A Modeling Study of the Effects of Vocal Tract Movement Duration and Magnitude on the F2 Trajectory in CV Words

Purpose

This study used a computational vocal tract model to investigate the relationship of diphthong duration and vocal tract movement magnitude to measures of the F2 trajectory in CV words.

Method

Three words (bough, boy, and buy) were simulated on the basis of an adult female vocal tract model, in which the model parameters were estimated from audio recordings of a female talker. Model parameters were then modified to generate 35 simulations of each word corresponding to 7 different durations and 5 movement magnitude settings. In addition, these simulations were repeated with vocal tract lengths representative of an adult male and an approximately 6-year-old child.

Results

On the basis of univariate analysis, measures of frequency predicted changes in magnitude, and temporal measures predicted changes in speaking rate consistent with the hypothesis. The combined effects of duration and magnitude showed that F2 was more sensitive to changes in magnitude at shorter word durations compared with longer word durations. This finding held across words and vocal tract length.

Conclusions

Results suggest that there is an interaction between duration and magnitude that affects the slope of the F2 trajectory. The next step is to relate kinematics to F2 trajectory output using real speakers.

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