The relationship between the phonetic intentions and the acoustic performance of a group of speakers that spans two varieties of spoken English is explored using a statistical analysis system. The system is designed to produce a statistical description of the performance of a speaker under a wide range of constraints. These constraints may be expressed in terms of phonetic context, phonetic features, acoustic features, or relevant external knowledge of the speaker. A pilot study using five speakers of North American English and five speakers of Australian English reveals significant relationships which correlate with the findings in the literature on these two varieties of English. Additional findings that may represent extensions to current knowledge are discussed.
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