Automatic Measurement of the Formants of Vowels in Diverse Consonantal Environments

Abstract

The principle of analysis-by-synthesis, described in earlier papers, is applied to the measurement of the formant frequencies of the common vowels of American English. The vowels measured constitute segments of bisyllabic nonsense utterances recorded by three adult male talkers. The set of materials is designed to provide samples of stressed vowels preceded and followed by a variety of consonants. The vowels in question occur in consonant-vowel-consonant syllables in which both consonants represent the same phoneme of American English. Frequencies of the first three formants are measured throughout the vowel for spectral samples separated by approximately 8 msec. Effects on formant frequencies attributable to temporal location of sample, consonant environment, and individual talkers are discussed. For central locations of the samples, the formant frequencies differ systematically from published data derived from more restricted consonantal environments. Phenomena relating to formant transitions and individual talker characteristics are discussed. [This work was supported in part by the U. S. Army (Signal Corps), the U. S. Air Force (Office of Scientific Research, Air Research and Development Command), and the U. S. Navy (Office of Naval Research); and in part by the Air Force Cambridge Research Center.]