Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
2 of 10
(1960) , p 106)
The actual cross-sectional shape of the vocal tract varies greatly along its length even
during the production of a neutral vowel, but these variations in shape have an
almost negligible effect on resonance. Cross-sectional area at each point is, on the
other hand, the main predictor of vocal tract resonance. Most mathematical models of
vocal tract resonance assume a circular cross-section shape with a cross-sectional
area equivalent to that of the vocal tract at each measured point between the lips and
glottis. Figure 2 displays seven cross-section shapes along the vocal tract taken from
the equivalently numbered locations in figure 1.
3 of 10
Figure 4: Graph of the cross-section area of the vocal tract during the
articulation of the vowel displayed in figures 1 and 2 with area
measurements taken in 37 0.5 cm steps from the mouth to the glottis.
The y-axis is vocal tract area in square centimetres. The x-axis is the
distance from the lips at each points, so the lips are to the left of the
graph and the glottis is to the right. (adapted from Fant (1960) , p 106)
Analog simulations of the vocal tract using electrical circuits in an analog computer
can provide solutions to very complex configurations based on many circular tubes in
series (up to 45 tubes in the case of Fant's LEA). Such systems are quite inflexible,
however, and need to be specially built to perform a particular task. In other words,
such systems are not general purpose computers. Mathematical solutions to such
models are extremely complex and it has generally been found desirable to limit
tube-based models of the vocal tract to much simpler models for use in calculation on
modern digital computers. Typically, such models utilise from one to four tubes. The
one tube case is limited to modeling the neutral vowel. Two and four tube models are
often used for modeling vowels (other than the neutral vowel). A three tube model is
often used for modeling consonants that have an oral constriction (eg. palatal and
velar consonants).
4 of 10
distinguished by the relative lengths of the front and back tubes. Figure 5 displays
two tube models for 6 vowels.
5 of 10
6 of 10
7 of 10
tract transfer function. The vocal tract transfer function predicts vocal tract resonance
patterns across the spectrum for a particular articulation. We build up a picture of the
total VT transfer function one resonance at a time using a standard mathematical
model of the resonance pattern of each individual resonance. Figure 8 illustrates one
such model.
Figure 8: Vocal tract transfer function. In the top panel is displayed the
individual transfer functions of the first four resonances of a neutral
vowel. The first four resonances will result in the first four vowel
formants and are so labeled. A fifth red curve (labeled HP) provides a
correction that accounts for all higher resonances. The bottom panel is
the entire vocal tract transfer function for this vowel and is obtained by
adding the dB values (or multiplying the linear intensity values) of the
individual resonance transfer functions. This results in a spectrum where
the peaks of the individual resonances are identical, if we assume that
the bandwidths of each resonance curve is the same. (adapted from
Stevens (1998) , p 133)
8 of 10
9 of 10
resonance frequency and bandwidth) and a lip radiation function that raises the
spectrum by +6 dB/octave. The output spectrum can be determined from these three
spectra by adding them together (if they're expressed in dB) or multiplying them
together (if they're expressed as linear intensities). The source and transfer functions
can be quite different for some classes of consonant (eg. fricatives), but the lip
radiation function and the procedure for determining the output spectrum is the same
as for vowels.
10 of 10
The narrower the constriction between two cavities the greater the acoustic
impedance. For example, the acoustic impedance between the front and back cavities
during the occlusion of an oral stop is very large and so the two cavities can be
treated as if they are uncoupled and their resonances are effectively independent.
This is also true, but to a lesser extent, for the front and back cavity during a
fricative. Coupled cavities exert an influence on the frequencies of each other's
fundamental resonances by reducing or increasing those frequencies. These
fundamental resonances are related to the length of the cavity and tend to be higher
for short cavities and lower for long cavities but acoustic coupling can affect this to
some extent.
Sometimes two formants are said to have "swapped cavity affiliation" (eg. F1 and F2
and the back and front cavities). This occurs because the formants F1 and F2 are
defined so that F1 is always less than F2. It doesn't matter which cavity F1 comes
from, as it is F1 because it is lower in frequency than F2. For some configurations the
fundamental resonance of the back cavity is lower than that of the front cavity. In
this case the resulting F1 is created by the resonance of the back cavity and the F2 is
created by the resonance of the front cavity. As the position of the constriction moves
backwards the back cavity becomes shorter and the front cavity becomes longer. As a
consequence the back cavity resonance rises in frequency and the front cavity
resonance falls in frequency. A point is reached where the back cavity resonance is
higher in frequency than the front cavity resonance. At that point the back cavity
resonance results in F2 and the front cavity resonance results in F1. The resonances
have not swapped cavity affiliation, but they have swapped which formant they
generate. Cavity resonance affiliation therefore does not swap even though F1 and F2
cavity affiliations do.
Readings
Clark and Yallop, section 7.13 and 7.16
Harrington and Cassidy, section 3.3 - 3.5
References
The following references provide in-depth overviews of the acoustics of speech
production. Both books assume a mathematical background. The Fant book is
considered to be the major classic of early speech acoustics research. Both books
have been used as the inspiration for many of the diagrams used in this topic.
Gunnar Fant, Acoustic Theory of Speech Production, Mouton: The Hague, 1960
(second printing, 1970).
Kenneth Stevens, Acoustic Phonetics, MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USA, 1998