Fundamental frequency as an acoustic correlate of stop consonant voicing.
Fundamental frequency (F0) and voice onset time (VOT) were measured in utterances containing voiceless aspirated /ph,th,kh/, voiceless unaspirated /sp,st,sk/, and voiced /b,d,g/ stop consonants. Although VOT was very similar for voiceless unaspirated and voiced stops, F0 contours were nearly identical for voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated stops, and both types of voiceless stops were associated with significantly higher F0 values than were voiced stops. The F0 contours in all context were generally falling; the data do not support a simple rise-fall dichotomy in F0 at voicing onset as an invariant acoustic correlate of the voicing feature. The variations in F0 as a function of voicing appear to be best accounted for by vocal cord tension rather than aerodynamic influences. Moreover, the results are consistent with physiological data showing that the position of the hyoid bone and the height of the larynx influence the absolute value of F0.
D006801:Humans; D007830:Larynx / Q000502:physiology; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000502:physiology; D014831:Voice