Development of a Quantitative Description of Vowel Articulation

A set of parameters that yield a simple yet reasonably accurate description of the articulation of vowel sounds is developed and the relation of the contours to classical phonetics is discussed.

Abstract

A set of parameters that yield a simple yet reasonably accurate description of the articulation of vowel sounds is developed. The articulatory description is potentially useful in a speech band-width compression system based on the coding of articulatory data. The parameters give information on the position of the tongue constriction, the size of the constriction formed by the tongue, and the dimensions in the vicinity of the mouth opening. An electrical analog of the vocal tract is utilized to obtain experimental relations between the articulatory parameters and the formant frequencies. Contours of vowel articulation are derived from these data. The relation of the contours to classical phonetics is discussed.