Vowel Quality (Part 1)

by: Peter Ladefoged
Adapted to the web by: Malcolm Slaney

These pages demonstrate an experiment concerned with the perception of vowels. You will hear a voice saying "Please say what this word is:" followed by a test word which is one of the words "bit, bet, bat, but". Your task is to identify the test word. Write it down somewhere on a scrap of paper. You will be asked to make three identifications of this kind.

Identify the test word as one of:

Here are the three sentences. Listen to each one and write the answer down on a scrap of paper somewhere.

  1. Sentence 1
  2. Sentence 2
  3. Sentence 3

Click here to see an explanation of the sentences and what you heard.