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How variable is speech, how reliable are single recordings? Assessing the medium-term dynamics of speech through iterative data collection

This project aims to kick-start the investigation of medium-term time-dependent intra-speaker variation in speech production: pronunciation variation in the speech of single speakers observed at different times over the course of days, weeks or months (as opposed to hours, or years). We know this variation exists, but few attempts have been made at quantifying it. Doing so will provide vital insight into the reliability of speech production studies which rely on single-session recordings: how sure can we be that the timing of that single session does not affect analysis outcomes? Quantifying the extent of this type of variation requires iterative data collection: recording the same speakers producing the same speech in multiple recording sessions. This project will yield the largest iterative speech corpus to date and offer systematic analysis of time-dependent intra-speaker variation and its relationship to variation from speaker to speaker in relation to vowel pronunciation, speech tempo and rhythm.