EFFECTS OF PHASE DISTORTION 



557 



after an interval of time depending on the time constants of the 

 relay circuit alone. The time taken for the second relay to operate 

 represents the time clipped from the initial consonants of the syllables. 

 Fig. 4 shows the initial consonant articulation plotted against the 

 operating time of the second relay. If equal elements of time in the 



100 



Fig. 3 — •Importance of frequency range to articulation. 



duration intervals of the consonants are of equal importance, then the 

 clipping by an amount ^T should decrease the articulation by a factor, 



K= {\ - ATT), 

 where T is the average duration time of a consonant 



(1) 



In the above 



tests, the syllables were spoken separately. Oscillograms taken for 

 syllables spoken in a similar manner show an average duration time 

 of .16 seconds for the consonant sounds.^ The straight line in Fig. 4 

 was calculated by multipling the articulation obtained for zero operat- 

 ing time by a factor K as determined from the above equation with 

 ^Speech and Hearing, H. Fletcher, D. \'an Xostrand Co., Inc., 1929. 



