Acoustic properties of Turkish fricatives

This study investigated the acoustic properties of Turkish fricatives / ? , ? , ? , ? , ? , ? , ? /. For each fricative, spectral properties (frequency range, spectral peak location) duration, amplitude (overall and normalized), F2 onset frequency, and center of gravity were measured. Each fricative occurred in different vowel environments, in one and two word syllables and in different positions within a word. The participants were 6 (3 male, 3 female) native Turkish speakers. A total of 10.080 tokens were analyzed.The findings showed that the frequency range is 1500-10500 Hz for / ? /, 3500-10800 Hz for / ? /, 3500-10600 Hz for / ? /, 1800-9400 Hz for / ? /, and 1800-8800 Hz for / ? /. The spectral peak location was measured to be 6613 Hz for / ? /, 7379 Hz for / ? /, 6929 Hz for / ? /, 3804 Hz for / ? /, and 3605 Hz for / ? /. The mean duration of fricatives were 104 ms for / ? /, 122 ms for / ? /, 85 ms for / ? /, 123 ms for / ? /, and 84 ms for / ? /. The amplitude for each fricative is as follows; 60 dB for / ? /, 62 dB for / ? /, 65 dB for / ? /, 66 dB for / ? /, and 67 dB for / ? /. Normalized amplitude was found to be -14 dB for / ? /, -11 dB for / ? /, -10 dB for / ? /, -7 dB for / ? /, and -8 dB for / ? /. The onset of F2 transition was 1369 Hz for / ? /, 1581 Hz for / ? /, 1547 Hz for / ? /, 1833 Hz for / ? /, and 1905 Hz for / ? /. The center of gravity is at 1483 Hz for / ? /, 3875 Hz for / ? /, 1332 Hz for / ? /, 3537 Hz for / ? /, and 1594 Hz for / ? /.When the interaction between different acoustic properties and gender, vowel environment, number of syllables and position within a word is investigated, the results showed the following interaction effects. The interaction between spectral peak location and gender, vowel environment, position within the word the interaction was significant. A significant interaction was found between duration of the fricatives and gender, vowel environment, number of syllables and position within a word was significant. The interaction between amplitude and gender, vowel environment, number of syllables and position within a word was found to be significant. For normalized amplitude, the interaction was found to be significant only for gender and vowel environment. The interaction between F2 transition onset and gender, vowel environment, and position within a word was significant. Similarly, the interaction for center of gravity was significant for gender, vowel environment, and position within a word.The results also showed that in Turkish, /v/ is realized as a labiodental approximant more often than as a fricative, thus should be represented with / ? /. Similarly, /h/ did not exhibit fricative properties which suggests that /h/ should not be described as a fricative in Turkish.Keywords: Turkish, fricative sounds, acoustic analysis