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May 1990

Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S1-S164

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back to top Session WW. Speech Communication IX: Measurements and Models of the Respiratory, Phonatory, and Articulatory Systems (Poster Session)
Contributed Papers
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Some physiological aspects of pausing and speaking in dialog (A)

I. Guaitella, D. Autesserre, and Y. Nishinuma

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S119-S119 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Respiratory aspects of speech in four conversing subjects were studied. The data show that (1) the breath regulating mechanism is independent of speech (phonation and pausing); (2) total dialog duration can be segmented into approximately one‐quarter of the time for breathing in, another quarter for phonation, and the rest for pausing, although the absolute durations show noticeable intra/intervariability; (3) breathing in takes less than 1 s, whereas expiration lasts four times as long; (4) “silent pausing” covers several physiological events: final expiration, breathing in, and prephonation pauses; (5) as a rule, interlocutors speak when their partner is pausing and listener/speaker speech overlapping is minimal.
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The effect of lung volume on voice onset time (A)

Nancy Pearl Solomon, Jeannette D. Hoit, and Thomas J. Hixon

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S119-S119 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The mechanical linkage between the respiratory apparatus and the larynx may have consequences on the acoustic speech signal. For example, at high lung volumes, the diaphragm usually flattens and pulls the trachea and larynx caudally, exerting a force that abducts the vocal folds. This abductory force may delay the onset of vocal fold vibration that could be realized acoustically as a delay in voice onset time (VOT). To examine this possibility, five young men produced repetitions of a six‐syllable phrase containing two stressed /pi/ syllables from the total lung capacity to the residual volume. Lung volume was determined with magnetometry and VOT for each /pi/ syllable was measured from spectrograms. VOT generally was longer at higher lung volumes than at lower lung volumes in four of the five subjects. This finding supports our hypothesis that the mechanical linkage between the respiratory apparatus and larynx can influence voicing onset. Further, it suggests the need to take lung volume into account when using VOT as an indicator of laryngeal behavior in individuals with speech and voice disorders. [Work supported by NIH.]
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Simultaneous measurement of respiratory and laryngeal function during comfortable, soft, and loud speech (A)

Elaine Stathopoulos and Christihe M. Sapienza

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S119-S119 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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It is well known that both respiratory and laryngeal mechanisms are involved in changing vocal intensity [T. J. Hixon, JSHR 16, 78–115 (1973); N. Isshiki, JSHR 7, 17–29 (1964)], although these have generally been studied separately. The present investigation studied these functions simultaneously while adult speakers produced comfortable, soft, and loud speech. Respiratory function was measured using linearized magnetometers. Laryngeal function was assessed using an electroglottograph and circumferentially vented pneumotachograph. An intraoral air pressure tube was used for estimating subglottal pressure. Analysis of preliminary respiratory data showed the following trends: increased ribcage‐, abdominal‐, and lung‐volume initiations, terminations, and excursions for loud as compared to soft and comfortable speech. Preliminary laryngeal function data indicate that open quotient decreased and estimated laryngeal resistance increased for loud as compared to comfortable and soft speech. Intraoral air pressure values doubled from comfortable to loud speech. Results indicate that respiratory and laryngeal systems are synchronized to produce changes in vocal intensity. Individual subject variability will be discussed in the presentation. [Work supported by NIH.]
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Fundamental frequency variation in sustained vowel productions of 6‐ to 8‐year‐old children (A)

Christine Sapienza and Joan E. Sussman

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S119-S119 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The purpose of this study was to determined the inherent variability of children's vocal fold vibration during sustained phonation of [a], [i], and [u]. Numerous studies (Koike, 1973; Horii, 1979) have provided normative values for the period‐to‐period variation in fundamental frequency (jitter or perturbation) in adults; however, little valid data are available for children's voices. The present investigation, unlike previous work, studied live voice productions, an approach that reduces signal distortion and measurement error. Thirty children, aged 6 through 8 years, and ten adult females participated in individual experimental sessions. Accelerometer measures (vibrometer model 501m601) of fundamental frequency (F0) and either F0 perturbation or jitter were calculated using both the Kay Elementrics Visipitch (model 6095) and cspeech software analysis program (Milenkovic, 1989). The following variables were studied: (1) vital capacity, height, weight, and gender compared to acoustic measures for children and (2) the amount of jitter (and F0 perturbation) for children versus adults. Additionally, Visipitch and CSpeech measures were correlated to observe their similarity. Results clarify whether developmental differences in the vocal fold structure of children are reflected in measures of F0 variability. Initial data will be provided for future comparison to measures from children with voice disorders.
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Pseudo “geminates” in French (A)

