Quantifying lingual coarticulation using ultrasound imaging data collected with and without head stabilisation.

Area of Science:

• Speech Science
• Linguistics
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Ultrasound tongue imaging (UTI) has been used qualitatively in clinical speech studies.
• Quantitative UTI measures often require head stabilization, limiting clinical applicability, especially for children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of quantitative, stabilization-free ultrasound tongue imaging.
• To compare tongue movement measures with and without head stabilization in adolescents.

Main Methods:

• Collected ultrasound tongue data from 10 adolescents under both stabilized and non-stabilized head conditions.
• Quantified tongue shape measures to assess coarticulatory effects of vowels on consonants.

Main Results:

• One tongue shape measure remained unaffected by head stabilization across all tested consonants.
• Observed significant cross-consonant variations in vowel-induced coarticulation.

Conclusions:

• Quantitative, stabilization-free ultrasound tongue imaging shows promise for clinical speech analysis.
• Findings contribute to the understanding of coarticulation and its measurement.