Spectral transition dynamics of voiceless stop consonants

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.

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Timing differences in articulation between voiced and voiceless stop consonants: an analysis of cine-MRI data

10.21437/interspeech.2013-167 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Masako Fujimoto ◽

Tatsuya Kitamura ◽

Hiroaki Hatano ◽

Ichiro Fujimoto

Keyword(s):

Cine Mri ◽

Stop Consonants ◽

Voiceless Stop

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Aerodynamic Interactions Associated with Voiced-Voiceless Stop Consonants

Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica ◽

10.1159/000264152 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 82-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Thomas Murry ◽

William S. Brown, jr.

Keyword(s):

Stop Consonants ◽

Voiceless Stop

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Effect of relative amplitude, presentation level, and vowel duration on perception of voiceless stop consonants by normal and hearing‐impaired listeners

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.416981 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 100 (5) ◽

pp. 3398-3407 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Mark S. Hedrick ◽

Walt Jesteadt

Keyword(s):

Hearing Impaired ◽

Relative Amplitude ◽

Vowel Duration ◽

Stop Consonants ◽

Presentation Level ◽

Voiceless Stop

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Knowledge‐based recognition of voiceless stop consonants

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.2020206 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 73 (S1) ◽

pp. S102-S102

Author(s):

Gary E. Kopec ◽

Marcia A. Bush

Keyword(s):

Stop Consonants ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

Voiceless Stop

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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.

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The Role of Consonant-Vowel Amplitude Ratio in the Recognition of Voiceless Stop Consonants by Listeners With Hearing Impairment

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jslhr.4201.42 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 42-55 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Carol A. Sammeth ◽

Michael F. Dorman ◽

Carol J. Stearns

Keyword(s):

Hearing Impairment ◽

State Energy ◽

Amplitude Ratio ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Broadband Noise ◽

Stop Consonants ◽

Vowel Reduction ◽

Sensorineural Hearing Impairment ◽

Voiceless Stop

Several authors have evaluated consonant-to-vowel ratio (CVR) enhancement as a means to improve speech recognition in listeners with hearing impairment, with the intention of incorporating this approach into emerging amplification technology. Unfortunately, most previous studies have enhanced CVRs by increasing consonant energy, thus possibly confounding CVR effects with consonant audibility. In this study, we held consonant audibility constant by reducing vowel transition and steady-state energy rather than increasing consonant energy. Performance-by-intensity (PI) functions were obtained for recognition of voiceless stop consonants (/p/, /t/, /k/) presented in isolation (burst and aspiration digitally separated from the vowel) and for consonant-vowel syllables, with readdition of the vowel /α/. There were three CVR conditions: normal CVR, vowel reduction by 6 dB, and vowel reduction by 12 dB. Testing was conducted in broadband noise fixed at 70 dB SPL and at 85 dB SPL. Six adults with sensorineural hearing impairment and 2 adults with normal hearing served as listeners. Results indicated that CVR enhancement did not improve identification performance when consonant audibility was held constant, except at the higher noise level for one listener with hearing impairment. The re-addition of the vowel energy to the isolated consonant did, however, produce large and significant improvements in phoneme identification.

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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.

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