Vowel identity depends on the locations of the two lowest vocal tract formants

Evidence

Vowels are an essential component of all languages, and play an important role in carrying information, especially in running speech (e.g. Kewley-Port et al. 2007 ). Vowel sounds are characterized by voicing, which results in a spectrum with a fundamental frequency (F0), related to voice pitch, and harmonics of F0. The spectrum is shaped by vocal tract resonances, or formants. The locations of the lowest two frequency formants (F1 and F2), distinguish different vowel sounds (Fant 1960 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5473

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines F0, harmonic spectra, and formants F1/F2 as the acoustic basis of vowel identity.
• XREF: connects to: Vowel identification depends on formant peaks being representable in the output spectrum. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1368