Psychophysical Boundary for Categorization of Voiced–Voiceless Stop Consonants in Native Japanese Speakers

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 789-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shunsuke Tamura ◽  
Kazuhito Ito ◽  
Nobuyuki Hirose ◽  
Shuji Mori
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Noise Detection ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Simultaneity Judgment ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
Speech Identification

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychophysical boundary used for categorization of voiced–voiceless stop consonants in native Japanese speakers. Method Twelve native Japanese speakers participated in the experiment. The stimuli were synthetic stop consonant–vowel stimuli varying in voice onset time (VOT) with manipulation of the amplitude of the initial noise portion and the first formant (F1) frequency of the periodic portion. There were 3 tasks, namely, speech identification to either /d/ or /t/, detection of the noise portion, and simultaneity judgment of onsets of the noise and periodic portions. Results The VOT boundaries of /d/–/t/ were close to the shortest VOT values that allowed for detection of the noise portion but not to those for perceived nonsimultaneity of the noise and periodic portions. The slopes of noise detection functions along VOT were as sharp as those of voiced–voiceless identification functions. In addition, the effects of manipulating the amplitude of the noise portion and the F1 frequency of the periodic portion on the detection of the noise portion were similar to those on voiced–voiceless identification. Conclusion The psychophysical boundary of perception of the initial noise portion masked by the following periodic portion may be used for voiced–voiceless categorization by Japanese speakers.

Phonetic feature size in second language acquisition: Examining VOT in voiceless and voiced stops

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110089
Author(s):  
Daniel J Olson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Acoustic Similarity ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Featural approaches to second language phonetic acquisition posit that the development of new phonetic norms relies on sub-phonemic features, expressed through a constellation of articulatory gestures and their corresponding acoustic cues, which may be shared across multiple phonemes. Within featural approaches, largely supported by research in speech perception, debate remains as to the fundamental scope or ‘size’ of featural units. The current study examines potential featural relationships between voiceless and voiced stop consonants, as expressed through the voice onset time cue. Native English-speaking learners of Spanish received targeted training on Spanish voiceless stop consonant production through a visual feedback paradigm. Analysis focused on the change in voice onset time, for both voiceless (i.e. trained) and voiced (i.e. non-trained) phonemes, across the pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. The results demonstrated a significant improvement (i.e. reduction) in voice onset time for voiceless stops, which were subject to the training paradigm. In contrast, there was no significant change in the non-trained voiced stop consonants. These results suggest a limited featural relationship, with independent voice onset time (VOT) cues for voiceless and voices phonemes. Possible underlying mechanisms that limit feature generalization in second language (L2) phonetic production, including gestural considerations and acoustic similarity, are discussed.

Effects of Manipulating the Amplitude of Consonant Noise Portion on Subcortical Representation of Voice Onset Time and Voicing Perception in Stop Consonants

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 434-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shunsuke Tamura ◽  
Kazuhito Ito ◽  
Nobuyuki Hirose ◽  
Shuji Mori
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Auditory Brainstem ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Speech Representation ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
Brainstem Response ◽  
Speech Identification

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate whether speech perception would reflect small latency changes in subcortical speech representation. Method Twelve native Japanese listeners participated in the experiment. Those listeners participated in speech identification task and auditory brainstem response (ABR) measurement using /d/–/t/ continuum stimuli varying in voice onset time (VOT) with manipulation of the amplitude of initial noise (consonant) portion, the duration of which corresponded to VOT. Results Increasing the noise portion amplitude lengthened subcortical representation of VOT, which is the latency difference between ABRs synchronizing to the onsets of initial noise and following periodic (vowel) portions (VOT ABR ) and made listeners likely to perceive the stimuli with ambiguous VOT as a voiceless stop /t/. In addition, the amount of VOT ABR lengthening was close to that of the VOT boundary shortening. Conclusion A few milliseconds of difference in subcortical speech representation are important for the perception of speech sounds with ambiguous acoustic cues. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7728695

Temporal Encoding of the Voice Onset Time Phonetic Parameter by Field Potentials Recorded Directly From Human Auditory Cortex

1999 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 2346-2357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Steinschneider ◽  
Igor O. Volkov ◽  
M. Daniel Noh ◽  
P. Charles Garell ◽  
Matthew A. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Field Potentials ◽  
Heschl’S Gyrus ◽  
Heschl's Gyrus

