From movements to sound Contributions to building the BB speech production system

• In terms of anatomical geometry the infant Vocal Tract undergoes significant change during development. This research note reports an attempt to reconstruct an infant VT from adult data. Comparable landmarks were identified on the fixed structures of adult articulatory lateral profiles (obtained from X-ray images) and matching infant profiles (obtained from published data in the literature, Sobotta [Putz & Pabst 2001, and personal communication from author Prof. Dr. med. R. Pabst]. The x-coordinates of the infant landmarks could be accurately derived by a linear scaling of the adult data whereas the y-values required information on both the x- and the y-coordinates of the adult. These scaling rules were applied to about 400 adult articulatory profiles to derive a set of corresponding infant articulations. A Principal Components Analysis was performed on these shapes to compare the shapes of the infant and adult articulatory spaces. As expected from the scaling results the infant space is significantly compressed in relation to the adult space suggesting that the main articulatory degree of freedom for the child is jaw opening. This finding is in perfect agreement with published descriptions of the phonetics of early vocalizations. 

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Phonetics

fonetik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)