An acoustic study of real and imagined foreigner‐directed speech

Foreigner‐directed speech is a much cited speech style, but its acoustic properties are surprisingly under‐studied, and many existing studies evoke imagined interlocutors to elicit foreigner‐directed speech. This study provides an acoustic comparison of foreigner‐directed and native‐directed speech in real and imaginary conditions. Ten native English speakers described the path between landmarks on a map to each of two confederate listeners (one native English speaker and one native Mandarin speaker) and to two imagined listeners (one described as a native English speaker and the other as a non‐native speaker). Vowel duration, rate of speech, and vowel centralization were examined across native‐foreigner and real‐imagined conditions in 22 target words. Stressed vowels were longer and rate of speech was slower in foreigner‐directed than in native‐directed speech. Additionally, /ae/ was more peripheral in the vowel space in the foreigner‐directed condition. These effects were consistent across real and imag...