Molly Babel
Biographic Data
| ID | 215287 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Molly Babel |
| GIVEN NAMES | Molly |
| FAMILY NAME | Babel |
| SIGNATURE | BABEL M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of British Columbia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1153-9557 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 200 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Finding our Role: How and why to reframe essentialist approaches to language
Processing pronunciation variation with independently mappable allophones
A long-standing merger of /n/ to /l/ in Cantonese has produced [n]- and [l]-initial pronunciation variants that are effectively allophones of syllable-initial /l/ and /n/. • [n] and [l]-initial allophones are distinguishable in perception. • In recognition and encoding paradigms, [n] and [l] allophones are processed neither equivalently nor distinctly when the targets bear the more common [l]-initial allophone. • Error rates are high when the tar…
The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingual Phonetics and Phonology
Bilingualism and the study of speech sounds are two of the largest areas of inquiry in linguistics. This Handbook sits at the intersection of these fields, providing a comprehensive overview of the most recent, cutting-edge work on the sound systems of adult and child bilinguals. Bringing together contributions from an international team of world-leading experts, it covers all aspects of the speech perception, production and processing of bilingu…
Language-general versus language-specific processes in bilingual voice learning
Language experience confers a benefit to voice learning, a concept described in the literature as the language familiarity effect (LFE). What experiences are necessary for the LFE to be conferred is less clear. We contribute empirically and theoretically to this debate by examining within and across language voice learning with Cantonese-English bilingual voices in a talker-voice association paradigm. Listeners were trained in Cantonese or Englis…
Regular exposure facilitates dual-mapping of Cantonese pronunciation variants
The multilingual landscape of Canada creates opportunities for many heterogeneous bilingual communities to experience systematic phonetic variation within and across languages and dialects, and exposes listeners to different pronunciation variants. This paper examines phonetic variation through the lens of an ongoing sound change in Cantonese involving word-initial [n] and [l] across two primed lexical decision tasks (Experiment 1: Immediate repe…
Cross-Linguistic Phonetic Variation in Bilingual Speech: Cantonese /n/ > [l] Merger in Early Cantonese–English Bilinguals
n/ is merging with /l/ in Cantonese, as well as in several other Chinese languages. The Cantonese merger appears categorical, with /n/ becoming /l/ syllable-initially. This project aims to describe /n/ and /l/ in Cantonese and English speech from early Cantonese–English bilinguals to better understand the status of the merger in Cantonese and its potential for cross-linguistic mutual influence. We examine early bilinguals’ ( n = 34) speech using …
Language Contact Within the Speaker: Phonetic Variation and Crosslinguistic Influence
A recent model of sound change posits that the direction of change is determined, at least in part, by the distribution of variation within speech communities. We explore this model in the context of bilingual speech, asking whether the less variable language constrains phonetic variation in the more variable language, using a corpus of spontaneous speech from early Cantonese–English bilinguals. As predicted, given the phonetic distributions of s…
Prosodic realization and interpretation of English imperatives
Imperative clauses can communicate a number of speech acts, and differences in intonation have been argued to prompt different interpretations. So far, however, limited phonetic evidence has been presented for such proposals. The focus in the current work is on maximally strong imperatives (commands) and weaker imperatives (mainly involving advice) in English. We report on a series of phonetic experiments intended to address whether listeners rel…
Cognitive Load Reduces Perceived Linguistic Convergence Between Dyads
Speech convergence is the tendency of talkers to become more similar to someone they are listening or talking to, whether that person is a conversational partner or merely a voice heard repeating words. To elucidate the nature of the mechanisms underlying convergence, this study uses different levels of task difficulty on speech convergence within dyads collaborating on a task. Dyad members had to build identical LEGO® constructions without being…
Perceptual identification of talker ethnicity in Vancouver English
Studies of ethnolinguistic variation typically begin by describing the speech production variables used to index social groups. In this study, we begin with indexical recognition - the perceptual identification of speakers' self-identified ethnic groups - to determine whether speakers produce ethnolinguistic variation and whether listeners are sensitive to it. Speech samples were recorded from thirty individuals from Metro Vancouver who self-iden…
