CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF PITCH VARIATIONS BETWEEN THE NATIVE SPEAKERS OF BRITISH ACCENT AND NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS OF TURKISH

Küçüksakarya Vurğun E.

VII. Uluslararası Türklerin Dünyası Sosyal Bilimler Sempozyumu, Praha, Çek Cumhuriyeti, 2 - 04 Haziran 2023

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Yayınlanmadı
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Praha
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Çek Cumhuriyeti
  • Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Native and non-native spoken language is known to show variations regarding pitch patterns and frequency values. Focusing on the pitch range and its effect on the foreign accent, cross-linguistic changes between English speakers of L1 and L2 are mostly investigated in the relevant literature. In this respect, the purpose of the study is to determine how pitch variations occur between non-native Turkish monolinguals and the native British monolinguals. It is hypothesized that Turkish speakers of English have a narrower pitch range and less pitch variation than English native speakers. Comparing pitch values and frequency levels, this study also aims to identify language specific differences regarding different non-native Turkish accents spoken in the regions of Eastern Anatolia, Central Anatolia, and Black Sea. To make a cross-linguistic comparison, nine native British accent participants and nine none-native Turkish accent participants are participated in the study. Data involve two elicitation sentences retrieved from Speech Accent Archive (http://accent.gmu.edu/howto.php). With the consent of eighteen male participants, data have been collected through recordings. Speeches have been evaluated using Praat Speech Analysis Program. Then the acoustic characteristics responsible for the intonational foreign accent have been identified as distinct deviations in pitch patterns produced by Turkish speakers of English as L2. After the analysis of pitch tracks and spectrograms, it has been observed that the pitch range and frequency values in speakers’ intonation vary between L1 and L2. As this is a preliminary case study, a further study can be conducted on females to see gender distinction. Besides both the number of participants and the number of regions can be increased to demonstrate the frequency values in a wider.

Keywords: pitch, frequency, Praat speech analysis program, foreign accent.