Relation of formants and subglottal resonances in Hungarian vowels

Abstract

The relation between vowel formants and subglottal resonances (SGRs) has previously been explored in English, German, and Korean. Results from these studies indicate that vowel classes are categorically separated by SGRs. We extended this work to Hungarian vowels, which have not been related to SGRs before. The Hungarian vowel system contains paired long and short vowels as well as a series of front rounded vowels, similar to German but more complex than English and Korean. Results indicate that SGRs separate vowel classes in Hungarian as in English, German, and Korean, and uncover additional patterns of vowel formants relative to the third subglottal resonance (Sg3). These results have implications for understanding phonological distinctive features, and applications in automatic speech technologies. Index Terms: subglottal resonances, Hungarian, quantal theory, vowels