Acoustic characteristics of English fricatives

Abstract

This study constitutes a large-scale comparative analysis of acoustic cues for classification of place of articulation in fricatives. To date, no single metric has been found to classify fricative place of articulation with a high degree of accuracy. This study presents spectral, amplitudinal, and temporal measurements that involve both static properties (spectral peak location, spectral moments, noise duration, normalized amplitude, and F2 onset frequency) and dynamic properties (relative amplitude and locus equations). While all cues (except locus equations) consistently serve to distinguish sibilant from nonsibilant fricatives, the present results indicate that spectral peak location, spectral moments, and both normalized and relative amplitude serve to distinguish all four places of fricative articulation. These findings suggest that these static and dynamic acoustic properties can provide robust and unique information about all four places of articulation, despite variation in speaker, vowel context, and voicing.