Acoustic properties for place of articulation in nasal consonants

Kathleen Kurowski and Sheila E. Blumstein

Department Cognitive Linguistic of and Sciences, BrownUniversity, Providence, Rhode Island02912

(Received July 1986;accepted publication February1987) 1 for 16

The goalof thisstudywasto determine whetheracoustic properties couldbe derivedfor English labialandalveolar nasal consonants remain that stable across vowelcontexts, speakers, syllable and positions. experiment criticalbandanalyses In I, wereconducted five of tokens eachof [m] and In] followed the vowels[i e a o u] spoken threespeakers. by by Comparison the natureof the changes the spectral of in patterus from the murmurto the release showed that, for labials,therewasa greaterchange energyin the regionof Bark 5-7 in relativeto that of Bark 11-14, whereas, alveolars, for therewasa greaterchange energy in from the murmurto the release the regionof Bark 11-14 relativeto that of Bark 5-7. in Quantitative analyses eachtokenindicated of that over89% of the utterances couldbe appropriately classified place articulation comparing proportion energy for of by the of change in these spectral regions. experiment thespectral In II, patterus labialandalveolar of nasals produced thecontext Is] + nasal( [mn] ) + vowel( [ie a o u] ) by twospeakers in of were

explored. same The analysis procedures used in experiment Eighty-four were as I. percent of theutterances appropriately were classified, although labialconsonants less were consistently classified in experiment The properties than I. associated nasal with place articulation of found in thisstudy discussed relation those are in to associated place articulation stop with of in
consonants are considered and from the viewpoint a moregeneral of theoryof acoustic
invariance.

PACS numbers: 43.70.Fq, 43.70.Aj

INTRODUCTION

formant transitions in their measure. Their results failed to show clear-cut differences between labial and alveolar nasal

Research theacoustic on cues place articulation for of in nasalconsonants investigated has both the nasalmurmur and formant transitions. Focusing the nasalmurmur, on variousacousticanalyses nasal consonants of have shown that smallbut systematic differences be correlated can with placeof articulation.Many of thesestudies(House, 1957; Fant, 1960;Fujimura,1962) haveemployed some form of vocal tractsynthesis determine location thezeros to the of or antiformants aresaidto characterize nasal's that each place of articulation. Mostresearchers consideredsingle a antiformant of [ m ] (around 800 Hz), [ n ] (around 1500-2000 Hz), and [ rj] (above3000Hz) to bea kindof acoustic locus for place of articulation.Fujimura suggested looking at "clustervariables"of F 2 + F 3 + antiformantfor [m] and F3 + F4 + antiformant for [n]. Nevertheless,results of these acoustic analyses the murmur revealedconsiderable of variabilityin the murmur itself,evenwithin the sameutterance (owing to the fact that the pole-zeropairs moved throughoutthe durationof the nasalmurmur) (Fujimura, 1962). In addition,Fujimura notedlarge individualdifferencesin his measures acrossspeakers. Thus, while some place-of-articulation differences emerged, results not the did providea clear-cutdistinctionfor place of articulationin
nasal consonants across various vowel environments.

consonants. more recent preliminary investigation A by Repp (1986) also failed to provide systematic differences between acoustic the properties [m] and In]. Repp foof cused the spectral on changes between murmurand vothe ealic segments nasal-vowel of syllables. determined He the spectraldifferences between thesetwo regions and compared derived spectral shapes [m] and [n]. On thebasis for of his findings, Repp (1986, pp. 1993-1994) concluded, "There noindication these ofanyinvariant is in data spectral change property distinguishing ] and [ n] across voca[m all
lic contexts."

In a pilotstudy, Blumstein Stevens and (1979) explored

the acousticcharacteristics place of articulation for the of nasalconsonants n] across [m variousvowelenvironments.

The acoustic properties contributing the perception to of nasalconsonants havebeeninvestigated early studies in by focusing the roleof the second on formanttransitionasa placecue. Resultsindicatedthat the startingfrequency of the second formanttransition provides cueto the distinca tion between[m] and [n] (Liberman et al., 1954;Nakata, 1959; Hecker, 1962). In many of thesestudies,a neutral murmur was appended the movingformant transitions to (Cooperet al., 1952;Libermanet al., 1954;Miller, 1977; Miller andEimas,1977; Larkeyetal., 1978).Because listenerswereableto identifyplaceof articulationin suchstimuli, many researchers have considered nasalmurmur to be the predominantly mannercue,not a potential a placecue (Delattre, 1968; Pickett, 1965; Mermelstein, 1977). Neverthe-

Ratherthan focusing the murmur,theyinvestigated on the grossshapeof the spectrumsampledat the releaseof the nasal consonant, incorporating earlyportions the thus the of
1917 J. Acoust.Sec. Am. 81 (6), June 1987

less, tape-splicing in experiments natu.ral with speech, Ma16cot (1956) showed that, althoughinappropriate transitions in CV and VC syllables overrodethe conflictingmurmur cue,themurmurs werenotperceptually neutralwith respect
1987 Acoustical Societyof America 1917

0001-4966/87/061917-11500.80

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to placeof articulation. They detracted from perceptual salieneeof transitions mismatehed with them, and they were notjudged randomly whenpresented isolation. a repliin In cationof Malrcot'sexperiment, Recasens (1983) used syntheticspeech stimulito testthe cueing effectiveness murof
mursversus transitions Catalan [n, j, tl ] in VC syllables. for

vens, 1979; Searle, 1979, 1980; Kewley-Port, 1983), vowel contexts(Blumstein and Stevens,1979; Searle, 1979, 1980;

Kewley-Port,1983), and syllable position(Blumstein and

Stevens, 1979).

AlthoughReeasens' results generally corroborate Malrcot's findingthat the transitions dominated conflicting murmurs, this was not true in the caseof [n] transitions with [rj]
murnlurs.

