No abstract

Tongue shapes during clarinet performances of chromatic scale, portamento and pitch bending exercises were imaged using an ultrasound machine while audio and video were recorded synchronously. Analysis of the data from four participants revealed that tongue position varies non-monotically with note frequency in the lowest register (up to ≈ 440 Hz) and then descends monotonically as note frequencies rise through the upper registers. The descent of the tongue results in an expansion of the vocal tract's posterior oral cavity, resulting in a vocal tract input impedance maximum tuned to high frequency. Portamento and pitch bending were found to involve a raising of the tongue and concomitant contraction of the posterior oral cavity. The degree of contraction was similar in both portamento and pitch bending, suggesting a common acoustic mechanism.

Lateral approximants are well known as having complex articulatory characteristics, which vary cross-linguistically, across speakers, and across utterances. However, less attention has been paid to the articulation of Korean laterals, which do not contrast with a rhotic and may thus exhibit greater-than-normal variability. The focus of this study is to investigate the general articulatory characteristics of the Korean lateral [l] as well as the articulatory variation using novel 3D ultrasound imaging methods. The results of this study revealed significant between-speaker variation and some vowel-dependent variation with regard to the articulation of the Korean lateral [l], which has not been reported previously. Even though all participants in this study showed an anterior occlusion, the place of articulation and the size of the occlusion varied greatly across speakers. The data also revealed that left-right asymmetry is present in the articulation of the Korean lateral. The individual variation of the Korean lateral [l] suggests that it has a large articulatory-acoustic space for variation, since it has no contrasting sound that causes perceptual confusion.

Lateral approximant speech sounds are notoriously difficult to measure and describe due to their complex articulation and acoustics. This has prevented researchers from reaching a unifying description of the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of laterals. This paper examines articulatory and acoustic properties of Brazilian Portuguese alveolar and palatal lateral approximants (/l/ and /ø/) produced by six native speakers. The methodology for obtaining vocal tract area functions was based on three-dimensional/four-dimensional (3D/4D) ultrasound recordings and 3D digitized palatal impressions with simultaneously recorded audio signals. Area functions were used to calculate transfer function spectra, and predicted formant and anti-resonance frequencies were compared with the acoustic recordings. Mean absolute error in formant frequency prediction was 4% with a Pearson correlation of r ¼ 0.987. Findings suggest anti-resonances from the interdental channels are less important than a prominent anti-resonance from the supralingual cavity but can become important in asymmetrical articulations. The use of 3D/4D ultrasound to study articulatoryacoustic relations is promising, but significant limitations remain and future work is needed to make better use of 3D/4D ultrasound data, e.g., by combining it with magnetic resonance imaging.

Clarinetists teach and feel that they manipulate their tongue shape and position in order to properly “voice” music with ideal intonation and timbre, as well as for special effects such as portamento (pitch bending) and glissando. Two basic postures are typically described, which are frequently called the “ee” (or “er”) and “ah” positions, or “voicings,” due to their presumed similarity to tongue shapes during production of the speech sounds [i] (or [r]) and [a]. Although some two-dimensional imaging studies of tongue shape during clarinet performance have been reported, three-dimensional (3D) data have not been previously available. This study presents 3D tongue motions during performance by one professional clarinetist. Tongue images were acquired from a 3D/4D ultrasound system with synchronized audio recordings, and the images were aligned with a digitized impression of the performer’s palate. Analyses of the data are ongoing, but initial results indicate that the “ee” and “ah” postures are based on the tongue shape but not on the tongue position. Further aspects of the tongue shape and position during clarinet “voicing” will also be discussed.