Term | Definition |
Phonetics | The study of speech sounds, how we make them and how they are used. |
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) | One symbol for every sound in the world's languages. |
Vowels | Sounds that are produced with a relatively open vocal tract. Always voiced. |
Dipthongs | Vowel sounds that are produced as a slow gliding movement from one vowel to a second vowel. |
Onlide | First vowel in a dipthong. |
Offglide | Second vowel in a dipthong. |
Stops | Consonants formed by completely closing the vocal tract at some point between the vocal folds and the lips. |
Bilabial stops | Two lips are brought together to make the sound. |
Alveolar stops | The tongue tip is brought up to touch the alveolar ridge to make the sound. |
Velar stops | The back of the tongue is brought up to touch the velum (soft palate) to make the sounds. |
Glottal stops | The larynx closes and temporarily stops the air coming through the glottis to make the sound. |
Stop release | A brief burst of air (aspiration) which may occur after a voicless stop if it is made at the begining of a word or syllable. |
Nasals | formed by stopping the vocal tract and lowering the velum so that the sound goes out through the nose. |
Fricatives | Two parts of the vocal tract that are put close enough together to partially obstruct the airflow and produce a "hissing" kind of noise. |
Affricates | A combination of a stop immediately followed by a fricative. |
Approximants | Sounds formed by two parts of the vocal tract coming close together, but not close enough to form the "hissing" sound of the fricatives. |
Sonorants | All the glides, liquids, and nasals. These have a pronounced resonant quality unlike stops, fricatives, and affricates. |
Articulation | "to move" |
Resonance | Vibrating at a preferred or natural frequency. |
Turbulence noise production | The kind of sound in fricatives. |
coarticulation | the simultaneous movement of two articulators. |
Acoustic Theory of Speech Production | Mouth is a series of tubes. |
The Odd-Quarter Wavelenth Relation | A tube that is closed at one end will resonate with maximum amplitude a sound whose wavelength is 4x the length of the tube. |
Quarter-Wave Resonator | Tube that is open at one end and closed at another: Any tube that is resonant under certain conditions which depend on the relation between the frequency of the sound source and the length of the tube. |
Wavelenth | The distance traveled by a soundwave during one period of vibration. |
Wavelenth (formula) | =speed of sound/frequency |
Speed of Sound | 350 m/sec |
Formants | Resonating frequencies of the vocal shape. |
Formant Frequencies | F1, F2, F3: Tell the difference between the vowels based on how the "tube" of the mouth changes. |
Formant Frequencies (formula) Fn | =(2n-1)c/4l |
F1 | Related to tongue(vowel) height. Low F1, high vowel. High F1, low vowel. |
F2 | Related to front/back-ness of a vowel. Low F2, back vowel. High F2, front vowel. |
The Source-Filter Theory of Speech Production | The resonator is a filter because energy is passed through it in a frequency selective manner. Your vocal folds produce a sound and your vocal tract filters it out. Because of your vocal tract you get certain resonances: some dampened, some increase. |
Energy Source of Fricatives | Not in the vocal fold vibration but in the turbulance created at some construction. |
Antiformants | Loss of sound energy rather than inhancement. Filtering of fricatives is determined by these. Nasals have them as well as formants. |
Nasal Murmor | Really low formant (between 250-300Hz) for adult speakers in nasals. |
Waveform | x=time, y=amplitude. Frequency missing. |
Spectrum | x=frequency, y=amplitude. Time missing (shows 1 moment in time). |
Spectogram | x=time, y=frequency, darkness=amplitude. |
Wide-Band Spectograms | Smears accross a range of freqs. More stretched out, shows more. Suited to looking at formant energy because formants have a wide spread of acoustic energy. Shows glottal pulses. |
Time-Frequency Trade-Off | Because the wide-band doesn't have a narrow resolution with frequency it can respond quickly to signals changing in its range (better with quick events-shows them more quickly). It's better with time. |
Narrow-band Spectogram | A spectogram with a narrow anayzing filter. Finer resolution in frequency so you can see the harmonics. Responds slowly to brief events in time (you don't see glottal pulses). |
Digital Signal Processing of an Acoustic (Analog) Signal | Computer is taking a waveform and computing it into a digital form. |
