Real-time imaging of vocal tract configuration in Australian english vowel production

Abstract

Dynamic phonetic properties of Australian English vowels have been well described in acoustic (Cox, 2006; Elvin et al., 2016) and articulographic studies (Ratko et al., 2023), but the global configuration of the vocal tract during Australian English vowel production has not previously been examined. Midsagittal configuration of the upper airway during production of Australian English vowels was tracked using real-time magnetic resonance imaging (Kennerley et al., 2022) on a 3T scanner (Siemens Magnetom Prisma) using a 64-channel head/neck receiver array coil. Speech audio was simultaneously recorded in-scanner at 16 kHz using a ceramic noise-canceling microphone (Opto-acoustics FOMRI-III). 3D configuration of the vocal tract during sustained productions of the same monophthongs was captured using volumetric imaging of the upper airway at a resolution of 2mm × 2 mm × 2 mm. These data offer new details on configuration of the entire vocal tract and the relationship between articulatory and acoustic targets during production of Australian English vowels.