In:
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Vol. 88, No. S1 ( 1990-11-01), p. S80-S80
Abstract:
It has been proposed that preceding vocalic duration is a universal cue to final consonant voicing in CVC monosyllables [M. Chen, Phonetica 22, 129–159 (1970)]. To test this hypothesis, three experiments compared native speakers of English, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. Experiment 1 measured the duration of the vocalic portions in the subjects' productions of “pod” and “pot.” Experiment 2 assessed subjects' identification of natural tokens of “pod” and “pot” with and without bursts. Experiment 3 assessed their categorization of synthetic /pod/-/pot/ stimuli that differed in vocalic duration and F1 offset frequency. In each of these experiments, the native speakers of English showed the strongest implementation of and sensitivity to vocalic duration as a cue to consonant voicing. The Mandarin Chinese speakers showed significantly weaker effects, and the Japanese fell in between. These findings qualify theories about vocalic duration contrast as a universal cue: While there may be a universal tendency to lengthen the vocalic portion before voiced stops, the magnitude of the contrast seems to be determined by language specific considerations.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0001-4966
,
1520-8524
Language:
English
Publisher:
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
Publication Date:
1990
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1461063-2
