[From: Bruce Nevin (Mon 93104 10:51:23 EDT)]
( Rick Marken (930930.1330) )
the acoustical difference (if there is one) between spin
and sbin
This is interesting. I hope you will find it interesting too, and
explore these perceptions a bit more with me.
Were you unable to control a perception of an acoustical difference
between [sp`in] (with the aspirated voiceless [p`] of pin) and sbin (with
the unaspirated voiced [b] of bin)? What stopped you? What disturbed
your control of that perception?
ยทยทยท
======================================================================
With practice, you should be able to control the perception of:
(a) An acoustical similarity of the [p`] of [sp`in] to the [p] of pin.
(b) An acoustical similarity of the [b] of [sbin] to the [b] of bin.
(c) An acoustical difference between the [p`] of [sp`in] and the [b] of
[sbin], parallel to the difference between your pronunciation of pin
and bin.
Until you have done this, you have not performed the substitution as
requested. The procedure for the pair test was to substitute the [p`] of
pin (or the b of bin) in place of the consonant that follows the s in
spin.
======================================================================
What is the segment that you actually do pronounce after the s and before
the i in spin? Is it identical to the [b] of bin, or to the [p`] of pin?
Can you control the perception of:
(d) An acoustical difference between, on the one hand, the [p`] of
{pin,[sp`in]} and the [p] of spin as you ordinarily pronounce it, and,
on the other hand, the [b] of {bin,[sbin]} and the [p] of spin as you
ordinarily pronounce it.
How about a comparison to the p of Spanish pin~ata?
======================================================================
Is it the case that [sbin] and [sp`in] are both "unnatural" sounding and
"unnatural" feeling, relative to your ordinary pronunciation of spin as
[spin]?
Is it the case that any of these three pronunciations fails to evoke the
word/meaning "spin"?
For comparison, examine the perceptions that arise when substitute the
same [b] and [p`] segments in place of the m of "mud"? I predict that
substituting the b results unequivocally in perception of a word, "Bud",
and substituting the p results unequivocally in perception of a non-word,
"pud" (I assume that's not a word for you). There is no possibility of
"pud" being a pronunciation of "Bud", even though there is no word "pud"
to match that pronunciation. the pronunciation "pud" fails to evoke any
word/meaning, whereas all three of the pronunciations [sbin], [spin],
[sp`in] evoke the word/meaning "spin". Is my prediction wrong?
How do you account for this difference in the perceptual effect of
substituting [p`] vs. [b] in a constant frame? (Constant frame: the
remainder of the word is pronounced the same, as a frame within which the
test segments are substituted.)
I hope that you are willing to play with these perceptions and test them
out and tell me what you find.
Bruce
bn@bbn.com (at least the rest of October, looks like)