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Assignment 3: Understanding the vocal tract.

1. Styler Praat course

Work through chapter 6 of the Style document Using Praat for Linguistic Research (find the document under week 1). For this exercise you need in particular 6.1, 6.2, 6.4 and 6.6.

2. Measure your formant frequencies in Praat

2.1. Record the following vowels in Praat.

- /a/ like in ‘father’

- /i/ like in ‘feet’

- /u/ like in ‘food’

Produce each word three times with what you regard as being a normal pitch for yourself. After that, produce each vowel three times with a lower pitch than normal for you. And after that, produce each vowel with a higher pitch than normal for you, again, three times each. In the end you should have 27 vowels (3 vowels * 3 pitches * 3 repetitions).

2.2. Measure F1 and F2 in each vowel and insert the values in the following table:

2.3. Plot all vowels into a graph with F2 over F1

Plot the vowels in a graph with F2 over F1 like we have it on the slides. Make sure you add proper frequency scales. You can do this by hand or use any plotting software to plot the graphs. Praat can also do this but it is not so easy to make it work.

2.4. Relationship between F0 and Formants

Comment on how formant frequencies change when you change F0. What would you expect? What do you measure? Explain the relationship between fundamental frequency and formants based on your data.

3. Measuring vocal tract length

When the vocal tract is in a neutral position, the formula for the overall length of the tube (from the larynx to the lips) is L = c/4*f1, where c = speed of sound in cm, f1 = first formant frequency in Hz and L = length. Given that there are about 35 degrees in the vocal tract, sound travels a bit faster then at room temperature. As the speed of sound you can assume 350m/sec (i.e.: 35000cm/sec).

3.1. Record yourself producing a vowel with a maximally neutral vocal tract (shwa vowel). Measure the formant frequencies 1, 2 and 3 and give their frequencies. From f1, calculate the length of your vocal tract in cm and report it.

3.2. Using the formulas on slide 30 and 31, calculate the length of the pharynx. There are several ways by which you can do this but formant 2 for a particular vowel actually works best. Can you figure out which vowel it is and which formula you need to use?