Articulatory parameters for the perception of bilabials

Area of Science:

• Phonetics and Speech Science
• Acoustic Phonetics
• Speech Perception

Background:

• Understanding articulatory cues is crucial for speech perception research.
• Previous studies suggested the rate of lip movement influences bilabial consonant perception.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the articulatory cues for perceiving bilabial consonants.
• To determine the perceptual relevance of lip opening extent and rate.
• To examine the independence of phonological features in bilabial and nasal consonants.

Main Methods:

• A production model was used to generate acoustic parameters.
• An analogue speech synthesizer created test sounds for perception experiments.
• Discrimination tests were conducted between (b)/(w) and (m)/(w) sounds.

Main Results:

• Discrimination between bilabial consonants in intervocalic contexts solely depended on the minimum lip opening.
• Contrary to prior beliefs, the rate of lip opening/closure did not affect discrimination.
• The features [+ anterior, - coronal] and [+ nasal] were perceptually independent attributes.

Conclusions:

• Minimum lip opening is the key articulatory cue for distinguishing bilabial consonants.
• The rate of lip movement is not a significant factor in the perception of these sounds.
• Phonological features like place of articulation and nasality are perceived independently.