Role of F1 in the perception of voice offset time as a cue for preaspiration

Abstract

Preaspiration, an [h]-like sound inserted between a vowel and a following stop consonant, can be cued by voice offset time (VOffT), a speech cue which is a mirror image of voice onset time (VOT). Previous research has shown VOffT to be an effective cue for preaspiration and also that the perception of VOffT differs from the perception of VOT in that the former cue is much more sensitive to the duration of a preceding vowel than is VOT to the duration of a following vowel [J. Pind, Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 49A, 745–764 (1996)]. The hypothesis has been put forward that this is due to the fact that preaspiration in Icelandic follows a phonemically short vowel, whereas aspiration can precede either a long or a short vowel. Vowel quantity will therefore affect phoneme boundaries for VOffT, not for VOT. This hypothesis was confirmed in experiments where vowel spectra were used to manipulate quantity rather than vowel duration. The present paper reports experiments investigating whether this effect could possibly be mediated through the effect of F1 on perceived voicing. [Supported by Icelandic Science Foundation and University of Iceland.]