LAUSR

Diphthongs have formant transitions sensitive to speaking rate, stress, vowel quality, and language ability. Tongue movement typically shows a functional “pivot” where the palate to tongue distance is almost constant; some combinations result in an “arch,” with only part of the tongue moving [Iskarous, J. Phon. 33, 363-381, 2005]. Here, ultrasound images of the tongue in Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin diphthongs and triphthongs (Mandarin) (vowel sequences in Korean and Japanese) were analyzed. Five repetitions of 6 nonwords were presented in Hangul, Hiragana or both Pinyin and a character for a word with the same vowel on tone 1. Diphthongs were [ai, ei, au] and triphthongs/sequence of three vowels were [iau, ieu, and uai]. All the ultrasound image frames for the target vowels were traced and superimposed. Preliminary results indicate that most vowel quality pairs resulted in a pivot pattern, with some arch patterns as well. Even in Mandarin triphthongs, there were generally two pivots, even though phonol...