Some applications based on the theory of fuzzy sets in problems of computer recognition of vowels and identifying the person from his spoken words using only the first three formants (F 1, F2, and F3) of the unknown utterance are presented. Two decision algorithmic methods using weighted-distance functions and property sets are developed and implemented with the optimum size of the training set...

This article discusses the results of a study which investigated Cantonese ESL learners’ perception of English vowels and their perceived similarity between similar L1 and L2 vowels in an attempt to test the prediction of the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM). Forty university English majors participated in three L2 perception tasks, which aimed at discerning their perception of English vowel...

This pilot study aims at comparing the phonetic structure of Québec French (QF) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) nasal vowels and at assessing the perception of QF nasal vowels by BP learners. It is shown that the structure of the phonetic systems of these vowels is different in QF and BP, and hence has an influence on the cross-linguistic perception (identification) of QF nasal vowels. More speci...

An investigation of phonological phenomena involving glottal stops and vowels shows that the presence of glottal stops influences the quality of the surrounding vowels: the vowels are lowered (Rose, 1996). For example, in Klallam (a Coast Salish language), non-low vowels /i u ə/ are lowered to [ε o a], respectively, when followed by [ʔ]: /p’íх w ŋ/ is pronounced as [p’εʔх w ŋ] ‘overflow’/‘overf...

This paper reviews studies of language processing with the aim of establishing whether any type of statistical information embedded in linguistic signals can be exploited by the language learner. The constraints as to the information that can be so used, we will argue, should be used to inform theories of language acquisition. We present two experiments with their respective controls. Both show...

Surprisingly little is known about the nature of intermediary sublexical units in visual word recognition in Italian, a language with a highly consistent print-to-sound mapping, which should enhance reliance on grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences. In the present study, we examined whether Italian readers are sensitive to large orthographic units defined by the consonant-vowel (CV) pattern of wo...

Successful speech perception in real-world environments requires that the auditory system segregate competing voices that overlap in frequency and time into separate streams. Vowels are major constituents of speech and are comprised of frequencies (harmonics) that are integer multiples of a common fundamental frequency (F0). The pitch and identity of a vowel are determined by its F0 and spectra...

In this paper, a zone based symmetric density feature is proposed to recognize Handwritten Marathi Vowels. Recognition of handwritten Marathi vowels is a challenging task due to their interclass structural similarities. This paper describes a method for recognition of handwritten Marathi vowels. Since a standard database does not exist for handwritten Marathi vowels, as a part of this work data...

Speaking rate is thought to affect the spectral features of vowels. Target-undershoot models of vowel production predict more spectral reduction and coarticulation of vowels in fast-rate speech than in normal-rate speech. To test this prediction, a meaningful Dutch text of about 850 words was read twice by an experienced newscaster, once at a normal speaking rate and once as fast as possible. A...