A. S. Del Negro and A. Marchal

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S119-S120 (1990); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Geminates are usually described as sequences of two identical articulations. They can be found in the same word and have, for a number of languages, a phonological status. They can also result from the concatenation of two homorganic consonants at word boundaries. This latter case has been explored for French stops to an acoustic and articulatory study. The important question, then, is to know whether geminated segments differ from long consonants. Ten speakers read ten times (five normal and five fast speech rate) 36 natural sentences of the following form: S1 S2 S3 (Co)V11 ≠  XV21(CF), where V1 = a; V2 = i,a,u; X = t,d,k,g,tt,dd,kk,gg,td,dt,kg,gk. Electropalatographic and airflow data were synchronously recorded from three speakers. Main results for stop geminates compared with corresponding single consonants are the following: (1) A “geminate” is not produced with greater linguo‐palatal contact; (2) there is no significant duration difference; (3) for voiced consonants, the voicing is maintained throughout the closure phase; (4) there is no indication of a time varying force of articulation; and (5) there is no trace of any rearticulation process. A further perceptual study is needed to assess the respective roles of context and other acoustic cues in distinguishing single consonants from “geminates.”
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VOT development in Hindi and in English (A)

Katharine Davis

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S120-S120 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The present study compares voice onset time (VOT) productions across age groups in Hindi and in English, which have four‐way and two‐way phonemic voicing contrasts, respectively. Both voicing lead times and post‐release VOTs were taken from initial velar stops in isolated monosyllabic words. Data were elicited from monolingual adults and children (ages 2–6 years). Vowel quality effects were controlled. A two‐way analysis of variance showed that for all age groups in both languages, phonemic voice category had a significant effect on VOT. Pairwise comparisons on the Hindi data, however, revealed that, although all pair had significant mean post‐release VOT differences in the adult group, significant /k/ vs /g/ differences were not noted until 6 years of age. The /k/ vs /kh/ pair did exhibit significantly different mean VOTs from the age of 2, suggesting that when wider mean VOT differences are noted in the adult phonemes, the children are more likely to acquire the contrast at an early age. The more complex /gh/ was not adultlike, even at 6 years. The English subjects demonstrated significant differences at all ages, perhaps because the English mean VOT differences are at least as wide as those in the Hindi /k/ vs /kh/ contrast. In both languages, lead timings were not adultlike in the younger groups, which supports the claim that lead voicing is more difficult to acquire than either short‐ or long‐lag timing. Repeated measures analyses showed significant interactions for VOT between age group and the target phonemic category, demonstrating a steady progression toward the adult model. The implications of these results for a universal phonetic category system are discussed.
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An automated method for matching a vocal fold contact area model to an EGG waveform (A)

Ingo R. Titze and Haixiang Liang

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S120-S120 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Electroglottography (EGG) signals arc routinely used for observation of vocal fold adduction and regularity in vocal fold vibration. Analysis over many cycles can be very tedious if waveform parameters arc extracted manually or semiautomatically. A parameter optimization strategy is used here to provide a list fit to a model, thereby allowing larger volumes of data to be processed. Processing speed and reliability of extraction depend on the type of model being used and the cleverness in choosing the appropriate seed values. [Work supported by NIH.]
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The time course of labial gestures for sibilant articulations (A)

Alice Faber

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S120-S120 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Simultaneous investigation of lip position and linguo‐palatal contact patterns for sibilants reveals that [ʃ] differs from [s] not only in its more posterior constriction, but also in increased lip protusion; this lip position contrast is neutralized for sibilants flanked by rounded vowels [A. Faber, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 86, S113 (1989)]. That conclusion is based on palatographic and movement data from one Italian and one German speaker. The current study examines displacement and velocity curves for the upper lip for these and other speakers. Preliminary analysis indicates that, unlike /isi/ and /asa/, /usu/ has upper lip velocity peak coincident frication onset; this peak is smaller than that for [ʃ] in any vocalic context. These result, combined with the earlier finding of a linguo‐palatal constriction for /usu/ anterior to that for /isi/ or /asa/, suggest that the articulatory target for /s/ varies according to context. The lack of contrast between /usu/ and /uʃu/in absolute lip displacement should not, therefore, be treated as a passive consequence of the lip position required for the flanking /u/'s, but rather as an active response to the articulatory demands imposed by that context. [Work supported by NIH Grant NS‐00016.]
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Acoustic and physiological study of traditional Japanese singing (A)

