The potential role of speakers’ vocal tract morphology onto speech perception: preliminary results

In order to investigate the influence of vocal tract morphology, i.e. different palate shapes, on the acoustic output and its perceptual consequences, we simulated /kVk/-sequences by means of a 2D biomechanical tongue model. Three palate shapes (normal, flat and dome shaped) differing in the coronal and mid-sagittal plane were implemented in the model. We assumed that small articulatory changes have a large impact on the area function and hence on the acoustics for subjects with a flat palate shape in comparison to normal or dome shaped palates. The results for the variability of the estimated area functions at the minimal constriction location and for the formant patterns clearly show vowel specific effects with respect to the three different palate shapes. KVk-sequences with the high front vowel /i/ were influenced to a greater extent than /kak/ and /kuk/-sequences.