The perception of the voiced and voiceless velar and pharyngeal fricatives / , x, , h/ and of /∫, s/ in Colloquial Egyptian Arabic was examined to determine if the presence of the first two or three formants in / , x, , h/ results in continuous perception, in contrast to an expected categorical perception of /∫, s/, which lack these formants. Three twelve-step series of VFV nonsense words were synthesized. For the /∫/-/s/ series, the center of a band of high-frequency noise was varied in equal steps. For the /x/-/h/ and / /-/ / series, the first formant was varied. Eight native speakers were asked to identify the stimuli and discriminate two-step differences in a 4IAX discrimination task. While the voiced / /-/ / series showed continuous or less categorical perception than the /∫/-/s/ series, the voiceless /x/-/h/ series was perceived somewhat categorically. This suggests that voicing alone, or in combination with acoustic information about the lower formants, may be a necessary condition for continuous perception.
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