On Vowel Height and Consonantal Voicing Effects: Data from Italian

Abstract

Abstract This paper reports an acoustic study of CV sequences in Italian (where C is /b, d, g, p, t, k/ and V is one of the seven Italian vowels in stressed position). It explores the effects of vowel height, consonantal voicing, and place of articulation on a number of acoustic attributes of vowels (duration, f₀, F₁), and on the duration of the preceding stop closure, VOT and RVOT (defined as the interval from C release to the acoustic vowel onset). The aim is to provide, for Italian, a comprehensive account of all the various interactions between consonantal voicing, vowel height and consonant place on the above acoustic attributes in order to propose an explanation for such effects, and to compare the present results and interpretations with previous explanations and with previous data on Italian and other languages.