EAPSI:Analyzing the Interaction of Written-Language Complexity and Speech Duration to Understand the Effects of Literacy on Spoken Language

Grippando Shannon C, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Previous research has found a link in English between how a sound is spelled and the duration of that sound. For tic, click, and clique, the final /k/ sound is longer in click versus tic, and longer still in clique. It has yet to be determined if children acquire these patterns naturally from adults' speech or if this develops through the process of becoming literate. This question is difficult to test in English: words that sound similar but vary only in the spelling of specific sounds are not widely known to preliterate children. However, this effect may be influenced by written-language complexity relative to a language's writing system rather than just by alphabetic letters. Thus, this effect could be present in languages without alphabets. Japanese has a character-based writing system. It also has a larger number of words that have similar pronunciations known to preliterate children but are written differently with varying levels of complexity. Working with Dr. Montserrat Sanz of Kobe City University of Foreign Studies in Japan, the PI will collect speech data from Japanese speakers to determine if durational differences linked to written-language complexity are also present in languages other than English. If this is the case, speech patterns from preliterate Japanese children and literate adults can be compared to determine if this effect is influenced by literacy. This research can lead to the development of low-cost, non-invasive technologies that use speech data to detect reading or developmental disorders in children. Research has found a correlation between orthography and speech duration in English: the duration of a word-final consonant is a function of the number of letters used in its orthographic representation. This effect has not been studied outside of English but may be influenced by orthographic complexity relative to a language's orthography rather than just phonologically-salient letters. If this is the case, a similar effect should be present in languages with orthographies other than alphabets. The PI will collect speech data from Japanese speakers and analyze speech duration as a function of orthographic complexity of kanji. If Japanese exhibits similar durational patterns, speech data from Japanese children of various stages of literacy (including preliterate) and literate adults will be compared to determine whether these durational effects are acquired naturally or develop through literacy. This research can lead to techniques to test for reading and developmental disorders in children through analyses of their speech This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.