Vowel fundamental frequency and tongue height

Abstract

This research was designed to substantiate the results of Ohala [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 60, S44(A) (1976)] which supported the “tongue-pull” hypothesis of intrinsic vowel pitch. Our goal was explanation of the observation that vowels with high tongue position have higher F0 than do vowels with low tongue position. It has been suggested that the anatomical interactions between tongue larynx put an added stress on that structure when the tongue is in an elevated position, thus raising F0 for the vowel. We replicated Ohala's use of bite blocks to force the speaker to produce articulatory “supershapes.” If the tongue-pull hypothesis is correct. a given vowel would have higher F0 with the jaw blocked in an unnaturally open position than with the jaw free. This was the case with Ohala's results, However, in our preliminary work with three subjects we have not been able to substantiate those results. One of our subjects showed no consistent bite-block effect on F0, while both of the remaining subjects used a lower F0 for vowels in the bite-block condition. Alternative solutions and criticisms of the assumptions of the present research will also be discussed.