PATTERN ANALYSIS OF hi PRONUNCIATIONS IN _/v/V CONTEXTS

摘要

We investigate the characteristics of the /v/ consonant, in _/v/V contexts (at the start of the word, followed by a vowel), in isolated Romanian words. This consonant is known to often behave as a semi-vowel. It is ambivalent, either vowel-like or consonant-like, moreover the second author previously found it is sensitive to the subject condition. We determined that there are five /v/ classes in Romanian, depending on the context and on the speaker, in contrast with the accepted knowledge that only two or three types of /v/ occur (voiced / unvoiced). We applied several automatic classifications methods to confirm the conclusion. The results demonstrate the limits of the current phonetic approach and indicate perspectives in new applications.