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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Jul 10.
Published in final edited form as: J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2014 Aug;57(4):1468–1479. doi: 10.1044/2014_JSLHR-L-13-0279

Table 2.

Values of acoustic cues for the syllables “ma” and “ba” in “maba” in stressed and unstressed conditions.

Syllable and level Vowel Mean F0
(Hz)		 Intensity
(dB SPL)		 Duration
(ms)		 F1
(Hz)		 F2
(Hz)		 F3
(Hz)
Ma
 strong ɑ 85 72 210 715 1200 2450
 weak ə    77.5 67 165 600 1250 2400
Ba
 strong ɑ 84 72 200 730 1200 2400
 weak ə 77 67 150 550 1260 2400
Ratio (strong:weak)
ɑ        1.10        1.78          1.30          1.19             0.96             1.02
ə        1.09        1.78          1.33          1.33             0.96             1.00
Ratio reported by Zhang et al. (2008)        1.10        1.78          1.35        N/A         N/A         N/A

Note. Cue levels are not equal across syllables, consistent with the recordings of natural utterances. The perceptual task thus measures not psychoacoustic sensitivity but sensitivity to the cue levels as they are typically observed. Ratio of intensity = 10∧((dBStressed – dBUnstressed)/20). Formant values represent averaged formant frequencies over vowel duration. Ratios reported by Zhang et al. (2008) include mean values for all stressed and unstressed syllables in that study. N/A = no formant values for non-nasalized /a/ vowels are available in that publication.