Perceived length of Czech high vowels in relation to formant frequencies evaluated by automatic speech recognition
Abstract
Recent studies measured significant differences in formant values in the production of short and long high vowel pairs in the Czech language. Perceptional impacts of such findings were confirmed employing listening tests proving that a perceived vowel length is influenced by formant values related to a tongue position.
Non-native speakers of Czech may experience difficulties in communication when they interchange the vowel length in words, which may lead to a completely different meaning of the message. This paper analyses perception of two-syllable words with manipulated duration and formant frequencies of high vowels i/i: or u/u: in the first syllable using automatic speech recognition (ASR) system.
Such a procedure makes it possible to set a fine resolution in the range of examined factors. Our study confirms the formant values have a substantial impact on the perception of high vowels' length by ASR, comparable to mean values obtained from listening tests performed on a group of human participants.