Analog-to-Digital (A-D) Conversion | Computer samples along the waveform at various points in time. |
Sampling Rate | The rate (# of samples taken/unit time) at which the computer takes samples. Must take enough samples to get accurate information but not too many so it's not a waste. |
Nyquist Formula | Ideal sampling rate: Twice the desired bandwidth of analysis. |
Front Vowels | Characterized by a large separation between F1 and F2; small separation between F2 and F3. |
Back Vowels | Characterized by a small separation between F1 and F2; relitively large separation between F2 and F3. |
High Vowels | Characterized by a very small F0 and F1 difference. |
Low Vowels | Characterized by a large F0 and F1 difference. |
Central Vowels | Uniform vowels where formants are centerally placed |
Dipthongs | Dynamic sounds in which the articulatory shape (and thus the formant pattern) changes during the sound's production. |
Stop Consonants | You stop making sound before it. Stop the air. See a gap. |
Silent (low-energy) Interval/Stop Gap | A period of markedly reduced acoustic energy associated with the stopping of the air. |
Burst | Release of air in a brief interval of sound. |
Formant Transitions | Bends in the formant pattern that occur in the interval corresponding to the articulatory movement from the consonant to the more open vocal tract used in a vowel. |
Voice Onset Time (VOT) | The interval between release of the stop (the acoustic burst) and the onset of voicing |
Nasal Murmur | Looks like a weak low formant. has low frequency energy. |
Antiformants | White bands of low frequency energy in nasals. |
Fricative Consonants | Fine verticle lines. |
Affricate consonants | Look like a fricative with shorter duration. |
Glide consonants | Look like vowels; have gliding transitions like vowels. |
Liquid consonants | Characterized by steady-state formants. |
Suprasegmentals | Those things besides the sound segmants which make up syllables that we use in speech: stress, pitch, speaking rate, and intonation. Properties not of a single consonant or vowel, effect a whole syllable or word. |
Stress | Can be done by incresing the fund. frequency (raising pitch), increasing the duration (longer), or increasing intensity (louder). |
Speaking Rate | Reduction in acoustic values as opposed to just saying the vowels. Formants less obvious. |
Speech rate of Anger | Slightly faster. |
Speech rate of Happiness | Faster or slower. |
Speech rate of Sadness | Slower. |
Speech rate of Fear | Faster. |
Speech rate of Disgust | Much slower. |
Pitch rate of Anger | Much higher. |
Pitch rate of Happiness | Much higher. |
Pitch rate of Sadness | Slightly slower. |
Pitch rate of Fear | Much higher. |
Pitch rate of Disgust | Much lower. |
Pitch range of Anger | Much higher. |
Pitch range of Happiness | Much wider. |
Pitch range of Sadness | Slightly narrower. |
Pitch range of Fear | Slightly wider. |
Pitch range of Disgust | Slightly narrower. |
Intensity of Anger | Higher. |
Intensity of Happiness | Higher. |
Intensity of Sadness | Lower. |
Intensity of Fear | Same. |
Intensity of Disgust | Lower. |
Voice Quality of Anger | Breathy. |
Voice Quality of Happiness | Breathy. |
Voice Quality of Sadness | Resonant. |
Voice Quality of Fear | Irregular voicing quality. |
Voice Quality of Disgust | Irregular voicing quality. |
Pitch changes of Anger | Abrupt. |
Pitch changes of Happiness | Smooth, upward. |
Pitch changes of Sadness | Downward. |
Pitch changes of Fear | Normal. |
Pitch changes of Disgust | Very wide downward. |
Articulation of Anger | Very Tense |
Articulation of Happiness | Normal. |
Articuation of Sadness | Slurred. |
Articulation of Fear | Precise. |
Articulation of Disgust | Normal. |
Personal Quality | You can identify an individual's voice because of this and an individual's "voice print." But you can disguise your voice. |
Scaling Procedures | Listen and rate someone's overall intelligability. |
Identification Tasks | Where you transcribe what a client says. |
Source Problems | Horseness, breathingess which can result from cancer or nodules of the vocal folds or Parkinson's disease creating mucus membranes. |
Filter Problems | Problems with the tongue and other structures in the oral cavity, or the nerves to the tongue. |
Dysarthria | Neurological disorders in which the muscles used for speech are weak, paralyzed, or incoordinated. |
Hearing Impairments | People with these have trouble articulating because they cannot hear themselves very well. |