ABSTRACT
The time scale of speech patterns varies greatly according to which linguistic feature is under consideration. Elementary speech sounds are temporal patterns whose components may last 50-200 msec. The most fundamental type of human language is that which is spoken and heard. A particular speech sound is identified for stimuli which vary over a defined range of timing. However, when the relative timing of different components of a speech sound varies beyond the defined range, perceptual identification of the sound may shift quite abruptly to a different phoneme. All streams of incoming sensory information or outgoing behaviour can be defined in terms of temporal structure. The principle of fine temporal structure is most obvious for humans, consider the principle in more detail as it applies to humans, dealing in turn with the sensory stimuli which have to be analysed as speech perception, and for the motor mechanisms underlying speech production.
