• Volume/Page
  • Keyword
  • DOI
  • Citation
  • Advanced
   
 
 
 

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

SECTION LISTING

BROWSE VOLUMES

Year Range: 
Search Issue | RSS Feeds RSS
Previous Issue Next Issue

Nov 1989

Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S1-S125

Return to All Sections
back to top
RSS Feeds
back to top Session TT. Speech Communication IX: Articulation: Measurements and Models
Contributed Papers
FREE

Recovery of tongue function for speech and swallowing in partial glossectomy patients (A)

Sandra L. Hamlet, Robin Patterson, and Susan Fleming

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S113-S113 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Most previous research on glossectomy speech has been cross sectional—patients were tested at only one point in time, usually several months or years post surgery. This study of oral cancer patients was designed to provide insight into the development of compensatory articulation and swallowing patterns in the early post surgery and subsequent radiation therapy period. Synchronized videofluoroscopic and acoustical recordings of speech and swallowing were made at specified times during and after cancer treatment. Tongue mobility relative to the jaw was greater post radiation treatment compared to post surgery. Expected co‐articulatory variation in second formant frequency of vowels, as a function of consonant context, did not reappear until 6 months post treatment. Tongue activity for the oral phase of swallowing showed similar recovery of differential patterns related to bolus volume. Data on rule‐governed subtleties of tongue activity related to details of the speech or swallowing context provide a sensitive measure of reestablishment of naturalness in tongue function.
FREE

Cross‐sectional tongue shapes and palatal contours during sibilant and lateral consonants (A)

Maureen Stone, Lawrence J. Raphael, and Alice Faber

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S113-S113 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
This presentation will examine the relationship between tongue shape and palatal contour during the production of /s/ , /ʃ/, and /l/. A combination of electropalatoraphy (EPG) and ultrasound (US) was used to compare tongue‐palate contact patterns with their related cross‐sectional tongue shapes. The phonemes /s/, /ʃ/, and /l/ are interesting to study because they are physiologically demanding. They necessitate distinct posterior tongue shapes to channel the air anteriorly (sibilants) or laterally (/l/). In addition, these phonemes exhibit specific palatal contact patterns that result in their unique acoustic waveforms. Another effect of tongue‐palate contact, which is usually overlooked, is the resultant bracing of the tongue. With the anterior tongue braced against the alveolar ridge, the posterior tongue is able to deform into a variety of cross‐sectional shapes (concave for /s/, convex for /l/).
FREE

Construction of a three‐dimensional tongue model (A)

Reiner Wilhelms

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S113-S113 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
A three‐dimensional model for the investigation of the dynamic behavior of the tongue is under study. Its purpose is to relate x‐ray microbeam‐measured movements of pellets on the tongue surface to muscle activity in the tongue, and to generate area functions of the vocal tract in order to specify directly the mapping from muscle activity to acoustic output, As a first step in a finite element description, a reference model of the tongue is constructed that can be adjusted to different individual shapes and structures of the tongue muscles, based on anatomical studies. A schematic topology of the tongue is generated by separating a region of a Cartesian space into simple geometric shapes representing different tissue components. A mapping from this descriptive space to a curvilinear coordinate system using B‐splines in three variables is specified to generate a realistic initial shape of the tongue. The orientation of muscle fibers can be determined by normalized gradient fields in the descriptive space.
FREE

Lip protrusion in sibilant production (A)

Alice Faber

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S113-S113 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
While anecdotal reports of lip protrusion contributing to sibilant production in a variety of languages exist, little attention has been paid to quantifying its contribution. In the present study, lip position was monitored using a modified SELSPOT optoelectronic tracking system, and location of oral constriction was simultaneously monitored by means of a RION artificial palate. Subjects (speakers of Catalan, English, German, and Italian) produced 50 tokens each of 6 (8) symmetrical VCV utterances, where V ranged over /iau(ü)/ and C over /sš/. As expected, /s/ has a more anterior constriction than /š/, with the constriction for /usu/ being the most anterior; and, there is more lip protrusion for /š/ than for /s/, except for in the /u_u/ context. Across utterance types, the combination of lip protrusion and constriction location is a better predictor of the frequency of a sibilant's centroid than is either parameter alone; within utterance types, lip protrusion and aperture are, in general, better predictors of centroid frequency than is constriction location. [Work supported by NIH Grant NS‐07237.]
FREE

