formantanalys

Formantanalys refers to the set of techniques used to describe the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract that shape vowel sounds. These resonances, known as formants, appear as peaks in the speech spectrum and are typically summarized by the first three formants: F1, F2 and F3. While the exact values depend on speaker and context, static formants at vowel midpoint and dynamic formant transitions provide a compact description of vowel quality.

F1 is primarily related to vowel height: higher vowels have lower F1 values, while lower vowels have higher F1. F2 is related to tongue frontness: front vowels have higher F2 values and back vowels lower F2. F3 is influenced by additional articulatory factors such as lip rounding and pharyngeal tension, and it is less diagnostic than F1 and F2 for vowel identity but can help distinguish some vowels and speaker traits.

Measurement and analysis are usually performed on recorded speech using spectral analysis. Wideband spectrograms are common for visualizing formant structure, and formant frequencies are estimated by algorithms such as linear predictive coding (LPC). Software like PRAAT is widely used. Normalization across speakers can involve scaling or using perceptual scales such as Bark or ERB to compare vowel spaces.

Applications include phonetic research on vowel inventories and systems, dialectology and accent analysis, speech synthesis and recognition, and language teaching. Limitations include variability due to coarticulation, nasalization, speaker anatomy, age and gender, recording quality, and methodological choices in formant estimation.