Acoustic properties for place of articulation in nasal consonants

Kathleen Kurowski and Sheila E. Blumstein

Department
of Cognitive
andLinguistic
Sciences,
BrownUniversity,
Providence,
RhodeIsland02912

(Received1 July 1986;accepted

for publication16February1987)
The goalof thisstudywasto determinewhetheracousticpropertiescouldbe derivedfor
Englishlabialandalveolarnasalconsonants
that remainstableacrossvowelcontexts,
speakers,
andsyllablepositions.
In experiment
I, criticalbandanalyses
wereconducted
of five
tokenseachof [m] and In] followedby the vowels[i e a o u] spokenby threespeakers.
Comparisonof the natureof the changesin the spectralpatterusfrom the murmurto the
releaseshowedthat, for labials,therewasa greaterchangein energyin the regionof Bark 5-7
relativeto that of Bark 11-14, whereas,for alveolars,therewasa greaterchangein energy
from the murmurto the releasein the regionof Bark 11-14 relativeto that of Bark 5-7.
Quantitativeanalyses
of eachtokenindicatedthat over89% of the utterancescouldbe
appropriately
classified
for placeof articulation
by comparing
theproportionof energychange
in thesespectralregions.In experiment
II, thespectralpatterusof labialandalveolarnasals
produced
in thecontextof Is] + nasal( [mn] ) + vowel( [ie a o u] ) by twospeakers
were

explored.
Thesameanalysis
procedures
wereusedasin experiment
I. Eighty-four
percentof
theutterances
wereappropriately
classified,
althoughlabialconsonants
werelessconsistently
classified
thanin experiment
I. The properties
associated
withnasalplaceof articulation
found
in thisstudyarediscussed
in relationto thoseassociated
with placeof articulation
in stop
consonants
andare considered
from the viewpointof a moregeneraltheoryof acoustic
invariance.

PACS numbers:43.70.Fq, 43.70.Aj

INTRODUCTION

formant transitions in their measure. Their results failed to

Research
ontheacousticcuesfor placeof articulationin
nasalconsonantshas investigatedboth the nasalmurmur
and formant transitions.Focusingon the nasalmurmur,
variousacousticanalysesof nasal consonantshave shown
that smallbut systematicdifferences
can be correlatedwith
placeof articulation.Many of thesestudies(House, 1957;
Fant, 1960;Fujimura,1962) haveemployedsomeform of
vocaltractsynthesis
to determinethelocationof thezerosor
antiformants
thataresaidto characterize
eachnasal'splace
of articulation.Mostresearchers
considered
a singleantiformant of [ m ] (around 800 Hz), [ n ] (around 1500-2000
Hz), and [ rj] (above3000Hz) to bea kindof acousticlocus
for place of articulation.Fujimura suggestedlooking at
"clustervariables"of F 2 + F 3 + antiformantfor [m] and
F3 + F4 + antiformant for [n]. Nevertheless,results of
theseacousticanalysesof the murmur revealedconsiderable
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 measuresacrossspeakers.Thus, while some
place-of-articulation
differences
emerged,the resultsdid not
providea clear-cutdistinctionfor place of articulationin
nasal consonants across various vowel environments.

In a pilotstudy,BlumsteinandStevens(1979) explored
the acousticcharacteristicsof place of articulation for the
nasalconsonants[m n] acrossvariousvowelenvironments.

Ratherthan focusingon the murmur,theyinvestigated

the
grossshapeof the spectrumsampledat the releaseof the
nasalconsonant,
thusincorporating
theearlyportionsof the
1917

J. Acoust.Sec. Am. 81 (6), June 1987

show clear-cut differences between labial and alveolar nasal

consonants.A more recent preliminary investigationby

Repp (1986) also failed to provide systematicdifferences
betweenthe acousticpropertiesof [m] and In]. Repp focusedon the spectralchanges
betweenthe murmurand voealic segmentsof nasal-vowelsyllables.He determinedthe
spectraldifferences
betweenthesetwo regionsand comparedderivedspectralshapes
for [m] and [n]. On thebasis
of his findings,Repp (1986, pp. 1993-1994) concluded,
"Thereisnoindication
in thesedataofanyinvariantspectral
changepropertydistinguishing
[ m] and [ n] across
all vocalic contexts."

The acousticproperties
contributingto the perception
of nasalconsonants
havebeeninvestigated
in early studies
by focusingon the roleof the secondformanttransitionasa
placecue. Resultsindicatedthat the startingfrequencyof
the secondformanttransitionprovidesa cueto the distinction between[m] and [n] (Liberman et al., 1954;Nakata,
1959; Hecker, 1962). In many of thesestudies,a neutral
murmur was appendedto the movingformant transitions
(Cooperet al., 1952;Libermanet al., 1954;Miller, 1977;
Miller andEimas,1977;Larkeyetal., 1978).Because
listenerswereableto identifyplaceof articulationin suchstimuli,
many researchers
have consideredthe nasalmurmur to be
predominantly
a mannercue,not a potentialplacecue (Delattre, 1968; Pickett, 1965; Mermelstein, 1977). Neverthe-

less,in tape-splicing
experiments
with natu.ralspeech,Ma16cot (1956) showedthat, althoughinappropriatetransitions
in CV and VC syllablesoverrodethe conflictingmurmur
cue,themurmurswerenotperceptually
neutralwith respect

0001-4966/87/061917-11500.80

1987 AcousticalSocietyof America

1917

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to placeof articulation.They detractedfrom perceptualsalieneeof transitionsmismatehedwith them, and they were

notjudgedrandomlywhenpresented
in isolation.In a replicationof Malrcot'sexperiment,Recasens
(1983) usedsyntheticspeechstimulito testthe cueingeffectiveness
of murmursversustransitionsfor Catalan [n, j, tl ] in VC syllables.

AlthoughReeasens'
resultsgenerallycorroborateMalrcot's
findingthat the transitionsdominatedconflictingmurmurs,
this was not true in the caseof [n] transitionswith [rj]
murnlurs.

