Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Synthetic, Multi-Layer, Self-Oscillating Vocal Fold Model Fabrication
Published on: December 2, 2011
A vocal-tract model of American English /l/
Zhaoyan Zhang1, Carol Y Espy-Wilson
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. zhaoyan@glue.umd.edu
Abstract:
The production of the lateral sounds involves airflow paths around the tongue produced by the laterally inward movement of the tongue toward the midsagittal plane. If contact is made with the palate, a closure is formed in the flow path along the midsagittal line. The effects of the lateral channels on the sound spectrum are not clear. In this study, a vocal-tract model with parallel lateral channels and a supralingual cavity was developed. Analysis shows that the lateral channels with dimensions derived from magnetic resonance images of an American English /l/ are able to produce a pole-zero pair in the frequency range of 2-5 kHz. This pole-zero pair, together with an additional pole-zero pair due to the supralingual cavity, results in a low-amplitude and relatively flat spectral shape in the F3-F5 frequency region of the /l/ sound spectrum.
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