A Study On The Aerodynamics Of Mandarin Chinese Monograms

The aerodynamic process affects all the acoustic properties of speech.In this study,PAS6600 was used to collect speech-related air pressure and flow data.Through observation,measurement and calculation,the following results and conclusions were obtained:1)Air pressure/flow curve: When the closure of plosives and affricatives starts,the nasal air fluctuates due to the action of the soft palate,and a small air flow peak will appear.The peak airflow of aspirated plosives and affricatives is much greater than that of unaspirated cognates.The airflow of strong-obstructing fricatives may appear a bimodal pattern.The pressure of plosives drops faster,and the pressure of affricatives drops slower than that of plosives,which is more similar to that of fricatives.The air pressure of approximants and vowels are both at a low level,close to the zero line.Among them,the air pressure of the approximant “r” fluctuates relatively large.2)Peak intraoral pressure:The peak intraoral pressure of the plosives has no obvious effect of the place of articulation and the methods of articulation;the peak intraoral pressure of the affricatives might be higher than the plosive,and the pressure of the anterodorsal affricatives(??????)is higher than the apical affricatives(?????).The internal difference of the fricative pressure is large.The intraoral pressure of rigid fricatives is higher than that of the plosives,and the pressure of the posterodorsals is extremely low,indicating its small obstruction.The air pressure of the oral appoximants is greater than the nasal initials and the nasal codas.The oral pressure of vowels in different syllable structure positions is different.The air pressure for high vowels used as medial,which has characters of appoximants,is higher than nasals.And the vowels as main vowel or coda have slightly lower pressure than that of nasal codas.In the absence of the influence of consonant initials,the intraoral pressure of high vowels is usually higher than that of low vowels;due to the limitation of syllable structure of apical vowels,the peak intraoral pressure is significantly affected by the preceding consonants,which is much higher than other basic vowels.3)Airflow related parameters: The airflow of aspirated phonemes(including Peak Expiratory Airflow and Expiratory Volume)is an absolute law that is stronger than that of unaspirated phonemes.The airflow of affricatives is relatively stronger than the plosive cognates.And the performance of fricatives is between the aspirated and unaspirated obstruents(including plosives and affricatives).The lower air pressure for fricatives relates to higher expiratory volume.There is no obvious effect on place of articulation.The mean expiratory airflow of the approximants and the vowels is close,and the nasal coda is higher.Vowels with large openings have a higher airflow average than high vowels due to low vocal resistance.The tone affects the airflow,and the vowel airflow is lower under conditions of Tone2(??)and Tone3(??).4)Parameters related to the aerodynamic duration of the obstruents:measure the duration of the increasing phase(IP)and decreasing phase(DP)of the plosive air pressure,as well as the time difference ?t between the peak air pressure and the peak airflow.It is found that the DP presents a certain pattern.First,the DP of the aspirated phonemes is longer than unaspirated cognates,and the DP is lower for apicals and higher for dorsals.?t can also reflect the law similar to DP.The air pressure-related duration of affricatives was also measured.The difference between aspirated and unaspirated phonemes can be seen through DP and ?t,but there is no obvious regularity in position of articulation.5)Area of maximum oral constriction for friction: Estimate the target value of the oral constriction area of fricatives through empirical formulas.The constriction area of labiodental [f] is the smallest and its degree of oral obstruction is high;the back fricative [x] has the largest area indicates the least degree of oral obstruction.The area of [? ? s] decreases sequentially.Similarly,to estimate the constriction area of the friction section of the affricatives,the regularity trend can also be observed: the area of maximum oral constriction of the aspiratives at the same part is greater than that of the unaspirated cognates;the estimated value of the apicals is greater than that of the dorsals.The above-mentioned rules imply the difference in gestures of different phonemes.6)Gender and age differences: The results of this article show that the air pressure of male plosives,affricatives and fricatives is higher than that of females,and this is partially supported by statistical results.At the same time,this article found that the air pressure of obstruents of children is higher than that of adults,but the airflow-related parameters are smaller than that of adults.The average intraoral pressure of vowels is often higher in adult men than in adult women;it is different for children,and it is common for girls to have greater intraoral pressure of vowels than boys.However,gender differences in air pressure are almost not statistically significant.The mean airflow is greater for men than for women,and this is true for both adults and children,and they are all statistically significant.Regarding the reasons for differences in gender and age,it is currently believed that there are group differences in physiological aspects such as vital capacity,force of articulation,vocal tract size,lung collapse speed,etc.This article believes that social factors should also be considered.