A preliminary study on speech perception and production by blind people

Fabrice Hirsch (1) , Rudolph Sock (2) , Béatrice Vaxelaire (2) , Camille Fauth (2) , Fayssal Bouarourou (2) , Marion Bechet (2) , Melissa Barkat-Defradas (1)

1 Équipe 3 : Parole et discours : fonctionnement/dysfonctionnement et appropriation
2 LILPA - Linguistique, Langues et Parole

The present research deals with speech production and perception by blind people in [VCV] and [CVC] sequences. The aim of this work is double: first, we want to observe if blind people are capable of perceiving potential anticipatory effects of a rounded vowel in [V1CV2]. This would be due to compensatory auditory readjustments related to perturbation of the visual canal. The second goal of this research evokes timing particularities and formant structures in the production of blind subjects, particularities which may result from the fact that congenitally blind subjects have not benefited from face-to-face communication cues, known to ontogenetically optimize replication of visible gestures during speech. Results show that blind subjects perceive rounded vowels earlier than control sighted subjects. Concerning the temporal dimension, we notice differences in timing gestures between non-sighted and sighted groups.

Mots clés: blind people; Speech production; speech perception; VOT; anticipation; blind people.

Domaines: Linguistique

Fabrice Hirsch, Rudolph Sock, Béatrice Vaxelaire, Camille Fauth, Fayssal Bouarourou, et al.. A preliminary study on speech perception and production by blind people. International Seminar on Speech Production 2011, Jun 2011, Canada. pp.CD-ROM. ⟨halshs-00716609⟩