Noriko Kobayashi, Yoh'ichi Tohkura, Seiichi Tenpaku, Ghen Ohyama, Kiyoshi Honda, and Seiji Niimi

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S120-S120 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Acoustic and physiological characteristics of four genres of traditional Japanese singing were extracted. Subjects were professional singers of each genre: Sohkyoku, Yohkyoku, Minyoh, and Kyogen. Audio and video‐fiberseopic recordings were made, while the singers were producing the singing voice of some typical phrases of their singing modes and the speaking voice as well. EGG recording was also made for a singer of Kyogen. Spectral analyses revealed prominent peaks at 4–4.5 kHz in the subject's singing voice, implying an evidence for the “singing formant” of traditional Japanese singing. Acoustic characteristics of the peculiar tone ornament suggest that the singers controlled F0 and intensity independently. Fiberscopic observation of the vocal tract and EGG signals provided some physiological bases to understand the singers' fine control of the phonatory system for such specific voice production.
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Ultra‐high rate digital sampling: Jitter, shimmer, and spectral perturbation of speech (A)

A. Yonovitz and John Ostuni

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S120-S120 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The glottal function was obtained through the use of a reflectionless tube. This tube acted as a pseudoinfinite termination of the vocal tract. Male and female speakers phonated a neutral vowel while target matching to a 125‐ and 210‐Hz tone, respectively. The glottal waveform was digitized at 1 000 samples per second with a resolution of 12 bits. Each cycle was partitioned at an interpolated zero‐crossing. This procedure provided an accurate determination of the period of each glottal pulse. The spectral content of each individual cycle was determined by discrete Fourier analysis. The amplitude and phase of the first 20 harmonics were determined for each cycle. These harmonics were utilized to determine separate perturbation values, as well as an overall amplitude measure. The data showed a systematic change in the spectral character of the sustained vowel source signal. Spectral perturbation analysis may be a more inclusive measure of waveshape changes than jitter or shimmer.
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Protective laryngeal closure during swallowing (A)

Sandra L. Hamlet and Richard Carr

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S120-S120 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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This investigation was part of a general research effort to develop noninvasive methods for examining swallowing, which may serve as a supplement or alternative to conventional radiological techniques. The temporal onset of laryngeal closure during swallowing was monitored simultaneously with real‐time ultrasonic scanning and electroglottography. Application of both techniques is complicated by extensive laryngeal excursions during deglutition. Transverse ultrasonic scans, although capable of showing anatomically clear vocal fold abduction and adduction activity, are especially sensitive to transducer position. In young adults, a sagittal placement of a linear array transducer yielded distinctive and consistent echo evidence of laryngeal closure, with temporal correspondence to an electroglottic signal feature indicative of the onset of sustained laryngeal closure in swallowing. The applications and limitations of these techniques for swallowing study are reviewed. [Work supported by NIH, CA 43838.]
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Acoustic effects of smiling on the voice (A)

Deborah M. Rekart

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S121-S121 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The utterance “How are you?” was produced by ten female speakers of American English in two conditions: smiling and not smiling. Spectrographic analysis revealed that smiling had no observable effect on the first two formant frequencies of the last stressed vowel [u]. However, cross sections of the vowel revealed a strong peak of intensity around 2500 Hz, which was identified as “singer's formant.” It is suggested that this formant is a result of laryngeal constriction in the aryepiglottic sphincter muscle above the vocal folds. A perception experiment showed that ten female listeners could distinguish significantly between “smiling” and “unsmiling” stimuli, and that they were equally confident about both types of judgments.
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Noise at the glottis during speech production (A)

Kenneth N. Stevens

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S121-S121 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Turbulence in the airflow near the glottis can result in the generation of noise, usually called aspiration noise. This noise can occur with or without vocal fold vibration, and can exist in conjunction with other sources of noise at constrictions above the glottis. Based on theoretical considerations, together with experimental data from speech acoustics and from models, a method has been developed for estimating the level, spectrum, and location of the aspiration noise source from knowledge of the glottal opening and the airflow. Some uncertainties remain in predicting the level of the source because of individual differences in airway configuration. Calculations of the radiated sound pressure for breathy voicing, for aspirated consonants, and for sounds with supraglottal constriction lead to absolute levels and spectra that are consistent with measured data for utterances from several speakers. These theoretical analyses can be used to aid in the development of improved methods for the systhesis of speech and for the interpretation of acoustic data from speech. [Work supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.]
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Distinctive characters of the articulation of r‐like sounds (A)