The front‐cavity/F2′ hypothesis tested by data on tongue movements (A)

David J. Broad and Hynek Hermansky

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S113-S114 (1989); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
The hypothesis that the second spectral peak F2′ resulting from perceptual linear prediction (PLP) corresponds to the resonance of the front cavity of the vocal tract is tested against data on tongue movements for non‐low‐back vowels. The front cavity is represented for this case as a uniform tube of length Lf. Scaling between movements of the tongue Δx (range of a few centimeters) and of the vocal‐tract constriction ΔLf (range of about 10 cm) is represented by an articulatory amplification factor α: ΔLf = αΔx. If x is a tongue‐surface coordinate parallel to the tract axis, then 1/F2′ = k + 4αx/c, where k is a constant and c is the speed of sound. When x is the x coordinate of a tongue‐dorsum pellet tracked by x‐ray microbeam, the correlations between 1/F2′ and x are 0.74 and 0.75 for two speakers' triple repetitions of /wiwɹjuəjiɹ/. The respective estimates for α are 5.5 and 5.6. The correlations rise to 0.91 and 0.92 if x is a weighted sum of the x and y coordinates of three tongue pellets. Two predictions are thus confirmed: (1) a linear relation between 1/F2′ and tongue movements, and (2) reasonable values for α. A more complex model of the front cavity may be needed to handle low back vowels. [The authors thank George Papçun of Los Alamos National Laboratory for access to his x‐ray data.]
FREE

Interarticulatory relationships in vowel production (A)

Mona Lindau and Peter Ladefoged

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S114-S114 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
In earlier studies it has been shown that, within a language (English), the jaw and the tongue interact in different ways for different speakers to produce differences between vowels. These studies were, however, limited to front vowels. Using the x‐ray microbeam system, articulatory movements were recorded from pellets placed on the lips, mandible, and the tongue, in five speakers saying utterances illustrating all the English vowels. The results show some rather complex relationships. For example, for some speakers tongue height, as measured by the height of the tongue dorsum, does not always distinguish between the high front /i/ and mid front /e/ (e.g., in dee and day); but these vowels are distinguished by the height of the mandible. The height of the dorsum does separate the tense /i/ and the lax /ι/ (e.g., in dee and did) and the back /u/ and /o/ (e.g., in do and doe). The results also show the degree of consistency within individuals in favoring certain trading relationships between the lips, the mandible, and the tongue.
FREE

Articulatory and acoustic analysis of consonants differing in intelligibility (A)

H. Timothy Bunnell

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S114-S114 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Articulatory and acoustic recordings of a single talker producing multiple repetitions of nonsense utterances were made at the University of Wisconsin X‐Ray Microbeam facility. The utterances consisted of the fixed frames “Say a Cawa” and “Say a waCa” with C = {/b/, /d/, /g/}. Each utterance was repeated three times in each of three speaking styles ranging from an exaggerated style intended to be “clear” (i.e., easier for the hard of heating to understand) to a relaxed style intended to be “conversational.” The audio recordings were presented to hearing impaired listeners in a three‐alternative forced‐choice stop consonant identification task to determine the relative intelligibility of the stop consonants. By hypothesis, the clearest consonants would be found in utterances that exhibited the greatest amounts of articulatory and acoustic change. However, this pattern was not found. For utterances with syllable‐initial consonants (e.g., “Say a gawa”), actual intelligibility as estimated by percentage correct stop constant identification was inversely related to both the talkers intent and measures of the extent of articulator motion. Correlational analyses using both articulatory and acoustic measures to predict obtained intelligibility scores will be presented. [Work supported by NIH.]
FREE

