Acoustic cues in fricative perception for Japanese native speakers

Technical Report of IEICE Japan, Vol. SP2004-168, pp. 25-30, 2005 (in Japanese)

Acoustic cues in fricative perception for Japanese native speakers

S. Hirai, K. Yasu, T. Arai, and K. Iitaka

Abstract: In a series of studies for English native speakers, Nittrouer et al. (1987) and others have reported that adults are sensitive to fricative noise for the acoustic cues relevant to fricative identity, while, children are sensitive to vocalic transition. The difference between children and adults decreased as children increased in age. This study examined Nittrouer’s findings for Japanese native adults. Subjects identified tokens from a /sh/-/s/ continuum followed by vocalic portions with formant transitions changing continuously from ones appropriate for /sh/ to those for /s/. The results showed that Japanese native adults were also more sensitive to fricative noise than to formant transition.

Keywords: speech perception, fricatives, acoustic cues, cue trading, developmental change, Japanese native speaker

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