Liao Rongrong

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S121-S121 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Linguists have been paying attention to r‐like sounds for a long time, trying to find both acoustic and articulatory aspects of the distinctive features of these sounds. Ladefoged et al. [J. Phon. 11, 291–302 (1983)] explained the grouping of these sounds across languages by “family resemblance” in articulation. Lindau [Phonet. Linguist., 157–168 (1985)] gave the same explanation to the grouping from an acoustic point of view. This study focuses on analyzing the place of articulation of r‐like sounds by studying x‐ray data from English, Chinese, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Urdu, Polish, and Russian. It argues for the extreme importance of the existence of a sublingual cavity for the distinctive articulation of sounds.
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Formant estimation in child and chimpanzee vocalizations (A)

Harold R. Bauer and Michael P. Robb

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S121-S121 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The high fundamental frequency [F0] of human child and common chimpanzee vocalizations presents problems for formant estimation. Existing work on infant and chimpanzee vocalizations raises questions of formant accuracy, vocal tract configuration, harmonic‐formant interactions, and voicing or noise source. The present study attempts a brief, systematic analysis of the relationship between F0 and formant frequency in the context of child and chimpanzee vocalizations. Selected examples of child and chimpanzee vocalizations are spectrally analyzed and presented for discussion. The findings will be discussed with respect to analysis of harmonic‐formant interactions and published interpretations of child and chimpanzee vocalizations.
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Placement variability in intraoral pressure (A)

Kim A. Wilcox, J. Anthony Seikel, and David G. Drumright

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S121-S121 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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A traditional understanding of the speech waveform of vowels assumes that the extraoral acoustic output is the product of the combination of a glottal source and the filter function of the oral tract. This approach, while functional, does not assess point differences of the acoustic signal within the oral tract. The present study compares the output waveform with differences in intraoral pressure at specific locations within the oral cavity. A probe microphone system was developed to measure the localized signal at 68 points within the oral cavity. The present data show that the third formant varies most widely, with diminishing differences as the probe moved anteriorally. Observed variations in F3 include (1) additional resonant lobes, (2) frequency shifts, and (3) complete formant ablation. While F1 and F2 are relatively stable, the strength of component resonant lobes is shown to vary as a function of measurement location. Results will be displayed relative to an oral‐cavity map. [Work supported by Univ. of Kansas, General Research Fund, and USDE.]
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Evidence from glottal articulation for the analysis of intrusive stops in English (A)

Sook‐Hyang Lee

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S121-S122 (1990); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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In American English, an intrusive stop occurs before the fricative in words such as tense and false, making them sound like tents and faults, where the stop is specified in the underlying phonological representation. Ohala (1975) treats the inserted stop as a universal phonetic artifact, whereas Zwicky (1972) treats it as the output of a language‐specific phonological rule. However, Ohala's approach cannot explain why South African English speakers do not have intrusive stops, whereas Zwicky's cannot explain why the duration of the inserted stop closure is significantly shorter than that of the underlying stop (Fourakis and Port, 1986). Fourakis and Port therefore suggest that intrusive stops are not part of the phonological representation, but are products of language‐specific phonetic rules. Clements (1987), on the other hand, uses autosegmental phonology to give them a different phonological representation from the underlying stops. He argues that in dialects where underlying voiceless stops in the syllable coda trigger rules of glottalization, the intrusive stops do, also. An examination of utterances by three speakers of a Midwestern dialect, where voiceless stops in syllable codas are glottalized, seems to support Clements's claim. Simultaneously gathered EGG data are being examined to provide a more objective confirmation of the impression that the inserted stops are glottalized.
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Coarticulation effects in American English velar and alveolar stop consonants: An electropalatographical and acoustical analysis (A)

