Time-varying features in stops produced at different speaking rates
Diane Kewley-Port, Paul A. Luce · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1982
Recent work has demonstrated that place of articulation in initial voiced stops can be accurately identified from visual displays of linear prediction smoothed spectra updated at 5-ms intervals [Kewley-Port, Res. Speech Percept., Tech. Rep. No. 3, Indiana University (1980)]. The present research extends this analysis in several directions. The visual displays were modified to incorporate auditory filtering and other frequency characteristics of the ear. Our earlier time-varying features were redefined to describe syllable initial stops in fluent speech. The present experiment examined syllables beginning with voiced and voiceless stops paired with five vowels. Two males and two females read the syllables in a carrier phrase at fast, normal and slow tempos. Employing a predefined set of time-varying features, judges first attempted to locate the burst and then to identify place of articulation in the visual displays. The results will be discussed in terms of possible strategies for speech recognition in fluent running speech using acoustic processing techniques based on the psychophysical properties of the auditory system. [Supported by NINCDS Grant NS-12179.]