The Importance Of Instrumental Analysis

There are a number of phonemes that have not been included as well as a number of phonemes that should be excluded. According to him, the forty phonemes encompasses the Tenyidie inventory however with more advanced research including instrumental studies such as acoustic study as well as auditory perception, my research hopes to bring about a fuller description of the inventory as well as a technical look at the language.

As explained in the previous chapter, the phonemes were put in minimal pairs to make certain of its authenticity. There are sixty consonants and six vowels in the inventory that I am analyzing. Instrumental analysis, or in this case an acoustic study, is really the key factor to not only confirm and prove the analysis but

(All consonants have lower F1 than vowels). It has stronger amplitude than laterals and nasals. / w / has low F2 and weak low F3, / j / has high F2 and high F3.

3.1.2 Place of articulation

It is cued by frequency of burst or frication noise. Burst/ frication are formed from front cavity (shorter front cavity-higher frequency).

With the help of the Acoustic knowledge, we can move on to the next section where we will analyse the phoneme sounds that has been processed through PRAAT.

3.2 Spectrograms

A graphic representation of three dimensions of sounds in terms of their component frequencies is called a spectrogram.

In speech, the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract (that is the frequencies that resonates the loudest) are called formants. We can see them as peaks in a spectrum.

With vowels, the frequencies of the formants determine which vowel you hear and in general, are responsible for the differences in quality among different periodic sounds.

In a spectrogram, time is always represented on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis. Intensity is depicted by the relative darkness of the frequencies shown. The formants are the darker bands that correspond to the peaks in the spectra.

3.3 Acoustic

- During closure, the only possible source is voicing. Otherwise, the closure may be completely silent (voiceless).

- The release begins with a burst, which is a transient noise followed by a very short period of frication, produced when air pressure behind the closure is suddenly released. Following the burst, there may be voicing or aspiration in the release.

These sources are also filtered by the vocal tract.

- During closure, the mouth is completely closed, so there is no way for sound to reach a listener’s ears except through the walls of the vocal tract (i.e., the cheeks).

- Turbulence is muffled and high frequency energy is filtered out.

- The remaining low frequency energy is seen as the ‘voicing bar’ at the bottom of a spectrogram.

- Burst noise is produced at the consonant place of articulation, so a burst is filtered by the part of the vocal tract in front of the point of constriction (just like a fricative).

- Labial stops involve constriction at the lips, so there is no front cavity and, in theory, no vocal tract shaping.

- Labial bursts have relatively diffuse energy (i.e., at all