Kurowski and Blumstein (1984) assessed the role of

Two approaches havebeentaken in this research. The first is exemplified the work of Stevens by and Blumstein ( 1978, 1981;Blumsteinand Stevens, 1979). They proposed staticproperties basedon the gross shapeof the spectrum sampled the stoprelease. at While their analysis procedures correctlyclassified placeof articulationfor labial,alveolar, andvelarstopconsonants over83% of the time, asindicated

boththe nasalmurmurand formanttransitions percepas tual cues placeof articulation nasal for in consonants across a numberof vowelenvironments. Throughthe useof computer-edited natural speech stimuli, theypresented listeners with fivetypesof stimuli:full murmurs, last six glottal the pulses the murmur, the entire transitionplus vowel, six of pulses the transitionplusvowelpulses of startingfrom the beginning the formanttransitions, the six pulses of and surrounding the nasal release,encompassing last three the pulses the murmur and the first threepulses the transiof of tions.Results showed theisolated that murmurprovided as muchinformation the perception placeof articulation for of asdid theisolated transitions. Moreover, highest the performancescores placeof articulationwereobtained the for in six-puise conditioncontaining both murmur and transition information.In a recent study, Repp (1986) confirmed thesefindings usingeditedspeech stimulifrom a largervariety of testutterances, conditions, and speakers. Although hefoundplace articulation of information themurmurto in
be somewhat salientthan that in the formant transitions, less

above, procedure this failedto characterize place articulaof tion in nasalconsonants. second The approach, originally proposed Searle 1979; by ( Searle aL, 1980)andKewleyet Port (1983) and later by Lahiri et al. (1984), postulated time-varying properties place articulation stopconfor of in
sonants. These researchers focused, as did Stevens and Blumstein (1978, 1981; Blumstein and Stevens, 1979), on

the vicinityof the stoprelease elaborating in these properties.However,theyexplored changes spectral the in properties over time. Despitedifferentanalysis procedures, their results showed consistent patterns placeof articulationin for syllable-initial position across speakers vowelcontexts. and The resultsof thesestudiesinvestigating integrated acoustic properties placeof articulationin stopconsonfor ants,aswellastheperceptual results placeof articulation for in nasalconsonants obtainedby Kurowski and Blumstein (1984} and Repp (1986), suggest that acousticproperties maybederived place articulation nasalconsonants for of in based spectral on changes the vicinityof the nasalrelease. in

bestidentification performance occurred whenboth murmur and transitioninformationwere presented together. Moreover,performance better than predicted the was by "addition"of two separate cues, namelyonefor themurmur
and the other for the transitions.

Such properties would presumably encompass spectral charaeteristies boththemurmur thetransition of and portions of the nasaland wouldbe reflected the patterns rapid in of spectral change chartedfrom the murmurinto the release. The goalof the present studywasto determine whether suchacoustic properties couldbe derived English for labial
andalveolarnasalconsonants. hopedto determine We what the nature of suchproperties might be, and to determine whetherthey remainstableacross vowelcontexts, speakers, andsyllable positions. wasalsoof interestto consider It how,

On the basisof thesefindings,both setsof researchers suggested the perceptual that cues placeof articulation to in nasal consonants residein the relation betweenspectral properties the murmur and transitions of immediatelyfollowingthe nasalrelease, ratherthan in eitherthe murmuror
the transitions alone. Kurowski and Blumstein (1984)

furthersuggest the combination nasalmurmurplus that of formanttransitions formsa singleintegrated propertyfor the perceptionof place of articulation. In this view, the acoustic informationin the vicinity of the nasalrelease, incorporating bothmurmurandtransitions, provides single a unitarypropertyfor placeof articulation. The notionof integrated properties beenexplored has mostextensively with respect placeof articulation stop to in consonants. Resultsof this research suggest that integrated properties encompassing burstandsome the tens millisecof
onds of the formant transitions can be used to characterize

if at all, theproperties associated nasal with place articulaof tionrelateto those proposed place articulation stop for of in consonants. it isthecase If that invariantacoustic properties correspond phonetic to features, hasbeenclaimed Steas by vensand Blumstein (1978, 1981; Blumsteinand Stevens, 1979 thenthesame ), properties should characterize placeof
articulation across different manners of articulation.

placeof articulation stopconsonants in (Stevens, 1975;Stevensand Blumstein, 1978). Researchers investigatingthis issue haveuseddifferentanalysis procedures havemade and differenttheoreticalclaims. Nevertheless, focusingon the burst and the onsetof the transitions,stableacousticpatternshavebeenfound across speakers (Blumsteinand Ste1918 J. Acoust. Sec. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987

The decision focus thevicinityof the nasalrelease to on asthepotential areawheretheacoustic properties place for of articulation located based are was largely theresults on of the perceptionexperiments Kurowski and Blumstein of (1984) andRepp (1986). Consequently, decided use we to acoustic analysis procedures reflected, someway, that in properties theauditory of system. thatend,weemployed To criticalband analyses our stimuli.Theseanalyses of may more nearlyreflectthe auditorytransformations that occur at thelevelof theauditory nerve, thusprovide of the and one first transformations the acoustic of signalas it ascends the auditorypathway.
K. Kurowski and S. E. Blurnstein:Place of articulation 1918

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I I I
I I

80-

A.A A._A A A A_A

h_A A.A
I

/'V'V'V'

I I
I

188

v-v

v- vI I I I I
28'

t,,,,

i,

,,,

i , ,,

, i , , ,,

i,,,,

FIIEg KHZ

FIG.1. left The panels aportionthe show of waveform ofthe ne] [mi]tokens display [ and sampled the from murmur through transitionsthe the into vowel.
The solid vertical represents line the cursor position corresponding point discontinuity the tothe of between nasal murmur the and glottal containing pulse

the beginning formant ofthe transitions.left-most line the The dotted and middle line solid representedgesthe the of window position the glottal for two pulses correspondingmurmur, the tothe and middle line right-most line solid and dotted representedgesthe the of window position the glottal for two pulses corresponding release. right tothe The panels theLPCspectra show corresponding to portions thewaveform of depicted theleft. dotted on The lines representLPC the spectrathe of three murmur precedingdiscontinuity, line pulses the the solid represents spectrum glottal containing the LPC ofthe pulse thediscontinuity, the and dashed represent LPCspectra thetwo lines the of pulses immediately following pulse the containing discontinuity. the