Social categories are shared across bilinguals׳ lexicons
Descent and Diffusion in Language Diversification: A Study of Western Numic Dialectology
The two branches of Western Numic are the Mono and Northern Paiute languages. We argue that this taxonomic structure did not arise as usually assumed in historical linguistics, through increased differentiation brought about by changes internal to each branch, but rather that diffusion between Western and Central Numic played a crucial role in forming the Western Numic family tree. More generally, we suggest that diffusion plays a greater role in…
The Role of Fundamental Frequency in Phonetic Accommodation
Previous research has argued that fundamental frequency is a critical component of phonetic accommodation. We tested this hypothesis in an auditory naming task with two conditions. Participants in an Unfiltered Condition completed an auditory naming task with a single male model talker. A second group of participants was assigned to a Filtered Condition where the same stimuli had been high-pass filtered at 300 Hz, thereby eliminating the fundamen…
Evidence for phonetic and social selectivity in spontaneous phonetic imitation
Mono Lake Northern Paiute
Northern Paiute is a member of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is spoken across the Great Basin in the western United States - from Mono Lake in California, on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, through western Nevada and into southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, as well as in a discontinuous region in southeastern Idaho by the Bannock. There are, according to Golla (2011), about 300 first-language speakers of…
Teaching & Learning Guide for: Loose Lips and Silver Tongues, or, Projecting Sexual Orientation Through Speech
This guide accompanies the following article : Benjamin Munson and Molly Babel, ‘Loose Lips and Silver Tongues, or, Projecting Sexual Orientation through Speech’, Language and Linguistics Compass 4/2 (2010): DOI:10.1111/j.1749‐818x.2009.00028.x Author’s Introduction Although language and the male–female gender dichotomy have been topics revisited throughout the course of modern linguistics, the issue of sexual orientation and speech has entered t…
On the perceptual basis of distinctive features: Evidence from the perception of fricatives by Dutch and English speakers
Dialect divergence and convergence in New Zealand English
Recent research has been concerned with whether speech accommodation is an automatic process or determined by social factors (e.g. Trudgill 2008). This paper investigates phonetic accommodation in New Zealand English when speakers of NZE are responding to an Australian talker in a speech production task. NZ participants were randomly assigned to either a Positive or Negative group, where they were either flattered or insulted by the Australian. O…
Loose Lips and Silver Tongues, or, Projecting Sexual Orientation Through Speech
The notion that an individual's sexual orientation can be ascertained through distinctive speech patterns abounds in popular culture. This article reviews the small but growing body of literature examining whether sexual orientation is conveyed and perceived through speech. These studies show some individuals speak in a way that conveys their sexual orientation to naïve listeners. Contrary to many popular-culture stereotypes, the phonetic paramet…
Evidence for phonetic and social selectivity in spontaneous phonetic imitation
Dialect divergence and convergence in New Zealand English
Recent research has been concerned with whether speech accommodation is an automatic process or determined by social factors (e.g. Trudgill 2008). This paper investigates phonetic accommodation in New Zealand English when speakers of NZE are responding to an Australian talker in a speech production task. NZ participants were randomly assigned to either a Positive or Negative group, where they were either flattered or insulted by the Australian. O…
The Role of Fundamental Frequency in Phonetic Accommodation
Previous research has argued that fundamental frequency is a critical component of phonetic accommodation. We tested this hypothesis in an auditory naming task with two conditions. Participants in an Unfiltered Condition completed an auditory naming task with a single male model talker. A second group of participants was assigned to a Filtered Condition where the same stimuli had been high-pass filtered at 300 Hz, thereby eliminating the fundamen…
Loose Lips and Silver Tongues, or, Projecting Sexual Orientation Through Speech
The notion that an individual's sexual orientation can be ascertained through distinctive speech patterns abounds in popular culture. This article reviews the small but growing body of literature examining whether sexual orientation is conveyed and perceived through speech. These studies show some individuals speak in a way that conveys their sexual orientation to naïve listeners. Contrary to many popular-culture stereotypes, the phonetic paramet…
On the perceptual basis of distinctive features: Evidence from the perception of fricatives by Dutch and English speakers
Perceptual identification of talker ethnicity in Vancouver English
