Experimental Investigations of the Muscular Control of the Tongue in Speech

Using thin-wire bipolar electrodes, electromyographic recordings have been obtained from selected extrinsic muscles of the tongue and suprahyoid muscles. Five male subjects were used in this study, all of whom were speakers of general American English. In each case, the text consisted of 36 CVC nonsense syllables, in a suitable frame. In addition, an x-ray film was made of one subject pronouncing the basic text. Specific patterns of muscular activity have been isolated for the basic consonant and vowel gestures, but these patterns show systematic variation dependent upon phonetic context. It is of interest that the electromyographic patterns were relatively similar from subject to subject. The paper will discuss the relationship of the data to models of speech production. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.