In our analyses, focused likely areasof the specwe on trumwhere previous research indicated had potential differences between [m] and [n]. In particular, analysis data of

around 800 Hz and for [n] between 1500 and 2000 Hz (House, 1957;Fant, 1960;Fujimura, 1962).

across several languages, reported Recasens as by (1983), I. EXPERIMENT I suggested systematic differences betweenm] and [n ] in the [ A. Methodology frequency thefirstnasal of resonance. resonance The occurs I. $t/mul/ typically between and800Hz. In addition, 200 researchers The natural speech tokensanalyzedin this studywere investigating naturalspeech production foundantiformants
for [m] and [n] in two regions. For [m], theywerelocated
1919 J. Acoust. Am., 81,No.6, June Soc. Vol. 1987

uttered threemalespeakers English. by of Eachof theorigiK.Kurowski S. E.Blumstein: ofarticulation and Place 1919

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nal utterances consisted the nasalconsonants m n ] folof [ lowedbythe vowels i e a o u ]. The subjects [ wereindividually tape recordedin a sound-proofed booth. They read the
entire list of utterances in citation form a total of five times

t'l [mi 1

each. Each readingconsisted a differentrandom order. of

There was thus a total of 150 stimulus tokens. Stimuli were

s' 9JJ 1 \., 3

o 5 IO 15 ;>o ;',5
O 5
BARK

40 dB
IO 15 BARK ZO 25

digitizedusing 10-kHz sampling a rate with a 4.5-kHz lowpass filtersetting a 10bit quantization. and
2. Procedure

tOat

- -

An importantstepin the analysis procedure was the determinationof the point of release or discontinuity
between the nasal murmur and the transitions into the fol-

M
I/

'
..... 0 5 ..--, I0 .... , .... , .... 15 0 25

lowingvowel.The procedures usedfor determining disthe continuitywere the sameas thosedescribed Kurowski by andBlumstein(1984). The pointof release the nasalwas of

IO

4Od J'..... . 12
15 20 25
60
dB 20 z5

BARK

visually identified thewaveform a breakin thepattern in as of murmurpulses thebeginning high-frequency and of components. Figure1shows example thewaveform an of display
of tokensof [ne] and [mi], with the cursorset,as indicated

SI0
I/ .... - 0

, ..... .---, .... , .... 5 I0 15 20 25 BARK

O 5 IO 15 BARK

by the solidline,at the beginning a pitchperiodthat conof tainsthefirstglottalpulseshowing incipient high-frequency energy.In addition to usingvisualinspection the waveof form display,corroborative spectralanalyses were conducted usinglinear predictivecoding (LPC) with a 10-msfull Hammingwindow.The glottalpulsecontaining disconthe tinuitycouldberecognized a change thespectral by in characteristics thestimulus, of particularly comparison the in to spectral patternof the preceding murmur pulses. few An example the LPC analysis the Inc] and [mi] tokens of of is provided therightpanels Fig. 1.In bothexamples, in of there is an abruptchange the spectral in shape the release of comparedto the preceding murmur.Finally,perceptual testing
of the stimuli was used to double check the visual results. In

,o
S '

40

I0

15

20

IO

15

20

25

BARK

BARK

dB

particular,subjects (includingtheauthorsandotherlab personnel)wereinformallyasked listento tokens to containing thetransitions thevowelto determine into whethertheyperceiveda nasalor stopconsonant.

x./ ......
IO 15 2o 25
BARK

I0

15

20

25

BARK

We thenexplored spectral the changes from the murmur to thevowelonset.To that end,we focused the specon trum of the two glottal pulses the murmur immediately of preceding release the (henceforth, convention becalled by to the murmur) and the first two glottal pulsesof the transitions (by convention be calledthe release).The decision to to usetwo glottalpulses thewindowof analysis based as was in part on the results the perception of experiments Kurof

FIG. 2. Critical band analyses two glottal pulses the murmur (repreof of sented the dottedline) and two glottalpulses the release by of (represented by the solidline) for tenstimulus tokens from the samespeaker. The abscissarepresents frequency plottedin Bark. The left scale the ordinaterepreof sentsrms energyand the right scalethe associated values. dB

owski and Blumstein(1984) and Repp (1986), which showed that listeners couldaccurately perceive nasalconsonants when presented with stimuli containingas little as two to threeglottalpulses the murmur,followedby two to of three glottal pulses the formant transitions. of Moreover, our ownpilot work on these stimuliindicated that editedCV stimulicontaining two glottalpulses preceding release the weresufficient the perception a shortened for of nasal-vowel stimulus for correct and perception place articulation of of of the nasalconsonant. full Hammingwindowwith a length A of two pitch periodswas centeredover each of thesetwo landmark positions: first two completemurmur pulses the precedingthe releaseand the first two glottal pulsesthat
1920 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., VoL 81, No. 6, June 1987

contained the transitions. It should be noted that there were differences in the window size as a function of the duration of

the two pitch periods. Usinga Patterson filter (Patterson,

1976) and no preemphasis, critical band analyses were then conducted thesetwo points. at Figure I shows examples the cursorpositions the of for critical bandanalyses. The left-mostdottedline and the middle solidline represent edges the windowpositionfor the of the two glottalpulses corresponding themurmur,andthe to middle solid line and right-mostdottedline represent the edges thewindowposition thetwo glottalpulses of for correspondingto the release.The cursorsmarking the window positions werealways placed pitchsynchronously. a conAs sequence, point of release the corresponding the onsetof to
K. Kurowskiand S. E. Blumstoin:Place of articulation 1920

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TABLE I. Frequency bandwidth and values associated eachBark. with Bark

I

Prop dB
24 :30

Centerfrequency
$0

Bandwidth
80

2 3 4
5 6

150 250 350

450 570

!00 100 100

110 120

16

24

7
8
9 10

700
840
1000 1170

140
150
160 190

8 18
O 4 12 O

11 12 13 14

1370 1600 1g50 2150

210 240 280 320

eA
2 6
Oo o

15
16 17 18 20

2500
2900 3400 4000

380
450 550 700 1100

O O

19

4800
5800

900

I o

oo
I I

o
I

oo o
I

2122

7000 8500

1300 1800

dB

12

18

24

Prop

16

theformant transitions eitherat theleading was edge the of window (as shownin the bottompanelof Fig. 1) or containedwithin the glottalpulse,including portionof the a murmur (as shown the top panelof Fig. 1). in
B. Results and discussion