Noriko Suzuki

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S122-S122 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Coarticulation effects of post‐consonantal vowels on the place of tongue contact for American English velar and alveolar stop consonants were examined through simultaneous measurements with a new type of electropalatography (EPG) and with spectral analysis. The EPG system, developed by the author, has 49 electrodes, and is used to observe lingual contact with the soft palate, hard palate, and upper incisal teeth. It can record the palatograms at a 7.8‐ms frame interval. The resulting palatograms can be compared with acoustic spectra made from simultaneous speech recordings. One American male subject produced VCV utternances in which the consonants were /k/, /g/, /t/, and /d/, and the vowels were /a/, /o/, /u/, /e/, and /i/. The results confirm that the tongue contact position for American English velar stop consonants is more strongly influenced by the vowels following it than for alveolar stop consonants. The value of F2 around the release burst was consistent with the strong coarticulation effects observed with the EPG.
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The features ATR in Akan and emphasis in Arabic (A)

Sook‐Hyang Lee

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S122-S122 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Akan contrasts two sets of vowels, one in which the tongue root is advanced and the larynx lowered (+ATR), and another in which the tongue root is retracted (−ATR) [Lindau, J. Phon. 7, 177–186 (1979)]. Arabic contrasts two sets of consonants, one in which the pharynx is constricted (+emphasis) and another in which it is not (−emphasis). Card [Cornell Ph.D. dissertation (1983)] observes that [+ emphasis] spreads to vowels and consonants within the same word. Lindau suggests that the two phenomena can be combined as various settings along a single phonetic dimension of pharynx width, with [+ ATR] as maximally expanded and [+ emphasis] as maximally constricted, and that this dimension can be reduced to the binary phonological feature [± expanded], since no language contrasts more than two settings. This paper tests this hypothesis. Measurements of pharyngeal diameter were taken from x‐ray tracings from productions by one Arabic speaker and three Akan speakers, and multivariate analysis of variance was performed. The results showed significant interaction between the more and less expanded feature values and the two languages, implying that emphasis in Arabic is controlled by a different mechanism from that used for [± ATR] in Akan.
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Computerized extraction of the tongue surface from sequences of ultrasound images (A)

Michael Unser and Maureen Stone

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S122-S122 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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An image‐processing system has been developed for a Macintosh II personal computer. It is designed to process individual sagittal tongue sections that are digitized in real time and stored in standard TIFF format. The successive processing steps are (a) a prefilter (smoothing and vertical differentiation) for noise reduction and enhancement of the tissue‐air interface in the surface region of the tongue, (b) a resampling of the sector of interest in polar coordinates, and (c) an extraction of border points by searching for an optimal radial path along the angular dimension. This latter task is performed very efficiently using dynamic programming, which has the following advantages. First, the procedure is very robust due to the use of a global criterion to guide the detection. Second, the allowable transitions. Finally, the method allows an optional specification of some ultrasound data will be presented.
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Estimation of elasticity and viscosity parameters of muscles for speech production models (A)

Reiner Wilhelms

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S122-S122 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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In connection with a project on a dynamic three‐dimensional tongue model, a constitutive description of tongue muscles is needed. This does not only include elastic coefficients, but also viscoelastic parameters of the inactive as well as for the activated muscles. A number of documented and published experiments were done on related areas, usually using different muscles, like muscular tissue of vocal folds, heart muscles, etc. Many of these used small elastic deformation as the underlying theory that only allows for linear stress‐strain relations and small strains. A more general method for describing the elastic and myoelastic behavior is by a strain energy function for large deformation. The appropriate elastic parameters then are parameters in the strain energy function. This study describes a method to estimate the parameters from observation of the motion of several points on the surface of a free oscillating specimen.
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Lip rounding and formant frequencies of the Nantong vowel system (A)

Benjamin Ao

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S122-S122 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Nantong, a Chinese dialect spoken in the northern Yangtze Delta, has six high vowels: [i], [y], [ɯ], [u], and two others that are like [i] and [y] produced with strong laminal frication (represented as [Ʒ] and [Ʒw], respectively). This paper examines the lip position and formant frequencies of these and five other vowels in order to characterize the Nantong vowel space. Three native speakers (two males and one female) were videotaped, producing each of the 11 vowels preceded by each of the phonotactically possible consonants. Measurements of lip position similar to those used in Linker [“A cross‐linguistic study of lip position in vowels,” UCLA Working Papers in Phoneties 51, 1–35 (1982)] were taken from the recorded video images. Preliminary results show that the three pairs of the nonback high and midvowels [i/y], [Ʒ/Ʒw], and [e/ə] have similar F2 frequencies, and therefore cannot be represented with F1 and F2. They also show that the first vowel in each pair has a higher F3 than the second one. An improved representation of the vowel space is thus obtained by plotting F1 against F2′, as weighted average of F2 and F3 calculated under the same principle as discussed in Bladon and Fant [“A two‐formant model and the cardinal vowels,” R. Inst. Tech., Speech Trans. Lab., Stockholm, Q. Prog. Stat. Rep. 1 (1978)]. Finally, it is demonstrated that a fairly good correlation exists between lip rounding and F3 lowering with most of the vowels investigated.
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A comparison of glossometric measurements of tongue position with magnetic resonance images of the vocal tract (A)

