Effects of voicing, place, and vowel context on VOT for French and English stops

Abstract

Preliminary results in a study of VOT in the production of French initial stops (recorded from eight native speakers) indicate a significant interaction of voicing state, place of articulation, and vowel identity in /CVk/syllables. While some of the trends observed are similar (e.g., VOT for high vowels is generally longer for that of non‐high vowels), the exact pattern of interactions does not agree with that found for American English (R. F. Port and R. Rutonno, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 66, 654–662 (1979)]. Results from a larger‐scale measurement study comparing VOT production in French and Canadian English will be discussed. Interaction effects that depend explicitly on categorical (as opposed to purely acoustic) context have been shown to be reliable in VOT production experiments [Port and Rutonno (1979)]. Results of cross‐language perceptual experiments (using VOT continua in which vocalic context and place of articulation cues are varied as parameters) designed to test the perceptual reliablity of such effects will be discussed. [Work supported by SSHRC.]