Dr Rachel Smith

Senior Lecturer in Phonetics and Speech Perception (English Language & Linguistics)

telephone: 01413305533
email: Rachel.Smith@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns: She/her/hers

R206 Level 2, English Language, 12 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH

Research interests

Experimental phonetics and phonology
Speech perception
Sociophonetics

Biography

Dr Rachel Smith is a Lecturer and Research Councils UK (RCUK) Academic Fellow. She previously held a temporary Lectureship in Phonetics at the University of Cambridge (2003-6).

Dr Smith’s research interests are in speech perception, phonetics (acoustic, linguistic and social), and psycholinguistics. Her approach to speech perception emphasises how the phonetic details of speech inform listeners simultaneously about the linguistic message, the speaker’s personal and social attributes, and the interpersonal interaction that is unfolding. Her doctoral dissertation was on the role of phonetic detail in word segmentation, with special reference to perceptual learning of speaker-specific phonetic detail. Current work explores timing and rhythm variation across accents of English and its implications for perception and interaction (ESRC First Grant award on Timing in Accents of English , 2009-2011). She also researches how people learn to understand speech in new voices and accents (with R.-A. Knight, City University) and how such learning is affected by whether speech is experienced in live interaction, or recorded (with J. Stuart-Smith, Glasgow). Other projects concern the perception of phonetic cues to morphological structure (with S. Hawkins, Cambridge, and R. Baker, UCL); the phonetics of reduced discourse markers in Dutch (with M. Ernestus, Nijmegen); and phonetic aspects of the neurological condition synaesthesia, in which speech sounds can trigger unusual percepts of colours and textures (with D. Simmons and A. Moos, Glasgow).

Dr Smith’s teaching interests are in phonetics, speech perception, psycholinguistics, research methods and statistics.

Research groups

Modern English Language & Linguistics

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2007 | 2003 | 2001

Number of items: 35.

2025

Plug, Leendert, Zheng, Yue and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2025) The impact of clear speech modifications on perceived tempo of rate-matched English utterances. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 157(4), pp. 2835-2846. (doi: 10.1121/10.0036437) (PMID:40232736)

2023

Plug, Leendert, Lennon, Robert and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2023) Testing for canonical form orientation in speech tempo perception. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, (doi: 10.1177/17470218231198344) (Early Online Publication)

Allehyani, Manal, Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 and Cohen, Clara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7308-671X (2023) Does Learning English Vowels Aid the Perception of English Stress for Learners with Small Vowel Inventory Background? In: Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic, 7-11 August 2023, pp. 337-341. ISBN 9788090811423

2022

Plug, Leendert, Lennon, Robert and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2022) Measured and perceived speech tempo: Comparing canonical and surface articulation rates. Journal of Phonetics, 95, 101193. (doi: 10.1016/j.wocn.2022.101193)

2021

Plug, Leendert and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2021) The role of segment rate in speech tempo perception by English listeners. Journal of Phonetics, 86, 101040. (doi: 10.1016/j.wocn.2021.101040)

2020

Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 and Rathcke, Tamara (2020) Dialectal phonology constrains the phonetics of prominence. Journal of Phonetics, 78, 100934. (doi: 10.1016/j.wocn.2019.100934)

2018

Ernestus, Mirjam and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2018) Qualitative and quantitative aspects of phonetic variation in Dutch eigenlijk. In: Cangemi, Francesco, Clayards, Meghan, Niebuhr, Oliver, Schuppler, Barbara and Zellers, Margaret (eds.) Rethinking Reduction: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Conditions, Mechanisms, and Domains for Phonetic Variation. Series: Phonology and phonetics (25). De Gruyter Mouton: Berlin, pp. 129-163. ISBN 9783110521634 (doi: 10.1515/9783110524178-005)

2017

Jones Huyck, Julia, Smith, Rachel H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Hawkins, Sarah and Johnsrude, Ingrid S. (2017) Generalization of perceptual learning of degraded speech across talkers. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 60(11), pp. 3334-3341. (doi: 10.1044/2017_JSLHR-H-16-0300) (PMID:28979990)

Plug, Leendert and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2017) Phonological Complexity, Segment Rate and Speech Tempo Perception. In: Interspeech 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, 20-24 Aug 2017, pp. 1403-1406. (doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2017-987)

2016

Wanat, Ewa, Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Stuart-Smith, Jane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7400-9436 and Palmer, Caroline (2016) The Role of Tapping in Improving Connected Speech Comprehension of a Non-Native Variety of English. 7th Conference on Tone and Intonation in Europe, Canterbury, UK, 01-03 Sep 2016. (Unpublished)

Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 and Rathcke, Tamara (2016) Glasgow gloom or Leeds glue? Dialect-specific vowel duration constrains lexical segmentation and access. Phonetica, 74(1), pp. 1-24. (doi: 10.1159/000444857) (PMID:27490962)

Solanki, Vijay, Vinciarelli, Alessandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9048-0524, Stuart-Smith, Jane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7400-9436 and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2016) When the game gets difficult, then it is time for mimicry. In: International Conference on Nonlinear Speech Processing (NOLISP 2015), Vietri sul Mare, Italy, 18-20 May 2015, pp. 247-254. ISBN 9783319281070 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-28109-4_25)

2015

Solanki, Vijay, Stuart-Smith, Jane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7400-9436, Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 and Vinciarelli, Alessandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9048-0524 (2015) Measuring Mimicry in Task-Oriented Conversations: The More the Task is Difficult, The More we Mimick our Interlocutors. In: InterSpeech 2015, Dresden, 6-10 Sept 2015, pp. 1815-1819.

