Acoustic Perturbation in Female Chinese Arabic L2 Speech: Effects of Fundamental Frequency, Intensity, and Learning...

To investigate the influence of fundamental frequency (F0), the intensity, and the duration of learning (DOL) on the acoustic perturbation in female Chinese-Arabic second-language (L2) speech.

A cross-sectional acoustic design was employed, involving 120 female learners: 60 Chinese native learner of Arabic and 60 Arabic native learner of Chinese. Sustained phonation and read speech were used to provide acoustic samples. Acoustic analysis included frequency perturbation measures (jitter (local) and RAP), amplitude perturbation measures (shimmer (local) and APQ3), and harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR). Praat analyses were done and assessed with descriptive statistics, correlation tests, and linear mixed-effects models.

Higher F0 was coupled with high RAP, APQ3, shimmer, jitter, and low HNR. The most significant effects among the measures were higher intensity, lower perturbation values, and higher HNR. Even stronger, but less pronounced, comparable associations with lower perturbation and a little higher harmonicity were found with longer DOL. Mandarin Chinese-native learners of Arabic showed lower perturbation values and slightly higher HNR than Arabic-native learners of Mandarin Chinese, while phonation tasks produced lower perturbation and higher HNR than read speech.

Intensity and F0 are the predominant factors influencing acoustic perturbation of female Chinese-Arabic L2 speech, whereas DOL plays a less significant role in changes associated with second-language learning experience. These findings indicate that the measurement of perturbation in studies of bilingual voice should be with precise control of pitch, loudness and task.