Identification of the primary speech cues of Hebrew speakers: Perceiving the place of articulation of high-frequency consonants

Among all manners of articulation, fricative consonants contain acoustic energy at the highest frequencies. There is a distinction between anterior fricatives possessing a lower intensity of frication, /f, v, θ, ð/ and the posterior fricatives, sibilants that possess greater fricative intensity (/s, z, ʃ, ʒ/). This study examines whether in Hebrew another cue in addition to frication noise is required for the place of articulation. The impact of four variables on the perception of fricatives was examined: the noise of the fricative, the second and third formant transition, the vowel, and the location of a fricative in a syllable. Thirty young adults (age 18–30 years) were asked to report what they had heard. In 86.25% of the instances the fricatives were perceived by the frication noise. In 13.75% of words, the participants perceived fricatives using other cues. The results indicate a relatively low contribution of the second and third formant transition in the perception of the place of articulation in Hebrew. These findings suggest that different cues contribute to perception in various languages and may have clinical implications for audiologists and speech pathologists.