Phonetics Quiz 5

What is a formant?

an overtone of a sound wave at a resonating frequency caused by a structure in the vocal tract, for example the tongue

What types of sounds have formants?

vowels and some consonants have formants

Are vowels simple or complex sounds?

complex

Are vowels periodic or aperiodic sounds?

periodic

What information is represented on the x-axis of a waveform?

time

What information is represented on the y-axis of a waveform?

amplitude

What information is represented on the x-axis of a spectrogram?

time

What information is represented on the y-axis of a spectrogram?

frequency

What is the third dimension of a spectrogram?

amplitude

How is the third dimension on a spectrogram represented?

darkness

What does the first formant tell us about the articulatory dimensions of a vowel?

tongue height

inversely related to vowel height

high F1 → low tongue

low F1 → high tongue

What does the second formant tell us about the articulatory dimensions of a vowel?

tongue advancement

directly related to tongue advancement

high F2 → front vowel

low F2 → back vowel

What type of wave occurs when the vocal folds are not vibrating?

complex aperiodic

What type of wave occurs when the vocal folds are vibrating?

complex periodic

Why can there not be sound in a vacuum?

if you suck out all the air, create a vacuum, there is no way for sound to travel, aka there is no medium

How are frequency and pitch related?

pitch: the perception of frequency

if frequency increases then pitch increases (vice versa)

What is a transverse wave?

a wave in which the motion of the medium is perpendicular to the motion of the wave

What is a longitudinal wave?

(a.k.a. compression wave) a wave in which the motion of the medium is parallel to the motion of the wave

this is sound

What travels in a sound wave, the particles or the energy?

the energy travels not the particles

What are characteristics of sound waves?

waves of pressure

vibratory pattern propagated to adjacent particles

adjacent particles stimulate more particles

What is sound?

vibration through a medium

• vibration: back and forth movement of a mass

• medium: mass and elasticity

• mass: quantity of matter

• elasticity: ability of a mass to return to its natural state

What is compression?

air molecules are more crowded together than usual (density increases)

What is rarefaction?

air molecules are spread farther apart than usual (density decreases)

What is a waveform?

the amount of pressure exerted by the air molecules across time

What is frequency?

number of cycles completed in one second (how fast)

rate of vibration of the sound source

cycle: each back and forth movement

measured in Hertz (Hz) which is number of cycles per second

What is amplitude?

how big the swings are

amplitude of a wave is related to the energy which it transports

higher amplitude will be louder

sound level is usually measured in the decibel (dB) scale

What are the domains of sound?

physical domain: frequency, amplitude

psychophysical domain: pitch, loudness

What is resonance?

occurs as vibrating airstream passes through the cavities of the vocal tract (certain sounds are amplified or subdued, voice quality)

items will vibrate with greater amplitude at certain frequencies (resonant frequency)

determined by the item’s shape and mass

like pumping your legs at the right time on a swing

our vocal tract also has a resonant frequency

What is a complex wave?

composed of multiple sinusoids, each with a different frequency

What is the difference between periodic and aperiodic sounds?

periodic have repeated patterns

aperiodic don’t have repeating patterns

What are speech sounds? Complex or simple?

all speech sounds are complex, but some are periodic or aperiodic

if there is a pattern then it is periodic complex

What is a phase?

starting point of a cycle of vibration

important when combining sounds

What will vowels always be?

complex periodic

What are complex periodic sounds?

made up of a series of sound waves, the harmonics

the fundamental frequency is lowest frequency component

vowels are complex periodic waves with both pitch and overtone (formants) → action in vowels

most prominent cycle= rate of vocal fold vibrations

What are multiples of fundamental frequencies?

harmonics

What is the source filter theory?

source + filter = speech sound

source: vocal folds, where sound is coming from

filter: vocal tract

can make filter, but without source there is no speech sound