Spectral features as cues to place of articulation in stop consonants

Abstract

After some thirty years of research aimed at identifying invariant acoustic cues to specify place of articulation in stop consonants, S. E. Blumstein and K. N. Stevens [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 66, 1001–1017 (1979)] claim to have solved the problem. They matched specific templates to a single 26-ms spectrum located at the burst release. This study employing spectrally changing displays is an extension of research previously reported before the Society. Place of articulation is identified from LPC running spectral displays offset at 5-ms intervals. Place is judged visually using three features with acoustic properties similar to Blumstein and Stevens', but involving spectral change. Displays contained the syllables /b, d, g/ before eight vowels pronounced by three talkers. Judges correctly identified 88% of the consonants from the running spectral displays. Identification was better for the male talkers (92%) than the one female talker (78%). The nature of the information contained in running spectral displays was also analyzed to take into account known properties of filtering of speech by the human auditory system. The advantages of dynamic running spectral displays of speech incorporating known psychophysical properties of the auditory system, including spectral change over time and auditory filtering, will be discussed with regard to the static template matching approach advocated by Blumstein and Stevens. [Supported by NINCDS Grant NS-12179.]