The relative perceptual weight of the initial (CV) and final (VC) vowel transitions is examined by means of a psycho-acoustical experiment with tone glides as well as an identification experiment with speech samples. The first experiment shows that sensitivity is significantly greater for transitions in final (VC) than in initial (CV) position. This perceptual asymmetry could be the result of temporal backward masking of the steady-state frequencies on the preceding transition. Identification scores of speech transitions in initial and final position do not, however, show the VC speech transition to be more consonant specific than the CV one. Data indicate that although a recency effect may affect discrimination of tone glides, various acoustic cues are used to identify plosives in speech. Therefore, perception of Dutch transitions are comparable for American English and Dutch subjects, despite acoustic-linguistic differences.

Keywords: CV and VC speech(-like) transitions