Acoustic characteristics of clearly spoken English fricatives

Speakers can adopt a speaking style that allows them to be understood more easily in difficult communication situations, but few studies have examined the acoustic properties of clearly produced consonants in detail. This study attempts to characterize the adaptations in the clear production of American English fricatives in a carefully controlled range of communication situations. Ten female and ten male talkers produced fricatives in vowel-fricative-vowel contexts in both a conversational and a clear style that was elicited by means of simulated recognition errors in feedback received from an interactive computer program. Acoustic measurements were taken for spectral, amplitudinal, and temporal properties known to influence fricative recognition. Results illustrate that (1) there were consistent overall style effects, several of which (consonant duration, spectral peak frequency, and spectral moments) were consistent with previous findings and a few (notably consonant-to-vowel intensity ratio) of which were not; (2) specific acoustic modifications in clear productions of fricatives were influenced by the nature of the recognition errors that prompted the productions and were consistent with efforts to emphasize potentially misperceived contrasts both within the English fricative inventory and based on feedback from the simulated listener; and (3) talkers differed widely in the types and magnitude of all modifications.