Vocal fold involvement with vowels production

[Zack H]

For vowel sounds, you mention that the only difference is the tongue position (front/back, open/closed) and lip shape. When creating vowels, do the vocal folds change at all?

[Simon]

For our purpose (which is to form a simple theoretical source-filter model of speech production), I think it’s OK to say that the vocal folds are simply vibrating during vowel sounds and the only thing that can vary about this is the frequency of vibration (F0).

In tone languages, F0 can distinguish words and so is a phonological feature. In other languages (e.g., English), F0 does not carry any phonetic information.

Of course, reality is more complex. The vocal folds can be used to control voice quality. For example, in breathy speech, the folds never completely close and the leaking airflow results in turbulence (like in a fricative).

[Author]

Posts