The correlation between acoustic and articulatory variation in Laurentian French high vowels

This study explores the relationship between acoustic and articulatory variation in Laurentian French (LF) high vowels. LF /i/, /y/, /u/ undergo laxing before a consonant other than a voiced fricative. While several studies have characterized LF vowel laxing acoustically, limited work has described it articulatorily. This study investigates the alignment between ultrasound tongue imaging data and acoustic realization in LF vowels. Using data from Burness et al. (2022b), seven native LF speakers participated in a study collecting ultrasound tongue imaging and audio while producing 52 French words with target vowels /i/, /y/, /u/. We chose the ultrasound frame for each token that aligns with the vowel midpoint. From these, we obtained x (tongue backness) and y (tongue height) values. Linear mixed-effect models were employed to assess the relationship between acoustic parameters (F1, F2) and articulatory measures. Findings reveal a varied but generally related pattern between acoustics and articulation. F1 relates significantly to tongue height for /u/ and /y/, while F2 aligns significantly with tongue backness across all three vowels. However, substantial unaccounted variation suggests factors like vocal tract physiology, the non-linearity between articulation and acoustics, and specific choice of articulatory measures might contribute to this variability. Future research will explore these factors to better comprehend this intricate link between acoustics and articulation.