Vowels
How our mouth pronounces vowels and creation of a training tool for singers
Autor:
Título 4
Learning objectives :
This activity allows students to understand how the shape of the oral cavities influences the production of vowels. It establishes a link between acoustic physics and articulatory phonetics.
Concepts covered
Vowel formants; Acoustic resonance; Articulatory phonetics; Spectral filtering; Vocal harmonics
What students will do :
The student uses the FizziQ Sound Spectrum tool to compare the frequencies that make up different sung vowels. By analyzing the number and intensity of the frequency peaks for each vowel (notably 'i' and 'o'), the student discovers that certain vowels generate more harmonics and understands that the oral cavities act as acoustic filters modifying the timbre of the sound produced by the vocal cords.
What is required :
Smartphone with the FizziQ application; A quiet environment for voice recordings; FizziQ experience notebook
Scientific background :
The production of vowels is a fascinating acoustic phenomenon which involves two complementary mechanisms: 1) A sound source: the vocal cords which, by vibrating, produce a sound rich in harmonics (the raw voice); 2) A system of filters: the cavities of the mouth, pharynx and nose which modify this sound by amplifying certain frequencies and attenuating others. These areas of amplification, called formants, are characteristic of each vowel and allow them to be distinguished aurally. FizziQ's Sound Spectrum tool allows you to visualize this unique acoustic signature. The vowel 'i' typically has a low first formant (around 250-300 Hz) and a very high second (around 2200-2500 Hz), creating a big difference between the two. To produce it, the tongue is brought forward and elevated, creating a small cavity in front and a large one in the back. The 'o' shows two low, close formants (around 400 Hz and 800 Hz), resulting from a retracted tongue position and a rounded labial opening. Vowels like 'i' and 'e' generally generate more visible harmonics because their high second formant amplifies more of the high-frequency components of the speech spectrum. This spectral richness explains why these vowels “carry” better in a song. Singers exploit this phenomenon by subtly adapting the shape of their oral cavities to optimize vocal projection while maintaining speech intelligibility. The acoustic analysis of vowels has applications in singing teaching, speech therapy, speech recognition and even historical phonetics to understand the evolution of languages. This experience constitutes an accessible introduction to speech acoustics, a field at the intersection of physics and language sciences.