An analysis of vocal tract shaping in English sibilant fricatives using real-time magnetic resonance imaging

This study uses real-time MRI to investigate shaping aspects of two English sibilant fricatives. The purpose of this article is to 1) develop linguistically meaningful quantitative measurements based on vocal tract features that robustly capture the shaping aspects of the two fricatives, and 2) provide qualitative analyses of fricative shaping. Data was recorded in both midsagittal and coronal planes. The proposed three quantitative measures of this study provide robust results in categorizing shape. The qualitative analyses describe tongue shape in terms of grooving and doming and they support previous research.