Infant-Directed Speech Does Not Always Involve Exaggerated Vowel Distinctions: Evidence From Danish

Christopher Cox; Christina Dideriksen; Tamar Keren-Portnoy; Andreas Roepstorff; Morten H. Christiansen; Riccardo Fusaroli

doi:10.1111/cdev.13950

Infant-Directed Speech Does Not Always Involve Exaggerated Vowel Distinctions: Evidence From Danish

Christopher Cox, Christina Dideriksen, Tamar Keren-Portnoy, Andreas Roepstorff, Morten H. Christiansen, Riccardo Fusaroli

Language and Linguistic Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This study compared the acoustic properties of 26 (100% female, 100% monolingual) Danish caregivers' spontaneous speech addressed to their 11‐ to 24‐month‐old infants (infant‐directed speech, IDS) and an adult experimenter (adult‐directed speech, ADS). The data were collected between 2016 and 2018 in Aarhus, Denmark. Prosodic properties of Danish IDS conformed to cross‐linguistic patterns, with a higher pitch, greater pitch variability, and slower articulation rate than ADS. However, an acoustic analysis of vocalic properties revealed that Danish IDS had a reduced or similar vowel space, higher within‐vowel variability, raised formants, and lower degree of vowel discriminability compared to ADS. None of the measures, except articulation rate, showed age‐related differences. These results push for future research to conduct theory‐driven comparisons across languages with distinct phonological systems.

Original language	English
Number of pages	25
Journal	Child Development
Early online date	12 Jun 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13950
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 12 Jun 2023

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10.1111/cdev.13950Licence: CC BY

Child Development - 2023 - Cox - Infant‐directed speech does not always involve exaggerated vowel distinctions Evidence
© 2023 The Authors
Final published version, 5.4 MBLicence: CC BY

Infant-Directed Speech Does Not Always Involve Exaggerated Vowel Distinctions: Evidence From Danish
Keren-Portnoy, T. (Creator), OSF, 21 Oct 2022
https://osf.io/ywf9m/?view_only=d99fc6dbc61546febff619b8674a7943
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abstract = "This study compared the acoustic properties of 26 (100% female, 100% monolingual) Danish caregivers' spontaneous speech addressed to their 11‐ to 24‐month‐old infants (infant‐directed speech, IDS) and an adult experimenter (adult‐directed speech, ADS). The data were collected between 2016 and 2018 in Aarhus, Denmark. Prosodic properties of Danish IDS conformed to cross‐linguistic patterns, with a higher pitch, greater pitch variability, and slower articulation rate than ADS. However, an acoustic analysis of vocalic properties revealed that Danish IDS had a reduced or similar vowel space, higher within‐vowel variability, raised formants, and lower degree of vowel discriminability compared to ADS. None of the measures, except articulation rate, showed age‐related differences. These results push for future research to conduct theory‐driven comparisons across languages with distinct phonological systems.",

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Infant-Directed Speech Does Not Always Involve Exaggerated Vowel Distinctions: Evidence From Danish

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Infant-Directed Speech Does Not Always Involve Exaggerated Vowel Distinctions: Evidence From Danish

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