Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions relevant to perception of 13 Japanese consonant phonemes. Nine subjects read aloud a list of pairs of monosyllables (C+/a/) and judged the auditory similarity of consonants to each other. Similarity responses were analyzed by INDSCAL and Hayashi's Quantification Theory I. Four distinctive features in Chomsky-Halle feature system were found to be important through the latter analysis. Three-dimensional configuration derived from the former one was interpreted on the basis of these articulatory features. Dimension 1 was interpreted as the effects upon the perception produced by both the feature [strident] and [coronal], Dimension 2 by [[-sonorant]∧[+voiced]], and Dimension 3 by both [voiced] and [sonorant]. This interpretation proved to be highly valid.
