Exam 4 Flashcards
what is the supralaryngeal system also known as?
the articulatory/resonatory system
what is the vocal tract?
a hollow muscular tube above the larynx, within the craniofacial skeleton - it contains the nasal and oral cavities and the pharynx
is the vocal tract irregular or regular in shape? is that good or bad?
like a bent tube, irregular and complex, it is better this way because that complexity helps with the nature of sound production
what is articulation?
the process whereby the structures within the vocal tract modify exhaled air flow to shape (filter) the source of the sound into speech - source-filter theory
in comparison to a bottle, which part of the vocal tract is the hole, neck, and chamber?
the oral and nasal cavity are the chamber, the nose and mouth are the holes, and the glottis is the neck/opening
what is the importance of oral cavity in speech?
open for airflow, includes important articulators such as lips, tongue, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard and soft palate (velum)
what are the names of the pieces of tissue that connect the lips to the gums?
the superior labial frenulum connects the upper lip to the midline of the alveolar region, the inferior labial frenulum connects the lower lip to the midline of the mandible
what is the maxilla and what does it do?
the upper jaw, large bone, does not move but supports the whole structure - holds upper teeth
what is the mandible and what does it do?
lower jaw, attaches to the skull by the temporomandibular joint allowing jaw to close - connects with the tongue base and lower lip
what is the chin and what does it do?
frontal, protrusive part of the jaw, uniquely human - use unknown but maybe related to language development
how many teeth do adults have? what way are they numbered?
32 in total - numbered from upper right to bottom right (dental practitioner’s perspective)
what is an occlusion?
the relationship between the upper and lower dental arches and the positioning of individual teeth
what is a class I occlusion/neutroclusion?
the first upper molar is positioned on one-half (back) of the first lower molar
what is a class II occlusion/distoclusion?
the first upper molar is too anterior (forward)
what is a class III occlusion/mesioclusion?
the first upper molar is too posterior (back)
when swallowing, is the velum up or down?
up
when the velum is down, what passage is open?
the velopharyngeal passage (port leading from larynx to the nasal passage)
what composes the velopharyngeal valve?
velum, posterior lateral wall, and the lateral pharyngeal wall
what is the uvula?
palatine - fleshy extension at the back of the soft palate which hangs above the throat
what happens in the mouth when swallowing?
the soft palate and uvula move together to close off the nasopharynx and prevent food from entering the nasal cavity
what is the tongue attached to?
the mandible, the hyoid bone, and the pharynx
what is the dominant articulator?
the tongue
which tongue muscles are the most important? why?
the intrinsic muscles - they move the tongue in larger movements: up, down, left, right
what are the four paired muscles that move the tongue?
genioglossus muscle, hyoglossus muscle, styloglossus muscle, palatoglossus muscle
the muscles of the tongue move it left, right, up, and down but what movement does the muscle actually do?
contract because it is connected to the bones
what do the intrinsic muscles of the tongue do?
allow a high degree of flexibility of tongue motion - their function not known in speech
what are the 4 sections in the tongue?
tongue blade, tongue tip (apex), tongue dorsum (front), tongue back
true or false: the functions of the nasal cavity are important to speech
false, only the nostrils are needed - all other function is for breathing
what is the nasal septum?
separates the nose into two cavities
there are three tiny structures on each side of the nose - what are they called?
the superior, middle, and inferior nasal conchae
what are the conchae in the nose?
long, narrow, curled bones that divide the nasal cavity into four grooves that help to direct airflow - helps to warm, moisturize, and filter inhaled air
what is the tube that connects the nasal cavity to the middle ear?
the eustachian tube (auditory tube)
what is the pharynx?
long, hollow tube made of muscle, connective tissue, and mucous lining running behind the nasal cavities, oral cavity, and larynx - about 12 cm long and 4 cm wide
what are the three portions of the pharynx called?
nasopharynx, oropharynx, laryngopharynx
where is the nasopharynx and what does it do?
the portion of the pharynx behind the nasal cavities - they let air pass through
where is the oropharynx and what does it do?
the section of the pharynx behind the oral cavity - lets air and food pass through
where is the laryngopharynx and what does it do?
the section behind the larynx - regulates air and food to esophagus
what are the three vertical muscles in the wall of the pharynx?
stylopharyngeus, salpingopharyngeus, and palatopharyngeus
what do the vertical muscles in the wall of the pharynx do?
constrict or elevate the pharynx
what are the valves of the vocal tract?
labial valve, lingual valve, velopharyngeal valve, and the laryngeal valve
what is the labial valve?
the space between the lips
what is the lingual valve?
the space in the oral cavity with the tongue
what is the velopharyngeal valve?
the velum and the pharyngeal walls that close off the nasal cavity
what is the laryngeal valve?
