Articulatory and acoustic correlates of the mid-central vowel

This paper reports on the articulatory and acoustic correlates of the mid-central vowel (schwa) in an attempt to find out the perimeter of this vowel in both the articulatory and acoustic vowel space of female American English speakers. F1xF2 plots were used to determine the acoustic vowel space. The articulatory vowel space was determined by plotting the maximum vertical displacement of the jaw from the bite plane against the maximum horizontal displacement of the tongue blade from normal resting position. Results indicated that speakers had significantly different articulatory strategies for the production of the schwa, but no speaker differences were observed in the acoustic signal. The acoustic vowel space of this vowel when plotted against the Hillenbrand et al., study appeared to be closer to the back high vowel /u/. The placement of the target word in the utterance had no effect on its acoustic or articulatory realization.