A Computational Investigation on the Perception and Acquisition of aspiration

The phenomenon of aspiration in Hindi has intrigued phoneticians and phonologists for some time. However, so far no adequate investigation of this phenomena has been made. The earlier acoustical (i.e., perceptional) studies which have been performed on the phonetic aspects of Hindi can be grouped into two 1) acoustically-oriented, and 2) linguistically-oriented studies. In the area of acoustic studies, the most significant work was done byJ. GUVTA, S. AGRAWAL and R.. AHUAD (1969) and 1~. AHMAD and S. AG~AWAr (1969). In their experiment they have revealed the significant features in the perception of Hindi consonants in normal as well as in clipped speech. For example, they pointed out that the average effect of dipping on features follows the order: 1) place; 2) nasality; 3) flapped liquids; 4) liquids; 5) continuants; 6) voicing; 7) friction; 8) aspiration; 9) affrication, i.e., the place of articulation is most important in the intelligibility of any sound, and affrication is least important. The higher the rank, the higher the intelligibility. Earlier, W. J. BLACK and S. SINOH (1966), in their experiment with four language groups, namely English, Hindi, Arabic and Japanese, have also pointed out significant features. However, their rank order is as follows: 1) nasality; 2) place; 3) voicing; 4) friction; 5) liquid; 6) duration; 7) aspiration. The focus of the above experiments was not aspiration. The same is true about the linguistically oriented work done by D. P. GA~Dm and S. J^GGI (1971). The present study of Hindi consonants is significant for the following reasons: first, it examines the predictive role of