Kurowski and Blumstein (1984) assessedthe role of

boththe nasalmurmurand formanttransitionsas perceptual cuesfor placeof articulationin nasalconsonants

across
a numberof vowelenvironments.
Throughthe useof computer-edited
naturalspeech
stimuli,theypresented
listeners
with fivetypesof stimuli:full murmurs,the last six glottal
pulsesof the murmur, the entire transitionplus vowel, six
pulsesof the transitionplusvowelpulsesstartingfrom the
beginningof the formanttransitions,andthe six pulsessurrounding the nasal release,encompassingthe last three
pulsesof the murmur and the first threepulsesof the transitions.Resultsshowedthat theisolatedmurmurprovidedas
muchinformationfor the perceptionof placeof articulation
asdid theisolatedtransitions.
Moreover,thehighestperformancescoresfor placeof articulationwereobtainedin the
six-puiseconditioncontainingboth murmur and transition
information.In a recent study, Repp (1986) confirmed
thesefindingsusingeditedspeechstimulifrom a largervariety of testutterances,conditions,and speakers.Although
hefoundplaceof articulationinformationin themurmurto
be somewhatlesssalientthan that in the formant transitions,

bestidentificationperformanceoccurredwhenboth murmur and transitioninformationwere presentedtogether.

Moreover,performancewasbetter than predictedby the
"addition"of two separatecues,namelyonefor themurmur
and the other for the transitions.

On the basisof thesefindings,both setsof researchers

suggested
that the perceptualcuesto placeof articulationin
nasal consonantsresidein the relation betweenspectral
propertiesof the murmur and transitionsimmediatelyfollowingthe nasalrelease,ratherthan in eitherthe murmuror
the transitions alone. Kurowski and Blumstein (1984)

furthersuggest
that the combinationof nasalmurmurplus
formanttransitionsformsa singleintegratedpropertyfor
the perceptionof place of articulation. In this view, the
acousticinformationin the vicinity of the nasalrelease,incorporatingbothmurmurandtransitions,providesa single
unitarypropertyfor placeof articulation.
The notionof integratedpropertieshasbeenexplored
mostextensively
with respectto placeof articulationin stop
consonants.Resultsof this researchsuggestthat integrated
propertiesencompassing
theburstandsometensof milliseconds of the formant transitions can be used to characterize

placeof articulationin stopconsonants

(Stevens,1975;Stevensand Blumstein, 1978). Researchersinvestigatingthis
issuehaveuseddifferentanalysisproceduresand havemade
differenttheoreticalclaims. Nevertheless,focusingon the
burst and the onsetof the transitions,stableacousticpatternshavebeenfound acrossspeakers(Blumsteinand Ste1918

J. Acoust. Sec. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987

vens, 1979; Searle, 1979, 1980; Kewley-Port, 1983), vowel

contexts(Blumstein and Stevens,1979; Searle, 1979, 1980;

Kewley-Port,1983), and syllableposition(Blumsteinand

Stevens, 1979).

Two approacheshavebeentaken in this research.The

first is exemplifiedby the work of Stevensand Blumstein
( 1978, 1981;Blumsteinand Stevens,1979). They proposed
staticpropertiesbasedon the grossshapeof the spectrum
sampledat the stoprelease.While their analysisprocedures
correctlyclassifiedplaceof articulationfor labial,alveolar,
andvelarstopconsonants
over83% of the time, asindicated

above,thisprocedure
failedto characterize
placeof articulation in nasalconsonants.
The secondapproach,originally
proposed
by Searle( 1979;Searleet aL, 1980)andKewleyPort (1983) and later by Lahiri et al. (1984), postulated
time-varying
properties
for placeof articulationin stopconsonants. These researchers focused, as did Stevens and
Blumstein (1978, 1981; Blumstein and Stevens, 1979), on

the vicinityof the stopreleasein elaboratingtheseproperties.However,theyexploredthe changesin spectralproperties over time. Despitedifferentanalysisprocedures,their
resultsshowedconsistent
patternsfor placeof articulationin
syllable-initialpositionacrossspeakersand vowelcontexts.
The resultsof thesestudiesinvestigatingintegrated
acousticpropertiesfor placeof articulationin stopconsonants,aswellastheperceptualresultsfor placeof articulation
in nasalconsonantsobtainedby Kurowski and Blumstein
(1984} and Repp (1986), suggestthat acousticproperties
maybederivedfor placeof articulationin nasalconsonants
basedon spectralchangesin the vicinityof the nasalrelease.

Suchproperties
wouldpresumably
encompass
spectral
charaeteristies
ofboththemurmurandthetransitionportionsof
the nasaland wouldbe reflectedin the patternsof rapid
spectralchangechartedfrom the murmurinto the release.
The goalof the presentstudywasto determinewhether
suchacousticpropertiescouldbe derivedfor Englishlabial
andalveolarnasalconsonants.
We hopedto determinewhat
the nature of suchpropertiesmight be, and to determine
whetherthey remainstableacrossvowelcontexts,speakers,
andsyllablepositions.It wasalsoof interestto considerhow,

if at all, theproperties
associated
withnasalplaceof articulationrelateto thoseproposed
for placeof articulationin stop
consonants.
If it isthecasethat invariantacousticproperties
correspond
to phoneticfeatures,ashasbeenclaimedby Stevensand Blumstein (1978, 1981; Blumsteinand Stevens,
1979), thenthesamepropertiesshouldcharacterizeplaceof
articulation

across different manners of articulation.

The decisionto focuson thevicinityof the nasalrelease

asthepotentialareawheretheacousticproperties
for place
of articulationarelocatedwasbasedlargelyon theresultsof
the perceptionexperimentsof Kurowski and Blumstein
(1984) andRepp (1986). Consequently,
we decidedto use
acousticanalysisprocedures
that reflected,in someway,
properties
of theauditorysystem.
To thatend,weemployed
criticalband analysesof our stimuli.Theseanalysesmay
more nearlyreflectthe auditorytransformationsthat occur
at thelevelof theauditorynerve,andthusprovideoneof the
first transformations
of the acousticsignalas it ascendsthe
auditorypathway.
K. Kurowski and S. E. Blurnstein:Place of articulation

1918

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I
I
I

80-

I
I

A.A A._A A A A_A

/'V'V'V'

h_A
A.A
I

I
I
I

188

v-v

v- vI
I
I
I
I

28'

t,,,,

i,

,,,

i , ,,

, i , , ,,

i,,,,

FIIEg KHZ

FIG.1.Theleftpanels
show
aportion
ofthewaveform
display
ofthe[ne]and[mi]tokens
sampled
fromthemurmur
through
thetransitions
intothevowel.
Thesolid
vertical
linerepresents
thecursor
position
corresponding
tothepointofdiscontinuity
between
thenasal
murmur
andtheglottal
pulse
containing

thebeginning
oftheformant
transitions.
Theleft-most
dotted
lineandthemiddle
solid
linerepresent
theedges
ofthewindow
position
forthetwoglottal
pulses
corresponding
tothemurmur,
andthemiddle
solid
lineandright-most
dotted
linerepresent
theedges
ofthewindow
position
forthetwoglottal
pulses
corresponding
totherelease.
Therightpanels
show
theLPCspectra
corresponding
to portions
of thewaveform
depicted
ontheleft.Thedotted
lines
represent
theLPCspectra
ofthethree
murmur
pulses
preceding
thediscontinuity,
thesolid
linerepresents
theLPCspectrum
oftheglottal
pulse
containing
thediscontinuity,
andthedashed
linesrepresent
theLPCspectra
ofthetwopulses
immediately
following
thepulse
containing
thediscontinuity.