Phase transitions in speech production and their perceptual consequences (A)

Betty Tuller and J. A. Scott Kelso

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S114-S114 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Previous work shows that the relative phasing of articulatory events varies little across two levels of speaking rate and stress. But, one may ask, varies little with respect to what? A methodology is required that differentiates articulatory patterns as they evolve in time. With this aim, subjects were instructed to say /ip/ or /pi/ repetitively, at increasing speaking rates, while monitoring their glottal and lip movements. For /pi/, the observed interarticulatory phase relationships did not depend on speaking rate. For /ip/, relative phasing often changed markedly, suggesting that loss of stability underlies articulatory change (a phase transition). In two follow‐up perceptual experiments, listeners appeared to judge the consonant's syllable affiliation on the basis of interarticulator relative phase, and did so in a “categorical” manner. These findings, interpreted in light of a theoretical model based on synergetics [Kelso et al., Physics Scripta 35, 79–87 (1987)], may help resolve controversies concerning whether or not a particular variable is an articulatory “invariant.” [Work supported by NIH and NIMH.]
FREE

Speech movement coordination: Oral‐laryngeal interactions (A)

Vincent L. Gracco and Anders Lofqvist

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S114-S114 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Kinematic investigations of speech motor actions have revealed elegant examples of coordinative motor control principles that reduce the degrees of movement freedom. For example, recent studies of upper lip, lower lip, and jaw movements for oral closure have demonstrated a temporal organization similar to rhythmic motor behavior such as locomotion. Consistent temporal coupling among multiple articulators is maintained and systematically scaled following unexpected mechanical perturbations of the lower lip or experimental manipulations of the phonetic environment. In order to generalize these apparent coordinative principles to include other phonetic environments and articulatory subsystems, the present study investigated the adjustments underlying lip, jaw, and vocal and vocal fold movements associated with various voiceless sounds. Movements of the upper lip, lower lip, jaw, and vocal folds were recorded. Kinematic measures, including relative timing among jaw, upper/lower lip, and glottal opening/closing (devoicing) movements were obtained. Results demonstrate that coordinative timing relations among the multiple articulators are systematically scaled as a function of movement speed and phonetic context. Thus, consistent relative timing among functionally related articulators is a general property of speech movement coordination. It is hypothesized that such a constraint while simplifying the motor control process can provide sufficient kinematic variability while maintaining the underlying synergistic organization. [Work supported by NIH.]
FREE

The kinematic of final lengthening in French (A)

Janet Fletcher and Eric Vatikiotis‐Bateson

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S114-S115 (1989); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
In a cross linguistic study of lip‐jaw motion, Vatikiotis‐Bateson (1988) showed that the kinematic patterns associated with the nonfinal accented‐unaccented contrast in French are similar to those found for the stressed‐unstressed contrast in English. Opening movements generally have longer durations, greater articulator amplitude, and higher peak velocity when accented than when unaccented. In the current study, the same French corpus is used to investigate final lengthening. Like English, French syllable duration is longer at the edge of intonational phrases than in preceding syllables. Yet, it is not clear what the articulatory correlates of this final lengthening are, nor to what extent they are language‐specific. A recent study of final lengthening in English (Edwards, Beckman, and Fletcher, in press) showed that the extra lengthening of pitch accented syllables that are also phrase‐final is accompanied by lower peak velocities in the latter part of the syllable with no change in articulator amplitude. However, initial results for French indicate that lengthening in phrase‐final syllables, which are always accented, is marked by higher articulator amplitude and peak velocity. Thus the kinematics of final lengthening is qualitatively similar to that of nonfinal accented syllables. The consequences for an articulatory and linguistic timing model of French will be discussed. [Work supported by Ohio State University, NSF, and NIH.]
FREE

Remote and local effects of stress within and among articulatory subsystems (A)

