Investigating the Effect of Speech Rate on the Start Time of the Voicing of Persian Plosives of Persian Standard in Continuous Speech

This study investigated the effect of speaking rate on the voice onset time (vot) stop consonant production in standard contemporary Persian. For this purpose, a production experiment was performed. Eight sentences were produced by twenty- four participants (seven male- seventeen female) at different speaking rates (slow- normal & fast) three times each. Voice onset time (VOT) distributions and mean VOT values were examined for initial and intervocalic labial, alveolar, palatal and velar stop consonants in context at slow, normal and fast rates of speech. At last, 1152 data were elicited. Results revealed that the short lag and pre-voiced category didn't change as a function of speaking rate, although VOT values for long lag category were affected by changes in speaking rate. Implication of the results suggest that in standard contemporary Persian, "aspiration" is affected by changes in speaking rate.