In pilotwork,wevisually inspected graphic the displays obtainedfor each stimulus,comparing the changein the spectral patterns themurmurto those therelease. for of Figure 2 shows exampleof one of the tokensof eachCV an syllable. The abscissa represents frequency plottedin Bark. [Table I provides list of the frequency a values associated with eachBark (Zwicker, 1961). ] The left scale the ordiof nateshows rmsvalues therightscale the and shows assothe ciateddB values(in this case,dB = 20Xlog rms). Comparison thenature thechanges spectral of of in patterns from the murmur to the release suggested that the patternsof change weredifferentfor the labial and alveolarnasalconsonants, particularly the frequency in regions encompassed
in Bark 5-7 (395-770 Hz) and 11-14 (1265-2310 Hz). In

FIG. 3. A plotof theproportion rmsenergy of change fromthemurmurto therelease lowfrequencies in (Bark 5-7) relative highfrequencies to (Bark 11-14) for 150 tokens [m] and [n] in the environment [ie a o u] of of spoken three by speakers. abscissa The represents proportion change the of fromthemurmur therelease thelowerfrequency to in range(Bark 5-7) and the ordinaterepresents proportion change the of from the murmurto therelease thehigher in frequency range (Bark 11-14). ThedBvalues plotted on the abscissa and ordinatecorrespond the difference riB) to (in between amplitude the two pulses themurmurandthe two pulses the of of of the transitions these in frequency regions. opentriangle,circle,and The square represent labialtokens the produced speakers 2, and3, respecby 1, tively, andtheclosed triangle, circle, square and represent alveolar the tokensproduced these by threespeakers.

encompassing 5-7 to theproportion change Bark of encompassing Bark 11-14 from the murmur to the release. This wasaccomplished the followingmanner.The cursorposiin tions definingthe murmur and the release,as discussed above,weredetermined. Usinga rectangular filter, the rms energyencompassing frequencyrangeof Bark 5-7 was the computedat the murmur and the release,as was the rms energyencompassing frequency the rangeof Bark 11-14. The proportion change of wasthendetermined dividing by the rmsvalueof the release the rmsvalueof the murmur by for thelowerfrequencies (Bark 5-7) andby dividingtherms

particular,for labials,thereis a greaterchange energy in from the murmur to the release the regionof Bark 5-7 in
relative to that of Bark 11-14. In contrast, for alveolars,

thereis a greaterchange energy in from the murmurto the release theregion in ofBark 11-14ascompared Bark5-7. to As Fig.2 shows, these different patterns labialandalveofor lar consonants emerge mostclearlyfor [a], [o], and [u]. It is worthnotingthat these frequency ranges correlate with the ranges reportedfor the expected antiformants [m] of (around800 Hz) and [n] (1500-2000 Hz) (House, 1957;
Fant, 1960; Fujimura, 1962).

TABLE II. Meanpercent correct classification place articulation for of for

nasal-vowel stimuli.

Speaker
K B N Total

Labial
84 88 92 88

Alvenlar
96 96 80 91

Total
90 92 86 89

We thenattempted quantifythese to observations orin dertodetermine consistently utterance how the tokens actually met the qualitative changes described above.To this end, we compared proportion change the energy the of in
1921 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987

K. Kurowski and S. E. Blumstein: Place of articulation

1921

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TABLEIlL Totalmisclassification ofarticulation of5) across ofplace (out

syllabletypes.

to the higherfrequency regions encompassing 11-14 Bark

( 1265-2310 Hz), while, in alveolarnasals, there seems be to

Speaker[ma] [mel [rail [mo] [mul [no] Inc] [nil [nol [nu]
K B N 4 3 i 1 1 4 i

a greaterchange these in higherfrequencies relativeto the

lower ones. While the correct classification of utterances is

high at 89%, thereare clearlyvowelcontexteffects, particularly for labialsprecedingthe vowel [i].

valueof the release the rmsvalueof the murmurfor the by higherfrequencies (Bark 11-14). These proportions calculated eachof the 150 were for stimuli.The results werethenplottedand are shownin Fig. 3. The abscissa represents proportion the ofchange from the murmur to therelease thelowerfrequency in range(Bark 57) and the .ordinaterepresents proportionof change the from the murmurto release the higherfrequency in range (Bark 11-14). The dB valuesplotted on the abscissa and ordinatecorrespond the difference dB) between to (in the araplitudeof the two pulsesof the murmur and the two pulses the transitions these of in frequency ranges. proporA tion of one,represented the diagonal by line, indicates no difference spectral in change between high and low frethe quencies.. value below the diagonal indicatesgreater A changein the lower frequencies (Bark 5-7) relative to the higherfrequencies (Bark 11-14), and a valueabovethe diagonal indicatesgreater changein the higher frequencies (Bark 11-14) relativeto the lowerfrequencies (Bark 5-7). As Fig. 3 shows, labialsand alveolars into two clearthe fall cutdistributions, a majorityof theformerfallingbelow with the diagonal and a majorityof the latter fallingabovethe diagonal. Table II showsa summaryof the distributionof the labialandalveolar stimuli.A tokenwith a proportion falling
below the diagonalwas classified a labial and one falling as

Beforeconsidering implications theseresults the of in detail, we felt it importantto examinewhetherthesesame patterns spectral of change, whichwereshown nasals for in syllable-initial position, wouldemerge a different in syllabic context.To this end, we explored spectral the patterns of
labial and alveolar nasals in a consonant cluster environ-

ment,in particular an [s] + nasal vowel in + context.

