Steven M. Lulich, Ph.D. (Department of Psychology, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington,Indiana)  

Recent Advances in Understanding Subglottal Acoustics During Phonation  

Abstract:

The subglottal airways clearly play some role in speech production - if nothing else, they provide the airflow which drives vocal fold vibration and frication noise production. A number of studies have also demonstrated the importance of subglottal resonances for vocal fold vibration as well as their role defining vowel and consonant contrasts phonologically. However, specific and detailed information about the properties of subglottal acoustics, and their physical/physiological causes, have remained largely unknown due to the relative difficulty of acquiring data and a lack of accurate models for subglottal mechanics. In this presentation, we will discuss recent advances in understanding subglottal acoustics from a physical/physiological standpoint, opening a way for further investigations of the effects of subglottal acoustics on phonation and on phonological categorization.