Reverberation effect on the clustering of Mandarin initials

The effect of perceptual similarity of Mandarin initials caused by reverberation is compared with the effect of noise masking in various Mandarin monosyllable clarity simulations.The results show that the perceptual similarity of Mandarin initials having reverberation is significantly higher than with noise masking.The clustering of Mandarin initials due to reverberation is hierarchized according to the physical location of the pronunciation whereas the clustering is hierarchized according to the pronunciation method during noise masking.The results can help identify the distinctive features of the initials.