Carol A. Fowler, Vincent Gracco, and Eric Vatikiotis‐Bateson

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S115-S115 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Previous research on stress has focused almost exclusively on articulatory correlates local to a single target syllable within a single articulatory subsystem (e.g., the lip‐jaw or the respiratory system). However, the articulatory correlates of stress are not local in either sense. Although a few studies report remote effects of stress (effects not confined to the stressed segment) on the speech acoustics, articulatory studies have reported the effects of stress only for single subsystems (e.g., oral, laryngeal, and respiratory); there have been no systematic investigations of the extent to which stress effects are manifest throughout the speech production system. The present study investigates the effects of stress in the vocal tract and respiratory system. Lip and jaw and respiratory kinematics, laryngeal vibration, and intra oral air pressure were simultaneously recorded during recitation of sentences in which lexical, contrastive, or sentential (focus) stress were varied. Changes in the articulatory kinematics and in the relative timing of laryngeal, respiratory, and supralaryngeal activity are analyzed as a function of stress type and position in the utterance. Results suggest that the articulatory correlates of stress are distributed continuously within and across subsystems. [Work supported by NIH.]
FREE

Analysis of deaf speakers' breath stream dynamics during speech production (A)

James J. Mahshie and Pradeep K. Yadav

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S115-S115 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Computer simulations have been used to characterize and better understand the articulatory behavior of normal [M. Rothenberg, Biblio. Phon. (1968); E. Muller and S. Brown, Speech Lang. (1980)] and disordered [V. Gracco and E. Muller, ASHA 13 (1981)] speakers. In the present work, details of a computer simulation of breath stream dynamics of speech produced by deaf speakers will be presented. Oral airflow, oral air pressure, nasal airflow, electroglottograph, and acoustic data were acquired from both deaf and normal speakers during production of intervocalic bilabial plosives. Measures from these data were used to establish input parameters for simulation of both the deaf and normal‐hearing speakers' utterances. Among the parameters manipulated in the model were: airflow resistance at the articulatory constriction, nasal tract resistance, vocal tract enlargement, and glottal resistance. Pressure and flow outputs from both the simulations and speakers were compared. Advantages and limitations of the use of computer models to understand speech production processes of disordered speakers will be discussed. [Work supported by the Whitaker Foundation.]
FREE

In search of lingual stability (A)

Eric Vatikiotis‐Bateson and Maureen Stone

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S115-S115 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
In this study, commensurate data were obtained for tongue motion (coronal and sagittal ultrasound scans), lingual‐palatal contact patterns (dynamic palatography), and jaw motion (Selspot). Two subjects repeated /VCVCa/ combinations of /s,∫,l,i,a,o/. To date, the effects of consonant identity on jaw motion and palatal contact patterning have been examined, along with the anticipatory and carryover effects of the three vowels. Initial findings on both jaw height and palatal contact suggest that the tongue‐jaw coupling observed for sibilant production was modulated systematically according to adjacent vowel identity. In contrast to /s/ and /∫/, tongue‐jaw coupling for /l/ appears to be minimal as shown by the large token‐to‐token spatiotemporal variability of jaw motion. Instead, there is a very stable, yet highly asymmetrical pattern of lingual contact along the outer edge of the artificial palate. Analogous to the jaw's role in sibilant production, this may serve as a stabilizing brace for the tongue to achieve postures specific to /I/ production, which should be identifiable from analysis of the ultrasound data. These results are consistent with a task dynamic approach to interarticulator coordination [Saltzman (1986)]. [Work supported by NIH.]
FREE

Palatography: A comparison between custom‐made and “flexible” artificial palates for speech production measures (A)

