Evidence of Talker-Independent Information for Vowels

The vowel information present in initial and final regions of /b/—vowel—/b/ syllables was examined in this study. Vowels were identified for unedited syllables spoken by a man and a woman, for the initial 20% of those syllables, for the final 20% of the syllables, for the initial and final 20% of the syllables combined and separated by a 60% silent gap, and for the initial and final 20% of the syllables interchanged across talkers and separated by a 60% silent gap. Results indicate: (1) that there is considerable vowel information present in the dynamic regions at the beginnings and endings of syllables; (2) that the information is, to a large extent, carried relationally by those regions; (3) that the information is talker-independent in form; and (4) that the information is complementary to, and distinct from, formant frequency information present in a syllable's center. An experiment assessing the perceived source(s) of these stimuli suggests that source perception is influenced by as yet unspecified acoustic modulations defined at the syllable level.