Some context effects on voice onset time

Abstract

Systematic variance in measures of voice onset time (VOT) has been attributed primarily to place of articulation and position of stress relative to the target segment. Although data are available regarding other influences (e.g., rate) on VOT, we are unaware of any information regarding effects of phonetic contexts on this measure of glottal-supraglottal timing. As a result of post hoc we observations from a previous study [Klee, Weismer, and Ingrisano, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 60, S63(A) (1976)] concerning context effects on VOT, an experiment was designed in which fluctuations in VOT of the first consonant in CVC target words could be observed as we systematically varied the tense/lax and voicing features of the interconsonantal vowel and final consonant, respectively. Our results indicate that, for the initial consonant in a CVC target word, (1) longer VOT's are associated with tense, as compared with lax, interconsonantal vowels, (2) longer VOT's are associated with voiced, as compared with voiceless, final consonants, and, (3) the interactive effect of interconsonantal vowel and final consonant features on VOT appears to be extremely complex.