Voice onset time in Indian English-accented speech

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine possible differences in voice onset time (VOT) between speakers of standard American English (AE) and Indian English (IE) in a continuous speech context. The participants were 20 AE speakers, who were native to the Northeastern Pennsylvania region, and 20 IE speakers from the Indian subcontinent who had been residing in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Each subject read a phonetically balanced passage in a comfortable and natural speaking voice, and the recordings were analysed using a combination of waveform and spectrographic analyses. Results indicate that a reduced +VOT appears to characterise IE accent in comparison to AE. In addition, a difference in VOT between genders was observed in AE speakers but not in IE speakers.

• Indian English
• voice onset time
• VOT
• spectrographic analysis
• foreign accent modification