II. EXPERIMENT II

Thepurpose thisexperiment to testwhether of was the acoustic properties placeof articulation nasals for for noted in the firstexperiment wouldemerge a different in phonetic
context. Moreover, we wanted to determine whether the

measurement procedures derivedfor syllable-initial nasals would appropriately classify nasalplaceof articulation in the faceof potential coartieulation effects the preceding of [s]. The presence such of context effects thisenvironment in hasbeendemonstrated both acoustically perceptually, and at leastfor placeof articulationin stopconsonants (Mann and Repp, 1981;Reppand Mann, 1981, 1982).
A. Methodology
L Stimuli

Two speakers, andB fromexperiment recorded K I, ten syllable types consisting [s] followed [m] or [n] and of by the vowels[i e a o u ]. The array of syllable tokenswasutteredfivetimesby eachspeaker. Thesetokens wereblocked
and read in a different random order. There was a total of

above diagonal classified analveolar. the was as Tokens that

fell on the diagonalwerescoredasmisclassifications. TaAs ble II shows, applicationof this metricresultedin the correct

100 stimulustokens.The recordingprocedures were the sameas thoseusedin experimentI.

2. Procedure

classification over 89% of the utterances of spoken the by threespeakers. rangeof classification The scores from a was low of 84% for labialsproduced speaker anda high of by K 96% for alveolars produced speakers and B. by K While theseresultssuggest that there are distinct and consistent patterns change of fromthemurmurto therelease for labials andalveolar nasals, isalsoimportantto examine it thoseCV syllables that werenot correctlyclassified these by measurement procedures. Table III showsa summary of theseresults across threespeakers. is indicated,there the As isa preponderance ofmisclassifications labialnasals the of in environment the vowel [i]. Of a total of 15 [ mi ] syllables, of eight were miselassified. Four of thesewere producedby speaker threeby speaker andoneby speaker MoreK, B, N. over,outof 15 [na] syllables, spoken thesame 4, by subject,
were miselassified.

The analysis procedures paralleled thoseof experiment I. As in the caseof syllable-initial nasalconsonants, nasals produced thecluster in environments werefirstexamined to determinethe point of release discontinuity or betweenthe
nasal murmur and the transitions. We noted that the wave-

formsof these nasalconsonants werenot appreciably different from thoseof syllable-initial nasals, except that the murmur portion tended to be generally shorter. In fact, the murmurportionfor thesecond speaker occasionally consisted of as few as two glottal pulses. After the locationof the releasewas ascertained, critical

band analyses were conducted, in the previousexperias ment,of the lasttwo pulses the murmurandthe firsttwo of pulses therelease. of
B. Results and discussion

To summarizethe resultsof experimentI, there are different patternsof changein the vicinity of the nasalrelease
for labial and aircolor consonants. For labial nasals, there

seems be a greaterrelativechange the lower frequency to in regions encompassing Bark 5-7 (395-770 Hz) ascompared
1922 d. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987

The displaysof the critical band analyses showedpatterns similar to thoseobtainedin experimentI. Figure 4 shows exampleof the criticalbandanalysis the syllaan for bles[areasnasmosno]. As in experimenI, the proportion t
K. Kurowski and S. E. Blumstein: Place of articulation 1922

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,60

majority thelabials of falling below diagonal a mathe and

dB

-40
M

. '20

SiO
I

o
BARK

0 5 I0 15 20 25

jority of thealveolars fallingabove diagonal. the Table IV shows summaryof the classification laa of bialsandalveolars with respect thisdistribution. in the to As previous analysis, token classified a labialif itsproa was as ponion values below diagonal, it was fell the and classified as analveolar itsproportion if values above diagonal. fell the As
Table IV indicates, althoughthe overallclassification scores

BARK 60

10 3
102
R M

SilO]
,40 dB

S IO
I

'20

at 84% are comparable thoseobtainedin experiment to I (89%), the individual speaker'smean totals are lower (speaker = 87%;speaker = 80%) thanthose K B obtained for the samespeakers experiment (speaker = 90%; in I K speaker = 92%). Classification B scores remained same the or improved thealveolars. for However, metricmisclasthe sifted to 28% morelabialsper speaker up than in experiment I.

5
BARK

,o
BARK

Table V shows distribution misclassificat[ons the of

across differentsyllabletypes.All of the misclassifieathe
tiens occurred in the context of front vowels, with 15 of the

FIG. 4. Criticalbandanalyses twoglottalpulses themurmur(repreof of sented thedotted by line) andtwoglottalpulses thereleaserepresented of ( by thesolidline) for fourstimulus tokens produced thesame by speaker. Theabscissa represents frequency plotted Bark.Theleftscale theordiin of naterepresents energy therightscale associated values. rms and the dB

of change from the murmurto the release Bark 5-7 and in 11-14wascomputed the 100stimuli, theresults for and are graphically displayed Fig. 5. As Fig. 5 shows, labials in the and alveolars againfall into two well-defined areas,with a

16 misclassifications occurringfor labial nasals before [i] and [el, andonemisclassifieation occurring thealveolar for nasal before [i]'. Thus, while the misclassifications the of nasalin experiment were mainlylimited to labialsin the I environment [i l, the nasals of produced cluster in environmentswere incorrectlyclassified the contextof the two in front vowels[i] and [el. Apart from this,the stimuliwere classified correctly acrossthe three other vowel environments.

III. GENERAL

DISCUSSION

Prop dB
24 30

16

24

The results recent of research the perception place on of of articulation nasalconsonants in havesuggested perthat ceptual cues place articulation to of reside theintegration in of spectral properties the vicinityof the nasal in release incorporating both the murmurand the transitions '(KurowskiandBlumstein, 1984;Repp, 1986). The results the of currentstudyindicatethat in this regionstableacoustic

18

properties befound thelabialandalveolar can for places of

articulationin nasal consonants. These properties corre-

spond the relative to change the distribution energy in of

4 12

fromthemurmurto therelease encompassing frequency two areas(Bark 5-7 and 11-14). For labials,thereis a rapid increase spectral in energy thelowerfrequency in range relative to the higherrange,and,for alveolars, thereis a rapid increase spectralenergyin the higherfrequency in range relativeto the lower frequency range.Theseproperties generalized across threespeakers syllable-initial in position, and two speakers syllable-medial in position.

