Voice onset time for voiceless stop consonants in the fluent reading of stutterers and nonstutterers

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.

Download Full-text

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

Lékař a technika - Clinician and Technology ◽

10.14311/ctj.2019.3.05 ◽

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

Evaluation of precision of consonant articulation is commonly used metric in assessment of pathological speech. 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). Furthermore, we observed significantly longer duration of both VOT (p < 0.05) and VOT ratio (p < 0.01) of voiceless plosives in female compared to male gender. Finally, we revealed a significant negative correlation between age and duration of voiceless (r = -0.36, p < 0.05) as well as voiced VOT (r = -0.45, p = 0.01) in female but not in male participants.

Download Full-text

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

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2017_jslhr-h-17-0131 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 789-796 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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.

Download Full-text

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

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000900002774 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 433-458 ◽

Cited By ~ 69

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.

Download Full-text

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

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2018_jslhr-h-18-0102 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 62 (2) ◽

pp. 434-441 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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

Download Full-text

Children's Spontaneous and Imitative Speech

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.2603.464 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 464-467 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

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.

Download Full-text

Effect of Age and Gender on Voice Onset Time: Data from Sinhalese

Vidyodaya Journal of Science ◽

10.31357/vjs.v24i02.5416 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 24 (02) ◽

Author(s):

S.V. Narasimhan ◽

W.G.S.S. Karunarathne

Keyword(s):

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

Elderly Subjects ◽

Stop Consonants ◽

Time Data ◽

Age And Gender ◽

Voiceless Stop ◽

And Gender ◽

Effect Of Age

Objective: To documenting the voice onset time in voiced and unvoiced stop consonants in Sinhala and to investigating the effects of age and gender on voice onset time values in Sinhalese speakers. Methods: Three groups of participants were employed. Group 1 included 20 children, Group 2 included 20 adults and Group 3 consisted of 20 elderly subjects. All the subjects spoke the dialect of central province of Sri Lanka. Words consisting of three Sinhala short vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ in were recorded. Voice onset time values from two voiced and voiceless stop consonants were extracted. Results: Voiced stop consonants had significantly longer voice onset time values compared to voiceless stop consonants. Significant effect of age as well as gender on voice onset time values were also observed. Conclusion: Supplementary investigations on the normative aspects of voice onset time among the Sinhala population would provide additional insights and validated tools for indexing the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of stop consonants in Sinhalese. Keywords: Voice Onset Time, Sinhalese, Elderly, Sinhala, Acoustic analysis

Download Full-text

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

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1999.82.5.2346 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 82 (5) ◽

pp. 2346-2357 ◽

Cited By ~ 120

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.

Download Full-text