The Role of F2 and F3 in the Perception of Rhoticity: Evidence from Listening Experiments

This paper reports on two listening experiments which explore the relative contributions of F2 and F3 in the perception of rhoticity. Experiment 1 tests the hypothesis that a low-frequency F3 is a crucial spectral component for a signal to be perceived as rhotic. Its results suggest that the removal of F3 may in fact strengthen the rhoticity percept. Experiment 2 manipulates the relative amplitudes of F2 and F3 in a rhotic signal. Its results suggest that F2 and F3 attenuation have opposite effects on rhoticity judgments, with F3 attenuation making the signal sound more rhotic. The paper proposes an account that makes crucial reference to the auditory integration hypothesis.