Subject: "Neutral Unit" for tone sequences From: Emma M Duffy <emma.duffy676@xxxxxxxx> Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2013 15:48:02 -0400 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Hello, I am pursuing an undergraduate Honors thesis in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences department at my university. For our project, we will present to our subjects tone sequences with varying rhythmicity and then present to them tone sequences with changes in pitch. One goal that we have is to have our subjects reproduce these sequences with a “neutral unit” that removes (as much as possible) the influence of speech and phoneme articulation. We are considering something like the schwa, or an 'eh' sound. I would appreciate suggestions or ideas regarding what neutral units might be appropriate to use for our task to get around the “speech unit” issue. Thank you for your help! Emma Duffy