Voice Quality

The Laryngeal Articulator Model

Hardback 978-1-108-49842-5

John H. Esling, University of Victoria, British Columbia

Scott R. Moisik, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Allison Benner, University of Victoria, British Columbia

Lise Crevier-Buchman, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris

The first description of voice quality production in forty years, this book

provides a new framework for its study: The Laryngeal Articulator Model.

Informed by instrumental examinations of the laryngeal articulatory

mechanism, it revises our understanding of articulatory postures to explain

the actions, vibrations and resonances generated in the epilarynx and

pharynx. It focuses on the long-term auditory-articulatory component of

accent in the languages of the world, explaining how voice quality relates to

segmental and syllabic sounds. Phonetic illustrations of phonation types

and of laryngeal and oral vocal tract articulatory postures are provided.

Extensive video and audio material is available on a companion website.

The book presents computational simulations, the laryngeal and voice

quality foundations of infant speech acquisition, speech/voice disorders and

surgeries that entail compensatory laryngeal articulator adjustment, and an

exploration of the role of voice quality in sound change and of the larynx in

the evolution of speech.

1. Voice and voice quality; 2. Voice quality classification; 3. Instrumental case

studies and computational simulations of voice quality; 4. Linguistic, paralinguistic

and extralinguistic illustrations of voice quality; 5. Phonological implications of

voice quality theory; 6. Infant acquisition of speech and voice quality; 7. Clinical

illustrations of voice quality; 8. Laryngeal articulation and voice quality in sound

change, language ontogeny.