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A parametric study of the spectral characteristics of European Portuguese fricatives

A parametric study of the spectral characteristics of European Portuguese fricatives
A parametric study of the spectral characteristics of European Portuguese fricatives
Studies of Portuguese phonetics and phonology indicate that fricatives are central to some interesting features of the language, yet studies of Portuguese fricatives have been few and limited. In this study, Portuguese fricatives were analyzed in ways designed to enhance our description of the language and to increase our understanding of the production of fricatives. Corpora of Portuguese words containing /f, v, s, z, sh, zh/, nonsense words of the pattern /V1FV2/ that follow Portuguese phonological rules, and sustained fricatives were recorded by four native speakers of European Portuguese (two men, two women). Results of analysis show that more than half of the voiced fricatives devoice; devoicing occurs more often in word-final fricatives. Averaged power spectra were computed for all fricatives and parameterized in order to aid comparisons across speaker and across corpus, and to gain insight into the production mechanisms underlying the language-specific variations. Substantial differences were found between spectra of voiced and unvoiced, same-place fricatives. The parameters spectral slope, frequency of maximum amplitude, and dynamic amplitude, derived from previous studies, behaved as predicted for changes in effort level, voicing, and location within the fricative. Changes in syllable stress, however, did not affect the fricatives in a manner consistent with effort level variation. Some combinations were also useful for separating the fricatives by place or by sibilance.
acoustic phonetics, speech production, Portuguese fricatives
0095-4470
437-464
Jesus, Luis M. T.
d5128b0f-171e-45a1-b47f-df4c2d2e8f49
Shadle, Christine H.
d41e8c97-d8f9-41ca-a69a-4021e978f786
Jesus, Luis M. T.
d5128b0f-171e-45a1-b47f-df4c2d2e8f49
Shadle, Christine H.
d41e8c97-d8f9-41ca-a69a-4021e978f786

Jesus, Luis M. T. and Shadle, Christine H. (2002) A parametric study of the spectral characteristics of European Portuguese fricatives. Journal of Phonetics, 30 (3), 437-464.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Studies of Portuguese phonetics and phonology indicate that fricatives are central to some interesting features of the language, yet studies of Portuguese fricatives have been few and limited. In this study, Portuguese fricatives were analyzed in ways designed to enhance our description of the language and to increase our understanding of the production of fricatives. Corpora of Portuguese words containing /f, v, s, z, sh, zh/, nonsense words of the pattern /V1FV2/ that follow Portuguese phonological rules, and sustained fricatives were recorded by four native speakers of European Portuguese (two men, two women). Results of analysis show that more than half of the voiced fricatives devoice; devoicing occurs more often in word-final fricatives. Averaged power spectra were computed for all fricatives and parameterized in order to aid comparisons across speaker and across corpus, and to gain insight into the production mechanisms underlying the language-specific variations. Substantial differences were found between spectra of voiced and unvoiced, same-place fricatives. The parameters spectral slope, frequency of maximum amplitude, and dynamic amplitude, derived from previous studies, behaved as predicted for changes in effort level, voicing, and location within the fricative. Changes in syllable stress, however, did not affect the fricatives in a manner consistent with effort level variation. Some combinations were also useful for separating the fricatives by place or by sibilance.

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More information

Published date: July 2002
Keywords: acoustic phonetics, speech production, Portuguese fricatives
Organisations: Electronics & Computer Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 257745
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/257745
ISSN: 0095-4470
PURE UUID: 872a742e-0784-4e4d-ab72-efde5dfcce1c

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Date deposited: 24 Jun 2003
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 06:02

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Contributors

Author: Luis M. T. Jesus
Author: Christine H. Shadle

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