Progress in Realtime MRI for Phonetic Research
* Presenting author
Abstract:
This contribution will briefly review the state of the art in realtime MRI and will illustrate why it is now so valuable for phonetic research by focussing on efficient analysis of large datasets (data from 2 studies with 30+ speakers each, 300+ utterances per subject, images at 50.05 fps and 1.4 x 1.4mm in-plane resolution). Three specific areas of its successful application are given. (1) Coarticulatory nasalization of vowels. This is highly relevant for common patterns of sound-change (development of phonologically nasalized vowels) and requires the elucidation of quite subtle differences in velum movement patterns depending on phonetic context, e.g. /Vnd/ vs. /Vnt/. (2)Vertical larynx movements in vowels. These can be large and are important for full understanding of articulatory-acoustic relations in vowels. Previous investigations in this area have suffered from typically having only a handful of subjects and messy patterns in the results. (3) Ejectives in English. These sounds are becoming common in word-final position. However, it has been questioned whether they involve the larynx raising traditionally associated with ejectives. RTMRI is ideally suited for comparing ejective and non-ejective realizations through the whole vocal tract from the larynx to the main place of articulation.