A proposal for a phonologically balanced passage: El ratón Arturo, the Spanish adaptation of Arthur the Rat

Abstract

Phonetically (phonologically) balanced texts are often used to collect linguistic data. However, there are few texts in Spanish with these characteristics. The aim of this paper is to propose a new text, El raton Arturo, adapted from its original English version. The rationale for creating a new text is that the existing ones in Spanish are too short, less than 2 minutes when read. This short length hinders their use for calculating statistically accurate vocal metrics. El ratón Arturo is longer, contains fewer repetitions of words, higher frequency words, and simpler sentences. Its reading lasts more than 2 minutes. Although longer, it is neither hard to read nor to process; its complexity is similar to previously existing texts. Moreover, it can be used to collect data from adult or infant population. It meets two essential requirements for this type of text: it presents at least one occurrence of each Spanish phonemes, distributed according to frequency of use in this language. In addition, examples of most frequent consonant clusters and codas are represented. Likewise, it includes simple and complex words, contrastive accent samples, sentences with and without nasal consonants and several modality sentences. These specific characteristics allow the use of this text not only in phonetic research but also in the evaluation of speech motor disorders, such as dysarthrias or apraxias, and vocal function.