Tongue- and Jaw-Specific Contributions to Acoustic Vowel Contrast Changes in the Diphthong /ai/ in Response to Slow, Loud, and Clear Speech

Purpose

This study sought to determine decoupled tongue and jaw displacement changes and their specific contributions to acoustic vowel contrast changes during slow, loud, and clear speech.

Method

Twenty typical talkers repeated “see a kite again” 5 times in 4 speech conditions (typical, slow, loud, clear). Speech kinematics were recorded using 3-dimensional electromagnetic articulography. Tongue composite displacement, decoupled tongue displacement, and jaw displacement during /ai/, as well as the distance between /a/ and /i/ in the F1–F2 vowel space, were examined during the diphthong /ai/ in “kite.”

Results

Displacements significantly increased during all 3 speech modifications. However, jaw displacements increased significantly more during clear speech than during loud and slow speech, whereas decoupled tongue displacements increased significantly more during slow speech than during clear and loud speech. In addition, decoupled tongue displacements increased significantly more during clear speech than during loud speech. Increases in acoustic vowel contrast tended to be larger during slow speech than during clear speech and were predominantly tongue-driven, whereas those during clear speech were fairly equally accounted for by changes in decoupled tongue and jaw displacements. Increases in acoustic vowel contrast during loud speech were smallest and were predominantly tongue-driven, particularly in men.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that task-specific patterns of decoupled tongue and jaw displacement change and task-specific patterns of decoupled tongue and jaw contributions to vowel acoustic change across these speech modifications. Clinical implications are discussed.

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