Assessing the perceptual contributions of vowels and consonants to Mandarin sentence intelligibility
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: This study investigated the perceptual contributions of vowels and consonants to Mandarin sentence intelligibility. Mandarin sentences were edited using a noise-replacement paradigm to preserve various amounts of segmental information and presented to normal-hearing listeners to recognize. The vowel-only Mandarin sentences yielded a remarkable 3:1 intelligibility advantage over the consonant-only sentences. This advantage is larger than that obtained with English sentences, suggesting that vowels may have a greater contribution to sentence intelligibility in Mandarin than in English. Although providing information redundant to contributions from vowel centers, a little vowel-consonant boundary transition would significantly improve the intelligibility of the consonant-only Mandarin sentences.
DOI: 10.1121/1.4812820
Authors: Fei Chen, Lena L. N. Wong, Eva Y. W. Wong
Institutions: Prince Philip Dental Hospital, University of Hong Kong
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: Carnegie Mellon University
OpenAlex ID: W2106435655