Transcript Spectrogram Reading: Vowels

CS 551/651:
Structure of Spoken Language
Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
John-Paul Hosom
Fall 2010
Vowels
12 English vowels (not all are phonemic), 8 or 9 phonemic vowels:
/iy/
/ih/
/eh/
/ae/
beet
bit
bet
bat
/ix/*
/ux/*
/ax/*
roses (back, high, unrounded, lax)
suit
(back, high, rounded, lax)
above (back/central, mid, unrounded, lax)
/uw/
/uh/
/ah/
/ao/
/aa/
boot
book
above
caught
father
*
(front, high, unrounded, tense)
(front, high, unrounded, lax)
(front, mid, unrounded, lax)
(front, low, unrounded, lax)
(subst. /ih/)
(subst. /uw/)
(subst. /ah/)
(back, high, rounded, tense)
(back, high, rounded, lax)
(back/central, mid, unrounded, lax)
(back, low, rounded, tense)
(subst. /aa/)
(back, low, unrounded, tense)
these vowels are more centralized and shorter in duration
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Vowels
5 or 6 English diphthongs:
/ey/
/ay/
/oy/
/aw/
/ow/
/yu/
bay
bye
boy
about
boat
beauty
(front, midhigh, unrounded, tense)
(backfront, lowhigh, unrounded, tense)
(backfront, midhigh, roundedunrounded, tense)
(back, midhigh, unroundedrounded, tense)
(back, mid, unroundedrounded, tense)
(frontback, high, unroundedrounded, tense)
All diphthongs start or end with a /w/ or /y/ sound.
(If /w/, it’s at the end of the diphthong.)
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Vowels
Vowel formant frequencies (averages for English, males only):
3500
3000
2500
2000
2890
2560 2490 2490
2540
2400
2380
2250
2250
1920
1770 1660
1500
1000
500
280
400
550
690
1200 1100
1030
600 710
450
870
310
0
iy
ih
eh
ae
ah
aa
uh
uw
*from Ladefoged, p. 193
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Diphthongs
Diphthongs have characteristic formant movements:
/ay/
/oy/
/aw/
/yu/
/ow/
/ei/
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Spectrogram Reading: Techniques
Most vowels can be identified by answering four questions:
1. Is the vowel front or back?
Front vowels have F2 closer to F3 than to F1
If F1, F2, F3 equally spaced, then probably /ae/ = front vowel.
2. Is the vowel high or low?
High vowels have low F1, low vowels have high F1
“high” and “low” F1 values are relative, sometimes difficult
3. Is the vowel tense or lax?
Tense vowels have more extreme formants
Tense vowels are longer in duration
4. Is the vowel a monophthong (“pure vowel”) or diphthong?
Diphthongs are characterized by formant movement.
Some diphthongs (/ei/, /ow/) easily confused with monophthongs
Diphthongs are longer than monophthongs.
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Spectrogram Reading: Techniques
Front vowels:
Back vowels:
iy
uw
ih
uh
eh
ah
ae
aa
same in height, tenseness
High vowels:
Low vowels:
iy
ae
ih
eh
uh
ah
uw
aa
same in frontness, tenseness
Tense vowels:
Lax vowels:
iy
ih
ae
eh
uw
uh
aa
ah
same in frontness, height
Monophthongs:
Diphthongs:
iy ih eh
ei
aU
ae uw uh
aI
oI
Structure of Spoken Language : Hosom
ah aa
oU
yu (?)
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Spectrogram Reading: Techniques
We can graph the vowel relationships along the F1/F2 axis:
high low
iy
ih
F2
eh
ae
front
back
ah
uh
lax
tense
uw
aa
F1
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Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
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Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
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Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
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Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
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Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
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Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
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Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
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Spectrogram Reading: Vowels
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Spectrogram Reading: Diphthongs
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Spectrogram Reading: Diphthongs
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Spectrogram Reading: Diphthongs
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Spectrogram Reading: Diphthongs
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Spectrogram Reading: Diphthongs
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Spectrogram Reading: Diphthongs
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