Practice question · Numerical answer
Approximately what is the perceptual boundary in voice onset time between English /b/ and /p/, in milliseconds?
Hints
- Short lag runs to about 20 ms, long lag begins around 40.
- Around thirty milliseconds.
Show the answer
30 (answers within ±10 count)
Why
About 30 ms. The boundary is categorical: a continuum of stimuli is heard as two categories with a sharp switch rather than as a gradual change. Where the boundary sits differs by language, which is why the same continuum divides differently for a Thai listener.
Practise The Acoustics of Speech
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Languages I is free to start.
More questions on The Acoustics of Speech
- A speaker raises their pitch while continuing to say the same vowel. Why do the formants stay roughly where…
- F1 varies inversely with vowel height: a high vowel has a low first formant.
- The source-filter theory models the vocal folds as the generator and the supraglottal tract as a resonator.…
- Sort each property by whether it belongs to the SOURCE or to the FILTER.
- Complete the account of speech acoustics.
- The perception of voice onset time is continuous: listeners hear a gradual change across the VOT range.