Secondary Articulations Vocal Tract Physiology

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Secondary Articulations Vocal Tract Physiology
April 2, 2009
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Huh?

• The two most confusable consonants in the
  English language are f and .
• (Interdentals also lack a resonating filter)

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Helping Out

• Transition cues may partially distinguish
  labio-dentals from interdentals.
• Normally, transitions for fricatives are similar
  to transitions for stops at the same place of
  articulation.
• Nonetheless, phonological confusions can
  emerge--
• Some dialects of English substitute f for
  .

• Visual cues may also play a role

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Acoustic Enhancement

• Fricative distinctions can be enhanced through
  secondary articulations.

• E.g. is post-alveolar and s is alveolar

• ? more space in vocal tract in front of
• including a sub-lingual cavity

• This filter of resonates at lower
  frequencies

• In English, this acoustic distinction is
  enhanced through lip rounding for
• this extends the vocal tract
• further lowers the resonant frequencies of
• another form of adaptive dispersion

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The Sub-lingual Cavity

• Lets check the videotape...

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Behind the Constriction
s

• Lets check the ultrasound

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Secondary Articulations

• What effect might lowering the center of the
  tongue have on formant values?
• (think perturbation theory)
• Check it out in Praat.

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Secondary Articulations

• What effect might lowering the center of the
  tongue have on formant values?
• Check it out in Praat.

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Secondary Articulations

• A secondary articulation is made by
  superimposing a glide-like articulation on top of
  another constriction elsewhere in the vocal
  tract.
• Two constrictions with an unequal degree of
  closure
• primary articulation more constricted
• secondary articulation less constricted
• The most common secondary articulations are
• w labialization
• j palatalization
• velarization
• pharyngealization

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Secondary Timing

• Secondary articulations differ from glides
  primarily in terms of timing.
• kw peak of labial protrusion occurs during
  stop closure
• kw peak of labial protrusion occurs after
  stop closure

velum
k
lips
w
velum
k
w
lips
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Palatalization

• Consonants are palatalized by making a secondary
  j constriction.
• Russian has contrastive palatalized consonants.

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Secondary Acoustics

• Acoustically, secondary articulations look like
  glides
• but affect formant transitions more closely to
  the primary articulation.

Russian sweat (male name) drink
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Post-vocalic Position
toth

• Secondary articulations affect transitions both
  into and out of the consonant constriction.

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Labialization Examples

• In labialization, lip rounding (specifically,
  protrusion) is superimposed on a fricative or
  stop constriction.
• Examples from Bura (spoken in Nigeria)

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Labialized Labials!
mwanta
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By the way...

• It is hypothesized that Proto-Indo-European had
  a series of labialized velar stops
• /kw/, /kwh/, /gw/, /gw /

• Over time, some IE languages maintained the
  velars, while others maintained the
  labialization.
• gwou cow, bull
• Germanic ku ? cow
• Latin bous ? bovine
• kwekwlo wheel
• Old English hweol ? wheel
• Greek kuklos ? cycle

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Pharyngealization

• Consonants are pharyngealized by superimposing a
  pharynx narrowing gesture on the regular
  consonant articulation.
• Mid-sagittal diagrams from Arabic

• This is the opposite of an ATR gesture.

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Arabic Examples

• Arabic contrasts pharyngealized and
  non-pharyngealized consonants.

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t vs.
tin

• Pharyngeal constrictions raise F1 and lower F2
• an -like formant pattern

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And now for something completely different

• There are four primary active articulators in
  speech.
• (articulators we can move around )
• The lips
• The lower jaw (mandible)
• The tongue
• The velum
• The pharynx can also be constricted, to some
  extent.
• Separate sets of muscles control each
  articulator...

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Articulatory Speed

• The gold medal goes to the tongue tip...
• which is capable of 7.2 - 9.6 movements per
  second.
• The rest
• Mandible 5.9 - 8.4 movements per second
• Back of tongue 5.4 - 8.9
• Velum 5.2 - 7.8
• Lips 5.7 - 7.7
• Note lips can be raised and lowered faster than
  they can be protruded and rounded.

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1. The Lips

• The orbicularis oris muscle surrounds the lips.
• Contraction compresses and rounds the lips.
• A muscle called the mentalis also protrudes the
  lips.
• Contraction of the risorius muscle retracts the
  corners of the lips...
• and spreads them.

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By the way...

• The vowel i is typically produced with active
  lip spreading.
• Say cheese!
• What acoustic effect would this have?
• Lips Normal
• Lips Spread
• Check em out in Praat.

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2. The Jaw

• Several different muscles are used to both lower
  and raise the mandible.

• Primary raisers
• Masseter
• Temporalis
• Internal pterygoid

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2. The Jaw

• Several different muscles are used to both lower
  and raise the mandible.

• Lowerers
• Anterior belly digastricus
• Geniohyoid
• Mylohyoid

• Note in lowering, the mandible also retracts.

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Articulatory Control

• People can produce vowels perfectly fine even
  when a bite block holds their jaws open.
  (Lindblom, 1979)
• Adults get the formants right, right from the
  start...
• But kids need a little time to adjust.
• Abbs et al. (1984) experimented with pulling
  down peoples jaws...
• when they had to say sequences like aba and
  afa!

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Abbs et al. EMG data

• Lip muscles adjust immediately for the sudden
  jaw lowering...
• Adjustment happens faster than electrical
  signals can travel to the motor cortex and back!

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3. The Tongue

• The muscles controlling the tongue consist of
• Intrinsic muscles
• (completely within the tongue)
• Extrinsic muscles
• (connect the tongue to outside structures)
• The intrinsic muscles include
• The superior longitudinal muscle
• The inferior longitudinal muscle
• Transverse muscles
• Vertical muscles

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Tongue Sagittal View

• The superior longitudinal muscle pulls the
  tongue tip up and back.
• Instrumental in producing alveolars and
  retroflexes.

• The inferior longitudinal muscle pulls the
  tongue tip down and back.
• Helps with tongue blade articulations.

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Tongue Coronal View

• The transverse muscles pulls in the edges of the
  tongue, and also lengthens the tongue to some
  extent.
• Helpful in producing laterals.

• Contraction of the vertical muscles flattens the
  tongue.
• Interdentals?

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Extrinsic 1 Genioglossus

• The genioglossus connects the tongue to both the
  mandible and the hyoid.
• Contraction of the posterior genioglossus moves
  the whole tongue up and forwards.
• Crucial in palatals.
• Contraction of the anterior genioglossus curls
  the tongue tip down and back.

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Gene-ioglossus
Gene Simmons, of the rock band KISS, is famous
for his use of the genioglossus muscle.
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Extrinsic 2 Styloglossus

• The styloglossus connects the tongue to the
  styloid process in front of the ear.
• Pulls the tongue up and back.
• ...for velar articulations.
• May also help groove (sulcalize) the tongue.

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Extrinsic 3 Hyoglossus

• The hyoglossus connects the tongue to the hyoid
  bone.
• Pulls the tongue down and back.
• pharyngeals
• Can also pull the sides of the tongue down.

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Extrinsic 4 Palatoglossus

• The palatoglossus connects the tongue to the
  soft palate.
• Can be used to raise the back of the tongue.
• And also to lower the velum!
• Lowering the back of the tongue may
  inadvertently pull the velum down...
• leading to passive nasalization of low vowels.

• Note Great Lakes vowel shift

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4. Velar Muscles

• The levator palatini raises the velum.
• (connects the velum to the temporal bone)

• The velum is lowered by both the palatoglossus
  and the palatopharyngeus...
• which connects the palate to the pharynx.

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Laminal Dentals

• check out the labio-dental flap file

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Apical Alveolars
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Electro-palatography
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Therapeutic Applications