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Yi Xu and Andrew Wallace
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 115, Pt. 2, 2397, 2004
In this study we examine how consonant manner of articulation interacts with intonation type in shaping the F0 contours in English. Native speakers of American English read aloud words differing in vowel length, consonant manner of articulation and consonant position in word. They produced each word in either a statement or question carrier. F0 contours of their speech were extracted by measuring every complete vocal period. Preliminary results based on graphic analysis of three speakersŐ data suggest that there are three distinct consonantal effects: F0 interruption due to devoicing, a large but brief (10-40 ms) F0 raising at the onset of voicing, and a smaller but longer-lasting F0 raising throughout a large proportion of the preceding and following vowels. These effects appear to be imposed on a continuously changing F0 curve that is either rising-falling or falling-rising, depending on whether the carrier sentence is a statement or a question. Further analysis will test the hypothesis that these continuous curves result from local pitch targets that are assigned to individual syllables and implemented with them in synchrony regardless of their segmental composition. [Work supported by NIDCD Grant No. R01 DC03902.]