Lennon, Robert, Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 and Stuart-Smith, Jane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7400-9436 (2015) An An Acoustic Investigation of Postvocalic /r/ Variants in Two Sociolects of Glaswegian. In: 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, UK, 10-14 Aug 2015, ISBN 9780852619414

Rathcke, Tamara and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2015) Rhythm Class Perception by Expert Phoneticians. In: 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, UK, 10-14 Aug 2015, ISBN 9780852619414

Solanki, Vijay, Vinciarelli, Alessandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9048-0524, Stuart-Smith, Jane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7400-9436 and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2015) Utilising Hidden Markov Modelling for the Assessment of Accommodation in Conversational Speech. In: 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, UK, 10-14 Aug 2015, ISBN 9780852619414

Rathcke, Tamara and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2015) Speech timing and linguistic rhythm: on the acoustic bases of rhythm typologies. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 137(5), 2834. (doi: 10.1121/1.4919322) (PMID:25994711)

Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2015) Perception of speaker-specific phonetic detail. In: Fuchs, S., Pape, D., Petrone, C. and Perrier, P. (eds.) Individual Differences in Speech Production and Perception. Series: Speech production and perception. Peter Lang, pp. 11-38. ISBN 9783631665060

2014

Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Rathcke, Tamara, Cummins, Fred, Overy, Katie and Scott, Sophie (2014) Communicative rhythms in brain and behaviour [Guest editors and compilers]. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1658),

Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Rathcke, Tamara, Cummins, Fred, Overy, Katie and Scott, Sophie (2014) Introduction: Communicative rhythms in brain and behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1658), p. 20130389. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0389)

Moos, Anja, Simmons, David R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8278-2816 and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2014) Synaesthetic associations: exploring the colours of voices. In: Anderson, Wendy, Biggam, Carole, Hough, Carole and Kay, Christian (eds.) Colour studies: A broad spectrum. John Benjamins, pp. 352-365. ISBN 9789027212191 (doi: 10.1075/z.191.23moo)

Moos, Anja, Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Miller, Sam R. and Simmons, David R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8278-2816 (2014) Cross-modal associations in synaesthesia: vowel colours in the ear of the beholder. i-Perception, 5(2), pp. 132-142. (doi: 10.1068/i0626)

Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Holmes-Elliott, Sophie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7949-4722, Pettinato, Michèle and Knight, Rachael-Anne (2014) Cross-accent intelligibility of speech in noise: Long-term familiarity and short-term familiarization. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67(3), pp. 590-608. (doi: 10.1080/17470218.2013.822009)

2013

Moos, A., Simmons, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8278-2816, Simner, J. and Smith, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2013) Color and texture associations in voice-induced synesthesia. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, p. 568. (doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00568)

Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2013) New directions in speech perception. In: Knight, Rachel-Anne and Jones, Mark J. (eds.) Bloomsbury Companion to Phonetics. Bloomsbury: London, pp. 389-412. ISBN 9781441146069

2012

Smith, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Baker, Ra. and Hawkins, S. (2012) Phonetic detail that distinguishes prefixed from pseudo-prefixed words. Journal of Phonetics, 40(5), pp. 689-705. (doi: 10.1016/j.wocn.2012.04.002)

Smith, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 and Hawkins, S. (2012) Production and perception of speaker-specific phonetic detail at word boundaries. Journal of Phonetics, 40(2), pp. 213-233. (doi: 10.1016/j.wocn.2011.11.003)

2011

Rathcke, T. and Smith, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2011) Exploring timing in accents of British English. In: ICPhS XVII, Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011, pp. 1666-1669.

Stuart-Smith, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7400-9436, Smith, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Rathcke, T., Li Santi, F. and Holmes, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7949-4722 (2011) Responding to accents after experiencing interactive or mediated speech. In: ICPhS XVII, Hong Kong, 17-21 Aug 2011, pp. 1914-1917.

Smith, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208, Moos, A., Cartwright-Hignett, W. and Simmons, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8278-2816 (2011) Towards a phonetically-rich account of speech-sound > colour synaesthesia. In: Biggam, C., Hough, C., Simmons, D. and Kay, C. (eds.) New Directions in Colour Studies. John Benjamin, pp. 319-328. ISBN 9789027211880

Moos, A., Simmons, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8278-2816 and Smith, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2011) Voice quality perceptions by synaesthetes, phoneticians and controls. In: 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVII), Hong Kong, 17-21 Aug 2011, pp. 1426-1429.

2007

Baker, R., Hawkins, S. and Smith, R.H. (2007) Phonetic differences between mis- and dis- in English prefixed and pseudo-prefixed words. In: Trouvain, J. and Barry, W.J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences: ICPhS XVI, 6 - 10 August 2007, Saarbrücken, Germany. Universität des Saarlandes: Saarbrücken, Germany, pp. 553-556. ISBN 9783981153514

Smith, R.H. (2007) The effect of talker familiarity on word segmentation in noise. In: Trouvain, J. and Barry, W.J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences: ICPhS XVI, 6 - 10 August 2007, Saarbrücken, Germany. Universität des Saarlandes: Saarbrücken, Germany, pp. 1917-1920. ISBN 9783981153514

2003

Smith, R.H. (2003) Influence of talker-specific phonetic detail on word segmentation. In: Solé, M.J., Recasens, D. and Romero, J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences: 3-9 August 2003, Barcelona, Spain. Causal Productions: Rundle Mall, Australia, pp. 1465-1468. ISBN 9781876346492

2001

Hawkins, S. and Smith, R.H. (2001) Polysp: a polysystemic, phonetically-rich approach to speech understanding. Italian Journal of Linguistics/Rivista di Linguistica, 13(1), pp. 99-188.

This list was generated on Sun Jun 15 15:11:39 2025 BST.

Jump to: Articles | Book Sections | Conference or Workshop Item | Conference Proceedings

Number of items: 35.

Articles

Hawkins, S. and Smith, R.H. (2001) Polysp: a polysystemic, phonetically-rich approach to speech understanding. Italian Journal of Linguistics/Rivista di Linguistica, 13(1), pp. 99-188.

Book Sections

Conference or Workshop Item

Conference Proceedings

Solanki, Vijay, Vinciarelli, Alessandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9048-0524, Stuart-Smith, Jane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7400-9436 and Smith, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2015) Utilising Hidden Markov Modelling for the Assessment of Accommodation in Conversational Speech. In: 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, UK, 10-14 Aug 2015, ISBN 9780852619414

Rathcke, T. and Smith, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-8208 (2011) Exploring timing in accents of British English. In: ICPhS XVII, Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011, pp. 1666-1669.

This list was generated on Sun Jun 15 15:11:39 2025 BST.

Grants

2011-12: Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Workshop Award: Rhythms in Scotland (£9000) (with Dr T. Rathcke, University of Glasgow)

2009-11: ESRC First Grant (RES-061-25-0302), Timing in Accents of English (FEC £166,607.03)

2008: Nuffield Foundation Small Grant (SGS/35300), Perceptual learning about word boundaries in unfamiliar voices and accents (£7,491) (with Dr R.A. Knight, City University)

Supervision

Dr Smith supervises at masters and doctoral level. She is available to supervise postgraduates in a range of areas within phonetics, especially experimental phonetics and speech perception. She also welcomes contact from prospective students interested in undertaking interdisciplinary work with a psycholinguistic element.

Baird, Alan
The components of spoken language as relates to music: Exploring phonological and linguistic features in language which can be utilised and inform my composition practice
Jackson, Lucy
Examining Media Effects on Implicit Sociolinguistic Cognition
Yao, Vera Yujia
The influence of additional language and exposure on the prosody of English spoken in Glasgow: data from Glasgow-born monolinguals, Glasgow-born Chinese bilinguals and new-arrival Hongkonger migrants

Additional information

Sound files for Smith, R., Baker, R., and Hawkins, S. (to appear). Phonetic detail that distinguishes prefixed from pseudo-prefixed words. Journal of Phonetics.

The materials for this experiment are available below as .zip archives of soundfiles in .wav or .mp3 format. There are ten directories, two for each of the five speakers, with dis- and mis- words separately. Each directory contains 100 utterances containing the critical words in each dialogue. The ten directories are available below as ten individual .zip archives of .wav files, or as a single .zip of .mp3 files.

An example of a file name is APmistakesaN1.d.mp3. The coding of each file name is as follows. The first two letters (upper case) identify the speaker; the following lower case letters identify the critical word, followed in some cases (including this one) by another letter, a, b, or c identifying the particular dialogue with that word in it; the next upper case letters are either N or PN, for Nuclear and PostNuclear prosodic position respectively; the final digit is the repetition number; (.d indicates the file was first recorded in xwaves.)

Appendix 2 of the published paper lists these file names with the dialogue to which each applies, though without the speaker identifications and the repetition number.

Thus file APmistakesaN1.d.mp3 is Speaker AP saying the first repetition of No, Tess mistakes them, with nuclear stress on mistakes. This is from the second (pseudo-prefix) dialogue in Nmis2, as shown in Appendix 2 of the paper.

.wav files

.mp3 files

dismis zip - mp3

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Clarity

Dr Rachel Smith

Research interests

Research interests

Biography

Research groups

Publications

2025

2023

2022

2021

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2007

2003

2001

Articles

Book Sections

Conference or Workshop Item

Conference Proceedings

Grants

Supervision

Additional information

Sound files for Smith, R., Baker, R., and Hawkins, S. (to appear). Phonetic detail that distinguishes prefixed from pseudo-prefixed words. Journal of Phonetics.

.wav files

.mp3 files