Speech Science Exam 2 - vowels and consonants

why do no absolute values for F1, F2, F3 exist

every speaker has different vocal tract length and resonating cavity size

F1/F2 relationship between vowels

there is variability in each vowel before moving from one vowel to the next

tense vowel duration

longer

lax vowel duration

shorter

perception of a vowel

formant fqs tell what vowel it is, duration tells whether tense or lax

diphthongs

two vowels within the same syllabic nuclei, smooth glide from one vowel to the next

cues for diphthong

onglide, offglide, rate of change

onglide

articulatory starting point of diphthong, the change of the first vowel

offglide

articulatory ending point of diphthong

rate of change

how quickly diphthong changes from first vowel to last

initial and final vowel

steady vowels at start and end of diphthong

diphthong formant fqs

each diphthong has a characteristic F1-F2 pattern

spectrogram

x-axis = time, y-axis = frequency, shading = intensity

narrow bandwidth

harmonic structure

wide bandwidth

formant structure

wideband filter

sees multiple harmonics at once, looking for formant fqs

narrowband filter

sees one harmonic at a time

wideband spectrogram

formant frequencies are most shaded areas

coarticulation

simultaneously articulating more than one phoneme

what does coarticulation effect

onset and offset, perception of consonants

vowel transitions

transition between vowel and consonant (VC) or consonant and vowel (CV)

phonetic description of consonants

voicing, place, manner

place of articulation

tongue + fixed point of articulation (ex: bilabial)

manner of articulation

restriction of airflow (ex: stop)

cues for voiced stops

longer stop gap, burst noise/release, hardly any aspiration noise, shorter voice onset time, voice bar

cues for voiceless stops

shorter stop gap, burst noise/release, longer aspiration noise, longer voice onset time

stop gap

silence and build up of pressure before release

release burst

transient burst noise on release of the occlusion and impounded air, longer for voiceless

aspiration

brief hiss of air, coarticulation effect

voice onset time

amount of time from burst/release to onset of voicing

prevoicing

voicing begins just before release

simultaneous voicing

voicing begins on release

VOT for voiced and voiceless consonants

<20 ms = voiced, >25 ms = voiceless

voice bar

shading shown at low fq during voiced consonant

what is a cue for voice onset time

forman frequency, slight elevation after voiceless stops and will stay the same after voiced stops

F2 transition

acoustic cue to the consonant place of articulation, will change when place changes

F1 transition

acoustic cue to the consonant manner of articulation, will change when manner changes

formant transition

curve before F1 and F2

cues for voiceless fricatives

high frequency turbulent noise and noise throughout

formant transitions for fricatives (CV)

F1 increases, F2 changes depending on vowel

cues for voiced fricatives

lower frequency turbulent noise, voice bar

cue for glottal voiceless fricative (h)

high turbulent noise throughout but no constriction so vocal tract is still positioned to produce vowel

duration of vowels preceding fricatives

voiced = longer duration, voiceless = shorter duration