Abstract
In Czech, the phonological contrast of voicing is primarily realized by the presence or absence of the fundamental frequency. However, this main correlate is missing in whisper, because the vocal folds do not vibrate.
The present study explored the acoustical and perceptual side of this phonological contrast. Firstly, it compared the duration of voicing counterparts of Czech plosives and fricatives embedded in modal and whispered pseudowords.
The duration of voicing counterparts differed significantly, but the durational ratios were smaller in whisper than in modal phonation. Secondly, a perception experiment was created from the whispered stimuli, assessing the recognisability of whispered obstruents in phonetic context only.
Listeners recognised many obstruents especially in the medial position, but substantial variability between individual voicing pairs was found.