Aerodynamics of phonation: Effect of consonantal context on vowels.
Richard S. McGowan, Laura L. Koenig, Anders Löfqvist · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1992
Recordings of oral airflow have been made of four subjects producing VCV sequences with different middle consonants and an open vowel. The flow signals at vowel offset and onset have been inverse filtered using a software inverse filter and characterized as a function of time using measures of maximum flow, minimum flow, open quotient, and area of the glottal pulse. Results suggest that the aerodynamic properties of the source differ considerably among vowels following different consonants. For example, at the onset of a vowel following a voiceless stop or fricative, the source typically shows a breathy pattern of vibration, as evidenced by high values of peak flow and an open quotient close to 1; the source then changes gradually into a modal type of phonation. These variations can be explained by different observed patterns of coordination between the larynx and the oral articulators. The present study reports experimental data and simulations of such dynamic patterns of source variations using a two-mass model of the vocal folds incorporated into a low-frequency model of the vocal tract’s aerodynamics. [Work supported by NIH.]