Auslautverhaertung

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} The language laboratory

How to read a spectrogram

Plosives

The pronunciation of a plosive sound takes place in three or four phases.

1.)close

2.)hold

3.)release or burst

4.)aspiration

Three places of articulation produce plosives. There is a labial, alveolar or velar close. Energy builds up during the hold phase. This is marked in the spectrogram by a sudden decrease of the spectral energy followed by acoustic silence. The spectrogram is blank. Voiced plosives have a voice bar in the lowest frequency range. The energy is released in the burst. The burst produces a sudden increase of spectral energy in a certain frequency range. The burst is only very short about 20 ms. Aspiration follows the burst for unvoiced plosives. The aspiration lasts about 40 – 80 ms. Plosives are recognised in the spectrogram because of their acoustic silence in the hold phase.

Example: “to kid to cook” spoken by a German speaking woman

The (e) stands for the schwa /ə/ vowel. The second formant of the schwa points to 1800 Hz which indicates an alveolar place of articulation. The second formant of the front vowel /I/ points to 3000 Hz for the preceding sound. This indicates a velar place of articulation. The formant also points to 1800 Hz indicating the alveolar place of articulation. The word kid is pronounced with an aspirated /t/ sound instead of /d/. The speaker makes the German “Auslautverhärtung”. Final consonants are always pronounced unvoiced in German. This is not the case in English.

Example: “to kid to cook”

The speaker pronounces the correct vowel /d/. The vertical line is the burst . The second formant of the back vowel /u/ clearly points to a frequency less than 1000 Hz. This indicates a velar place of articulation. The final /k/ of cook is pronounced with less strength than the initial /k/. The spectrum is less intense.

The examples have been recorded with Wavesurfer: http://www.speech.kth.se/wavesurfer/

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