Transplanting vowels: towards the acoustic correlates of foreign accent

The present study aims at investigating the acoustic correlates of foreign accent through a series of perceptual and acoustic experiments. In particular, this research focuses on the role of vowels in the assessment of a non-native accent; for this purpose the segmental and suprasegmental transplantation technique has been used. Prosody and formant patterns have been cloned from Italian L2 speakers’ speech (Chinese and Russian L1s) to a native Italian voice and vice versa in order to evaluate possible correlations between such modifications and the perception of foreign accent. Results pointed out that, for the Italian language, prosodic features affect the degree of perceived foreign accent more than vowel segments.