Acoustic structure of fricative consonants in Greek

Abstract

The present study examines the temporal and spectral characteristics of Greek fricatives (duration and spectral moments, i.e. mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis) as distinctive cues for their place of articulation. The effects of voicing, speaker’s gender and post-fricative vowel on both duration and spectral moments are also investigated. The results indicate that noise duration does not distinguish fricatives in terms of place of articulation. However, voiceless fricatives have longer durations than voiced ones. Spectral moments distinguish fricatives in terms of place of articulation, except for the labiodental from dental place.