I know I'm trying some patiences out there by still not writing about my trip to Europe (I'll get to it sooner rather than later, don't worry), but...
I have been playing with the lower airway model that I made (in MATLAB) as part of my thesis, looking at how the resonances change in frequency as the lengths of the bronchii and trachea are scaled up and down, and how these frequency changes are affected by the scaling of the radii. As it turns out......... There is a relatively narrow range of length scaling factors for which the radius scaling almost doesn't matter. This range of length scaling factors is *exactly* what we find in adults! What this means is that the radii of the airways can vary as much as they like (within physiological bounds) without affecting the frequencies of the resonances. Since the frequencies of the resonances are therefore quite stable across such physiological conditions, they are able to play a reliable and consistent role in defining distinctive features!!!! Or put another way (and phrased too strongly), the fact that adults tend to be between 5 and 6.5 feet tall is precisely what allows speech to be possible!
And with that exciting bit of news, I shall go to bed. :-)
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2 comments:
Steven, not to burst your bubble of excitement, but if being between 5 and 6.5 feet tall makes speech possible, what about kids?? Or does this just segue to your new ideas for exploring subglottal resonances in kids?
Yes, kids aren't generally 5 feet tall, and yet they talk. :-} That's why I said the claim was too strong. For one thing, although there is some more variability in the kids, it is likely still small enough that it really wouldn't make much difference. For the youngest kids who are speaking, I would predict something like 100 Hz variation, which is not all *that* much.
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