The “effective second formant” F′2: A parameter for the classification of French front vowels

Abstract

The “effective second formant” F′2 was analytically tested as a cue for rounding opposition in French front vowels (/i/-/y/ and /e/-/ø/ opposition). For this purpose, a corpus of these four vowels introduced into contexts maximizing and minimizing the rounding opposition [C. Abry, L-J. Boë, P. Corsi, R. Descout, M. Gentil, and P. Graillot, Labialité et Phonétique (Université des Langues et des Lettres, Grenoble, France, 1980)] was acoustically studied. The first four formant frequencies and levels were measured. The F′2 of the analyzed vowels was next estimated with a model based on psychophysical and vowel perception hypotheses and using the frequencies and levels of F2, F3, and F4 [M. Mantakas, J-L. Schwartz, and P. Escudier, Actes des 15e Journées d'études sur la Parole (GALF, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1986), pp. 157–161]. The effectiveness of F′2 as a classification parameter was furthermore compared with that of other acoustic cues proposed for French. [Work supported by CNET, France.]