In our analyses,
we focusedon likely areasof the spectrumwhereprevious
research
hadindicated
potentialdifferencesbetween[m] and [n]. In particular,analysisof data

around 800 Hz and for [n] between 1500 and 2000 Hz

(House, 1957;Fant, 1960;Fujimura, 1962).

across
severallanguages,
asreportedby Recasens
(1983), I. EXPERIMENT I
suggested
systematic
differences
between[m] and [n ] in the
A. Methodology
frequency
of thefirstnasalresonance.
The resonance
occurs
I. $t/mul/
typicallybetween200and800Hz. In addition,researchers
The natural speechtokensanalyzedin this studywere
investigating
naturalspeech
production
foundantiformants
for [m] and [n] in two regions.For [m], theywerelocated
1919

J. Acoust.
Soc.Am.,Vol.81,No.6, June1987

utteredby threemalespeakers
of English.Eachof theorigiK.Kurowski
andS. E.Blumstein:
Placeofarticulation

1919

nloaded 19 Dec 2010 to 141.212.110.249. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/journals/doc/ASALIB-home/info/terms

nal utterancesconsistedof the nasalconsonants[ m n ] followedbythe vowels[ i e a o u ]. The subjects

wereindividually tape recordedin a sound-proofed
booth. They read the

t'l [mi
1

40
dB

entire list of utterances in citation form a total of five times

each. Each readingconsistedof a differentrandom order.

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

digitizedusinga 10-kHz samplingrate with a 4.5-kHz lowpassfiltersettinganda 10bit quantization.

s'
1 9JJ
\.,3
o

IO

15

;>o

;',5

IO
15
BARK

BARK

tOat

4Od
J'......
12

'

between the nasal murmur and the transitions into the folI/

lowingvowel.The proceduresusedfor determiningthe discontinuitywere the sameas thosedescribedby Kurowski

andBlumstein(1984). The pointof releaseof the nasalwas

visuallyidentifiedin thewaveformasa breakin thepattern

of murmurpulsesandthebeginningof high-frequency
components.Figure1showsanexampleof thewaveformdisplay

25

- -

2. Procedure

An importantstepin the analysisprocedurewas the

determinationof the point of release or discontinuity

ZO

.....
0

..--,
5

....
I0

, .... , ....
15 0
25

IO

15

20

25

BARK

60

dB

SI0

of tokensof [ne] and [mi], with the cursorset,as indicated

by the solidline,at the beginningof a pitchperiodthat containsthefirstglottalpulseshowingincipienthigh-frequency

energy.In addition to usingvisualinspectionof the waveform display,corroborativespectralanalyseswere conducted usinglinear predictivecoding (LPC) with a 10-msfull
Hammingwindow.The glottalpulsecontainingthe discontinuitycouldberecognized
by a changein thespectralcharacteristics
of thestimulus,particularlyin comparison
to the
spectralpatternof the precedingfew murmur pulses.An
exampleof the LPC analysisof the Inc] and [mi] tokensis
providedin therightpanelsof Fig. 1.In bothexamples,there
is an abruptchangein the spectralshapeof the releasecomparedto the precedingmurmur.Finally,perceptualtesting

I/ ....
- 0

, ..... .---, .... , ....

5
I0
15 20
25
BARK

IO
15
BARK

20

z5

,o
S

40

'

I0

15

20

IO

15

20

25

BARK

BARK

of the stimuli was used to double check the visual results. In

particular,subjects(includingtheauthorsandotherlab personnel)wereinformallyaskedto listento tokenscontaining

thetransitionsintothevowelto determinewhethertheyperceiveda nasalor stopconsonant.

We thenexploredthe spectralchangesfrom the murmur to thevowelonset.To that end,we focusedon the spectrum of the two glottal pulsesof the murmur immediately
precedingtherelease(henceforth,byconventionto becalled
the murmur) and the first two glottal pulsesof the transitions (by conventionto be calledthe release).The decision
to usetwo glottalpulsesasthewindowof analysiswasbased
in part on the resultsof the perceptionexperiments
of Kur-

owski and Blumstein(1984) and Repp (1986), which

showedthat listenerscouldaccuratelyperceivenasalconsonantswhen presentedwith stimuli containingas little as
two to threeglottalpulsesof the murmur,followedby two to
three glottal pulsesof the formant transitions.Moreover,
our ownpilot work on thesestimuliindicatedthat editedCV
stimulicontainingtwo glottalpulsesprecedingthe release
weresufficientfor the perceptionof a shortenednasal-vowel
stimulusandfor correctperceptionof placeof articulationof
the nasalconsonant.
A full Hammingwindowwith a length
of two pitch periodswas centeredover each of thesetwo
landmark positions:the first two completemurmur pulses
precedingthe releaseand the first two glottal pulsesthat
1920

J. Acoust. Soc. Am., VoL 81, No. 6, June 1987

dB

x./ ......
IO

15

BARK

2o

25

I0

15

20

25

BARK

FIG. 2. Critical band analysesof two glottal pulsesof the murmur (representedby the dottedline) and two glottalpulsesof the release(represented
by the solidline) for tenstimulustokensfrom the samespeaker.The abscissarepresentsfrequencyplottedin Bark. The left scaleof the ordinaterepresentsrms energyand the right scalethe associateddB values.

