Identification of argentine Spanish vowels

The acoustical spectrum of the five Spanish vowels |a, e, i, o, u| has been delimited to show the areas covered by F ₁ , F ₂ , and F ₃ and the relative distribution energy among the formants. Through the analysis of the spectral components of vowels, isolated and in consonantal context, it is possible to estimate the different weight of each formant in vowel identification. At least for isolated vowels,F ₂ andF ₃ seem to be effective for the identification of i] and e] while theF ₁ andF ₂ carry the weight for the identification of o] and u]. The cue to differentiate a] seems to beF ₂. Spanish vowels are compared with cardinals and North American English vowels. There is no correlation with cardinal vowels while similarities are found with English vowels.