Acoustics of
the Vowel
Preliminaries
the Vowel
Preliminaries
Materials Part III - Unsystematic Correspondence between Vowels, Patterns of Relative Spectral Energy Maxima and Formant Patterns
M7.2: Partial Lack of Manifestation of Vowel-Specific Relative Spectral Energy Maxima
Content of illustration
Figures 11 and 12 show examples of sounds of the vowels /a–ɑ / and of /o / with “flat” or “sloping” spectral portions in their
vowel-specific frequency range < c. 1.5 kHz which are lacking a clearly determinable peak. Note that the perceived vowel quality
of some sounds intentionally produced as /a–ɑ / lies in between /ɑ / and /ɔ /, and of some sounds intentionally produced as
/o / in between /o / and /ɔ /. Note also that for the sounds of /a–ɑ /, a dominant first harmonic is again ignored here when
interpreting relative spectral energy maxima. (For cases of “sloping” lower spectral portions in sounds of /u /, see Section
M7.1, Figures 1 to 3.)
Figures 13 and 14 show corresponding observations for sounds of front the vowels / i, e / with "flat" higher spectral portions in their upper vowel-specific frequency range of 1.5–5 kHz which are lacking a clearly determinable pattern of vowel-related peaks.
Link to the spectra of the Figures
Figure 11: Sounds of /a–ɑ/ produced by children, women and men, which exhibit “flat” or "sloping" lower spectral portions < c. 1.5 kHz lacking a clearly determinable peak.
Figure 12: Sounds of /o/ produced by children, women and men, which exhibit "flat" or "sloping" lower spectral portions < c. 1.5 kHz lacking a clearly determinable peak.Figure 13: Sounds of /i/ produced by children, women and men, which exhibit "flat" higher spectral portions in the frequency range of 1.5–5 kHz lacking a clearly determinable peak.
Figure 14: Sounds of /e/ produced by children, women and men, which exhibit "flat" higher spectral portions in the frequency range of 1.5–5 kHz lacking a clearly determinable peak.