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 Pattersonfilter (Patterson,

1976) and no preemphasis,critical band analyseswere then
conductedat thesetwo points.
Figure I showsexamplesof the cursorpositionsfor the
critical bandanalyses.The left-mostdottedline and the middle solidline representthe edgesof the windowpositionfor
the two glottalpulsescorresponding
to themurmur,andthe
middle solid line and right-mostdottedline representthe
edgesof thewindowpositionfor thetwo glottalpulsescorrespondingto the release.The cursorsmarking the window
positionswerealwaysplacedpitchsynchronously.
As a consequence,
the point of releasecorresponding
to the onsetof
K. Kurowskiand S. E. Blumstoin:Place of articulation

1920

wnloaded 19 Dec 2010 to 141.212.110.249. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/journals/doc/ASALIB-home/info/terms

TABLE I. Frequencyandbandwidthvaluesassociated
with eachBark.
Bark

Centerfrequency

$0

2
3

150
250

Bandwidth

24

350

100

450

110

570

120

700

140

840

150

1000

160

16

1170

190

1370
1600
1g50
2150

210
240
280
320

15

2500

380

16

2900

450

17

3400

550

18

4000

700

19

4800
5800

1100

2122

7000
8500

1300
1800

900

and discussion

In pilotwork,wevisuallyinspected
thegraphicdisplays
obtainedfor each stimulus,comparingthe changein the
spectralpatternsfor themurmurto thoseof therelease.Figure 2 showsan exampleof one of the tokensof eachCV
syllable.The abscissa
represents
frequencyplottedin Bark.
[Table I providesa list of the frequencyvaluesassociated
with eachBark (Zwicker, 1961). ] The left scaleof the ordinateshows
thermsvaluesandtherightscaleshowstheassociateddB values(in this case,dB = 20Xlog rms). Comparisonof thenatureof thechanges
in spectralpatternsfrom
the murmur to the releasesuggested
that the patternsof
changeweredifferentfor the labial and alveolarnasalconsonants,particularlyin the frequencyregionsencompassed
in Bark 5-7 (395-770 Hz) and 11-14 (1265-2310 Hz). In

particular,for labials,thereis a greaterchangein energy

from the murmur to the releasein the regionof Bark 5-7
relative to that of Bark 11-14. In contrast, for alveolars,

thereis a greaterchangein energyfrom the murmurto the

release
in theregionofBark 11-14ascomparedto Bark5-7.
As Fig.2 shows,thesedifferentpatternsforlabialandalveolar consonants
emergemostclearlyfor [a], [o], and [u]. It
is worthnotingthat thesefrequencyrangescorrelatewith
the rangesreportedfor the expectedantiformantsof [m]
(around800 Hz) and [n] (1500-2000 Hz) (House, 1957;
Fant, 1960; Fujimura, 1962).

We thenattemptedto quantifytheseobservations
in ordertodetermine
howconsistently
theutterancetokensactually met the qualitativechangesdescribedabove.To this
end, we comparedthe proportionof changein the energy

12

eA

6
Oo

I o

oo

Prop

theformanttransitions
waseitherat theleadingedgeof the
window (as shownin the bottompanelof Fig. 1) or containedwithin the glottalpulse,includinga portionof the
murmur (as shownin the top panelof Fig. 1).

8 18

10

J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987

24

dB

1921

:30

11
12
13
14

B. Results

80

!00
100

20

Prop dB

O O

oo o

12

18

24

16

FIG. 3. A plotof theproportion

of rmsenergychangefromthemurmurto
therelease
in lowfrequencies
(Bark 5-7) relativeto highfrequencies
(Bark
11-14) for 150 tokensof [m] and [n] in the environmentof [ie a o u]
spoken
bythreespeakers.
Theabscissa
represents
theproportion
of change
fromthemurmurto therelease
in thelowerfrequency
range(Bark 5-7)
and the ordinaterepresents
the proportionof changefrom the murmurto
therelease
in thehigherfrequency
range(Bark 11-14). ThedBvaluesplotted on the abscissaand ordinatecorrespondto the difference(in riB)
betweentheamplitudeof the two pulsesof themurmurandthe two pulses
of the transitionsin thesefrequencyregions.The opentriangle,circle,and
squarerepresent
thelabialtokensproduced
byspeakers
1,2, and3, respectively,andtheclosedtriangle,circle,andsquarerepresent
thealveolartokensproduced
by thesethreespeakers.

encompassing
Bark5-7 to theproportionof changeencompassingBark 11-14 from the murmur to the release.This
wasaccomplished
in the followingmanner.The cursorpositions definingthe murmur and the release,as discussed
above,weredetermined.Usinga rectangularfilter, the rms
energyencompassing
the frequencyrangeof Bark 5-7 was
computedat the murmur and the release,as was the rms
energyencompassing
the frequencyrangeof Bark 11-14.
The proportionof changewasthendeterminedby dividing
the rmsvalueof the releaseby the rmsvalueof the murmur
for thelowerfrequencies
(Bark 5-7) andby dividingtherms

TABLE II. Meanpercentcorrectclassification

for placeof articulationfor
nasal-vowel stimuli.

Speaker
K
B
N
Total

Labial

Alvenlar

Total

84
88
92
88

96
96
80
91

90
92
86
89

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

1921

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TABLEIlL Totalmisclassification
ofplaceofarticulation
(outof5) across
syllabletypes.

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

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

to the higherfrequencyregionsencompassing
Bark 11-14

4
3
i

1
1
4

valueof the releaseby the rmsvalueof the murmurfor the

higherfrequencies
(Bark 11-14).
Theseproportions
werecalculated
for eachof the 150
stimuli.The resultswerethenplottedand are shownin Fig.
3. The abscissa
represents
theproportionofchangefrom the
murmur to thereleasein thelowerfrequencyrange(Bark 57) and the .ordinaterepresentsthe proportionof change
from the murmurto releasein the higherfrequencyrange
(Bark 11-14). The dB valuesplotted on the abscissaand
ordinatecorrespondto the difference(in dB) betweenthe
araplitudeof the two pulsesof the murmur and the two
pulsesof the transitionsin thesefrequencyranges.A proportion of one,represented
by the diagonalline, indicatesno
differencein spectralchangebetweenthe high and low frequencies..A value below the diagonal indicatesgreater
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,the labialsand alveolarsfall into two clearcutdistributions,
with a majorityof theformerfallingbelow
the diagonaland a majorityof the latter fallingabovethe
diagonal.
Table II showsa summaryof the distributionof the
labialandalveolarstimuli.A tokenwith a proportionfalling
below the diagonalwas classifiedas a labial and one falling

