Acoustic-phonetic features for the automatic classification of fricatives

In this article, the acoustic-phonetic characteristics of the American Engl ish fricative consonants are investigated from the automatic classification standpoint. The features studied in the literature are evaluated and new f eatures are proposed. To test the value of the extracted features, a statis tically guided, knowledge-based, acoustic-phonetic system for the automatic classification of fricatives in speaker-independent continuous speech is p roposed. The system uses an auditory-based front-end processing system and incorporates new algorithms for the extraction and manipulation of the acou stic-phonetic features that proved to be rich in their information content. Classification experiments are performed using hard-decision algorithms on fricatives extracted from the TIMIT database continuous speech of 60 speak ers (not used in the design/training process) from seven different dialects of American English. An accuracy of 93% is obtained for voicing detection, 91% for place of articulation detection, and 87% for the overall classific ation of fricatives. (C) 2001 Acoustical Society of America.