Compensation strategies for the perturbation of French [u] using a lip tube. II. Perceptual analysis.
A perceptual analysis of the French vowel [u] produced by 10 speakers under normal and perturbed conditions (Savariaux et al., 1995) is presented which aims at characterizing in the perceptual domain the task of a speaker for this vowel, and, then, at understanding the strategies developed by the speakers to deal with the lip perturbation. Identification and rating tests showed that the French [u] is perceptually fairly well described in the [F1, (F2-F0)] plane, and that the parameter (((F2-F0) + F1)/2) (all frequencies in bark) provides a good overall correlate of the "grave" feature classically used to describe the vowel [u] in all languages. This permitted reanalysis of the behavior of the speakers during the perturbation experiment. Three of them succeed in producing a good [u] in spite of the lip tube, thanks to a combination of limited changes on F1 and (F2-F0), but without producing the strong backward movement of the tongue, which would be necessary to keep the [F1,F2] pattern close to the one measured in normal speech. The only speaker who strongly moved his tongue back and maintained F1 and F2 at low values did not produce a perceptually well-rated [u], but additional tests demonstrate that this gesture allowed him to preserve the most important phonetic features of the French [u], which is primarily a back and rounded vowel. It is concluded that speech production is clearly guided by perceptual requirements, and that the speakers have a good representation of them, even if they are not all able to meet them in perturbed conditions.
Savariaux
C
C
Institut de la Communication Parlée, UPRESA CNRS 5009, Grenoble, France. savario@icp.inpg.fr
Perrier
P
P
Orliaguet
J P
JP
Schwartz
J L
JL
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics / Q000379:methods; D008046:Lip / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010700:Phonetics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement