowing productions and the results of the AXB task revealed that dialect-specific features facilitated phonetic convergence. This facilitation was stronger for Mid-Atlantic shadowers and model talkers, suggesting that dialect familiarity increases the magnitude of convergence in speech production. However, no differences were observed between listener groups, indicating that greater experience with a dialect may not affect the perception of phonetic convergence.
AB - Talkers imitate the speech of others through phonetic convergence. The current study examined the influence of dialect-specific features and dialect familiarity on the extent and perceptibility of phonetic convergence. Talkers with Mid-Atlantic and General American dialects repeated words after model talkers with Mid-Atlantic and General American dialects in a shadowing task. Half of the target words contained phonetic variables differing between the two dialects, including /ɔ/, /æɹ/, and word-initial /stɹ/, and half contained no distinguishing dialect features. In an AXB task, listeners from the Mid-Atlantic region with greater exposure to the Mid-Atlantic dialect and listeners from the Midwestern United States with less exposure to the Mid-Atlantic dialect assessed the perceptual similarity of the two shadowing productions to the original productions of the model talkers. Together, acoustic analyses of the shadowing productions and the results of the AXB task revealed that dialect-specific features facilitated phonetic convergence. This facilitation was stronger for Mid-Atlantic shadowers and model talkers, suggesting that dialect familiarity increases the magnitude of convergence in speech production. However, no differences were observed between listener groups, indicating that greater experience with a dialect may not affect the perception of phonetic convergence.
KW - Accommodation
KW - General American English
KW - Mid-Atlantic English
KW - Perceptual similarity
KW - Phonetic convergence
KW - Production-perception interface
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104148300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wocn.2021.101041
DO - 10.1016/j.wocn.2021.101041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85104148300
SN - 0095-4470
VL - 86
JO - Journal of Phonetics
JF - Journal of Phonetics
M1 - 101041
ER -