Acoustics of the Vowel - Preliminaries / Dieter Maurer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maurer, Dieter, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Phonetics.

Phonetics, Acoustic.

Phonetics, phonology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Bern, Berlin Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford Peter Lang International Academic Publishing Group 2016

Bern : Peter Lang AG, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

It seems as if the fundamentals of how we produce vowels and how they are acoustically represented have been clarified: we phonate and articulate. Using our vocal chords, we produce a vocal sound or noise which is then shaped into a specific vowel sound by the resonances of the pharyngeal, oral, and nasal cavities, that is, the vocal tract. Accordingly, the acoustic description of vowels relates to vowel-specific patterns of relative energy maxima in the sound spectra, known as patterns of formants. The intellectual and empirical reasoning presented in this treatise, however, gives rise to scepticism with respect to this understanding of the sound of the vowel. The reflections and materials presented provide reason to argue that, up to now, a comprehensible theory of the acoustics of the voice and of voiced speech sounds is lacking, and consequently, no satisfying understanding of vowels as an achievement and particular formal accomplishment of the voice exists. Thus, the question of the acoustics of the vowel--and with it the question of the acoustics of the voice itself--proves to be an unresolved fundamental problem.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access