Fundamental Frequency and Absolute Vowel Identification

Five vowel-like sounds, /i/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, and /u/, were recorded from a series vowel synthesizer with both male and female formant center frequencies and fundamental frequency varied in six steps from 100 to 800 cps. Each stimuli was inflected upward one semitone. Listeners, trained in phonetic transcription, were asked to identify which vowel sound was played. The data show interaction between formant frequency and vowel identification suggesting that information may be conveyed by the frequency spacing between the fundamental frequency and formants as well as the center frequencies of the formants.