Another way to think of formants is as energy concentrated at certain frequencies -- that's how I think of them. As Mike says, the resonant properties of the shaped vocal tract concentrate energy at certain frequencies more than others; in a spectrogram you see them as darker bands of energy.
I don't know if that helps or not, but if you start with thinking about something like Fourier analysis wherein you break a complex waveform into frequency components that have differing amounts of energy, formants are components of the complex speech waveform that have more energy in them. I also second the recommendation for "The Speech Chain." The first few chapters of Yost's "Fundamentals of Hearing" explain the speech signal pretty well -- and how we take it apart for analysis (which is where formants come from). m -- Marc Carter, PhD Associate Professor and Chair Department of Psychology College of Arts & Sciences Baker University -- > -----Original Message----- > From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 9:42 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Cc: Mike Palij > Subject: re: [tips] question on speech perception > > On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:13:37 -0700, Carol L DeVolder wrote: > >Dear TIPSters, > >I have tried and tried to understand the concept of formants, but > >something isn't clicking in my head. Can anyone explain it to me? > >I can recite the definition, but I just can't seem to > picture what they > >represent. I've done a fair amount of reading and it still > hasn't helped. > >I think I'm stuck on the idea of frequency over time and I > need to get > >beyond that. > >Thanks for any help anyone can provide. > > I'm not sure how helpful this will be but one way of thinking > of formants is that they represent resonant properties of the > vocal tract. > That is, formants represent frequencies that are reinforced > by the configuration of the vocal tract. A speech sound can > then be characterized by its fundamental frequency and the > formants that the vocal tract supports. Changing the > configuration of the vocal tract changes the formants because > the resonance properties of the tract are now different. > > One useful source on this and related concepts is Denes & > Pinson's "The Speech Chain", the 2nd edition of which is > available on books.google.com, see: > http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMTm3nlDfroC&pg=PA153&dq=%22s > peech+perception%22+denes+pinson&cd=1#v=onepage&q=formants&f=false > or > http://tinyurl.com/3ae9wsx > > There is an entry on Wikipedia for speech perception which > provides some coverage of formants and their properties but I > think Denes & Pinson is probably a better source; see: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_perception > > -Mike Palij > New York University > [email protected] > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13029.76c7c563b32ad9d8d09c72 > a2d17c90e1&n=T&l=tips&o=2222 > or send a blank email to > [email protected] > tburg.edu > The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by Baker University ("BU") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify Baker University by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2232 or send a blank email to leave-2232-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
