Oral Air Flow During Vowel Production of Children and Adults

Abstract

In aerodynamic research in recent years there has been a growing concensus concerning normative patterns of air flow (V0) during speech production of consonants in adults. There are ample and fairly consistent data relevant to place and manner of articulation and to phonotactic position in words as well (cf, Stathopoulos, 1980, and Warren, 1982, for reviews). For example, Klatt, Stevens and Mead (1968) report that air flow traces for stops show fast rise and fall times with a sharp peak, while fricative traces show gentler slopes with rounded peaks. Voiceless (VL) consonants are shown to have higher V0 values than their voiced (VD) counterparts by Emanuel and Couni-han (1970) and by Isshiki and Ringel (1964). Regarding the effect of phonotac-tics, these authors also show V0 values to be higher for initial than for final conso— nants. Data for sex and age effects on consonantal V0 values are more limited. Two studies, Isshiki and Ringel (1964), and Klatt, et a1. (1968) used male and female subjects, but did not separate them in their data description. Van Hattum and Worth (1967) analyzed their male and female data separately, but found no statistically significant differences. Emanuel and Couni— han (1970) did find differences: men pro— duced consistently higher V0 values for stops than did women (average male/fe-male ratio = 1.42). They did not, however, do significance testing.