Here we present AusKidTalk [1], an audio-visual (AV) corpus of Australian children’s speech collected to facilitate the development of speech based technological solutions for children. It builds upon the technology and expertise developed through the collection of an earlier corpus of Australian adult speech, AusTalk [2,3]. This multi-site initiative was established to remedy the dire shortage of children’s speech corpora in Australia and around the world that are sufficiently sized to train accurate automated speech processing tools for children. We are collecting ~600 hours of speech from children aged 3–12 years that includes single word and sentence productions as well as narrative and emotional speech. In this paper, we discuss the key requirements for AusKidTalk and how we designed the recording setup and protocol to meet them. We also discuss key findings from our feasibility study of the recording protocol, recording tools, and user interface.

There has been a recent increase in speech research utilizing data recorded with participants' personal devices, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on face-toface interactions. This raises important questions about whether these recordings are comparable to those made in traditional lab-based settings. Some previous studies have compared the viability of recordings made with personal devices for the clinical evaluation of voice quality. However, these studies rely on simple statistical analyses and do not examine acoustic correlates of voice quality typically examined in the (socio-) phonetic literature (e.g. H1-H2). In this study, we compare recordings from a set of smartphones/laptops and a solid-state recorder to assess the reliability of a range of acoustic correlates of voice quality. The results show significant differences for many acoustic measures of voice quality across devices. Further exploratory analyses demonstrate that these differences are not simple offsets, but rather that their magnitude depends on the value of the measurement of interest. We therefore urge researchers to exercise caution when examining voice quality based on recordings made with participants' devices, particularly when interested in small effect sizes. We also call on the speech research community to investigate these issues more thoroughly. Copyright © 2021 ISCA.

We examined the perception of Japanese consonant length contrasts (singleton vs geminate) in four groups of listeners: Two groups of non-native learners of Japanese, three each at highly-advanced (NNJ1) and upper-intermediate (NNJ2) levels, native speakers of Italian (IT) (n=10) and Australian English (OZ) (n=8) with no knowledge of Japanese. Because Italian, like Japanese, uses consonant length contrastively but Australian English does not, we were interested in whether first language (L1) knowledge of consonant length might have an effect on the ability to perceive short and long Japanese consonants. The NNJ1 learners were more accurate in identifying Japanese singleton and geminate consonants than were the IT listeners who, in turn, were more accurate than the OZ listeners. The NNJ2 learners' results showed similarities and differences to the IT and OZ listeners. Our preliminary results suggest that L1 experience with consonant length may not necessarily guarantee accurate perception of consonant length in an unknown language. However, it may offer some advantage over lack of exposure to consonant length. In addition, the results for learner proficiency demonstrate that non-native learners need much time/practice before they clearly differentiate themselves from naive listeners, reconfirming previous research that consonant length contrasts are difficult to acquire.

The Big Australian Speech Corpus project incorporates the strategic goals of 30 Chief Investigators from various speech science areas. Speech from 1000 geographically and socially diverse speakers is being recorded using a uniform and automated protocol plus standardized hardware and software to produce a widely applicable and extensible database – AusTalk. Here we describe the project’s major components and organization; share the lessons learnt from difficulties and challenges; and present the results achieved so far.

In this paper we present the results of a trend analysis comparing acoustic vowel data collected from Australian English speakers over the past 40 years. Results reveal the final stage of short front vowel raising and provide evidence for subsequent lowering as a change in progress. We argue that this result reflects the reversal of a series of vowel changes that have been in progress for over 100 years. These findings raise interesting theoretical questions about the nature of vowel shifts and challenge Bybee’s [1] assertion that sound change reversals cannot occur. Index Terms: phonetics, vowels, sound change 1.

This paper examines the assumption that Australian English vowel variation within urban centres is restricted to broadness variation and is a consequence of socioeconomic rather than regional factors. The acoustic structure of vowel realisations for subjects across three different regions in Sydney is compared to shed some light on the theory of regional uniformity. 95 adolescent female speakers of General Australian English produced multiple repetitions of 18 different vowels in the h-d context. The vowel formants for each group were compared using ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni. Results revealed several significant area effects not necessarily associated with broadness variation. As area often subsumes a range of socioeconomic factors, it was necessary to also investigate whether some other socioeconomic indicator would account for the results. An examination of parental occupation, education and area confirm area as the most important of these factors in influencing vowel realisation for this group of speakers.