Articulatory settings of English, Japanese, and Chinese bilingual and trilingual speakers

2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K00606
• Research Institution: The University of Aizu
• Principal Investigator: Wilson Ian 会津大学, コンピュータ理工学部, 教授 (50444930)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: articulatory setting / English / Japanese / bilingual / frequency of occurrence

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

With the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic in FY2021, it was impossible to collect new ultrasound tongue image video data and high-speed lip and jaw data from bilingual and trilingual Japanese and Chinese participants. We continued to analyze our existing bilingual data, submitting an abstract to the 10th International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech ("New Sounds 2022"). Although our submission was accepted for an oral presentation, the conference was held only face-to-face in Barcelona, Spain, and we were unable to attend because of the complications of COVID-19.

We continued to model articulatory setting based on phoneme frequencies of occurrence. We also started preparing for the creation of a phonetically-balanced Mandarin Chinese stimuli list.

Current Status of Research Progress

4: Progress in research has been delayed.

Reason

Because of the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not collect any new phonetic data in FY2021. This severely affected the timing of our research, and we will be forced to extend our kakenhi research by one year.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic is under greater control, we will start Japanese, English, and Mandarin Chinese speech data collection. Until that time, we will continue to model articulatory setting based on phoneme frequencies of occurrence. We will also finish preparing Mandarin Chinese stimuli and have them checked by a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese. We will start to search for bilingual and trilingual participants who can join us as soon as data collection becomes safely possible. Students who have joined the phonetics laboratory this year will be trained on data collection and analysis procedures.

Causes of Carryover

Because of the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic in FY2021, phonetic speech data could not be collected. So, there were no participants to pay honoraria to. Also, because of the absence of data collection, no new computer equipment was needed, so it was not purchased. We plan to purchase that equipment as soon as it becomes apparent that we can safely proceed to collect data face-to-face in the laboratory.