A helyesírásban jelölt és nem jelölt j akusztikai megvalósulása gyors beszédtempóban

Juhász, Kornélia and Deme, Andrea (2025) A helyesírásban jelölt és nem jelölt j akusztikai megvalósulása gyors beszédtempóban. ALKALMAZOTT NYELVTUDOMÁNY, 25 (1). pp. 24-43. ISSN 1587-1061

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Abstract

The study examines how the speed of speech tempo affects the production of Hungarian j-realizations in words where the j element is either represented in Hungarian orthography or not. Specifically, the experiment examines the acoustic discrimination of word pairs involving inflected infinitives and nouns. For example, zoknija [zoknijɒ] (’his socks’) contains a possessive suffix, where the j is both orthographically represented and morphologically confirmed as lexical. In contrast, szoknia [soknijɒ] (’to get used to’) is an inflected infinitive in the 3rd person singular, where the absence of j may be attributed merely to orthographic convention rather than morphological evidence. Although the acoustic discrimination of the ija and ia sequences of these words is not phonologically motivated, since j is not contrastive in this context in Hungarian, previous studies showed that speakers produce a spectral contrast between them at a comfortable speech rate, possibly as a result of the effect of orthography. Specifically, the ija sequence is produced with a more constricted vocal tract during the transitional phase between the [i] and [ɒ] vocalic targets, resulting in a lower first formant frequency (F1), compared to the ia sequence. However, the duration of the vocalic sequences was not affected by the orthographic representation. It is well established that fast speech induces segmental reduction due to temporal constraints. Based on this, in the present study, we hypothesized that while orthography-driven distinctions influence speech at a comfortable rate, spectral differences between ija and ia disappear in fast speech. To test this, we recorded 15 female speakers producing four phonetically matched real words in carrier sentences (Andija vs. adnia; zoknija vs. szoknia; haknija vs. raknia; pónija vs. rónia). These words were first read at a comfortable speech rate (normal tempo) in carrier sentences (Legyen <target word>! ’let it be <target word>’), yielding the results described above. Subsequently, speakers were asked to repeat these sentences multiple times, gradually increasing their speech tempo until articulation failed to proceed. This method facilitated both an increase in articulation rate and the automatization of articulatory gestures. We segmented the vocalic sequences of words (marked in bold) manually and measured both the duration of the target vocalic sequence and F1 at 5 ms intervals throughout its total duration. Duration data were compared by GLMM, while F1 was analysed using GAMMs. The results confirmed that the ija and ia sequences did not differ in duration, even at fast speech rates, consistent with the absence of temporal contrast observed at normal speech rates in previous studies. Regarding spectral characteristics, it was hypothesized that faster speech would neutralize the differences between the sequences along the dimension of the closeness of the vocal tract. However, the differences observed in normal speech rate persisted at fast rate: the ija sequence exhibited a more constricted vocal tract during the transitional pásé, as reflected in lower F1 values, maintaining its distinction from ia. Interestingly, fast speech reduced the [i] vowel in both ija and ia to an approximant- like realization, while the [ɒ] vowel remained relatively resistant to reduction effects exerted by increased speech rate. These findings contribute to our deeper understanding of how orthographic representation influences speech production and how Hungarian j realizations are produced. Keywords: Hungarian j realizations, fast speech tempo, speech production, coarticulation, effect of orthography

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