Toward articulatory-acoustic models for liquid approximants based on MRI and EPG data. Part II. The rhotics.
Magnetic resonance images of the vocal tract during sustained production of [symbol: see text] by four native American English talkers are employed for measuring vocal-tract dimensions and for morphological analysis of the 3D vocal tract and tongue shapes. Electropalatography contact profiles are used for studying inter- and intra-talker variabilities. The vocal tract during the production of [symbol: see text] appears to be characterized by three cavities due to the presence of two supraglottal constrictions: the primary one in the oral cavity, and a secondary one in the pharyngeal cavity. All subjects show a large volume anterior to the oral constriction, which results from an inward-drawn tongue body, an anterior tongue body that is characterized by convex cross sections, and a concave posterior tongue body shape. Inter-subject variabilities are observed in the oral-constriction location and the way the constriction is formed. No systematic differences are found between the 3-D vocal tract and tongue shapes of word-initial and syllabic [symbol: see text]s. Tongue-shaping mechanisms for these sounds and their acoustic implications are discussed.
Alwan
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A
Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, UCLA 90095, USA.
Narayanan
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S
Haker
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K
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology