Haskins Publications

Number	94
Year	1970
Drawer	2
Entry Date	04/02/1998
Authors	Gay, T.
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Publication	Language and Speech, 13, 65-88.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0094.pdf
Abstract	Utilized synthetic speech for describing the phonemic boundaries and the effects of formant course on the identification of a group of diphthongs. In Experiment I, synthesized formant transitions appropriate to classes of diphthongs were presented to 10 phonetically trained listeners for purposes of phoneme labeling. Experiment II attempted to determine whether the phonetic identity of the targets on the absolute course of the 2nd formant transition serves as the primary identifying cue. These features were separated along the time dimension by synthesizing diphthongs whose 2nd formant frequency course remained fixed but whose durations varied. Results of the listening tests show shifts in perception from simple vowel to diphthong occurring as a function of duration rather than frequency onset or offset positions. Results suggest that certain diphthong stimuli are characterized by an invariant 2nd formant rate of change, whose onset and offset values vary across changes in duration.
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