Formant Transitions of Turkish Vowels

Acoustic correlates of consonantal place of articulation are numerous and varied. Burst information, onset spectra, and formant transition motion have all been implicated as the significant cues for consonant place of articulation within each labial, alveolar, and velar place category. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the transition rate of a vowel formant, which was the ascending or descending slope of the formant in CV syllables. Therefore, this analysis offered additional insights to the role of F2 transition at the onset and mid-points when serving as predictor variables. The results showed that F1 vowel transitions had an ascending slope. Increasing the value of F1 vowel transition after the releases of labial, alveolar, and velar consonants was an acoustic clue to the opening of the oral cavity and absence of obstruction/closure in the vocal tract. The statistical analyses demonstrated that only in the vowels [o, u, æ], there was a significant difference between the second formant frequencies at the two onset and the mid-points of the transition after all coronals, labials, and velars. The difference between these two variables was not significant in the other cases.