the space between the vocal folds
why do humans have more rich sounds than instruments?
irregular shape and complex articulators
why is it good that modern humans have a longer pharynx?
there is more room for the air molecules to move around
why can chimpanzees not speak?
they lack the neural control to coordinate their vocal tract muscles, lips, and larynx for speech
why does a flute not produce some human sounds?
it has a regular shape, not much space inside, too simple
why can animals not produce complex speech sounds?
regular shape, not enough neural coordination
why are babies voices different than that of adults?
they have smaller vocal folds
what are the four characteristics of the vocal tract resonator?
quarter-wave resonator (closed at one end), series of air-filled containers connected to each other, broadly-tuned (irregular shape), variable resonator (shapes sound)
what is a phoneme?
basic unit of a spoken language
what is the difference between a consonant and a vowel?
consonants are made with mouth fairly closed, and vowels are made with mouth fairly open
how many vowels and consonant phonemes are there in English?
24 consonants, 20 vowels, 44 in total
what is a stop?
made when two articulators contact each other and momentarily block the flow of air through the oral cavity
what are fricatives?
turbulent airflow is forced under high pressure through a narrow channel somewhere within the oral cavity
what is an affricate?
combined features of a stop and a fricative - begins as a stop then changes midstream to end as a fricative
what is the retroflex r?
the tongue tip is curled back slightly and points towards but doesn’t touch the hard palate
what is a bunched r?
the center of the tongue humped like a mountain
what are approximants?
glides and liquids - involve articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow
what is the sound that is considered a consonant in linguistics but not in speech science?
glottal stop
what are pairs of sounds that differ only in voicing?
cognates
how are vowels classified?
by the location of the tongue body (height and advancement)
all vowels are what?
voiced and with an open vocal tract
what are the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract called?
formants - a concentration of acoustic energy around a particular frequency
what is a spectrogram?
a graph where the horizontal axis is time, vertical axis is frequency, and color represents intensity (darker = higher energy)
what are the three elements for formants that shape the resonator?
length of the vocal tract, the location of a constriction/volume of the pharyngeal cavity, degree of constriction
what primarily determines F1 and F2?
tongue position
F1 is related to what?
tongue height
F2 is related to what?
tongue advancement
high vowels have what F1?
low F1
low vowels have what F1?
high F1
back vowels have what F2?
low F2
front vowels have what F2?
high F2
what is the source-filter model?
lungs provide air flow –> moving cavities and valves shape the sound –> final speech output
what is the number and equation that is used to make the sound of piano keys different?
12 square root of 2 = 1.05946
what is coarticlation?
individual segments of sound are influenced by the sounds adjacent sounds
what is anticipatory coarticulation?
an upcoming sound can influence the preceding sound
what is carryover coarticulation?
preceding sounds can also modify the upcoming sounds
what is the speaking rate?
the rate at which phonemes, syllables, or words are produced in a given time
what is the average adult speaking rate in everyday conversations?
200 wpm
why do children have a slower speaking rate?
they need more air support and have slow articulation
what is prosody?
the properties of syllables and larger units of speech like intonation, tone, stress, and rhythm
what is intonation?
pitch, the way the speakers vary their F0
what are tones?
pitch patterns that distinguish the meanings of words
what is stress?
varying the frequency, intensity, and duration of a syllable or word in a way that highlights a particular portion
what is duration?
length of time of a speech sound
what is rhythm (isochrony)?
the time division into equal portions by a language
what are syllable-times languages?
the duration of every syllable is equal - Mandarin, Spanish, Korean
what are mora-timed languages?
duration of every (mora - phonological unit like a vowel) is equal - Japanese
what are stress-timed languages?
the interval between two stressed syllables is equal - English, Thai
speech is the outcome of what?
articulatory motion and voicing
what is intelligibility?
the ease with which a listener is able to understand a speaker
what is cineradiography?
recording internal structures during speech with x-ray - early evidence of hard and soft tissue (velum) movement
what is x-ray microbeam?
tracks speech with small pellets glued to articulators - dangerous
what is electropalatography (EPG)?
measures the contact of the tongue and palate using pseudo-palate like a night guard over the roof of the mouth - doesn’t give tongue height information
what is electro-optical palatography?
measures with pseudo-palate and LED lights to attempt tongue height measures
what is an ultrasound?
extremely high frequency (above 1 Mhz), short wavelength, based on sound reflection
what is electromagnetic articulography (EMA)?
magnetic tracking of small sensors attached to lips, jaw, and tongue
what is a real-time MRI?
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) takes advantage of the cellular basis of human tissue - expensive
what is a strain gauge?
instrument that measures lips and jaw movement
end week 7
