Fundamental frequency provides voicing information even with unambiguous VOTs

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Earlier work [A. S. Abramson and L. Lisker, in Phonetic Linguistics (1985)] demonstrated that falling fundamental frequency (F0) after a syllable‐initial stop was a cue to voicelessness, and that flat or rising F0 was a cue for voiced stops, but only when the voice onset time (VOT) was ambiguous. The present study replicated that finding with seven VOT values and five onset F0 values. In the first condition, subjects identified the stop as “b” or “p.” Results were nearly identical to the previous experiment. A second condition included not just the stop decision, but a reaction time as well. Here, inappropriate F0 slowed response time even for unambiguous VOTs. A final condition was, like the first, identification without time pressure. Here, it was found that subjects were distinguishing all five levels of F0 onset so that, the lower the onset was, the more “b” responses were obtained in the ambiguous region. Thus F0 contributes to the voicing distinction, even when the categorization is not changed. Also, F0 cues a “voiced” response incrementally as it starts below the F0 of the remainder of the syllable. [Work supported by NIH Grant No. HD‐01994.]