15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)

Barcelona, Spain
August 3-9, 2003

Simulations of VhV Sequences in Children

Jorge C. Lucero (1), Laura L. Koenig (2)

(1) University of Brasilia, Brazil
(2) Haskins Laboratories, USA

We explore the adequacy of low-dimensional models of the larynx to reproduce aerodynamic patterns of child speakers in the vicinity of an abduction gesture. A model of the child larynx is created by scaling an adult two-mass model coupled to a two-tube approximation of the vocal tract. This model next is fitted to oral air-flow data of VhV sequences recorded from 5-year-old speakers, and using the subglottal pressure, Q-factor, and glottal width as control parameters. Optimal values of the control parameters are computed by using the values of DC flow, rms AC flow, and F0 measured at the /h/ abduction and flanking vowels as targets. The results show that the model is capable of reproducing the aerodynamic patterns with good approximation, allowing us to infer some aspects of voice control in individual speakers.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Lucero, Jorge C. / Koenig, Laura L. (2003): "Simulations of VhV sequences in children", In ICPhS-15, 2905-2908.