TABLE IV. Meanpercent correct classification Place articulation for of for

dB 0 6 12 18 24

[ s] -nasal-vowel stimuli.
Speaker Labial
78

Prop I

I6
Alveolar
96 100 98

Total
87

FIG. 5. A plotoftheproportion ofrmsenergy change fromthemurmur to therelease lowfrequencies in (Bark5-7) relative highfrequencies to (Bark 11-14) for 100 tokens [m] and [n] spoken the environment of in of [s] + nasal consonant vowel( [i e a o u] ) by twospeakers thecap+ (see
tion for Fig. 3).

B Total

60 69

80 '84

1923

d. Acoust. Sec.Am.,Vol.81, No.6, June1987

K. Kurowski S. E. Blumstein: and Placeof articulation

1923

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TABLE V. Total misclassificationplace articulation of of (out of 5) across syllable types. Speaker

K B

[sinai

[smel
4 5

[smi]
I 5

[stool

[smul

[sna]

[sne]

[sail
1

[sno]

[saul

Nevertheless, while the overall correct classification

score across both environments fairly highat 87%, clear was vowel context effectswere found. In particular, classification scores were poor for labialsin initial positionin the

articulationwere poorest the environment the vowel in of [ i]. These results suggest theacoustic that measures conare sistent with theperceptual results placeof articulation for in
nasal consonants. Thus the failure to find stable acoustic

context [i l, and for labials syllable-medial of in position in theenvironment [i] and [el. We explored of whether these context-dependent effects couldhavebeena function the of particular cutoffvalues used developing classification in the procedure. However,a reviewof the patternof results as shown Figs.3 and5 did not suggest adjustment the in any of cutoffratio that would incorporate thesetokensinto their appropriate category. alternativepossibility that the An is cutoffratio is appropriate, but the window size usedin the analysis procedures incorrect.In particular,in the enviwas ronmentof the vowel [i], theF 2formanttransitions very are short,and may be completein only a few milliseconds. a As consequence, two-pitch-period the windowsize (approximately 16 ms) usedin the analyses may haveincludednot only the formant transitions alsothe steady-state but portionsof the vowel Ill. Thus the difference betweenthe ener-

properties the environment the vowel [i] provides in of a potential explanation thepoorer for perceptual performance
noted in this vowel environment.

Results experiment indicated of II that thesame acoustic property used characterize to place articulation iniof in tial position generalized a consonant to cluster environment and, in particular, nasals to preceded [s]. Nevertheless, by
there was an increase in misclassificationsof labials com-

pared to alveolarspreceding[s]. The high identification scores [n] in thiscluster for environment werepresumably
due to the fact that both the voiceless fricative and nasal

share same the place articulation, thus of and coarticulatory effects the preceding of fricativeare minimal.In contrast, the lowerscores labialsin the environment [s] are for of

consistent results MannandRepp(1981),who With of

found coarticulatory effects [ s] onsucceeding of consonants
with a differentplaceof articulation.Nevertheless, rethe sults experiment indicate of II that,despite these effects, similar patterns emerged characterizing labialplace articulaof tionin initialposition following s]. and [ Having demonstrated that spectralpatternsfor nasal consonants similarin at leasttwo syllable are positions, we havebegunwork on nasals syllable-final in position. We have exploredthesepatternsfor both released and unreleased labial and alveolar nasals in both tense and lax vowel

gy change the formanttransitions [m] and [n] may in for not haveemerged. Other investigations nasalconsonants of havealsoencountereddifferences between[i] and other vowel environ-

VC position, whichcontributes the ditfieulty locating to of closure, seems haveserious also to consequences a metric for that depends rapid energychange on over a relativelyshort since the crucial effects of the antiformants in this vowel (fourglottalpulse)span thewaveform. present, in At using environment not fully emergein this frequency do range. all of the same parameters the metricasin experiments for I How to adjustthe metricto incorporate spectral the charac- and II, themetriccancorrectlyclassify % of the labialsfor 75 teristics the context thevowel[i] remains problem. in of a onespeaker. did no betterthan 56% for a second It speaker. It is worthwhilenotingthat the patternof classification All alveolars wereproblematic. are presently We pursuing by theseanalysis procedures similar to that obtainedin is the possibility targeting of noncontiguous areas the waveof recentperceptionexperiments(Kurowski and Blumstein, form to seewhetherlargerenergy changes the type deof scribed here can be found. 1984; Repp, 1986)andin discriminant analyses focusing on both the murmur and transitions (Kitazawa and Doshita, Finally,it isworthconsidering theacoustic how proper1984). In theseexperiments, perception scores placeof for ties derivedfor labial and alveolarplaceof articulationin
1924 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987 K. Kurowskiand S. E. Blumstein:Place of articulation 1924

ments in exploringthe spectralcharacteristics nasal for place articulation. of Abramson al. ( 1981 in theirstudy et ), of velarportsizein relation vowel to height(Fig. 4, p. 333), indicated largedifferences synthetic in speech pole-zero positions withinthe transitions vowelfor [na] compared and to [nil. According their frequency to tables, pole-zero the pair for thevowel [ a ] occurs between and750 Hz, which 550 is exactlyin the rangeof Bark 5-7 in our analyses. conIn trast, the pole-zero pair for Ill spreads over the frequency rangeencompassing Bark 5-11. Fujitours (1962) alsonoted in hisacoustic analysis thefrequency theantiformant that of for [m] is "relativelyhigh whenthe consonant precedes a front vowel such as [i] and is lower when the context is a backvowel" (p. 1872). He notedsimilarbut smallereffects for [n]. Taken together, theseresults suggest that vowel context effects [i] will work against metricthat focuses for a in part on the frequency rangeencompassed Bark 5-7, in

environments. released The nasals pose problems analno in ysis,and preliminaryresultsare similar to thoseshownfor initial nasalconsonants. However,in the analysis unreof
leased nasal consonants,our usual landmarks in the wave-

form haveproved to be more difficult to determine.Similar

problems analysis locatingthe point of closurehave of in beenreportedelsewhere nasals(Ma16cot,1956) and for for unreleased stops(Blumsteinand Stevens, 1979). The sheer gradualhesS the transitionsfrom vowel to full murmur in of

