Discrimination of Vowel Sounds Synthesized By Harmonic Addition
Alan P. Carpenter · Language and Speech · 1962
An experiment is described in which synthetic sounds were identified by untrained subjects as vowels. The sounds were constructed by adding together harmonics selected from a buzz source in the same relative amplitudes as were found in corresponding natural vowels. This work is the first step in an attempt to identify those qualities of a complex sound which determine its perception as a particular vowel, irrespective of theories based upon the mechanism by which speech sounds are produced.