Acoustic correlates of some phonetic categories

Abstract

Some of the acoustic properties that distinguish one speechsound from another are reviewed. The point of view is that the auditory system responds to sounds with different acoustic properties in distinctive ways, and that these special responses play an important role in selection and classification of the inventory of sounds that are used in language. Examples of several of these acoustic properties are discussed and illustrated, including the presence or absence of rapid spectrum change, abruptness of amplitude change, voicing and aspiration, and gross spectral properties relating to place of articulation for consonant and vowels.