The Acoustic Theory of Speech Production

Abstract

The acoustic characteristics of any speech sound are determined by the whole complex of the movement and configurations of the speech production process. We have seen that some aspects of speech production have a fairly predictable effect on the acoustic speech signal. For example, periodicity in the acoustic waveform is the acoustic consequence of vocal fold vibration that characterises voiced sounds, while a nearly random fluctuation in air pressure variation results from a turbulent airstream in the production of most voiceless sounds.