Prosodic position effects on the statistical relationships between distinctive features and acoustic-phonetic properties of English consonants

Previous research has shown that distinctive features must interact extensively to account for the location and shape of phonological consonant categories in multidimensional acoustic space (de Jong, et al., 161st ASA Meeting). The current analysis focuses on how syllable position (onset vs. coda) modulates feature interactions in the consonants /p, b, t, d, f, v, s, z/. Statistical model comparisons indicate that models allowing pervasive interactions between features and syllable position fit better than do more restrictive models with few or no interactions. Some interactions between syllable position and features are well-documented, such as vowel duration distinguishing voicing more robustly in coda position than in onset position. Other such interactions are novel. For example, consonant duration can cue both voicing and manner contrasts, with duration differences corresponding more strongly to manner contrasts in onset position and more strongly to voicing contrasts in coda position. Similarly, measures of noise power distinguish coronals from labials in onset position, whereas place and voicing interact in codas. These results contribute to a picture of the acoustic distribution of consonants being not only segment-specific, but also determined substantially by the position of the consonant within a syllable.