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<jats:p> We present an implementation of DIANA, a computational model of spoken word recognition, to model responses collected in the Massive Auditory Lexical Decision (MALD) project. DIANA is an end-to-end model, including an activation and decision component that takes the acoustic signal as input, activates internal word representations, and outputs lexicality judgments and estimated response latencies. Simulation 1 presents the process of creating acoustic models required by DIANA to analyze novel speech input. Simulation 2 investigates DIANA’s performance in determining whether the input signal is a word present in the lexicon or a pseudoword. In Simulation 3, we generate estimates of response latency and correlate them with general tendencies in participant responses in MALD data. We find that DIANA performs fairly well in free word recognition and lexical decision. However, the current approach for estimating response latency provides estimates opposite to those found in behavioral data. We discuss these findings and offer suggestions as to what a contemporary model of spoken word recognition should be able to do. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The current study investigated the merger-in-progress between word-initial nasal and lateral consonants in Fuzhou Min, examining the linguistic and social factors that modulate the merger. First, the acoustic cues to the l-n distinction were examined in Fuzhou Min. Acoustic analyses suggested a collapse of phonemic contrast between prescriptive L and N (phonemes in the unmerged system), with none of the six acoustic cues showing any difference across L and N. Linear discriminant analysis did identify acoustically distinct [l] and [n] tokens, although the mapping onto the phonetic space of prescriptive L and N substantially overlapped. Speakers of all ages and both genders tended to produce [l], and low vowels correlated with more [n]-like classification. In perception, AX discrimination data showed Fuzhou Min listeners confused both prescriptive L and N and acoustic [l] and [n]. Greater sensitivity to the acoustic differences occurred in the context of low vowels and a nasal coda, supported by the acoustics of the stimuli, and younger listeners were more sensitive to the difference between [l] and [n] than older listeners. In two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) identification, Fuzhou Min listeners also identified the merged form as L more frequently than N, with more L responses elicited in the context of low vowels and in the absence of nasal codas. Overall, although Fuzhou Min speakers produced some acoustically distinct [l] and [n] tokens in the context of a sound merger, these productions did not map onto prescriptive L and N. In addition, younger listeners were more sensitive to the acoustic distinction than older listeners, suggesting an emerging acoustic contrast possibly arising due to contact with Mandarin. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Using a cross-modal picture-word interference (PWI) task, we examined phonological representations and encoding in Mandarin-speaking children and adults. Pictures of monosyllabic words were presented visually, with auditory primes presented before, concurrent with, or after the picture’s appearance (SOA -200, -100, 0, +150). Primes were related to the targets in terms of Onset, Rhyme, Tone, Onset and Tone, Rhyme and Tone, or were unrelated. The rhymes of target words were counterbalanced between simple and complex structures to examine effects of rhyme complexity. Twenty Mandarin-speaking adults (aged 20;3 to 23;10), 20 school-age children (aged 9;1 to 10;11) and 20 preschoolers (aged 5;0 to 5;11) were asked to name the pictures as quickly as possible while ignoring the primes played over a headset. The results showed that adults exhibited consistent Onset and Onset-Tone priming effects across later SOAs, while the older children (9- to 10-year-olds) exhibited Onset, Rhyme, Onset-Tone and Rhyme-Tone priming effects across later SOAs. The younger children (5-year-olds), in contrast, exhibited Rhyme and Rhyme-Tone priming effects at the earliest SOA. For both groups of children, Rhyme and Rhyme-Tone priming effects were complexity-dependent. Our findings suggest that the phonological representations of Mandarin speakers develop from holistic units into those with an onset-based structure. Moreover, an incremental processing pattern at the sub-syllabic level is gradually developed around the age of 9 or 10, though susceptibility to holistic phonological similarity is retained to some degree. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This study investigates socioprosodic variation in Yami, a moribund indigenous language under intense contact with Mandarin in Taiwan: 32 bilingual (Yami-dominant, balanced, Mandarin-dominant) and 5 Yami-monolingual participants were recruited. We used an Interactive Card Game to elicit semi-spontaneous speech for neutral questions (NQ), default declarative questions (DQ1), and declarative questions with lighter incredulity (DQ2). Results reveal that (1) yes/no question intonation in Yami is highly variable; (2) on a broad community level, the DQ1–DQ2 distinction is absent from Yami; and (3) there is prosodic hybridization and innovation in bilingual speech. In particular, we see significant differences in DQ1 and NQ productions, with DQ1s having a rising nuclear configuration, higher pitch level, and wider pitch span, while NQs are realized with a mid-level pattern, lower pitch level, and narrower pitch span. DQ2 utterances exhibited highly varied nuclear configuration patterns with no significant differences in either pitch level or pitch span in DQ1–DQ2 comparisons. Yet, there is evidence that a hybridized DQ2 has begun to be integrated into Yami among younger bilinguals, suggesting that present-day Yami is in flux and is undergoing restructuring. </jats:p><jats:p> These intonational variations are not easily attributable to a weakened Yami identity. Rather, younger bilinguals, who are leading the change, are highly dedicated to cultural practices and show strong rootedness in their Indigenous identity. Seemingly, while these less fluent speakers no longer use Yami to fulfill their everyday communicative needs, they are leaning more on its socio-indexical functions to reflect their ethnocultural identity. </jats:p>

<jats:p> We investigate the temporal and kinematic properties of consonant gemination and heterosyllabic clusters as opposed to singletons and tautosyllabic clusters in Italian. The data show that the singleton versus geminate contrast is conveyed by specific kinematic properties in addition to systematic durational differences in both the consonantal and vocalic intervals; by contrast, tautosyllabic and heterosyllabic clusters differ significantly for the duration of the consonantal interval but do not vary systematically with respect to the vocalic interval and cannot be consistently differentiated at the kinematic level. We conclude that systematic variations in acoustic vowel duration and the kinematics of tongue tip gestures represent the phonetic correlates of the segmental phonological contrast between short and long consonants, rather than of syllable structure. Data are only partly consistent with the predictions of both moraic and gesture-based models of the syllable about the effects of syllable structure on speech production dynamics and call for a more gradient view of syllabification. </jats:p>

