Persian vowel formants; an investigation and comparison between Persian children 7-9 years old and persian adult 18-22 years old

• Main Authors: O. Mohamadi, J. Pourgharib
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Semnan Univeristy of Medical Sciences 2008-02-01
• Series: Majallah-i ̒Ilmī-i Dānishgāh-i ̒Ulūm-i Pizishkī-i Simnān
• Subjects: Formant structure; Vowel; Band frequency; Speech studio; Laryngograph
• Online Access: http://www.koomeshjournal.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-4-45&slc_lang=en&sid=1&ftxt=1

Introduction: Formant structure is one of the most important acoustical characteristics of sound. therelationship between first three formants is the main component of perceptual categorization by thelistener. The quality and the kind of one vowel is related to its formant .Material and methods: The goal of this descriptive-analytical study was to assign and compareformant structure of Persian vowels between 50 Persian children 7-9 years old from two separateschools in Tehran (25 boys and 25 girls) and 50 adults aged between 18 and 22 from persian studentsand employees at the rehabilitation sciences faculty of Iran (25 men and 25 women). Six persianvowels (/i/,/e/,/æ/,/a/,/o/,/u/) were produced using simple sample. The first three formant of persianlanguage vowels were obtained and compared between two groups of male adults and school boys andalso female adults and school girls.Results: Fundamental frequency, first three formants of each vowel (F1, F2, F3), band frequencyof each formant, and the intensity of each formant in each vowel were obtained and recorded byspeech studio software and laryngograph deviceConclusion: In all groups, /æ /vowel was the lowest height vowel and /i/ vowel is the highest highone. In addition, /i/ vowel was the high front vowel and /u/ vowel was the high back vowel one in allgroups. The results of comparison of formant structure of Persian language vowels in two groups ofmale adults and school boys, and female adults and school girls suggested that all quantities offormant frequency of the Persian vowels in adults is lower than children, by what it says that male andfemale adults had lower formant frequencies in compare with boys and girls. These findings weresimilar to pervious same studies. The differences observed between children and adults are due todifferent vocal tract length and different size of resonator cavities.