Speech Science Primer Chapter 6: Articulation and Acoustics of Consonants

Vocabulary practice flashcards defining key terminology, acoustic phenomena, and articulatory classifications from Chapter 6 on consonant articulation and acoustics.

Sonorants

A family of consonant sounds that allow relatively free airflow and have a regular voiced source, such as [m], [n], [l], [r], [y], and [w].

Obstruents

Consonants that restrict or stop airflow to create noise from air pressure or turbulence, which may be voiced or voiceless and include stops, fricatives, and affricates.

Periodic Source

A sound source supplied by vibrating vocal folds in voiced sounds.

Aperiodic Source

A noisy sound source created above the vocal folds by air rushing through a narrow constriction or releasing from a complete closure.

Approximants

Resonant consonants produced with the articulators approaching one another without coming close enough to create strong turbulence, encompassing liquids and glides.

Glides

Approximants such as [j] and [w] whose acoustic signatures change rapidly into or out of adjacent vowels.

Spectrogram

A visual display of sound where the vertical axis represents frequency, the horizontal axis represents time, and darker areas indicate stronger sound energy.

First Formant ($F_1$)

An acoustic resonance of the vocal tract that relates primarily to tongue height.

Second Formant ($F_2$)

An acoustic resonance of the vocal tract that relates primarily to front versus back tongue position.

Third Formant ($F_3$)

An acoustic resonance that provides additional acoustic information about vocal tract shape.

Liquids

Approximant consonants, specifically [l] and [r], where air flows around the tongue or multiple tongue shapes are used, often functioning as syllabic nuclei.

Nasal Murmur / Nasal Resonance

A prominent low-frequency resonance occurring around $200\text{ to }300\,\text{Hz}$ when the velopharyngeal port opens to couple the nasal cavities with the vocal tract.

Antiresonances

A reduction in acoustic energy at particular frequencies where sound is absorbed or cancelled in the vocal tract system.

Fricatives

Nonresonant consonants produced by forcing airflow continuously through a narrow constriction to generate sustained turbulent noise.

Non-sibilant Fricatives

Fricatives such as [f], [v], and the dental fricatives ([$\theta$], [$\eth$]) that produce a softer hiss with lower intensity spread across frequencies due to having little front cavity space.

Sibilants

Fricatives such as [s] and [$\int$] that generate a stronger hiss by directing airflow against the teeth or using longer front cavities that filter noise energy.

Stops

Obstruent consonants produced in three successive stages: complete closure of the vocal tract, intraoral pressure buildup, and sudden burst release.

Voice Onset Time (VOT)

The duration of time between the release of a stop closure and the onset of vocal fold vibration.

Voicing Lead

A pattern where vocal fold vibration begins before the stop release, resulting in a negative Voice Onset Time.

Short Lag VOT

A timing pattern where vocal fold vibration begins immediately or shortly after the release of a stop consonant.

Long Lag VOT

A pattern where a noticeable delay accompanied by aspiration occurs between the release of a stop closure and the start of vocal fold vibration.

Affricates

Complex consonants that begin with a complete stop closure and release into a stretch of sustained friction noise.

Velopharyngeal Port

The opening between the oropharynx and the nasal cavity that closes to build intraoral pressure for oral stops and fricatives, or opens to allow nasal resonance.

Assimilation

A contextual speech process where a speech sound alters its phonetic characteristics to become more like an adjacent or nearby sound.

Anticipatory Assimilation

A type of assimilation where an upcoming later sound influences the production of an earlier sound.

Carryover Assimilation

A type of assimilation where an earlier sound influences the features of a subsequent sound.

Coarticulation

The temporal overlapping of articulatory movements for neighboring sounds during connected speech.