Respiratory system changes in relation to prosodic cues at the beginning of speech

Abstract

The research presented here examines regional changes in respiratory drive and respiratory-influenced laryngeal adjustments in relation to acoustic signal changes associated with prosody. The respiratory system acts to create subglottal pressure (PSG). When PSG is changing rapidly, such as at the initiation of an utterance at the start of an exhalation, timing and amplitude constraints may be present. The actions of the articulators and the chest wall must be coordinated to rapidly reverse a negative PSG during inhalation to a PSG in the speech range. The current study has involved collection of simultaneous recordings of the acoustic signal and several physiologically related signals including subglottal pressure as estimated from esophageal pressure. Test utterances either begin with a stressed syllable or have one unstressed syllable prior to the first stressed syllable. Present results indicate that: (1) PSG continues to rise from the initiation of an exhale until the first stressed syllable; (2) PSG falls following the initial peak; and (3) fundamental frequency rise is not directly related to the rise in PSG. Applications such as articulatory-related speech synthesis may benefit from such information. [This research was supported in part by NIH grants ♯5T32DC00038 and ♯5R01-DC00266-14.]