UCLA: SPAPL CVC tokens

Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) tokens

A database of 36 CVC nonsense syllables is available on this website. It covers a set of 13 consonants (/p/, /t/, /b/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /s/, /z/, /m/, /n/, /h/, /l/, /r/) and 3 vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/) which are recorded in a sound proof booth by two talkers (1 male and 1 female) at two different speaking rates (fast and slow). It is important to note that, in the CVC list that we used, all 13 consonants do not appear in the syllable initial and final location.

Table 1: CVC tokens
a tokens i tokens u tokens
bak big bul
ban bis dug
das his hun
had kiz kum
hal lim mul
has mis puk
kal miz put
lan pim ruk
mal riz rus
mat sig sum
ral tid tuk
tal tig tup


Two repetitions of each syllable were obtained in the carrier phrase /a/-/CVC/ at normal and fast speech rates. This gave a set of 144 CVCs per talker (36 CVCs, 2 repetitions, 2 speaking rates). These were recorded by two native speakers of U.S English. The phrase /a/-/CVC/ was chosen as a compromise between the use of a carrier phrase (which could increase the memory and attention burden for listeners) and using isolated CVCs which lack formant transition cues at the beginning of the syllable. Stimuli were directly digitized at a sampling rate of 16 kHz.

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