abovethediagonalwasclassified
asanalveolar.Tokensthat
fell on the diagonalwerescoredasmisclassifications.
As Table II shows,applicationof this metricresultedin the correct

classification
of over 89% of the utterancesspokenby the
threespeakers.
The rangeof classification
scoreswasfrom a
low of 84% for labialsproducedby speakerK anda high of
96% for alveolarsproducedby speakersK and B.
While theseresultssuggestthat there are distinct and
consistent
patternsof changefromthemurmurto therelease
for labialsandalveolarnasals,it isalsoimportantto examine
thoseCV syllablesthat werenot correctlyclassifiedby these
measurementprocedures.Table III showsa summary of
theseresultsacrossthe threespeakers.As is indicated,there
isa preponderance
ofmisclassifications
of labialnasalsin the
environmentof the vowel [i]. Of a total of 15 [ mi ] syllables,
eight were miselassified.
Four of thesewere producedby
speakerK, threeby speakerB, andoneby speakerN. Moreover,outof 15 [na] syllables,
4, spokenby thesamesubject,

a greaterchangein thesehigherfrequencies
relativeto the
lower ones. While the correct classification of utterances is

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

Beforeconsidering
the implicationsof theseresultsin
detail, we felt it importantto examinewhetherthesesame
patternsof spectralchange,whichwereshownfor nasalsin
syllable-initial
position,wouldemergein a differentsyllabic
context.To this end, we exploredthe spectralpatternsof
labial and alveolar nasals in a consonant cluster environ-

ment,in particularin an [s] + nasal+ vowelcontext.

II. EXPERIMENT

II

Thepurpose
of thisexperiment
wasto testwhetherthe
acousticproperties
for placeof articulationfor nasalsnoted
in the firstexperimentwouldemergein a differentphonetic
context. Moreover, we wanted to determine whether the

measurement
procedures
derivedfor syllable-initialnasals
would appropriatelyclassifynasalplaceof articulationin
the faceof potentialcoartieulation
effectsof the preceding
[s]. The presence
of suchcontexteffectsin thisenvironment
hasbeendemonstrated
both acousticallyand perceptually,
at leastfor placeof articulationin stopconsonants(Mann
and Repp, 1981;Reppand Mann, 1981, 1982).
A. Methodology
L Stimuli

Two speakers,
K andB fromexperiment
I, recordedten
syllabletypesconsisting
of [s] followedby [m] or [n] and
the vowels[i e a o u ]. The array of syllabletokenswasutteredfivetimesby eachspeaker.Thesetokenswereblocked
and read in a different random order. There was a total of

100 stimulustokens.The recordingprocedureswere the

sameas thoseusedin experimentI.
2. Procedure

The analysisprocedures
paralleledthoseof experiment
I. As in the caseof syllable-initialnasalconsonants,nasals
producedin theclusterenvironments
werefirstexaminedto
determinethe point of releaseor discontinuitybetweenthe
nasal murmur and the transitions. We noted that the wave-

formsof thesenasalconsonants
werenot appreciablydifferent from thoseof syllable-initialnasals,exceptthat the murmur portion tended to be generally shorter. In fact, the
murmurportionfor thesecondspeakeroccasionally
consisted of as few as two glottal pulses.
After the locationof the releasewas ascertained,critical

band analyseswere conducted,as in the previousexperiment,of the lasttwo pulsesof the murmurandthe firsttwo
pulsesof therelease.

were miselassified.

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

seemsto be a greaterrelativechangein the lower frequency

regionsencompassing
Bark 5-7 (395-770 Hz) ascompared
1922

d. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987

B. Results

and discussion

The displaysof the critical band analysesshowedpatterns similar to thoseobtainedin experimentI. Figure 4
showsan exampleof the criticalbandanalysisfor the syllables[areasnasmosno]. As in experimen
t I, the proportion
K. Kurowski and S. E. Blumstein: Place of articulation

1922

wnloaded 19 Dec 2010 to 141.212.110.249. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/journals/doc/ASALIB-home/info/terms

majority
ofthelabials
fallingbelowthediagonal
anda ma-

,60

jority of thealveolars
fallingabovethediagonal.
Table IV showsa summaryof the classification
of labialsandalveolarswith respectto thisdistribution.As in the
previous
analysis,
a tokenwasclassified
asa labialif itsproponionvaluesfellbelowthediagonal,
andit wasclassified
as
analveolarif itsproportionvaluesfellabovethediagonal.As

-40
.

SiO
I

dB

'20

I0

15

20

25

Table IV indicates,althoughthe overallclassificationscores

BARK

BARK

at 84% are comparableto thoseobtainedin experimentI

(89%), the individual speaker'smean totals are lower
(speaker
K = 87%;speaker
B = 80%) thanthoseobtained
for the samespeakersin experimentI (speakerK = 90%;
speakerB = 92%). Classification
scores
remainedthesame
or improvedfor thealveolars.
However,themetricmisclassiftedup to 28% morelabialsper speakerthan in experi-

60

103

SilO]
,40

102
R
M

dB

S IO
I

'20

ment I.

,o

BARK

Table V showsthe distributionof misclassificat[ons

BARK

acrossthe differentsyllabletypes.All of the misclassifieaFIG. 4. Criticalbandanalyses

of twoglottalpulsesof themurmur(represented
by thedottedline) andtwoglottalpulses
of therelease( represented
by thesolidline) for fourstimulus
tokensproduced
by thesamespeaker.
Theabscissa
represents
frequency
plottedin Bark.Theleftscaleof theordinaterepresents
rmsenergyandtherightscaletheassociated
dB values.

of changefrom the murmurto the releasein Bark 5-7 and

11-14wascomputed
for the 100stimuli,andtheresultsare
graphically
displayed
in Fig. 5. As Fig. 5 shows,thelabials
and alveolarsagainfall into two well-definedareas,with a

24

ments.

