Three-dimensional ultrasound images of Polish high front vowels

Abstract

The 3-D ultrasound method has been applied to collect data on Polish high front vowels. In particular, Polish has one unambiguous high front vowel and another one that in the phonological literature is variously referred to as high central or back unrounded and transcribed as [ɨ]. While there exists a sizeable body of articulatory research on Polish, including X-rays from as early as the 50s and 60s, the ultrasound data reveal more detail about the position of the tongue center and tongue root. The data evaluated so far support the view that the vowel transcribed as [ɨ] is a front vowel. The two front vowels differ in the position of the tongue root, relative raising of the tongue, and extent of lip gesture, but do not differ substantially with regard to tongue body advancement on the font-back axis. The data also capture the temporal aspect of speech, and together with time-aligned audio recordings and video recordings of the lips, allow for fine-grained analysis of the acoustic effects of these articulatory gestures.