Voice Quality

doi:10.1017/9781108644198.010

9 - Voice Quality

from Section II - Prosodic Production

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2021

John H. Esling and

Scott R. Moisik

Edited by

Rachael-Anne Knight and

Jane Setter

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Rachael-Anne Knight: Affiliation:
City, University of London
Jane Setter: Affiliation:
University of Reading

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Summary

This chapter examines voice quality as the long-term, relatively constant or habitually recurring phonetic characteristics of an individual’s speech. The identification of voice quality settings relates the auditory/acoustic components of the voice quality strand of an individual’s accent (i.e. habitual manner of speaking) to the articulatory postures or movements that shape speech sound quality over the long term. An essential generator of long-term quality is the larynx, producing sustained vibrations and laryngeal articulatory resonances that interact with vowel quality and tonal quality. Various instrumental phonetic procedures have been developed to observe postural settings of the parts of the vocal tract. The images from these experimental observations have been incorporated into instructional tools for teaching and learning about voice quality settings and the movements of the laryngeal articulatory mechanism in particular.

Keywords

voice quality long-term setting articulatory setting accent phonation phonatory quality vocal register larynx laryngeal articulator iPA Phonetics

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Phonetics , pp. 237 - 258

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108644198.010 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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