Sonograms visually expose vowel formants as enhanced frequency bands

Evidence

Back in the mid-1980s, when I was a bicycle messenger, Professor Beecher invited me to his lab and showed me what amounts to photo albums of facial characteristics paired with sonograms—visual printouts of very minute changes in emitted calls. — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 935 (#expands, via linked claim)

A commonly referenced set of average formant frequency values for men, women and children for a number of vowels, taken from Peterson and Barney (1952), is shown in Table 4.3. Formant frequency values for these vowels can be predicted with reference to their articulation. For example, the vowel in beat has a constriction toward the front of the tongue in the region of both N2 and N3 (see Figure 4.38), and reference to Figure 4.39 suggests that F1 is lowered in frequency, and F2 and F3 are raised from the values one would expect for the neutral vowel. The vowel in part, on the other hand, has a significant constriction in the region of both A2 and A3 (see Figure 4.38), resulting in a raising of F1 and a lowering of both F2 and F3 from their neutral vowel values. The vowel in boot has a constriction at the lips, which are also rounded so as to extend the length of the vocal tract, and thus all formant frequencies are lowered from their neutral vowel values. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1349 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Birdsong variations can be visualized as sonograms paired with faces — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 935; Classical spectral-peak vowel coding is especially vulnerable to noise and level changes; Musical notation omits harmonics that sonograms reveal — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 440 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Birdsong variations can be visualized as sonograms paired with faces #expands (0.82) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 935
• Tongue and lip constriction locations systematically shift formant frequencies from neutral values #expands (0.80) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1349
• Sonification renders time-varying data through pitch and timbre changes #expands (0.78)
• Musical notation omits harmonics that sonograms reveal #expands (0.75) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 440
• Sonification maps measured data onto audible changes exploiting auditory perception #expands (0.75) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2690
• Classical spectral-peak vowel coding is especially vulnerable to noise and level changes #complicates (0.72)
• More compression channels reduce spectral contrast and vowel recognition #complicates (0.70)