Puff and Profile Theory of the Vowels

Abstract

THE portions of sound film tracks reproduced in Fig. 1 are from registrations of the vowels oo (as in boo), ee (as in bee), ah (as in bah), ay (as in bay), æ (from a in an). The registration in each case shows a series of contiguous short bits of vibration in each of which the movement begins strongly and fades rapidly to zero. Such a movement occurs only as a free vibration, that is, as the movement of a vibratory system disturbed in its equilibrium and then left to itself. A vibration of this kind is produced when the air in the vocal cavity is rarefied or condensed by snapping the thumb out of the mouth or by closing and suddenly opening the glottis. Such a sudden rarefaction or condensation may be termed a puff. Repeated puffs will produce a series of free vibrations.