Voice onset time (VOT) is an important parameter of speech that denotes the time interval between consonant onset and the onset of low-frequency periodicity generated by rhythmic vocal cord vibration. Voiced stop consonants (/b/, /g/, and /d/) in syllable initial position are characterized by short VOTs, whereas unvoiced stop consonants (/p/, /k/, and t/) contain prolonged VOTs. As the VOT is increased in incremental steps, perception rapidly changes from a voiced stop consonant to an unvoiced consonant at an interval of 20–40 ms. This abrupt change in consonant identification is an example of categorical speech perception and is a central feature of phonetic discrimination. This study tested the hypothesis that VOT is represented within auditory cortex by transient responses time-locked to consonant and voicing onset. Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) elicited by stop consonant-vowel (CV) syllables were recorded directly from Heschl's gyrus, the planum temporale, and the superior temporal gyrus in three patients undergoing evaluation for surgical remediation of medically intractable epilepsy. Voiced CV syllables elicited a triphasic sequence of field potentials within Heschl's gyrus. AEPs evoked by unvoiced CV syllables contained additional response components time-locked to voicing onset. Syllables with a VOT of 40, 60, or 80 ms evoked components time-locked to consonant release and voicing onset. In contrast, the syllable with a VOT of 20 ms evoked a markedly diminished response to voicing onset and elicited an AEP very similar in morphology to that evoked by the syllable with a 0-ms VOT. Similar response features were observed in the AEPs evoked by click trains. In this case, there was a marked decrease in amplitude of the transient response to the second click in trains with interpulse intervals of 20–25 ms. Speech-evoked AEPs recorded from the posterior superior temporal gyrus lateral to Heschl's gyrus displayed comparable response features, whereas field potentials recorded from three locations in the planum temporale did not contain components time-locked to voicing onset. This study demonstrates that VOT at least partially is represented in primary and specific secondary auditory cortical fields by synchronized activity time-locked to consonant release and voicing onset. Furthermore, AEPs exhibit features that may facilitate categorical perception of stop consonants, and these response patterns appear to be based on temporal processing limitations within auditory cortex. Demonstrations of similar speech-evoked response patterns in animals support a role for these experimental models in clarifying selected features of speech encoding.

Stop consonant productions of Korean–English bilingual children

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUE ANN S. LEE ◽  
GREGORY K. IVERSON
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Developmental Period ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
English Bilingual

The purpose of this study was to conduct an acoustic examination of the obstruent stops produced by Korean–English bilingual children in connection with the question of whether bilinguals establish distinct categories of speech sounds across languages. Stop productions were obtained from ninety children in two age ranges, five and ten years: thirty Korean–English bilinguals, thirty monolingual Koreans and thirty monolingual English speakers. Voice-Onset-Time (VOT) lag at word-initial stop and fundamental frequency (f0) in the following vowel (hereafter vowel-onset f0) were measured. The bilingual children showed different patterns of VOT in comparison to both English and Korean monolinguals, with longer VOT in their production of Korean stop consonants and shorter VOT for English. Moreover, the ten-year-old bilinguals distinguished all stop categories using both VOT and vowel-onset f0,whereas the five-year-olds tended to make stop distinctions based on VOT but not vowel-onset f0. The results of this study suggest that bilingual children at around five years of age do not yet have fully separate stop systems, and that the systems continue to evolve during the developmental period.

scholarly journals EFFECT OF AGE AND GENDER ON ARTICULATION OF VOICED AND VOICELESS STOP CONSONANTS IN CZECH

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-101
Author(s):  
Martin Kaňok ◽  
Michal Novotný
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Male Gender ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Effect Of Age