<jats:p> As in many linguistics subfields, studies of prosody have mainly focused on majority languages and dialects and on speakers who hold power in social structures. The goal of this Special Issue is to diversify prosody research in terms of the languages and dialects being investigated, as well as the social structures that influence prosodic variation. The Special Issue brings together prosody researchers and researchers exploring sociological variation in prosody, with a focus on the prosody of marginalized dialects and on prosodic differences based on gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. The papers in this volume don’t just advance our understanding of critical issues in sociolinguistics, but they also challenge some of the received wisdom in the exploration of sociolinguistic influences on prosody. Not only does this collection highlight the value of this work to informing theories of prosodic variation and change, but the collected papers also provide examples of methodological innovations in the field that will be valuable for all prosody researchers. </jats:p>

<jats:p> A phenomenon called “repetition reduction” can increase articulation rate in adults by facilitating phonetic and motor processes, which indicates flexibility in the control of articulation rate. Young children, who speak much slower, may not have the same speech motor flexibility resulting in the absence of the repetition reduction effect. In this study, we tested whether spontaneous repetitions of young children are produced with a faster articulation rate than their original utterances. Twelve monolingual English-speaking children were observed at four time points between 2;0 and 3;0 years of age. A significant increase in articulation rate and syllable count was found using multilevel models for all utterances over the 1-year period. At each time point, however, the repeated utterances were produced significantly faster than the original utterances even though the content and syllable count differed minimally. Our findings conform to the pattern of adult studies suggesting that a “naturistic” form of repetition reduction is already present in the speech of children at 2;0 years. Although certain aspects of speech motor control are undergoing rapid development, existing motor capability at 2;0 already supports flexible changes in articulation rate including repetition reduction. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Heritage speakers contend with at least two languages: the less dominant first language (L1), that is, the heritage language, and the more dominant second language (L2). In some cases, their L1 and L2 bear striking phonological differences. In the current study, we investigate Toronto-born Cantonese heritage speakers and their maintenance of Cantonese lexical tone, a linguistic feature that is absent from English, the more dominant L2. Across two experiments, Cantonese heritage speakers were tested on their phonetic/phonological and lexical encoding of tone in Cantonese. Experiment 1 was an AX discrimination task with varying inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs), which revealed that heritage speakers discriminated tone pairs with disparate pitch contours better than those with shared pitch contours. Experiment 2 was a medium-term repetition priming experiment, designed to extend the findings of Experiment 1 by examining tone representations at the lexical level. We observed a positive correlation between English dominance and priming in tone minimal pairs that shared contours. Thus, while increased English dominance does not affect heritage speakers’ phonological-level representations, tasks that require lexical access suggest that heritage Cantonese speakers may not robustly and fully distinctively encode Cantonese tone in lexical memory. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This study analyzes the production of native (L1) and foreign (L2) vowels by 42 L1 English learners of French (ELoF) at the start and end of a 6-month residence abroad (RA) in a French-speaking country. Data are also reported from a delayed post-test, which takes place 10 months after a subsection of participants ( n = 27) return to the L1 English environment. Results reveal systemic phonetic drift in ELoF’s L1 English vowels over the RA, and this accompanies the phonetic development occurring in the participants’ L2 French vowel system, a phenomenon we label “tandem drift.” This L1–L2 link is also supported by interspeaker variation: the individuals whose L2 French vowels shift the most are also the participants who exhibit the most substantial L1 phonetic drift in the same direction. Results for the L1 re-immersion time point suggest a partial—but not complete—reversal of phonetic drift, whereas no reversal of the L2 gains made over the RA is apparent. Nevertheless, at the individual level, the learners whose L2 gains reverse the most upon L1 re-immersion are also most likely to exhibit reverse phonetic drift in their L1. Overall, these findings indicate a relationship between L2 speech learning and L1 phonetic drift, which we argue is driven by the global phonetic properties of both L2 and L1 becoming linked at a representational level. Although these representations appear malleable, it is clear that recent changes are not guaranteed to reverse despite substantial re-exposure to L1 input. Implications for the distinction between drift and attrition are discussed. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This study investigated a sound change in progress by which the Central Bavarian dialect feature of complementary length between consonant and the preceding vowel is giving way to the unrestricted combination possibility of long (Vː) and short (V) vowels with following longer fortis (Cː) and shorter lenis (C) stops, respectively. This 2 × 2 system is also found in the standard variety of German. While previous studies have regarded any such findings of convergence toward Standard German as being a result of language contact, the present study specifically tested the possibility of fast-speech-induced hypoarticulation being a system-internal driver of this change. The focus of this study was on acoustic cues to the postvocalic stop. Following the apparent-time paradigm, acoustic analyses of 10 younger and 10 older dialect speakers revealed that (1) younger dialect speakers produced both VC and VːCː (both formerly illegal in the dialect), but (2) older dialect speakers produced only VːCː sequences with duration patterns similar to those of the control group of 10 Standard German speakers. Analyses of various dependent variables further showed (3) the (apparently) delayed emergence of aspiration as an additional cue to the fortis–lenis contrast in Western Central Bavarian particularly in younger dialect speakers, (4) no considerable effect of speech rate on the dispersion of and overlap between any of the four vowel-plus-stop combinations, and (5) the irregular spread of this change that appears to be gradual. As such, the findings support a model of linguistic change that also accounts for gradual changes in dialect borrowing. </jats:p>