Exam 11: Music and Speech Perception

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For a speech sound to be produced, air must be pushed out of the lungs (respiration), up the trachea, and through the larynx where the vocal folds are located. The vocal folds in the larynx can be adjusted by muscular contractions to vary the amount of air that freely passes between the opening separating them, a process known as phonation. The rate at which the vocal folds vibrate determines the pitch of the sound they produce, with faster vibrations producing higher pitched sounds and slower vibrations producing lower pitched sounds. Sounds from the larynx and vocal folds proceed up into the vocal tract, which consists of the oral and nasal tracts. The shape of the vocal tract can be manipulated through movements of the jaw, lips, tongue body, tongue tip, velum (soft palate), and other structures. These changes in the vocal tract shape the sounds by affecting how much sound energy is transmitted at different frequencies. Furthermore, the placement and movements of the tongue and lips during sound production dramatically alters the quality of the sounds produced. For instance, the difference between "bah," "dah," and "gah" is due to whether the "ah" sound is proceeded by the lips parting, the tip of the tongue moving off the front of the roof of the mouth, or the middle of the tongue moving off the back of the roof of the mouth.