Studies of ethnolinguistic variation typically begin by describing the speech production variables used to index social groups. In this study, we begin with indexical recognition - the perceptual identification of speakers' self-identified ethnic groups - to determine whether speakers produce ethnolinguistic variation and whether listeners are sensitive to it. Speech samples were recorded from thirty individuals from Metro Vancouver who self-iden…
Cognitive Load Reduces Perceived Linguistic Convergence Between Dyads
Speech convergence is the tendency of talkers to become more similar to someone they are listening or talking to, whether that person is a conversational partner or merely a voice heard repeating words. To elucidate the nature of the mechanisms underlying convergence, this study uses different levels of task difficulty on speech convergence within dyads collaborating on a task. Dyad members had to build identical LEGO® constructions without being…
Descent and Diffusion in Language Diversification: A Study of Western Numic Dialectology
The two branches of Western Numic are the Mono and Northern Paiute languages. We argue that this taxonomic structure did not arise as usually assumed in historical linguistics, through increased differentiation brought about by changes internal to each branch, but rather that diffusion between Western and Central Numic played a crucial role in forming the Western Numic family tree. More generally, we suggest that diffusion plays a greater role in…
Social categories are shared across bilinguals׳ lexicons
Mono Lake Northern Paiute
Northern Paiute is a member of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is spoken across the Great Basin in the western United States - from Mono Lake in California, on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, through western Nevada and into southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, as well as in a discontinuous region in southeastern Idaho by the Bannock. There are, according to Golla (2011), about 300 first-language speakers of…
Loose Lips and Silver Tongues, or, Projecting Sexual Orientation Through Speech
The notion that an individual's sexual orientation can be ascertained through distinctive speech patterns abounds in popular culture. This article reviews the small but growing body of literature examining whether sexual orientation is conveyed and perceived through speech. These studies show some individuals speak in a way that conveys their sexual orientation to naïve listeners. Contrary to many popular-culture stereotypes, the phonetic paramet…
Teaching & Learning Guide for: Loose Lips and Silver Tongues, or, Projecting Sexual Orientation Through Speech
This guide accompanies the following article : Benjamin Munson and Molly Babel, ‘Loose Lips and Silver Tongues, or, Projecting Sexual Orientation through Speech’, Language and Linguistics Compass 4/2 (2010): DOI:10.1111/j.1749‐818x.2009.00028.x Author’s Introduction Although language and the male–female gender dichotomy have been topics revisited throughout the course of modern linguistics, the issue of sexual orientation and speech has entered t…
On the perceptual basis of distinctive features: Evidence from the perception of fricatives by Dutch and English speakers
Dialect divergence and convergence in New Zealand English
Recent research has been concerned with whether speech accommodation is an automatic process or determined by social factors (e.g. Trudgill 2008). This paper investigates phonetic accommodation in New Zealand English when speakers of NZE are responding to an Australian talker in a speech production task. NZ participants were randomly assigned to either a Positive or Negative group, where they were either flattered or insulted by the Australian. O…
The Role of Fundamental Frequency in Phonetic Accommodation
Previous research has argued that fundamental frequency is a critical component of phonetic accommodation. We tested this hypothesis in an auditory naming task with two conditions. Participants in an Unfiltered Condition completed an auditory naming task with a single male model talker. A second group of participants was assigned to a Filtered Condition where the same stimuli had been high-pass filtered at 300 Hz, thereby eliminating the fundamen…
Evidence for phonetic and social selectivity in spontaneous phonetic imitation
Mono Lake Northern Paiute
Northern Paiute is a member of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is spoken across the Great Basin in the western United States - from Mono Lake in California, on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, through western Nevada and into southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, as well as in a discontinuous region in southeastern Idaho by the Bannock. There are, according to Golla (2011), about 300 first-language speakers of…
Descent and Diffusion in Language Diversification: A Study of Western Numic Dialectology
The two branches of Western Numic are the Mono and Northern Paiute languages. We argue that this taxonomic structure did not arise as usually assumed in historical linguistics, through increased differentiation brought about by changes internal to each branch, but rather that diffusion between Western and Central Numic played a crucial role in forming the Western Numic family tree. More generally, we suggest that diffusion plays a greater role in…
