Quantifying spectral characteristics of fricatives

Due to its aerodynamic, articulatory, and acoustic complexities, the fricative /s/ is known to require high precision in its control, and to be highly resistant to coarticulation. This study documents in detail how jaw, tongue front, tongue back, lips, and the first spectral moment covary during the production of /s/, to establish how coarticulation affects this segment. Data were obtained from 24 speakers in the Wisconsin x-ray microbeam database producing /s/ in prevocalic and pre-obstruent sequences. Analysis of the data showed that certain aspects of jaw and tongue motion had specific kinematic trajectories, regardless of context, and the first spectral moment trajectory corresponded to these in some aspects. In particular contexts, variability due to jaw motion is compensated for by tongue-tip motion and bracing against the palate, to maintain an invariant articulatory-aerodynamic goal, constriction degree. The change in the first spectral moment, which rises to a peak at the midpoint of the fricative, primarily reflects the motion of the jaw. Implications of the results for theories of speech motor control and acoustic-articulatory relations are discussed.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Articulatory–acoustic kinematics: The production of American English /s/

Iskarous

Shadle

Proctor

2011

“…Parameters that seem to influence identification include gross spectral shapes and peak frequencies ͑Behrens and Blumstein, 1988;Hughes and Halle, 1956;Jongman et al, 2000;Strevens, 1960͒, the first four moments of the spectral energy distribution ͑Forrest et Jongman et al, 2000;Nissen and Fox, 2005;Nittrouer, 1995;Nittrouer et al, 1989;Shadle and Mair, 1996͒, the slopes of lines fitted to spectra in lower and higher frequency regions ͑Evers et Jesus andShadle, 2002͒, formant transition information ͑Jongman et al, 2000;McGowan and Nittrouer, 1988;Nittrouer et al, 1989;Soli, 1981͒, overall amplitude ͑Beh-rens andBlumstein, 1988;Jongman et al, 2000;Stevens, 1971;Strevens, 1960͒, amplitude relative to the neighboring vowel in specific frequency regions ͑Hedrick and Ohde, 1993;Jongman et al, 2000;Stevens, 1985͒, andduration ͑Baum andBlumstein, 1987;Crystal and House, 1988;Jongman, 1989;Jongman et al, 2000͒. Briefly, alveolar fricatives ͑/s/, /z/͒ are characterized by spectral energy ͓above 4 kHz, Hughes and Halle ͑1956͔͒ and major peaks ͓3.5-5 kHz, Behrens and Blumstein ͑1988͒; 6 -8 kHz, Jongman et al ͑2000͔͒ at higher frequencies compared to palato-alveolars ͑/b/, /c/; 2 -4 kHz; ͓Hughes and Halle ͑1956͒, Behrens and Blumstein ͑1988͔͒, which display larger overall relative amplitudes.…”

Section: A Acoustic Properties Of English Fricative Soundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic characteristics of clearly spoken English fricatives

Maniwa

Jongman²,

Wade³

2009

165

129

Speakers can adopt a speaking style that allows them to be understood more easily in difficult communication situations, but few studies have examined the acoustic properties of clearly produced consonants in detail. This study attempts to characterize the adaptations in the clear production of American English fricatives in a carefully controlled range of communication situations. Ten female and ten male talkers produced fricatives in vowel-fricative-vowel contexts in both a conversational and a clear style that was elicited by means of simulated recognition errors in feedback received from an interactive computer program. Acoustic measurements were taken for spectral, amplitudinal, and temporal properties known to influence fricative recognition. Results illustrate that ͑1͒ there were consistent overall style effects, several of which ͑consonant duration, spectral peak frequency, and spectral moments͒ were consistent with previous findings and a few ͑notably consonant-to-vowel intensity ratio͒ of which were not; ͑2͒ specific acoustic modifications in clear productions of fricatives were influenced by the nature of the recognition errors that prompted the productions and were consistent with efforts to emphasize potentially misperceived contrasts both within the English fricative inventory and based on feedback from the simulated listener; and ͑3͒ talkers differed widely in the types and magnitude of all modifications.

“…Therefore, the M1 value of /s/ is expected to be higher than that of /$/ because of the shorter front resonating cavity in /s/. This prediction has been confirmed robustly in many acoustic studies of English fricatives (Forrest et al, 1988;Jongman, et al, 2000;Nissen and Fox, 2005;Nittrouer, 1995;Shadle and Mair, 1996;Fox and Nissen, 2005).…”

Section: Introduction a Overviewmentioning

confidence: 59%

Language specificity in the perception of voiceless sibilant fricatives in Japanese and English: Implications for cross-language differences in speech-sound development

Munson

Edwards

et al. 2011

Both English and Japanese have two voiceless sibilant fricatives, an anterior fricative /s/ contrasting with a more posterior fricative /$/. When children acquire sibilant fricatives, English children typically substitute [s] for /$/, whereas Japanese children typically substitute [$] for /s/. This study examined English-and Japanese-speaking adults' perception of children's productions of voiceless sibilant fricatives to investigate whether the apparent asymmetry in the acquisition of voiceless sibilant fricatives reported previously in the two languages was due in part to how adults perceive children's speech. The results of this study show that adult speakers of English and Japanese weighed acoustic parameters differently when identifying fricatives produced by children and that these differences explain, in part, the apparent cross-language asymmetry in fricative acquisition. This study shows that generalizations about universal and language-specific patterns in speechsound development cannot be determined without considering all sources of variation including speech perception.