This study aims at uncovering perceptually-relevant acoustic cues for the labial versus alveolar place of articulation distinction in syllable-initial plosives {/b/, /d/, /p/, /t/} and fricatives {/f/, /s/, /v/, /z/} in noise. Speech materials consisted of naturally-spoken consonant–vowel (CV) syllables from four talkers where the vowel was one of {/a/, /i/, /u/}. Acoustic analyses using logistic regression show that formant frequency measurements, relative spectral amplitude measurements, and burst/noise durations are generally reliable cues for labial/alveolar classification. In a subsequent perceptual experiment, each pair of syllables with the labial/alveolar distinction (e.g., /ba, da/) was presented to listeners in various levels of signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) in a 2-AFC task. A threshold SNR was obtained for each syllable pair using sigmoid fitting of the percent correct scores. Results show that the perception of the labial/alveolar distinction in noise depends on the manner of articulation, the vowel context, and the interaction between voicing and manner of articulation. Correlation analyses of the acoustic measurements and the threshold SNRs show that formant frequency measurements (such as F1 and F2 onset frequencies and F2 and F3 frequency changes) become increasingly important for the perception of labial/alveolar distinctions as the SNR degrades.

本研究旨在揭示音节开头塞音 {/b/、/d/、/p/、/t/} 和擦音 {/f/、/s 中唇与牙槽发音部位的感知相关声学线索/, /v/, /z/} 在噪声中。语音材料由四个说话者的自然口语辅音元音 (CV) 音节组成，其中元音是 {/a/、/i/、/u/} 之一。使用逻辑回归的声学分析表明，共振峰频率测量、相对频谱幅度测量和突发/噪声持续时间通常是唇/肺泡分类的可靠线索。在随后的感知实验中，在 2-AFC 任务中，每对具有唇/牙槽区别（例如 /ba、da/）的音节都以不同级别的信噪比 (SNR) 呈现给听众。使用正确分数的 sigmoid 拟合为每个音节对获得阈值 SNR。结果表明，对噪音中唇/齿槽区别的感知取决于发音方式、元音上下文以及发音和发音方式之间的相互作用。声学测量和阈值 SNR 的相关分析表明，随着 SNR 的降低，共振峰频率测量（例如 F1 和 F2 起始频率以及 F2 和 F3 频率变化）对于唇/肺泡区别的感知变得越来越重要。