Identification of deleted consonants

VC transitions have often been found to be better cues for the identification of deleted consonants than CV transitions. The lower score for CV transitions could very well be due to an interfering "click sensation" caused by the abrupt begining of these transitions. In the present investigation the abrubt onset was eliminated by replacing the deleted portions of the consonants with noise bursts; this also caused the incomplete syllables to sound more natural. The results show that the identification of deleted initial voiceless plosives is greatly improved by the addition of noise. The original difference between initial and final plosive transitions disappears almost completely.