On the quantal nature of speech

Abstract

When a parameter specifying the configuration or state of an articulatory structure is manipulated through a range of values, some acoustic parameter describing the resulting sound often changes in a non-monotonic fashion. In particular, there appear to be ranges of the articulatory parameter for which there is very little change in the acoustic parameter and other ranges where the acoustic parameter is more sensitive to changes in articulation. The articulatory-acoustic relations are quantal in the sense that the acoustic patterns shows a change from one state to another as the articulatory parameter is varied through a range of values. Similar kinds of relations are observed between parameters that give a measure of the auditory response to a speechlike sound and parameters that specify some acoustic dimension of the sound. In this paper a number of examples of these types of acoustic-articulatory or auditory-acoustic relations are given. It is suggested that this tendency for quantal relations among these acoustic, auditory, and articulatory parameters is a principal factor shaping the inventory of acoustic and articulatory attributes that are used to signal distinctions in language.