Acoustic characteristics of American English vowels produced by Floridian female speakers

Abstract

The present study analyzed the temporal, spectral, and dynamic acoustic characteristics of 11 American English (AE) vowels /i, ɪ, e, ε, æ, ʌ, ɑ, ɔ, o, ᴜ, u/. The stimuli were produced by 22 monolingual female adult speakers from Florida. The vowels were embedded within the hVd consonantal context in a carrier phrase. Acoustic measurements included vowel duration, fundamental frequency, temporal midpoint and dynamic information. LPC formant contours were measured by the 25%, 50%, and 75% points of the vocalic nuclei. A perceptual vowel identification task was included in the study. Twenty Floridian female adult listeners categorized the 253 vowel stimuli using an interactive, self-paced computer program. Results of acoustic vowel space, spectral movement, discriminant function analysis, and perceptual identification will be presented. [Work supported by NIDCD.]