Acoustic characteristics of Greek fricatives.

The present study examined the acoustics of Greek fricative consonants in terms of temporal, spectral, and amplitude parameters. The effects of voicing, speaker's gender, place of articulation, and post-fricative vowel on the acoustic parameters were also investigated. The results indicated that first and second spectral moments (i.e., spectral mean and spectral variance), as well as second formant (F2) onset, and normalized amplitude values are the acoustic parameters most correlated with the Greek fricative place of articulation distinction. F2 onset and spectral mean were the parameters that distinguished all five places of articulation, while normalized amplitude differentiated sibilants from non-sibilants. In addition, normalized duration and normalized amplitude are the parameters that distinguish Greek voiced from voiceless fricatives, with high classification accuracy.