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

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

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

Download Full-text

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

Download Full-text

Spectral transition dynamics of voiceless stop consonants

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.394635 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 81 (4) ◽

pp. 1146-1151 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Hidefumi Kobatake ◽

Shigeko Ohtani

Keyword(s):

Stop Consonants ◽

Transition Dynamics ◽

Spectral Transition ◽

Voiceless Stop

Download Full-text

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

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

Effect of adaptation on the perception and production of vowel duration preceding stop consonants

Journal of Phonetics ◽

10.1016/s0095-4470(19)31042-3 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 81-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Paul D. Williams ◽

Donald J. Sharf

Keyword(s):

Vowel Duration ◽

Stop Consonants

Download Full-text

Acquisition of the Voicing Contrast by Language-Delayed and Normal-Speaking Children

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.2301.152 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 152-161 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Z. S. Bond ◽

Howard F. Wilson

Keyword(s):

Developmental Stages ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

Initial Position ◽

Vowel Duration ◽

Final Position ◽

Stop Consonants ◽

Minimal Pairs ◽

Voicing Contrast ◽

Normal Speaking

Voicing is a phonological contrast which emerges early in the speech of children. However, the acoustic correlates of the voicing contrast for stop consonants are fairly complex. In the initial position, voicing is cued primarily by the relative timing of articulatory versus laryngeal gestures. In the final position, the duration of the preceding vowel is associated with the voicing contrast of stop consonants. The purpose of this study was to examine the pattern of acquisition of the voicing contrast in the speech of ten children diagnosed as language-delayed in comparison with the acquisition of the voicing contrast by normal speaking children. The language-delayed and normal-speaking children were matched according to mean length of utterance (MLU) and placed in one of Brown's five developmental stages. Each participant was first given a short test, using natural speech, to determine his or her ability to identify minimal pairs differing in the voicing of stop consonants. Those who passed the test were recorded under standard recording conditions repeating 12 test words. The test words contrasted voiced and voiceless stop consonants in initial and final positions. Spectrograms of the three best productions of each word were used to examine voice-onset time for stops in initial position and preceding vowel duration for stops in final position. Although the language-delayed and normal-speaking children showed equivalent linguistic sophistication (as measured by MLU), the language-delayed children's control of the acoustic-phonetic details of the voicing contrast was less mature than that of the normal-speaking children.

Download Full-text