Praat Comparison

This is my blog regarding the homework assigned from last class, the comparison of a simple sentence in two different pronunciations using Praat. The sentence, "The butter spilled on the cot," is a simple one that has a variety of vowel sounds in it. The schwa occurs in "butter" -- which also has the glottal "tt" -- and in "the." There's a short "i" sound in spilled and the "o" in cot and in "on" is often pronounced in a variety of ways across different dialects.

I attempted to use a Southern dialect to say the sentence. I used some of what we've read and some of what we discussed in class about vowel shifts to affect my accent. The short "i" in spilled I moved up towards the front and top of my mouth to produce more of an "iy" sound. This is visible in the spectrograph clearly. The pattern as compared to the "i" in my "normal" accent is much darker, and there is a downward (convex) arch along with two dark horizontal bands above and one below. In my normal accent, this curve exists but it is more concave and blends in with the bottom horizontal band (probably because my natural "i" is not moved forward).

I think the "o" is represented by the amount the final band is curved because in the "Southern" version there is more of a curve and I can distinctly hear a more stretched out, broader "o" sound in cot than in my normal rendition. I also notice that the "c" sound I made in the Southern accent is more drawn out and aspirated, which is seen in the spectrograph a stop in the spectography whereas in my normal one the graph is more blended in the word "cot."

Also, in the "Southern accent" the words are distinct but the sounds seem to blur together (ie. the bars aren't as distinct), which is probably the effect of the "drawl" that we hear. Related to this is the fact that it took longer to say the same sentence with the accent, (by 0.7s) something I did not do intentionally.

The word "butter" is quite different between the two versions. In the "normal" the amplitude is relatively high for the "bu" and then lower for "tter", while in the Southern it's all quite the same. Also, the drawing in the normal version shows three distinct areas of darkness, one sloping up during the "b", then a hazy middle area for the glottal "tt" and then a higher dark area for "er." In the Southern one these three areas are the same, but they are actually connected. The middle area is also much less hazy and clear as a dark spot. I think this might be from the fact that it's less glottal and approaches a "d" sound almost, which connects with the "er."

The last thing that I thought was interesting (which was the same in both) was the way I grouped words. I can tell where "The" starts and ends in each, but then "butter sp--" is relatively contiguous -- though you can make out which is which. There is then a space and then "-illed on the" and then, separately (probably due to the aspirated "c"), "cot." I would have thought that all my words would be relatively distinct or relatively together, not that some would be together and others apart. I guess this might vary from person to person though.