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nasals relate those to proposed thesame for place articula- ferentspeakers vowelcontexts, of and than a metricin which tionin stop consonants. Directcomparisons difficult are due absolute amplitude differences required a specific are in freto differences the acousticanalysisprocedures in used (Blumstein Stevens, and 1979;Kewley-Port, 1983), measurement procedures developed (Blumsteinand Stevens, 1979; Kewley-Port,1983;Lahiri etal., 1984),andlandmark areas chosen explore spectral to the properties (Blumstein andStevens, 1979;Kewley-Port,1983;Lahiri et al., 1984). Nevertheless, patterns the proposed for place articuhere of
lation in nasal consonants are more consistent with the view

quencyregionto distinguish labialsfrom alveolars. fact, In the data analyses consistent are with this view. While the

metric based absolute on amplitude values categorized 87% of theCV data,it failed correctly to categorize of arplace ticulation theenvironment thefrontvowels and [e]. in of [i]
In particular,it incorrectlyclassified 57% of the labialconsonants the environment [i] and [e]. Further, recent in of

cluster analyses exploring perceptual similarities among the consonants English (Soli et al., 1986) indicatedthat the of low-frequency regions, particularlybetween 600-1200 Hz, static in nature (Blumstein and Stevens, 1979). Moreover, seemed be criticalfor distinguishing to [m] and [n]. These descriptively, properties the seem similar:Namely, thereis a results suggest that a metriclimited to the high-frequency wouldfail to capturetheseperceptual characterisgreaterchange spectral in energy the higherfrequencies regions in on for alveolars in the lowerfrequencies labials. and for Such tics.Finally, it is not clearhow a metricbased absolute differences wouldrelateto properties described descriptions compatible are with the diffuse-rising spectral amplitude for placeof articulation stopconsonants. all of the in In patterns alveolars for versus diffuse-falling labials. for Nevertheless, frequency the rangesover which these current metrics (Blumsteinand Stevens,1979;Searleet al., 1979; Kewley-Port, 1983; Lahirietal., 1984),theproperties patterns werederived clearlydifferent nasal are for andstop of are froma consideration of consonants. nasals thisstudy, For in changes compared for place articulation derived were the relativedistribution energy the spectrum. of in None of in the frequency ranges395-770 Hz and 1265-2310 Hz, metrics focuses absolute on measures a particular in whereas stops for (Blumstein andStevens, 1979), compari- these frequency region. sons focused the region on between 1200and 3500Hz. It is, Experiments exploring effects filtering theperthe of on of course, possible while we foundstableacoustic that patof contrasts English in provide means a of terns nasal for consonants thefrequency in ranges reported, ception consonant whether frequency the regions werefocused that wemight have found also consistent patterns wefocused addressing had on in the currentexperiments perceptually are salient. The onfrequency ranges comparable stopconsonants. fact, to In resultsof Miller and Nicely (1954), for example,suggest in somepreliminary research, Repp (1986) notedless relatwo important frequencyregionsfor the perceptionof [ m ] tive energyincrease from the murmur into the vowel for and [n]: 600-1200 Hz and 1000-2000 Hz. Interestingly, [ma] and [mu] at 2-2.5 kHz than at 1 kHz, whereas[na] subjects' performance highwhenpresented was with stimuli and [ nu] tendedto havefiat or risingslopes. However,he filteredat either frequency range.Thesefrequency ranges wasunableto find any distinctive patternsfor nasals the in not the targeted context [i]. Although didnotattempt quantify of he to these aresimilar(although exactly same)to those in thecurrentstudy(ef. 395-770 Hz and 1265-2310Hz). At observations, frequencyrangeshe investigated the were issue hereis thefactthat themetricrequires frequency two morein keeping withthose explored stopconsonants. for In for of the currentstudy,we did not focusour analyses these regions correctclassification placeof articulation, on whereas listeners seem to.beableto makeperceptual deciparticularfrequency regions. is certainlypossible It that sionson the basisof either region.It is worth notingthat therearereliable differences thespectral in characteristics of labial and alveolar nasal consonants other than those deMiller andNicely's stimuliincluded consonant productions in a singlevowelenvironment, [a]. If a greatervarietyof scribed thisstudy.For example, hasbeensuggested in it to vo, environments wel wereto be investigated, wouldexwe us thatanalternative metric based solely thechanges on in pectthata single frequency region, at least,thefrequency or, the high-frequency region (Bark 11-14) seems separate to ranges delineated, wouldno longerbe sufficient identififor labialand alveolartokens. Referringto Figs. 3 and 5, he cationof placeof articulation nasalconsonants. maybe in It observed that a 9-dB difference the frequencyregions in the case that in somevowelenvironments (other than [a] ), betweenBark 11-14 might serveas a cutoff value, with change bothfrequency in regions beneceswill changes than 9 dB in thisfrequency less regioncharacteriz- the relative saryfor correct perception for example, spectra (cf., the for ingan [m], andchanges greater than9 dB characterizing an [me] and [ne] versus[ma] and [na] in Fig. 2). Further [n]. Reanalysis the currentdata in experiments and II of I indicatedthat the metric correctlyclassified 77% of the laresearch beneeded determine will to whether perceptual resultsare consistent with the data obtained this experiin bialsand96% of the alveolars experiment and 80% of in I, ment. the labialsand 78% of the alveolars experiment While in II. The focus theparticular on low-frequency regions taken the data are generally not categorized well as thoseproas in thecurrent study consistent onlywithacoustic is not analposed thisarticle (of. TablesII and IV), the results in are
that theacoustic properties placeof articulationare time for varying(Kewley-Port,1983; Lahiri etal., 1984) ratherthan
clearlybetterthan chance and probablynot significantly different from our own metric.

yses of the location of antiformants as described earlier

It isclearlyanempirical issue whichmetricwouldbethe preferred one.A metricfocusing relativechanges on might be ableto withstand moresources variability,suchasdifof
1925 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987

(House, 1957;Fujimura, 1962), but alsowith the physiologicalresults obtained Delgutte(1980) from the disby charge patterns auditorynervefibers the cat. With reof in spectto the latter, Delguttehasshownthat a nasalconsoK. Kowski and S. E. Blumstein: Place of articulation 1925

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nantcontext contains mostly low-frequency components. IThis suggestion was tous Bruno inhis made by Repp review this of original
Moreover,he hasshownthat the spectra the release at of nasals haveless intense low-frequency components the than spectra stops of with the same placeof articulation. Thusthe auditory representation the sameformant transitionsis of
manuscript.
Abramson, A. S., Nye, P. W., Henderson, J. B., and Marshall, C. W.

