Prenatal infant-directed speech: vowels and voice quality

0534165 - PSÚ 2021 RIV AU eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Chládková, Kateřina - Černá, M. - Paillereau, Nikola - Skarnitzl, R. - Oceláková, Z.
Prenatal infant-directed speech: vowels and voice quality.
Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Canberra: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019 - (Calhoun, S.; Escudero, P.; Tabain, M.; Warren, P.), s. 1525-1529. ISBN 978-0-646-80069-1.
[International Congress of Phonetic Sciences /19./. Melbourne (AU), 05.08.2019-09.08.2019]
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA18-01799S
Institutional support: RVO:68081740
Keywords : prenatal infant directed speech * early speech development * input * Czech * vowels
OECD category: Psychology (including human - machine relations)
https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs/icphs2019

Speech addressed to young children is typically characterised by distinct acoustic properties. Here we describe infant-directed speech (IDS) addressed to unborn infants. Recordings of pregnant women (speaking Czech) show that prenatal IDS differs from adult-directed speech (ADS) in several vocalic properties. Compared to ADS, prenatal IDS has longer vowels (due to slower speaking rate) with short-long contrasts being preserved. The F1–F2 vowel space is larger in prenatal IDS than in ADS, the vowel-space expansion towards the periphery evokes enhancement of phonemic contrasts. Although overall pitch is not found to differ between styles, in IDS, F0 serves as a supporting cue to short-long contrasts. Voice quality is breathier in IDS than in ADS indicating intimacy or affection. Our results align well with previous findings for 'postnatal' IDS across languages and demonstrate that a distinct infant-directed speech style exists already before birth.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0312401