Fricatives on a spectrogram

1. What do fricatives look like on spectrogram?
2. How do fricatives and Affricates look different on a spectrogram?
3. What frequencies are fricatives at?
4. Do fricatives have formants?

What do fricatives look like on spectrogram?

Fricatives are easy. The turbulent airstream of fricatives creates a chaotic mix of random frequencies, each lasting for a very brief time. The result sounds much like static noise, and on a spectrogram it looks like the kind of static noise you might see on a TV screen.

How do fricatives and Affricates look different on a spectrogram?

We also encounter a distinction between voiceless and voiced fricatives, similar to that of plosives in that for the latter, a voicing bar is visible. Affricates – As can be expected, spectrograms of affricates show a stop closure followed by the striations characteristic of a fricative.

What frequencies are fricatives at?

The flat fricative spectrum is between -50 dB and -60 dB (ie. its significantly above the noise floor) and above 700 Hz its similar to, but a bit weaker than the spectrum of /f/. Figure 31: Spectrogram of /s/.

Do fricatives have formants?

Voiced fricatives /v, ð, z, ʒ/ have a longer noise time interval and higher frication noise. Voiceless fricatives /f, θ, s, ʃ/ have a weaker formants. For/h/, turbulent noise is very weak. For voiceless fricative, /s/ has a higher average frequency than/ʃ/does; and both are higher than /f/or /θ/.