The effect of F0 peak alignment, hei

This paper addresses the effect of F0 peak alignment, F0 peak height and segmental base on the perception of sentence type of 3-syllable one-word utterances by Japanese and Russian listeners. The reported study was performed with re-synthesized stimuli which differed by 14 locations (alignments) and 2 heights of F0 peak and two segmental bases. The stimuli were produced by modifications of re-synthesized original natural speech declarative (declarative base) and interrogative (interrogative base) utterances. Sentence type identification of randomized stimuli as declarative, interrogative and exclamatory by Japanese and Russian subjects showed that pitch peak height has a strong influence on the perception of both groups of subjects, base has almost no effect, whereas F0 peak alignment affects the perception of Russian subjects significantly more than of Japanese subjects. Alignment shifts towards the end of the accented vowel cause an increase in interrogative judgments by Russian subjects.