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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing the accuracy of existing forced alignment software on varieties of British English
AU - MacKenzie, Laurel
AU - Turton, Danielle
PY - 2020/1/29
Y1 - 2020/1/29
N2 - This paper presents an analysis of the performance and usability of automatic speech processing tools on six different varieties of English spoken in the British Isles. The tools used in the present study were developed for use with Mainstream American English, but we demonstrate that their forced alignment func- tionality nonetheless performs extremely well on a range of British varieties, encompassing both careful and casual speech. Where phone boundary placement is concerned, substantial errors in alignment occur infre- quently, and although small displacements between aligner-placed and human-placed phone boundaries are found regularly, these will rarely have a significant effect on measurements of interest for the researcher. We demonstrate that gross phone boundary placement errors, when they do arise, are particularly likely to be introduced in fast speech or with varieties that are radically different from Mainstream American English (e.g. Scots). We also observe occasional problems with phonetic transcription. Overall, we advise that, although forced alignment software is highly reliable and improving continuously, human confirmation is needed to correct errors which can displace entire stretches of speech. Nevertheless, sociolinguists can be assured that the output of these tools is generally highly accurate for a wide range of varieties.
AB - This paper presents an analysis of the performance and usability of automatic speech processing tools on six different varieties of English spoken in the British Isles. The tools used in the present study were developed for use with Mainstream American English, but we demonstrate that their forced alignment func- tionality nonetheless performs extremely well on a range of British varieties, encompassing both careful and casual speech. Where phone boundary placement is concerned, substantial errors in alignment occur infre- quently, and although small displacements between aligner-placed and human-placed phone boundaries are found regularly, these will rarely have a significant effect on measurements of interest for the researcher. We demonstrate that gross phone boundary placement errors, when they do arise, are particularly likely to be introduced in fast speech or with varieties that are radically different from Mainstream American English (e.g. Scots). We also observe occasional problems with phonetic transcription. Overall, we advise that, although forced alignment software is highly reliable and improving continuously, human confirmation is needed to correct errors which can displace entire stretches of speech. Nevertheless, sociolinguists can be assured that the output of these tools is generally highly accurate for a wide range of varieties.
KW - sociophonetics
U2 - 10.1515/lingvan-2018-0061
DO - 10.1515/lingvan-2018-0061
M3 - Journal article
VL - 6
JO - Linguistics Vanguard
JF - Linguistics Vanguard
SN - 2199-174X
IS - s1
M1 - 20180061
ER -