Work

Subglottal resonances of American English speaking children

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: This paper presents an investigation of children's subglottal resonances (SGRs), the natural frequencies of the tracheo-bronchial acoustic system. A total of 43 children (31 male, 12 female) aged between 6 and 18 yr were recorded. Both microphone signals of various consonant-vowel-consonant words and subglottal accelerometer signals of the sustained vowel /ɑ/ were recorded for each of the children, along with age and standing height. The first three SGRs of each child were measured from the sustained vowel subglottal accelerometer signals. A model relating SGRs to standing height was developed based on the quarter-wavelength resonator model, previously developed for adult SGRs and heights. Based on difficulties in predicting the higher SGR values for the younger children, the model of the third SGR was refined to account for frequency-dependent acoustic lengths of the tracheo-bronchial system. This updated model more accurately estimates both adult and child SGRs based on their heights. These results indicate the importance of considering frequency-dependent acoustic lengths of the subglottal system.

Source: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

DOI: 10.1121/1.5082289

Authors: Gary Yeung, Steven M. Lulich, Jinxi Guo, Mitchell S. Sommers, Abeer Alwan

Institutions: University of California, Los Angeles, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University, Washington University in St. Louis

Language: English

Topic: Phonetics and Phonology Research

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Science Foundation