Speech Science
Study Guide for Exam 2
Notes: This study guide is intended to give you a general idea of some of the kinds of questions that
might appear on the exam, and to help you organize your studying. It is not intended to cover all of
the topics that might be appear on the exam. Note that the study guide is a bit light on phonation
and respiration, but you have detailed handouts on both of these topics. However, some of the
exam questions may be taken almost verbatim from the study guide. In addition to the kinds of
questions that are shown below, there may also be multiple choice questions, matching items, and
diagrams that you would be asked to label.
1. What three functional subsystems are involved in the production of speech? Give a brief
explanation of each subsystem.
2. What does it mean to say that the larynx acts as a DC-to-AC converter?
3. Give a step-by-step description of the physiological and aerodynamic events that produce
the laryngeal tone. As a starting point, assume a steady flow of air through abducted vocal
folds.
4. What is the Bernoulli force, and what does it have to do with phonation?
5. What do the terms "laminar" and "turbulent" mean? What do these terms have to do with
phonation?
6. Explain how source/filter theory works. What aspects of the output spectrum are controlled
by the source and what aspects are controlled by the filter?
7. Show time- and frequency-domain representations of a glottal tone normally phonated at
moderate intensity.
8. Use drawings to show the effects of jitter and shimmer.
9. What subjective aspects of voice quality are associated with (a) jitter and (b) shimmer?
10. What does the glottal source spectrum look like for breathy voices? List and briefly explain
the acoustic differences that you might expect to see between breathy and normally
phonated signals.
11. Draw time- and frequency-domain representations of glottal signals at low, moderate, and
high intensity.
12. Draw time- and frequency-domain representations of modal register, moderate intensity
glottal signals at low and high fundamental frequency.
13. What do glottal waveforms typically look like for modal, falsetto, and pulse register?
14. How are the terms vibrato and jitter different?
15. Which part(s) of the source-filter theory model control pitch? Which part of the source-filter
theory model is primarily responsible for the control of loudness?
16. What does it mean to say that the source and filter are independent?
17. Explain what is meant by the “vertical phase difference” in vocal fold vibration.
18. What are the five layers of the vocal folds. Which layer or layers constitute the vocal fold
cover? Which layer or layers constitute the body of the vocal folds? Which layer or layers
participate most in vocal fold vibration, especially the vertical component of this vibration?
19. What does it mean to that time and frequency organization are inversely related? Use
drawings to illustrate the point. Give an example showing the relevance of this concept for
understanding voice production.
20. Study the structure and function of the intrinsic laryngeal muscles and know what muscles
are involved in adduction, abduction, and f0 control.
21. What are the major muscles associated with inspiration?
22. What are the major muscles associated with expiration?
23. Why are both inspiratory and expiratory muscles active during expiration?
24. An increase in respiratory force produces what change or changes in the acoustic signal?
Why?
25. Describe the movement or movements that can occur at the cricoarytenoid joints.
26. Why does contraction of the cricothyroid muscle cause a change in f0?
27. What is the uniform tube model of the vocal tract? What are the three lowest resonant
frequencies of a 20 cm uniform tube? Draw the frequency response curve for this tube. How
would the frequency response curve change if the tube were shortened? What is the primary
limitation of the uniform tube model?
28. Use a drawing to show what the Stevens and House model of the vocal tract looks like.
What parameters control the formant frequencies of this model? What rules control the
relationships between these parameters and the formant frequency pattern?
29. Using the Stevens and House model, explain the differences in F1 and F2 between the
vowels: (a) /æ/ and /i/; (b) /æ/ and /ɑ/; and (c) /ɑ/ and /u/.
30. Draw wide-band spectrograms of an /ɑ/ and an /i/ produced with the same fundamental
frequency. Draw wide-band spectrograms of /ɑ/ produced at high and low fundamental
frequencies. Label your drawings to show which is which.
31. It is generally accepted that vowel recognition can not depend on absolute formant
frequencies. How do we know that this is true?
32. Show what the formant frequency patterns (F1 and F2) might look like for the diphthongs
/ai/ (as in "ride") and /au/ (as in "house").
33. What is it about the articulatory posture for vocalic /ɚ/ that makes it different from other
speech sounds? What is it about the acoustic pattern for /ɚ/ that makes it different from
other speech sounds?
34. Draw schematic spectrograms of the vowels /i,ɪ,ə,æ,ɑ,ɔ,ʊ,u/.