Mechtild Tronnier, Masatake Dantsuji and Shigeki Sagayama
Comparing Fricatives: A Spectral Analysis of
/hi/ and /ç/ in Japanese and German
Abstract:The present study sheds light on the phonetic value of the realizations
of the /h/-part in the Japanese syllable /hi/, German /h/ before /i/ and
German /ç/ in its specific environment from an acoustic point of view.
In phonetic descriptions of Japanese, /h/ before /i/ is often transcribed
as both,[ç] and devoiced [i] in the same broader context. Since German
treats both realizations as phonemically distinct, it seems to be a useful language to compare the Japanese data with. An acoustic analysis of
Japanese and German data will be undertaken to show similarities and
differences of the acoustic structure of these sounds, depending on the
environment of occurrence.