DISCUSSION

The resultsof recentresearchon the perceptionof place

of articulationin nasalconsonants
havesuggested
that perceptualcuesto placeof articulation
residein theintegration
of spectralproperties
in the vicinityof the nasalreleaseincorporatingboth the murmurand the transitions
'(KurowskiandBlumstein,1984;Repp, 1986). The resultsof the
currentstudyindicatethat in this regionstableacoustic

30

16

16 misclassifications
occurringfor labial nasalsbefore [i]
and [el, andonemisclassifieation
occurringfor thealveolar
nasal before [i]'. Thus, while the misclassifications
of the
nasalin experimentI were mainlylimited to labialsin the
environmentof [i l, the nasalsproducedin clusterenvironmentswere incorrectlyclassifiedin the contextof the two
front vowels[i] and [el. Apart from this,the stimuliwere
classifiedcorrectly acrossthe three other vowel environ-

III. GENERAL

Prop dB
24

tiens occurred in the context of front vowels, with 15 of the

properties
canbefoundfor thelabialandalveolarplacesof

18

articulationin nasal consonants.These propertiescorre-

spondto the relativechangein the distribution

of energy
4

fromthemurmurto thereleaseencompassing
twofrequency
areas(Bark 5-7 and 11-14). For labials,thereis a rapid
increase
in spectral
energyin thelowerfrequency
rangerelative to the higherrange,and,for alveolars,thereis a rapid
increasein spectralenergyin the higherfrequencyrange
relativeto the lower frequencyrange.Thesepropertiesgeneralizedacrossthreespeakers
in syllable-initial
position,and
two speakers
in syllable-medial
position.

12

TABLE IV. Meanpercent

correctclassification
forPlaceofarticulation
for
dB

Prop I

12

18

24

[ s] -nasal-vowel
stimuli.

I6
Speaker

FIG. 5. A plotoftheproportion
ofrmsenergychange
fromthemurmurto
therelease
in lowfrequencies
(Bark5-7) relativeto highfrequencies
(Bark
11-14) for 100 tokensof [m] and [n] spokenin the environment
of
[s] + nasalconsonant
+ vowel( [i e a o u] ) by twospeakers
(seethecap-

Labial

Alveolar

Total

78

60
69

96
100
98

87

B
Total

80
'84

tion for Fig. 3).

1923

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

K. Kurowski
andS. E. Blumstein:
Placeof articulation

1923

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TABLE V. Total misclassification

of placeof articulation(out of 5) acrosssyllabletypes.
Speaker

[sinai

[smel

[smi]

[stool

Nevertheless, while the overall correct classification

scoreacrossboth environments
wasfairly highat 87%, clear
vowel context effectswere found. In particular, classification scoreswere poor for labialsin initial positionin the

[smul

[sna]

[sne]

[sail

[sno]

[saul

articulationwere poorestin the environmentof the vowel

[ i]. Theseresultssuggest
thattheacousticmeasures
areconsistentwith theperceptualresultsfor placeof articulationin
nasal consonants. Thus the failure to find stable acoustic

properties
in the environment
of the vowel [i] providesa
potentialexplanation
forthepoorerperceptual
performance

contextof [i l, and for labialsin syllable-medial

positionin
theenvironment
of [i] and [el. We exploredwhetherthese
context-dependent
effectscouldhavebeena functionof the
particularcutoffvaluesusedin developing
theclassification
procedure.However,a reviewof the patternof resultsas
shownin Figs.3 and5 did not suggest
anyadjustmentof the
cutoffratio that would incorporatethesetokensinto their
appropriatecategory.An alternativepossibilityis that the
cutoffratio is appropriate,but the window size usedin the
analysisprocedureswasincorrect.In particular,in the environmentof the vowel [i], theF 2formanttransitionsare very
short,and may be completein only a few milliseconds.As a
consequence,
the two-pitch-periodwindowsize (approximately 16 ms) usedin the analysesmay haveincludednot
only the formant transitionsbut alsothe steady-statepor-

consistent
Withresults
of MannandRepp(1981),who

tionsof the vowel Ill. Thus the differencebetweenthe ener-

foundcoarticulatory
effects
of [ s] onsucceeding
consonants

gy changein the formanttransitionsfor [m] and [n] may

not haveemerged.
Other investigations
of nasalconsonants
havealsoen-

with a differentplaceof articulation.Nevertheless,

the resultsofexperiment
II indicatethat,despite
theseeffects,
similar patternsemerged
characterizing
labialplaceof articulationin initialpositionandfollowing[ s].
Having demonstratedthat spectralpatternsfor nasal
consonants
are similarin at leasttwo syllablepositions,
we
havebegunwork on nasalsin syllable-final
position.We
have exploredthesepatternsfor both releasedand unre-

countereddifferencesbetween[i] and other vowel environ-

ments in exploringthe spectralcharacteristicsfor nasal

placeof articulation.Abramsonet al. ( 1981), in theirstudy
of velarportsizein relationto vowelheight(Fig. 4, p. 333),
indicatedlargedifferences
in synthetic
speech
pole-zeropositionswithinthe transitions
andvowelfor [na] compared
to [nil. Accordingto their frequencytables,the pole-zero
pair for thevowel [ a ] occursbetween550 and750 Hz, which
is exactlyin the rangeof Bark 5-7 in our analyses.In contrast, the pole-zeropair for Ill spreadsover the frequency
rangeencompassing
Bark 5-11. Fujitours (1962) alsonoted
in hisacousticanalysisthat thefrequencyof theantiformant
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,theseresultssuggest
that vowel
contexteffectsfor [i] will work againsta metricthat focuses
in part on the frequencyrangeencompassed
in Bark 5-7,

noted in this vowel environment.

Resultsof experimentII indicatedthat thesameacoustic propertyusedto characterize

placeof articulationin initial positiongeneralized
to a consonantclusterenvironment
and, in particular,to nasalsprecededby [s]. Nevertheless,
there was an increase in misclassificationsof labials com-

pared to alveolarspreceding[s]. The high identification

scores
for [n] in thisclusterenvironment
werepresumably
due to the fact that both the voiceless fricative and nasal

sharethesameplaceof articulation,
andthuscoarticulatory
effectsof the precedingfricativeare minimal.In contrast,
the lowerscoresfor labialsin the environment
of [s] are

leased labial and alveolar nasals in both tense and lax vowel

environments.
The releasednasalsposeno problemsin analysis,and preliminaryresultsare similar to thoseshownfor
initial nasalconsonants.
However,in the analysisof unreleased nasal consonants,our usual landmarks in the wave-

form haveproved to be more difficult to determine.Similar

problemsof analysisin locatingthe point of closurehave

beenreportedelsewherefor nasals(Ma16cot,1956) and for
unreleasedstops(Blumsteinand Stevens,1979). The sheer
gradualhesS
of the transitionsfrom vowel to full murmur in