Nancy S. McGart, Koichi Tsunoda, and Katherine S. Harris

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S115-S115 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
While dynamic palatography, a method of measuring tongue‐palate contact over time, has a long history, the method has seen limited use because of the need to custom‐make a palate for each subject. Recently, the Rion Company has developed a “universal” semiflexible palate, with 64 contact points, in several sizes. This methodological study was designed to assess the comparability of data from flexible and custom‐made palates, and the stability and reliability of flexible palate measures. Three speakers repeated multiple tokens of /isi/ and /asa/ with both palate types, and with flexible palates removed and replaced. While test‐retest reliability was satisfactory for flexible palates, the custom‐flexible comparisons revealed the need to develop measures of subject‐to‐subject differences in palate size and shape, if the technique is to develop its potential for large‐scale studies of articulation in normal and clinical populations. Comments will be made on analysis software, sampling rate, and contact‐point distribution. [Work supported by NIH Grant NS‐13617.]
FREE

An evaluation of an alternating magnetic field device for monitoring articulator movements (A)

Shuyong Shao, Betty Tuller, and J. A. Scott Kelso

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S115-S116 (1989); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
The understanding of articulator coordination during speech has been limited by the type of data that can be safely gathered. Specifically, noninvasive methods of monitoring tongue motions are still not widely available. One promising method is an alternating magnetic field device to track movements of multiple articulators in the midsagittal plane. This report concerns one such commercially available device, the Articulograph AG‐100. The principles of system design and operation have been reported previously by P. Schonle and colleagues, in Germany, who developed the system's prototype. Here, an intensive evaluation of system accuracy, repeatability, and linearity, as well as measurements of tongue positioning during speech will be presented. These results indicate that with proper precautions in transducer calibration and placement, the Articulograph can be a useful tool in speech production research. [Work supported by NIH and NIMH.]
FREE

Automatic alignment of phonetic events with x‐ray microbeam articulatory data and the acoustic speech signal (A)

J. H. Greenwald, A. K. Krishnamurthy, and O. Fujimura

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S116-S116 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
This paper describes an algorithm for the automatic alignment of phonetic events with x‐ray microbeam articulation data and the corresponding acoustic signal. The algorithm uses a two‐step procedure similar to that of Nelson [Nelson et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 63, S32 (1978); Nelson, AT&T Bell Laboratories Internal Rep. (1978)]. The first step locates the phrase boundary in continuous speech, and the second step matches the phonetic segments in each phrase. Articulatory and acoustic events are recognized in continuous speech, and matched to the predicted phonetic events using a dynamic programming technique. The place of articulation and voicing for certain phonemes are also matched with articulatory and acoustic events. The system is presently speaker dependent, and has to be trained to the articulatory data for the particular speaker. [Work supported by Ohio State University Speech and Heating Department.]
FREE

Quantitative comparison of articulatory models (A)

Michel T. T. Jackson

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 86, Issue S1, pp. S116-S116 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
Phonological theories invoke a number of different articulatory parametrizations. Traditional phonetic theories and some phonological theories parametrize vowel articulation in terms of tongue height and backness. Particle phonology [S. A. Schane, Phonology Yearbook 1, 129‐155 (1984)] parametrizes vowel articulation as blends of particular (extreme) articulations (i,u,a). Harshman, Ladefoged, and Goldstein Acoust. Soc. Am. 62, 693‐707 (1977)] parametrize English vowels using front‐raising and back‐raising factors, each of which generates a family of tongue positions. A multispeaker, cross‐linguistic database of x‐ray tracings [M.T.T. Jackson, UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 71, 1–232 (1988)] allows quantitative comparison of these proposals. Each proposal defines a vowel space: The coordinates of vowels in the vowel space can be fixed, and the articulatory correlates of the parameters using multivariate regression can be estimated. Each model can, therefore, be evaluated by standard methods, e.g., χ2 a tests. A number of such articulatory models have been investigated. The results suggest that front‐raising and back‐raising factors generalize well across languages and fit articulatory data better than height/backness‐ or particle‐based models.
Return to All Sections
Close

Home Publications Meetings Contact ASA Site Map Back to Top

Copyright © Acoustical Society of America

close