Martin J. McCutcheon, Sungbok Lee, A. V. Lakshminarayanan, and Samuel G. Fletcher

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S122-S123 (1990); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The use of an opto‐electronic sensing device called a “glossometer” for measurement of tongue position during vowel production has been previously reported [Smith et al, Biomedical Engineering V: Recent Developments, edited by S. Saha (Pergamon, New York, 1986)]. However, while repeatability of this measurement has been well established, its accuracy has not been established due to the lack of an alternative, low‐risk technique for comparison. Recently, magnetic resonance (MR) images have been used to obtain vocal tract measurements. [Lakshminarayanan et al., RSNA, Work in Progress—Physics 173(P), 411 (1989)]. In this study, the performance of both systems was evaluated and compared using three custom‐made, tongue‐palate spacers to hold the tongue steady at three different positions. Distances measured using the two systems were compared with direct measurements of the spacers. It was found that distances measured from the MR images were accurate to within 2 mm in the worst case, but the glossometer demonstrated some distance‐dependent error, suggesting a more refined calibration scheme for the glossometer. The experimental procedure and the result will be presented.
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Nonlinearity and phonetic segmentation (A)

A. Marchal and N. Nguyen‐Trong

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S123-S123 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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ESPRIT II basic research action “ACCOR” aims at investigating the articulatory‐acoustic correlations in coarticulatory processes in seven European languages (English, French, German, Italian, Irish, Spanish, and Swedish). In order to allow for cross‐language comparisons, it is particularly important that partners in the project adopt a common methodology, i.e., standardized investigation tools and normalized measurement procedures at specified locations in the speech signals. The physiologic and acoustic database first needs to be segmented and labeled according to principles that do not preclude any theorical intrepretation. The usual phonetic discretization at segment boundaries that implicitly considers coarticulation as a phonological feature spreading process is rejected. On the contrary, a nonlinear annotation of the articulatory and acoustic events has been adopted, based on the evidence provided by the different channels of information: acoustic sound wave, airflow traces, linguo‐palatal contact patterns, jaw and lips movement, etc. From a theoretical point of view, this approach has proven very productive and has given for the data a clear picture of coproduction processes, of the timing relationships among different submotor system activities, and of the dynamic properties of the articulatory gestures. It furthermore provides a sound basis for distinguishing between universal regularities and language‐specific constraints. This nonlinear procedure enables a unified interpretation of contradicting results obtained from different scholarly oriented segmentation operations.
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Electromagnetic articulography as a tool in the study of lingual coarticulation (A)

Philip Hoole and Stefan Gfoerer

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 87, Issue S1, pp. S123-S123 (1990); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Two recent papers [Schönle et al., Biomedizinische Technik 34, 126–130 (1989) and Shao et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 86, S115 (1989)] have evaluated a commercially available electromagnetic system for articulatory measurements, the articulograph AG‐100. The present investigation includes some complementary methodological studies followed by an analysis of vowel‐to‐vowel coarticulation in German speakers. Within the first area, discussion focuses on the problems encountered and the solutions chosen in adapting the system for large‐scale data collection, relevant topics including sample rates, noise, extension of the standard calibration procedures, detection of corrupted data by means of appropriate control tasks, and synchronization with audio recordings. Preliminary work in the second area suggested that the spatial magnitude of vocalic carryover effects in VCV sequences exceeded that of anticipatory effects at the midpoint of the intervening consonants. This will be reviewed in the light of two recent recordings (totaling some 1500 logatomes of the form /bV1CV2/) using three lingual transducers, and one each on upper and lower incisors. Tongue‐jaw interactions, as well as the problem of defining analysis points in lingual trajectories, will be discussed. [Work supported by ESPRIT/BRA.]
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