The minimum initial-portion durations required by listeners for the correct identification of spoken isolated vowels and consonant-vowel (CV) syllables were determined. Eight vowels /i
i
u
u
æ ε a Λ/ and 64 CVs comprised of each of eight consonants /b p d t g k d
3
t∫/ in combination with each of the eight vowels were used. Segments consisted of the initial 10 to 150 milliseconds of each stimulus in 10-msec steps. The major findings were (1) clues for better than chance correct identification of tongue advancement and tongue height values for isolated vowels occur within the first 10 msec of the stimuli whereas approximately 30 msec of the stimuli are needed for the tense-lax feature to reach threshold, (2) clues for better than chance correct identification of place of articulation for the stop consonants are found within the initial 10 msec of the CVs whereas approximately 22 msec are needed for the voicing threshold to reach threshold, and (3) the threshold of voicing increases from front to back place of articulation for the stop consonants. The implications of the findings are discussed.
The ability of listeners to identify vowel features, given only segments of the aperiodic portion of CVs, was investigated. Segments of the aperiodic portions of stop consonant CVs, increasing in duration in 10-msec steps from onset, were identified by 18 listeners. The responses were analyzed for the correct identification of vowel features. Coarticulatory effects of the vowel on the aperiodic portion were found to (1) occur early in the aperiodic portion, (2) vary with consonant and vowel, and (3) vary with vowel feature. In general, however, tongue advancement for the vowel was identified correctly most often, tongue height next most often, and the tense versus lax distinction least often. For some CVs, sufficient clues for above chance level of identification of a feature were present during the shortest segments of the aperiodic portion. The findings lend support to the point-of-view that listeners may be able to narrow the choice of the vowel in an unvoiced-stop-consonant CV to a small number of alternatives prior to the beginning of voicing.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.