Abstract
A number of studies have found that temporal envelope cues are significant for both English and Mandarin speech perception. However, native English and Mandarin speakers appear to differ in abilities to use these cues in speech recognition. The current study thus aims to investigate whether the temporal envelopes of English and Chinese running speech have any significant difference. Conversational speech of 16 males and 16 females from the United States and mainland China was recorded. The temporal envelope and long-term spectrum were analyzed and compared across the two groups of speakers. Results showed that in the temporal modulation domain, English speech had a peak at around 3 Hz, while for Chinese speech, the peak was observed relatively steadily from 3 to 5 Hz. Moreover, English speech possibly contained significantly longer and deeper temporal troughs to make use of than Chinese. [Works supported by the China National Natural Science Foundation (31628009).]