Perceived accentedness and intelligibility: The relative contributions of F0 and duration

The current study sought to determine the relative contributions of suprasegmental and segmental features to the perception of foreign accent and intelligibility in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) German and English speech. Suprasegmental and segmental features were manipulated independently by transferring (1) native intonation contours and/or syllable durations onto non-native segments and (2) non-native intonation contours and/or syllable durations onto native segments in both English and German. These resynthesized stimuli were then presented, in an intelligibility task, to native speakers of German and English who were proficient in both languages. Both of these groups of speakers and monolingual native speakers of English also rated the foreign accentedness of the manipulated stimuli. In general, tokens became more accented and less intelligible, the more they were manipulated. Tokens were also less accented and more intelligible when produced by speakers of (and in) the listeners’ L1. Nonetheless, in certain L2 productions, there was both a reduction in perceived accentedness and decreased intelligibility for tokens in which native prosody was applied to non-native segments, indicating a disconnect between the perceptual processing of intelligibility and accent.

Mean accentedness rating, across three different stimulus manipulations, by token language and native language of listenerFigure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights
► Intonation and duration were transferred across first/second language speech tokens.
► Native and non-native speakers transcribed these tokens in an intelligibility task.
► Listeners also rated the tokens for foreign accentedness.
► Manipulated stimuli were deemed more accented and less intelligible.
► Speech in listeners’ first language was perceived as less accented/more intelligible.