Identification of Place of Consonant Articulation from Vowel Formant Transitions

The study was done to determine the importance of CV and VC formant transitions in the identification of place of consonant production. Syllables made up from consonants (/p,t,k,b,d,g,f,s,∫,v,z,ȝ/) and the /ə/ vowel were recorded and spliced so that the noise portions were eliminated from the CV and VC formant transitions. Seventeen undergraduate students were asked to identify the formant transitions as labial, alveolor, palatal, or no consonant. Analysis of the results indicated that: (1) the number of correct identifications was considerably greater than chance for all sounds except voiceless stops; (2) there were significantly more correct identifications made of VC than of CV formant transitions; (3) there were no significant differences between fricatives and stops; (4) there were significantly more correct identifications of voiced than of voiceless consonants; and (5) there was significant variation related to place of consonant articulation. The best explanation for the findings related to CV vs VC formant transitions appeared to be that elimination of the noise from the transitions reduced the span of the articulatory movements included in the CV formant transition so that it was less sufficient than the VC formant transition for consonant identification.