The Impact Of Gender And Consonantal Context On The Acoustic Properties Of /ae/

Résumé: This research is an attempt to provide statistical evidence of the impact of gender and consonantal context on /?/ acoustic properties. It aims at investigating whether there is a difference in male's and females' acoustic features. Likewise, it is an opportunity to discover which gender's Formant frequencies is closer to Formant frequencies of native speakers, and how consonantal context (Consonant Vowel Consonant) influences the acoustic properties of /?/. The current study tends to provide a clear description of how gender affects the /?/ pronunciation, and which type of consonant (in terms of voicing) affects the Formant frequencies and the position of the /?/. To achieve the aforementioned goals, a descriptive quantitative study has been conducted where 22 (14 females, 8 males) first English master students at Larbi Ben M'hidi University are participated. In the process of conducting this research, eight isolated words have been used as recording test; the PRAAT software was used to measure acoustically the recordings. The first set of analysis examined the significant difference in the accurate pronunciation of both genders. The analysis found that English as foreign language males' /?/ Formant frequencies were lower than females' Formant frequencies, and males' pronunciation is closer to native speakers. The second set of analysis sought to explore the impact of the consonantal context on /?/. The results then have shown that the Formant frequencies of /?/ preceded by unvoiced consonants are higher than the Formants of /?/ preceded by voiced consonants. In other words, whenever the context that surrounds /?/ changes, there will be a change in the Formant frequencies of the sound, i.e., a difference in place of articulation. Eventually, the alternative hypothesis is confirmed; gender and consonantal elements have a remarkable impact on the acoustic properties of /?/.

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