(1981). "Vowel heightand the perception consonantal of nasality,"J.

Acoust. Soc. Am. 70, 329-338.

changed thenature theacoustic by of patterns preceding the transitions. auditory Such transformations suggest it is that highly unlikely exactly same that the frequency regions will contribute properties place articulation stop to for of in and
nasal consonants.

Blumstein, E., andStevens, N. (1979). "Acoustic S. K. invariance speech in production: Evidence from measurements the spectral of characteristics
of stopconsonants," Acoust.Soc.Am. 66, 1001-1017. J. Cooper,F., Delattre, P., Liberman,A., Borst,J., and Gerstman,L. (1952).

"Someexperiments the perception synthetic on of speech sounds," J.

Acoust. Soc. Am. 24, 597-606.

Suchresults provide challenge thestrong a to formof a theory of acoustic invariance,which claimsthat acoustic propertiescorrespond phoneticfeatures,and that the to sameproperties characterize placeof articulationacross different manners articulation. of WhileJakobson clearly was a proponent acoustic of invariance phonetic for features, he viewed acoustic properties phonetic and features particuin

Delattre, P. (1968). "From acoustic cuesto distinctivefeatures,"Phonefica 18, 198-230.

Delgutte,B. (1980). "Representation speech-like of sounds the disin charge patterns auditory-nerve of fibers," Acoust.Soe.Am, 68, 843J.
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Fant, G. (1960). Acoustic Theory Speech of Production (Mouton, The

Hague,The Netherlands). Fujimura,O. (1962). "Analysis nasalconsonants," Acoust.Soc.Am. of J.
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lar asrelational. That is, the properties accompanying or

features were not "absolute" but varied in relation to the

Hecker, (1962). "Studies nasal M. of consonants an articulatory with

speech synthesizer," Acoust.Soc.Am. 34, 179-188. J.

House, S.(1957)."Analog A. studies nasal of consonants," J.Speech Hear.

Disord. 22, 190-20. presence otherproperties features the linguistic of or and Jakobson, Fant, and R., G., Halle, (1963). M. Preliminaries toSpeech Analbehaviorof the entire soundsegment (Jakobson al., et ysis(MIT, Cambridge, MA). 1963).Thus,for him, thefactthat thereis proportionately Kewley-Port, (1983)."Time-varying D. features correlates place as of of greater change low-frequency in energy [m] andgreater for articulationin stopconsonants," Acoust.Soe.Am. 73, 322-335. J.

change high-frequency in energyfor [n], and a similarrelationholdsfor placeof articulationin stopconsonants, sufis ficientevidence that the labials [m b p] sharea common property andthealveolars t ] alsoshare common [nd a property. Further research will be needed to determine whether such relational invariance is indeed the correct characteriza-

Kitazawa, andDoshita, (1984)."Nasal S., S. consonant discrimination by

vowelindependent features,"Stud. Phonol.18, 46-58.

Kurowski, andBlumstein, E. (1984). "Perceptual K., S. integration the of murmurandformant transitions place articulation nasal for of in consonants," J. Acoust. $oc. Am. 76, 383-390.

Lahiri,A., Gewirth,L., andBlumstein, E. (1984). "A reconsideration S. of

tionof phonetic features whether same or the acoustic property can definea phoneticfeature acrossdifferentsound classes. orderto pursue research, strategies In this two will needto be taken. First, it will be necessary continueto to exploreplace of articulationand other phoneticfeatures
acrossdifferent mannersof articulation. Second,it is neces-

acoustic invarianee place articulation diffuse consonants: for of in stop Evidence a cross-language from study," Acoust. Am.76,391-404. J. Soc. Larkey, S.,Wald,J.,andStrange, (1978)."Perception synthetic L. W. of nasal consonants initialandfinalsyllable in position," Percept. Psychophys. 299-312. 23,

Liberman, Delattre, Cooper, andGerstman, (1954)."Therole A., P., F., L.

ofconsonant-vowel inthe transitions perception top nasal ofthe and

consonants," Psychol. Monogr.68, 1-13.

saryto develop and applycomparable measurement proceduresin analyzingthe stimuli. Nevertheless, whetherthe acoustic properties corresponding phonetic to features are relational not,theresults thisstudysuggest stable or of that acoustic properties bederived place articulation can for of in nasalconsonants, theacoustic and properties derived at are leastdescriptively similarto those obtained placeof arfor ticulation stopconsonants. in Theseproperties turn on the presence rapidspectral of change thevicinityof theconsoin nantrelease in thenatureof that change. bothlabial and For nasals stops, and thereisa rapidspectral change withgreater

Ma16cot, (1956)."Acoustic fornasal A. cues consonants:experimental An study involving tape-splicing a technique," Language 274-284. 32, Mann,V. A., andRepp, H. (1981)."Influence preceding B. of fricative on
stopconsonant perception," Acoust.Soc.Am. 69, 548-558. J.

Mermelstein, (1977)."On detecting P. nasals continuous in speech," J.

Acoust. Soc. Am. 61, 581-587.

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amongsome Englishconsonants," Acoust.Soc.Am. 27, 338-352. J.

Miller,J. (1977).!'Nonindependence of feature processinginitialconin

sonants," Speech J. Hear. Res.20, 519-528.

Miller,J.,andEimas, (1977)."Studies theperception place P. on of and

mannerof articulation: comparison the labio-alveolar A of and nasalstopdistinctions," Acoust.Soc.Am. 61, 835-845. J. Nakata, K. (1989). "Synthesis perception nasalconsonants," and of J.
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change lower in frequency regions relative higher to regions, andfor alveolar nasals stops and thereis greater change in
high frequencies relativeto lowerfrequencies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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