Discriminant Analysis of Burst Spectrum for Japanese Initial Voiceless Stops

Abstract

We determined the extent to which the onset spectra of natural CV utterances consisting of [p, t, k] in the environment of five vowels could be correctly classified by the linear discriminant functions. Over 80% of the utterances were correctly classified independent of vowel context and speaker difference. Thus, the spectrum at the burst onset does seem to produce, also in Japanese, an invariant gross shape for place of articulation which Blumstein and Stevens (1979) have claimed.