Speech Rhythm—Models and Metrics for L1 and L2 Speech
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23645263 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mikhail Ordin (0000-0002-9464-512X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-7 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-02 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal20632 |
| OpenAlex | W4416917676 |
| ISBN | 9781405198431 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
Rhythm results from repeating speech movements that yield recurrent acoustic events, which are recognized by speech perception systems as properties of discrete linguistic units—phonemes and phonemic clusters, syllables, feet, phonological words, prosodic phrases, and utterances. These linguistic units are organized hierarchically: smaller units are embedded in larger ones. As speech flow is a concatenation of these recurrent constituents, speech rhythm(s) operate(s) at multiple hierarchical levels. Syllabic rhythm is an organization of speech flow into vocalic and consonantal intervals and syllables that can be more or less isochronous (equal in duration). At the level of feet, syllables are grouped into patterns based on their relative prominence. Speech rhythm at this level is referred to as meter and is acoustically manifested not only via patterns of durational variability but also by fluctuations in fundamental frequency (F0, perceived as pitch changes) that contribute to the so‐called macro‐rhythm or tonal rhythm. F0 fluctuations also define prosodic phrases and utterances. Both syllabic and tonal rhythms contribute to rhythmicity (perceived isochrony). Perception of rhythm is based on the entrainment of cortical oscillations to recurrent acoustic events at different linguistic hierarchical levels. Entrainment (synchronization) allows listeners to use rhythmic cues to segment a continuous speech signal into constituents and reconstruct their hierarchy in individual utterances. This mechanism is universal, yet sufficiently flexible to adapt to the distinct rhythmic patterns that characterize different languages. Non‐native rhythm is a salient feature of L2 speech. It may increase accentedness and compromise intelligibility by disrupting the entrainment of neural oscillations to acoustic rhythms.
Entrainment (biomusicology) · Formant · Intelligibility (philosophy) · Perception · Rhythm · Salient · Speech perception · Speech processing · Syllabic verse
| Highly cited | No |
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