Perceptual Effects of Forward Coarticulation

Abstract

Portions of CV syllables following a carrier phrase were sequentially deleted using an electronic gating technique. Listeners were required to identify the consonants and vowels that had been partially or completely deleted. Listeners were able to identify most consonants and all vowels above chance level even though the steady state portions had been deleted. The error responses were analyzed using a covariance measure of intelligibility. Listeners were able to sort phones into feature categories prior to the point in time at which steady-state portions were reached. The results suggest that the most important perceptual cues signaling a following phone are related to physiological place of production for consonants and tongue advancement for vowels.