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The Effect of Alcohol on Speech Production

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Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of acute alcohol consumption on speech in Hungarian subjects. The measures used to reveal these effects were tongue-twisters, which were grouped according to their linguistic features. The number and type of speech errors while uttering the tongue-twisters were compared between intoxicated and sober conditions. The results showed that subjects made more speech errors in alcohol influenced than in sober states in all types of the tongue-twisters except for those using foreign words. Changes in the articulation rate, number of pauses and fundamental frequency were investigated as well. In the intoxicated state, no changes were observed in fundamental frequency and articulation rate, while the number of pauses increased.

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Notes

  1. One unit is the equivalent of half a bottle (2.5 dl) of beer, 100 ml wine or a 40 ml shot of spirit.

  2. We only have taken into account studies which measured BAC or the amount of alcohol because there is no agreement in the case of the BrAC (Chin and Pisoni 1997; Haffner et al. 2003; Jones 2010; Widmark 1981).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dora Somogyi for the language correction and Katinka Imréczi for her assistance.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Csaba Pléh

    Present address: Eszterházy College, Eszterházy tér 1., 3300 , Eger, Hungary

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary

    Eszter Tisljár-Szabó & Csaba Pléh

  2. Department of Behavioural Sciences, Medical and Health Science Center, University of Debrecen, 98. Nagyerdei krt, P.O. Box: 45, 4032 , Debrecen, Hungary

    Eszter Tisljár-Szabó

  3. Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary

    Renáta Rossu & Veronika Varga

Authors
  1. Eszter Tisljár-Szabó
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Correspondence to Eszter Tisljár-Szabó.

Appendix

Appendix

List of the Tongue-Twisters

  1. A.

    Phonetic tongue-twisters

    1. a.

      ha a hörcsög szörpöt szörcsög, rátörnek a hörcsög görcsök

    2. b.

      pepita bóbitás babapókok pattognak a bobpályán

    3. c.

      Tóth Tódor doktora Tóth Dorka doktora is

    4. d.

      rálel-e e remek lelet lereagálására

    5. e.

      szétzúzott cicaszántás

    6. f.

      sóska zsúri csacska zsűri

    7. g.

      pocakon pöckölt icike-picike pocok

    8. h.

      Lenin mauzóleumának lelinóleumozása

    9. i.

      zabra zebra zsebre zabra

    10. j.

      fekete bikapata kopog a patika pepita kövén

  2. B.

    Phonologic tongue-twisters (minimal pairs)

    1. a.

      már mér kér két lét

    2. b.

      hány lány lát fát

    3. c.

      pót sót sóz Óz, ez íz így egy kegy

    4. d.

      két kék fék fér

    5. e.

      száz szász szesz lesz

  3. C.

    Morphologic tongue-twisters (conjugation)

    1. a.

      lassan látni

    2. b.

      két kérdést kérdezni

    3. c.

      felfogni, hogy felfogtátok

    4. d.

      várni a váram

  4. D.

    Syntactic tongue-twisters

    1. a.

      Nem lehet a Márta másé, mert a Márta már Tamásé.

    2. b.

      Szemben a nagy teátrummal, iszik egy úr teát rummal, de mire a tea kész lett eltörött a teás készlet.

    3. c.

      Nem minden fajta szarka farka tarka-barka, csak a tarka fajta szarka farka tarka-barka.

    4. d.

      Az igazság a gazság igazsága?

    5. e.

      “Aj, e nő-kebelű Lidi óta, a Jenőke belül idióta.”

    6. f.

      Már itt volt ősz szinte, mikor egy őszinte ősz inte, hogy legyek őszinte, mert ő szinte őszinte.

  5. E.

    Foreign words

    1. a.

      kalazantinum

    2. b.

      mezateriitisz

    3. c.

      patriszticizmus

    4. d.

      emplaiztrum

    5. e.

      kromatipográfia

    6. f.

      szekvesztráció

    7. g.

      nomonogáfia

    8. h.

      nummulitok

    9. i.

      xeroftalmia

    10. j.

      vucsicsevázok

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Tisljár-Szabó, E., Rossu, R., Varga, V. et al. The Effect of Alcohol on Speech Production. J Psycholinguist Res 43, 737–748 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-013-9278-y

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