How do consonants typically influence the perception of surrounding vowels?

Consonants play a crucial role in speech perception, particularly in how they influence the vowels that surround them. When we consider formants, which are the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract that define vowel sounds, consonants can modify these frequencies when they occur adjacent to vowels.

The presence of a consonant can lead to changes in the formant structure of adjacent vowels in several ways. For example, different consonants can create a distinct auditory environment, affecting the resonating characteristics of the vowel sound. This impact might manifest as shifts in the resonance frequencies of the vowels, making them sound different than they would in isolation.

This influence is not just limited to specific consonants, as various voicing, place, and manner characteristics of consonants contribute to altering how vowels are perceived. For instance, a nasal consonant preceding a vowel might lower the first formant, while a stop consonant might create a specific temporal or dynamic pattern that affects vowel clarity.

In contrast, although amplitude, duration, and pitch are important elements of speech, they do not primarily account for the specific perceptual effects that consonants have on vowels in the context of their formant structures. This makes altering formant structure the most relevant answer regarding how consonants influence