Multimodal imaging of glottal stop and creaky voice: Evaluating the role of epilaryngeal constriction

This paper investigates the role of epilaryngeal constriction in constricted laryngeal gestures such as creaky voice and glottal stop. Two imaging modalities were used to study canonical phonetic productions anchored by auditory targets. Laryngeal posture was examined in axial and sagittal sections using magnetic resonance imaging, and high-speed laryngoscopic video was used to study posturing and vibratory dynamics. Together these data support the view that epilaryngeal constriction plays a key role in suppressing vocal fold vibration most directly through a vertical compaction mechanism, whereby the vocal folds and ventricular folds come into contact, obliterating the ventricle. The effect of this is suggested to increase mechanical impedance to mucosal wave transmission resulting in the perturbed vibration observed in creaky voice or facilitating vibratory arrest in glottal stop.