Perception of the voiced–voiceless contrast in syllable-final stops

Abstract

A computer editing technique was used to remove varying amounts of voicing from the syllable-final closure intervals of naturally produced tokens of /p epsilon b, p epsilon d, p epsilon g, pag, pig, pug/. Vowels for all six syllables were approximately the same duration, and the final release bursts were retained. Identification results showed that voiceless responses tended to occur in relatively large numbers when all of the closure voicing and, in most cases, a portion of the preceding vowel-to-consonant (VC) transition had been removed. A second experiment demonstrated that removal of final release bursts had very little effect on the identification functions. Acoustic measurements were made in an attempt to gain information about the acoustic bases of the listeners' voiced-voiceless judgments. In general, stimuli that subjects tended to identify as voiceless showed higher first-formant offset frequencies and shorter intensity decay times than stimuli that subjects tended to identify as voiced. However, for stops following /i/ and /u/ these acoustic differences were relatively small. We were unable to find a single acoustic measure, or any combination of measures, that clearly explained the listeners' voiced-voiceless decisions.

Use of vocalic cues to consonant voicing and native language background: The influence of experimental design

“…F1 offset frequency was measured using the formant tracking algorithm (20-msec Hamming window) included in the Interactive Laboratory System software. As in the procedure employed by Hillenbrand, Ingrisano, Smith, and Flege (1984), FI offset was defined by a decrease in FI peak amplitude and "the presence of abrupt discontinuities with previously extracted formant frequencies" (p. 23).…”

“…Kent and Moll (1969) showed that the supraglottal cavity expands actively during production of voiced stops (see also Westbury, 1983), so perhaps the articulatory adjustments required to effect supraglottal cavity expansion for voiced stops result in a lower terminating value for Fl. Hillenbrand et al (1984) refer to the "timing of ã o~tioo~rrninaMg~~re~~~ro~ocm~e~rn of articulatory closure" as "voice offset time" (p. 18). Because voice offset time is earlier (perhaps before, or coincidental with, the initiation of closure) for voiceless than for voiced stops, F1 offset frequency is generally higher for voiceless stops (Hillenbrand et al, 1984).…”

“…Hillenbrand et al (1984) refer to the "timing of ã o~tioo~rrninaMg~~re~~~ro~ocm~e~rn of articulatory closure" as "voice offset time" (p. 18). Because voice offset time is earlier (perhaps before, or coincidental with, the initiation of closure) for voiceless than for voiced stops, F1 offset frequency is generally higher for voiceless stops (Hillenbrand et al, 1984). On the other hand, F1 tends to decrease during articulatory narrowing (Fant, 1962) and is associated with tongue height during vowel articulation-a vowel produced with the tongue at a higher position in the mouth, and therefore with a narrower aperture, has a lower F1 steady-state frequency (Ladefoged, 1982).…”

The role of temporal and dynamic signal components in the perception of syllable-final stop voicing by children and adults

“…And, indeed, numerous reports have shown that vocalic duration influences voicing judgments for syllable-final consonants made by adult speakers of languages with a vocalic-length distinction associated with final consonant voicing Mann, 1992,1994;Denes, 1955;O'Kane, 1978;Raphael, 1972;Raphael et al, 1975;Raphael et al, 1980). Other acoustic properties of syllables ending with voiced or voiceless final stops have also been found to influence adults' voicing judgments (Hogan and Rozsypal, 1980;Summers, 1988;Wardrip-Fruin, 1982), with spectral characteristics associated with the vocal-tract closing gesture apparently being weighted particularly heavily (Hillenbrand, Ingrisano, Smith, and Flege, 1984). In fact, Hillenbrand et al concluded that the release burst and voicing during closure contribute little to voicing decisions for final stops.…”

Development of perceptual sensitivity to extrinsic vowel duration in infants learning American English

“…The duration of a pre-consonantal vowel thus serves as a source of information about the voicing of the following consonant. In addition to the VLE, earlier research has examined aspects of other cues for the post-vocalic voicing such as F1 offset frequency (Fischer and Ohde, 1990), intensity decay time, and the presence or absence of a "voice bar" during the closure interval (Hillenbrand et al, 1984). The focus of our investigation was on the development of sensitivity to VLE-induced phonotactics.…”