Some acoustic features of nasal and nasalized vowels: a target for vowel nasalization.
In order to characterize acoustic properties of nasal and nasalized vowels, these sounds will be considered as a dynamic trend from an oral configuration toward an [n]-like configuration. The latter can be viewed as a target for vowel nasalization. This target corresponds to the pharyngonasal tract and it can be modeled, with some simplifications, by a single tract without any parallel paths. Thus the first two resonance frequencies (at about 300 and 1000 Hz) characterize this target well. A series of measurements has been carried out in order to describe the acoustic characteristics of the target. Measured transfer functions confirm the resonator nature of the low-frequency peak. The introduction of such a target allows the conception of the nasal vowels as a trend beginning with a simple configuration, which is terminated in the same manner, so allowing the complex nasal phenomena to be bounded. A complete study of pole-zero evolutions for the nasalization of the 11 French vowels is presented. It allows the proposition of a common strategy for the nasalization of all vowels, so a true nasal vowel can be placed in this nasalization frame. The measured transfer functions for several French nasal vowels are also given.
Feng
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Institut de la Communication Parlée, I.N.P.G./E.N.S.E.R.G., Université Stendhal, URA CNRS No. 368, Grenoble, France.
Castelli
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D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D009296:Nasal Cavity; D010160:Palate, Soft; D010614:Pharynx; D010699:Phonation; D010700:Phonetics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement