Influence of duration on the perception of consonants /x/ and /j/ in Chinese

Abstract

In the current study, we investigated whether Mandarin Chinese native speakers' perception of /x/ and /j/ was affected by the duration of consonant parts. Two perceptual experiments, in which the method of constant stimuli was employed, were conducted. Six normal-hearing adults (four females) took part in the experiment. Their average age was 24 yr. All subjects were native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. In the first experiment, Chinese syllables that begin with /x/ or /j/ were extracted from a speech database, and the consonant parts were manipulated in terms of duration. As the duration of /x/ was decreased or the duration of /j/ was increased, to a certain extent, the consonant which had been originally /x/ was perceived as /j/, and vice versa. Synthesized noises instead of recorded consonants were utilized in the second experiment, similar effects of the consonant duration appeared.