<p class="BodyTextNext"><em>Evaluation of precision of consonant articulation is commonly used metric in assessment of pathological speech. </em><em>However, up to date most of the research on consonant characteristics was performed on English while there are obvious language-specific differences. The aim of the current study was therefore to investigate the patterns of consonant articulation in Czech across 6 stop consonants with respect to age and gender. The database used consisted of 30 female and 30 male healthy participants. Four acoustic variables including voice onset time (VOT), VOT ratio and two spectral moments were analyzed. The Czech plosives /p/, /t/ and /k/ were found to be characterized by short voicing lag (average VOT ranged from 14 to 32 ms) while voiced plosives /b/, /d/ and /g/ by long voicing lead (average VOT ranged from -79 to -91 ms). </em><em>Furthermore, we observed significantly longer duration of both VOT </em><em>(p &lt; 0.05) </em><em>and VOT ratio </em><em>(p &lt; 0.01) </em><em>of voiceless plosives in female compared to male gender. Finally, we revealed a significant negative correlation between age and duration of voiceless </em><em>(</em><em>r = -0.36, p </em><em>&lt; 0.05) </em><em>as well as voiced VOT </em><em>(</em><em>r = -0.45, p =</em><em> 0.01) </em><em>in female but not in male participants.</em></p>

The Effects of Fundamental Frequency Level on Voice Onset Time in Normal Adult Male Speakers

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 1013-1024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher R. McCrea ◽  
Richard J. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Adult Male ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Normal Adult ◽  
Frequency Level ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Voiceless Stop

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of fundamental frequency (F 0 ) on stop consonant voice onset time (VOT). VOT was measured from the recordings of 56 young men reading phrases containing all 6 English voiced and voiceless stops in word-initial position across high-, medium-, and low-F 0 levels. Separate analyses of variance for the voiced and voiceless stops revealed no significant main effect for F 0 for the voiced stops but a significant F 0 effect for the voiceless stops. Across the voiceless stops, productions at high F 0 s displayed significantly shorter VOTs than productions at low or mid F 0 s. The findings indicated that researchers must take into account the F 0 level at which voiceless stop VOT is measured.

The acquisition of the voicing contrast in Spanish: a phonetic and phonological study of word-initial stop consonants

1980 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlys A. Macken ◽  
David Barton
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Instrumental Analysis ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Phonological Knowledge ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Spanish Word ◽  
Voiceless Stop

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on the acquisition of the voicing contrast in Mexican–Spanish word-initial stops. In Study 1, three monolingual children were recorded every two weeks for seven months, beginning when the children were about 1; 7. In Study 2, four monolingual children about 3; 10 were recorded once or twice. Two analyses were done. Instrumental analysis of the stop productions revealed that not even by age 3; 10 were the children consistently distinguishing between voiced–voiceless stop cognate pairs on the basis of adult-like voice-onset time characteristics. The spirantization analysis, however, more clearly revealed the children's phonological knowledge. Discussion focuses on the implications of the data for phonological development in general and for the phonological description of voicing in Spanish.

scholarly journals Roles of Voice Onset Time and F0 in Stop Consonant Voicing Perception: Effects of Masking Noise and Low-Pass Filtering

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 1097-1107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew B. Winn ◽  
Monita Chatterjee ◽  
William J. Idsardi
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Low Pass ◽  
Masking Noise ◽  
Phonetic Cues

Purpose The contributions of voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) were evaluated for the perception of voicing in syllable-initial stop consonants in words that were low-pass filtered and/or masked by speech-shaped noise. It was expected that listeners would rely less on VOT and more on F0 in these degraded conditions. Method Twenty young listeners with normal hearing identified modified natural speech tokens that varied by VOT and F0 in several conditions of low-pass filtering and masking noise. Stimuli included /b/–/p/ and /d/–/t/ continua that were presented in separate blocks. Identification results were modeled using mixed-effects logistic regression. Results When speech was filtered and/or masked by noise, listeners' voicing perceptions were driven less by VOT and more by F0. Speech-shaped masking noise exerted greater effects on the /b/–/p/ contrast, while low-pass filtering exerted greater effects on the /d/–/t/ contrast, consistent with the acoustics of these contrasts. Conclusion Listeners can adjust their use of acoustic-phonetic cues in a dynamic way that is appropriate for challenging listening conditions; cues that are less influential in ideal conditions can gain priority in challenging conditions.

Children's Spontaneous and Imitative Speech

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 464-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. S. Bond ◽  
Solveig Sperati Korte
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
The Voice

The purpose of this study was to compare the voice onset time of voiced and voiceless stop consonants in children's spontaneous and imitative speech. Ten children (2:3 to 3:8) were recorded producing the same test words spontaneously and imitatively, following a model. There were no statistically significant difference between imitative and spontaneous productions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document