It is generally recognized that the most significant cue to accent location is fundamental frequency (Fo) in both Japanese and English. Furthermore, it is widely believed that a syllable is perceived as accented if the syllable contains an Fo peak. However, Sugito (1972) found that, in Japanese, if an Fo peak is followed by a steep Fo fall, the syllable preceding the Fo peak may be perceived as accented. In this article we present two experiments which investigate the relationship between Fo peak and Fo fall rate in accent perception for Japanese and English. The first experiment confirms that, for Japanese, both Fo peak location and Fo fall rate affect listeners' judgments of accent location. Specifically, the later the F0 peak occurs in a given syllable, relative to the syllable boundary, the greater the Fo fall rate necessary for listeners to perceive the preceding syllable as accented. The second experiment shows that this phenomenon is not unique to Japanese: Perception of accent location in English is also influenced by both Fo peak location and post-peak Fo fall rate.
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