Perception of Segmental Duration

Abstract

Human speech is characterized by sloppy and precise articulatory movements with the acoustical speech wave as result. The listener has to pin-point the crucial events in this wave as well as to neglect unimportant distortions in order to perceive the message. The durational structure of a sentence has been studied on different levels. These studies show astonishingly small variance in certain portions as well as marked variation in others. This paper deals with three questions within the area of speech perception. a.) How accurately can a listener perceive segment duration? b) Is this process influenced by segment type as well as the duration of neighboring segments? c) If a segment duration is changed, what compensatory effects does a listener expect?