VC position,whichcontributes
to the ditfieultyof locating
closure,alsoseems
to haveserious
consequences
for a metric
that dependson rapid energychangeover a relativelyshort
since the crucial effects of the antiformants in this vowel
(fourglottalpulse)spanin thewaveform.
At present,using
environmentdo not fully emergein this frequencyrange. all of the sameparametersfor the metricasin experiments
I
How to adjustthe metricto incorporatethespectralcharac- and II, themetriccancorrectlyclassify75% of the labialsfor
teristicsin the contextof thevowel[i] remainsa problem.
onespeaker.It did no betterthan 56% for a secondspeaker.
It is worthwhilenotingthat the patternof classification All alveolarswereproblematic.
We are presentlypursuing
by theseanalysisproceduresis similar to that obtainedin
the possibilityof targetingnoncontiguous
areasof the waverecentperceptionexperiments(Kurowski and Blumstein,
form to seewhetherlargerenergychangesof the type described here can be found.
1984;Repp, 1986)andin discriminant
analyses
focusingon
both the murmur and transitions (Kitazawa and Doshita,
Finally,it isworthconsidering
howtheacousticproper1984). In theseexperiments,perceptionscoresfor placeof
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

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nasals
relatetothose
proposed
forthesameplaceofarticula- ferentspeakersand vowelcontexts,than a metricin which
tionin stopconsonants.
Directcomparisons
aredifficultdue absolute
amplitudedifferences
arerequiredin a specific
freto differencesin the acousticanalysisproceduresused
(Blumsteinand Stevens,1979;Kewley-Port,1983), measurementproceduresdeveloped(Blumsteinand Stevens,
1979;Kewley-Port,1983;Lahiri etal., 1984),andlandmark
areaschosen
to explorethespectralproperties
(Blumstein
andStevens,1979;Kewley-Port,1983;Lahiri et al., 1984).
Nevertheless,
thepatternsproposed
herefor placeof articu-

quencyregionto distinguishlabialsfrom alveolars.In fact,

the data analysesare consistentwith this view. While the

metricbasedonabsolute
amplitudevaluescategorized
87%
of theCV data,it failedto correctly
categorize
placeof articulationin theenvironment
of thefrontvowels[i] and [e].
In particular,it incorrectlyclassified57% of the labialconsonantsin the environmentof [i] and [e]. Further, recent

lation in nasal consonants are more consistent with the view

clusteranalyses
exploringperceptual
similarities
amongthe
consonants
of English (Soli et al., 1986) indicatedthat the
low-frequency
regions,particularlybetween600-1200 Hz,
static in nature (Blumstein and Stevens, 1979). Moreover,
seemedto be criticalfor distinguishing[m] and [n]. These
descriptively,
the propertiesseemsimilar:Namely, thereis a
resultssuggestthat a metriclimited to the high-frequency
greaterchangein spectralenergyin the higherfrequencies regionswouldfail to capturetheseperceptualcharacterisfor alveolarsand in the lowerfrequencies
for labials.Such tics.Finally, it is not clearhow a metricbasedon absolute
wouldrelateto propertiesdescribed
descriptions
are compatiblewith the diffuse-rising
spectral amplitudedifferences
for placeof articulationin stopconsonants.
In all of the
patternsfor alveolars
versusdiffuse-falling
for labials.
Nevertheless,
the frequencyrangesover which these current metrics (Blumsteinand Stevens,1979;Searleet al.,
1979;Kewley-Port,1983;Lahirietal., 1984),theproperties
patternswerederivedareclearlydifferentfor nasalandstop
arederivedfroma consideration
of
consonants.
For nasalsin thisstudy,changes
werecompared for placeof articulation
the relativedistributionof energyin the spectrum.None of
in the frequencyranges395-770 Hz and 1265-2310 Hz,
on absolutemeasures
in a particular
whereasfor stops(BlumsteinandStevens,1979), compari- thesemetricsfocuses
frequencyregion.
sonsfocusedon the regionbetween1200and 3500Hz. It is,
Experiments
exploringtheeffects
of filteringontheperof course,possiblethat while we foundstableacousticpatcontrasts
in Englishprovidea meansof
ternsfor nasalconsonants
in thefrequency
rangesreported, ceptionof consonant
whetherthefrequency
regionsthatwerefocused
wemighthavealsofoundconsistent
patterns
hadwefocused addressing
on in the currentexperiments
are perceptuallysalient.The
onfrequencyrangescomparable
to stopconsonants.
In fact,
resultsof Miller and Nicely (1954), for example,suggest
in somepreliminaryresearch,Repp (1986) notedlessrelatwo important frequencyregionsfor the perceptionof [ m ]
tive energyincreasefrom 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
washighwhenpresented
with stimuli
and [ nu] tendedto havefiat or risingslopes.However,he
filteredat either frequencyrange.Thesefrequencyranges
wasunableto find any distinctivepatternsfor nasalsin the
contextof [i]. Althoughhedidnotattemptto quantifythese aresimilar(althoughnotexactlythesame)to thosetargeted
in thecurrentstudy(ef. 395-770 Hz and 1265-2310Hz). At
observations,
the frequencyrangeshe investigatedwere
issuehereis thefactthat themetricrequirestwo frequency
morein keepingwiththoseexploredfor stopconsonants.
In
of placeof articulation,
the currentstudy,we did not focusour analyseson these regionsfor correctclassification
whereas
listeners
seem
to.be
able
to
makeperceptual
deciparticularfrequencyregions.It is certainlypossiblethat
sions
on
the
basis
of
either
region.
It
is
worth
noting
that
therearereliabledifferences
in thespectralcharacteristics
of
labial and alveolar nasal consonants other than those deMiller andNicely'sstimuliincludedconsonant
productions
in a singlevowelenvironment,[a]. If a greatervarietyof
scribedin thisstudy.For example,it hasbeensuggested
to
vo,wel environments
wereto be investigated,
we wouldexus thatanalternative
metricbasedsolelyonthechanges
in
pect
that
a
single
frequency
region,
or,
at
least,
thefrequency
the high-frequencyregion (Bark 11-14) seemsto separate
ranges
delineated,
would
no
longer
be
sufficient
for identifilabialand alveolartokens.Referringto Figs. 3 and 5, he
cation
of
place
of
articulation
in
nasal
consonants.
It maybe
observedthat a 9-dB differencein the frequencyregions
the
case
that
in
some
vowel
environments
(other
than
[a] ),
betweenBark 11-14 might serveas a cutoff value, with
the
relative
change
in
both
frequency
regions
will
be
neceschanges
lessthan 9 dB in thisfrequencyregioncharacterizsaryfor correctperception
(cf., for example,thespectrafor
ingan [m], andchanges
greaterthan9 dB characterizing
an
[me] and [ne] versus[ma] and [na] in Fig. 2). Further
[n]. Reanalysisof the currentdata in experimentsI and II
indicatedthat the metric correctlyclassified77% of the laresearch
will beneededto determinewhetherperceptual
resultsare consistent
with the data obtainedin this experibialsand96% of the alveolarsin experimentI, and 80% of
ment.
the labialsand 78% of the alveolarsin experimentII. While
The focusontheparticularlow-frequency
regionstaken
the data are generallynot categorizedas well as thoseproin thecurrentstudyisconsistent
notonlywithacoustic
analposedin thisarticle (of. TablesII and IV), the resultsare
that theacousticpropertiesfor placeof articulationare time
varying(Kewley-Port,1983;Lahiri etal., 1984) ratherthan

