The relation between acoustic and articulatory variation in vowels : data from American and Australian English

In studies of dialect variation, the articulatory nature of vowels is sometimes inferred from formant values using the following heuristic: F1 is inversely correlated with tongue height and F2 is inversely correlated with tongue backness. This study compared vowel formants and corresponding lingual articulation in two dialects of English, standard North American English and Australian English. Five speakers of North American English and four speakers of Australian English were recorded producing multiple repetitions of ten monophthongs embedded in the /sVd/ context. Simultaneous articulatory data were collected using electromagnetic articulography. Results show that there are significant correlations between tongue position and formants in the direction predicted by the heuristic but also that the relations implied by the heuristic break down under specific conditions. Articulatory vowel spaces, based on tongue dorsum (TD) position, and acoustic vowel spaces, based on formants, show systematic misalignment due in part to the influence of other articulatory factors, including lip rounding and tongue curvature on formant values. Incorporating these dimensions into our dialect comparison yields a richer description and a more robust understanding of how vowel formant patterns are reproduced within and across dialects

The phonological status of Dutch epenthetic schwa

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=114625.In this paper, we use articulatory measures to determine whether Dutch schwa epenthesis is an abstract phonological process or a concrete phonetic process depending on articulatory timing. We examine tongue position during /l/ before underlying schwa and epenthetic schwa and in coda position. We find greater tip raising before both types of schwa, indicating light /l/ before schwa and dark /l/ in coda position. We argue that the ability of epenthetic schwa to condition the /l/ alternation shows that Dutch schwa epenthesis is an abstract phonological process involving insertion of some unit, and cannot be accounted for within Articulatory Phonology

Biomechanics of the orofacial motor system: Influence of speaker-specific characteristics on speech production

International audienceOrofacial biomechanics has been shown to influence the time signals of speech production and to impose constraints with which the central nervous system has to contend in order to achieve the goals of speech production. After a short explanation of the concept of biomechanics and its link with the variables usually measured in phonetics, two modeling studies are presented, which exemplify the influence of speaker-specific vocal tract morphology and muscle anatomy on speech production. First, speaker-specific 2D biomechanical models of the vocal tract were used that accounted for inter-speaker differences in head morphology. In particular, speakers have different main fiber orientations in the Styloglossus Muscle. Focusing on vowel /i/ it was shown that these differences induce speaker-specific susceptibility to changes in this muscle's activation. Second, the study by Stavness et al. (2013) is summarized. These authors investigated the role of a potential inter-speaker variability of the Orbicularis Oris Muscle implementation with a 3D biomechanical face model. A deeper implementation tends to reduce lip aperture; an increase in peripheralness tends to increase lip protrusion. With these studies, we illustrate the fact that speaker-specific orofacial biomechanics influences the patterns of articulatory and acoustic variability, and the emergence of speech control strategies

Vowels of Hong Kong English: from an acoustic perspective

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007.Also available in print.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science