This study investigated changes in vowel production and perception among university students from the north of England, as individuals adapt their accent from regional to educated norms. Subjects were tested in their production and perception at regular intervals over a period of : before beginning university, later, and at the end of their first and second years at university. At each testing session, subjects were recorded reading a set of experimental words and a short passage. Subjects also completed two perceptual tasks; they chose best exemplar locations for vowels embedded in either northern or southern English accented carrier sentences and identified words in noise spoken with either a northern or southern English accent. The results demonstrated that subjects at a late stage in their language development, early adulthood, changed their spoken accent after attending university. There were no reliable changes in perception over time, but there was evidence for a between-subjects link between production and perception; subjects chose similar vowels to the ones they produced, and subjects who had a more southern English accent were better at identifying southern English speech in noise.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
June 2007
June 01 2007
Plasticity in vowel perception and production: A study of accent change in young adults
Bronwen G. Evans;
Bronwen G. Evans
Department of Phonetics and Linguistics,
University College London
, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, United Kingdom
Search for other works by this author on:
Paul Iverson
Paul Iverson
Department of Phonetics and Linguistics,
University College London
, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, United Kingdom
Search for other works by this author on:
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 121, 3814–3826 (2007)
Article history
Received:
December 30 2005
Accepted:
March 12 2007
Citation
Bronwen G. Evans, Paul Iverson; Plasticity in vowel perception and production: A study of accent change in young adults. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 June 2007; 121 (6): 3814–3826. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2722209
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionPay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Citing articles via
Related Content
Vowel normalization for accent: An investigation of best exemplar locations in northern and southern British English sentences
J Acoust Soc Am (December 2003)
The effect of vowel inventory and acoustic properties in Salento Italian learners of Southern British English vowels
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (March 2014)
Cue switching in the perception of approximants: Evidence from two English dialects
J Acoust Soc Am (May 2008)
Examining the success of three kinds of cross-language similarity in predicting English listeners’ discrimination of Danish vowels
J Acoust Soc Am (October 2021)
Short‐pulse supersonic nozzle beam epitaxy: A new approach for submonolayer controlled growth
Appl. Phys. Lett. (February 1994)