clearlybetterthan chanceand probablynot significantlydif-

yses of the location of antiformants as described earlier

ferent from our own metric.

(House, 1957;Fujimura, 1962), but alsowith the physiologicalresultsobtainedby Delgutte(1980) from the dischargepatternsof auditorynervefibersin the cat. With respectto the latter, Delguttehasshownthat a nasalconso-

It isclearlyanempiricalissuewhichmetricwouldbethe
preferredone.A metricfocusingon relativechangesmight
be ableto withstandmoresourcesof variability,suchasdif1925

J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 81, No. 6, June 1987

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

1925

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nantcontextcontains
mostlylow-frequency
components. IThissuggestion
wasmade
tousbyBruno
Repp
inhisreview
ofthisoriginal
Moreover,he hasshownthat the spectraat the releaseof
nasalshavelessintenselow-frequency
components
thanthe
spectraof stopswith the sameplaceof articulation.Thusthe
auditory representationof the sameformant transitionsis

changed
bythenatureoftheacoustic
patterns
preceding
the
transitions.
Suchauditorytransformations
suggest
thatit is
highlyunlikelythatexactlythesamefrequency
regions
will
contribute
to properties
forplaceofarticulation
in stopand
nasal consonants.

Suchresultsprovidea challenge
to thestrongformof a
theory of acousticinvariance,which claimsthat acoustic
propertiescorrespondto phoneticfeatures,and that the
samepropertiescharacterizeplaceof articulationacrossdifferentmanners
of articulation.
WhileJakobson
wasclearlya
proponentof acousticinvariancefor phoneticfeatures,he
viewedacoustic
properties
andphonetic
features
in particu-

lar asrelational.That is, the properties

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

manuscript.
Abramson, A. S., Nye, P. W., Henderson, J. B., and Marshall, C. W.

(1981). "Vowel heightand the perceptionof consonantal

nasality,"J.
Acoust. Soc. Am. 70, 329-338.

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

"Someexperiments
on the perceptionof syntheticspeechsounds,"J.
Acoust. Soc. Am. 24, 597-606.

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

Delgutte,B. (1980). "Representation

of speech-like
soundsin the dischargepatternsof auditory-nervefibers,"J. Acoust.Soe.Am, 68, 843857.

Fant, G. (1960). AcousticTheoryof SpeechProduction(Mouton, The

Hague,The Netherlands).
Fujimura,O. (1962). "Analysisof nasalconsonants,"
J. Acoust.Soc.Am.
34, 1865-1875.

Hecker,M. (1962). "Studies

of nasalconsonants
with an articulatory
speechsynthesizer,"J. Acoust.Soc.Am. 34, 179-188.

House,
A. S.(1957)."Analogstudies
ofnasalconsonants,"
J.Speech
Hear.

Disord. 22, 190-20.

presence
of otherproperties
or featuresand the linguistic
Jakobson,
R.,Fant,G.,andHalle,M. (1963).Preliminaries
toSpeech
Analbehaviorof the entire soundsegment(Jakobsonet al.,
ysis(MIT, Cambridge,MA).
1963).Thus,for him, thefactthat thereis proportionately Kewley-Port,
D. (1983)."Time-varying
features
ascorrelates
of placeof
greaterchangein low-frequency
energyfor [m] andgreater
articulationin stopconsonants,"J. Acoust.Soe.Am. 73, 322-335.

changein high-frequencyenergyfor [n], and a similarrelationholdsfor placeof articulationin stopconsonants,

is sufficientevidencethat the labials [m b p] sharea common
propertyandthealveolars[nd t ] alsosharea commonprop-

Kitazawa,S.,andDoshita,S. (1984)."Nasalconsonant
discrimination
by

erty.

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

of

Further research will be needed to determine whether

such relational invariance is indeed the correct characteriza-

acoustic
invarianee
for placeof articulation
in diffusestopconsonants:
Evidence
froma cross-language
study,"J.Acoust.Soc.Am.76,391-404.
Larkey,L. S.,Wald,J.,andStrange,
W. (1978)."Perception
ofsynthetic
nasalconsonants
in initialandfinalsyllableposition,"
Percept.Psy-

tionof phoneticfeatures
or whetherthesameacoustic
property can definea phoneticfeature acrossdifferentsound
classes.
In orderto pursuethisresearch,
two strategies
will
needto be taken. First, it will be necessary
to continueto
exploreplace of articulationand other phoneticfeatures
acrossdifferent mannersof articulation. Second,it is neces-

saryto developand applycomparablemeasurement

proceduresin analyzingthe stimuli. Nevertheless,whetherthe
acousticpropertiescorresponding
to phoneticfeaturesare
relationalor not,theresultsof thisstudysuggest
that stable
acoustic
properties
canbederivedfor placeof articulationin
nasalconsonants,
andtheacousticproperties
derivedareat
leastdescriptively
similarto thoseobtainedfor placeof articulationin stopconsonants.
Thesepropertiesturn on the
presence
of rapidspectralchangein thevicinityof theconsonantreleaseandin thenatureof that change.For bothlabial
nasalsandstops,thereisa rapidspectralchangewithgreater

change
inlowerfrequency
regions
relativeto higherregions,
andfor alveolarnasalsandstopsthereis greaterchangein
high frequencies
relativeto lowerfrequencies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thisresearchwassupportedin part by Grant NS 15123

toBrownUniversity.
Manythanks
toJohnA.'Mertusforhis
technical assistanceand advice, to Kenneth N. Stevensfor

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