Social categories are shared across bilinguals׳ lexicons
Cognitive Load Reduces Perceived Linguistic Convergence Between Dyads
Speech convergence is the tendency of talkers to become more similar to someone they are listening or talking to, whether that person is a conversational partner or merely a voice heard repeating words. To elucidate the nature of the mechanisms underlying convergence, this study uses different levels of task difficulty on speech convergence within dyads collaborating on a task. Dyad members had to build identical LEGO® constructions without being…
Perceptual identification of talker ethnicity in Vancouver English
Studies of ethnolinguistic variation typically begin by describing the speech production variables used to index social groups. In this study, we begin with indexical recognition - the perceptual identification of speakers' self-identified ethnic groups - to determine whether speakers produce ethnolinguistic variation and whether listeners are sensitive to it. Speech samples were recorded from thirty individuals from Metro Vancouver who self-iden…
Prosodic realization and interpretation of English imperatives
Imperative clauses can communicate a number of speech acts, and differences in intonation have been argued to prompt different interpretations. So far, however, limited phonetic evidence has been presented for such proposals. The focus in the current work is on maximally strong imperatives (commands) and weaker imperatives (mainly involving advice) in English. We report on a series of phonetic experiments intended to address whether listeners rel…
The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingual Phonetics and Phonology
Bilingualism and the study of speech sounds are two of the largest areas of inquiry in linguistics. This Handbook sits at the intersection of these fields, providing a comprehensive overview of the most recent, cutting-edge work on the sound systems of adult and child bilinguals. Bringing together contributions from an international team of world-leading experts, it covers all aspects of the speech perception, production and processing of bilingu…
Language-general versus language-specific processes in bilingual voice learning
Language experience confers a benefit to voice learning, a concept described in the literature as the language familiarity effect (LFE). What experiences are necessary for the LFE to be conferred is less clear. We contribute empirically and theoretically to this debate by examining within and across language voice learning with Cantonese-English bilingual voices in a talker-voice association paradigm. Listeners were trained in Cantonese or Englis…
Regular exposure facilitates dual-mapping of Cantonese pronunciation variants
The multilingual landscape of Canada creates opportunities for many heterogeneous bilingual communities to experience systematic phonetic variation within and across languages and dialects, and exposes listeners to different pronunciation variants. This paper examines phonetic variation through the lens of an ongoing sound change in Cantonese involving word-initial [n] and [l] across two primed lexical decision tasks (Experiment 1: Immediate repe…
Cross-Linguistic Phonetic Variation in Bilingual Speech: Cantonese /n/ > [l] Merger in Early Cantonese–English Bilinguals
n/ is merging with /l/ in Cantonese, as well as in several other Chinese languages. The Cantonese merger appears categorical, with /n/ becoming /l/ syllable-initially. This project aims to describe /n/ and /l/ in Cantonese and English speech from early Cantonese–English bilinguals to better understand the status of the merger in Cantonese and its potential for cross-linguistic mutual influence. We examine early bilinguals’ ( n = 34) speech using …
Language Contact Within the Speaker: Phonetic Variation and Crosslinguistic Influence
A recent model of sound change posits that the direction of change is determined, at least in part, by the distribution of variation within speech communities. We explore this model in the context of bilingual speech, asking whether the less variable language constrains phonetic variation in the more variable language, using a corpus of spontaneous speech from early Cantonese–English bilinguals. As predicted, given the phonetic distributions of s…
Processing pronunciation variation with independently mappable allophones
A long-standing merger of /n/ to /l/ in Cantonese has produced [n]- and [l]-initial pronunciation variants that are effectively allophones of syllable-initial /l/ and /n/. • [n] and [l]-initial allophones are distinguishable in perception. • In recognition and encoding paradigms, [n] and [l] allophones are processed neither equivalently nor distinctly when the targets bear the more common [l]-initial allophone. • Error rates are high when the tar…
Finding our Role: How and why to reframe essentialist approaches to language
Linguistics (15 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (14 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (14 works) · Perception (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works)