The following three levels of intonation are described, and their relationship is discussed: 1) a concrete and atomistic level of the perceptually relevant pitch movements, 2) a concrete and global level of the audible pitch contours and the measurable fundamental frequency curves, and 3) an abstract and global level of intonation patterns.…

Investigates the principles underlying the perception of vowel stimuli. The results support Chistovich's claim. When judging the distance between synthetic vowel stimuli, speakers refer to the phonemic structure of their native language. They determine the phonemes closest to the stimuli and then compare the phonemes and not the stimuli…

Describes studies of voice onset time in Spanish and an acoustic feature termed presence versus absence of an abrupt consonant onset. It is suggested that this feature may be used by the Spanish listener in making a perceptual distinction between voiced and voiceless stop consonants in multiple environments. (Author/KM)

Establishes the relationship between linguistic stress and fundamental frequency and the intonation contours in short declarative sentences, interrogative sentences, and nonterminal clauses in Advanced Standard Copenhagen Danish. The work is based on acoustical analyses of recordings by four subjects. (Author/EJS)

Measurements of the fundamental frequencies of Danish vowels showed a positive correlation with tongue height. The fundamental frequency differences between high and low vowels were greatest in long vowels in stressed position, while short vowels in unstressed position differed to a much lesser degree. (Author/EJS)

An experiment tests conjectures that right ear advantage (REA) has an auditory origin in competition or interference between acoustically similar stimuli and that feature-sharing effect (FSE) has its origin in assignment of features of phonetically similar stimuli. No effect on the REA for acoustic similarity, and a clear effect of acoustic…

Several traditional phonetic theories are explained and discussed. It is asserted that recent advances in knowledge of speech production and speech perception show that these theories are descriptively inadequate and that physiologic principles may instead structure phonetic feature theories. (Author/RM)

A description of an electromyographic investigation carried out on the speech of deaf speakers. The research attempted to answer questions concerning articulation and phonetic patterns in the speech of deaf adults. Results indicated that the deaf speakers extended the duration of speech segments and exhibited difficulty coordinating articulation…

In order to investigate the articulatory dynamics of the tongue in the production of Swedish vowels, electromyographic (EMG) and X-ray microbeam studies were performed on a native Swedish subject. The EMG signals were used to obtain average indication of the muscle activity of the tongue as a function of time. (NCR)

The relationship between the rhythms of spoken language and the rhythms of other human behavior is examined in terms of: (1) types of rhythmic structures observed, (2) rate of succession of rhythmic units, (3) a perceptual tendency equalization of physically unequal intervals, and (4) the variability of rhythmic motor action. (Author/RM)

This experiment investigated the language specificity of phonetic processes. Results suggest the need for adding another language-specific level of processing to the contemporary phonology-phonetic theory. Such a phonetic competence component would define the level at which semantic intention is integrated with the functional properties of the…

Stampe's (1969, 1973) hypotheses regarding innate mental phonological processes are tested against some of the extant data on speech perception. (AM)