Formant Analysis Frequency - What makes a peak value?

1. What determines formant frequency?
2. What affects formant frequency?
3. What are formant peaks?
4. What do formant frequencies tell us?

What determines formant frequency?

The frequency of the first formant is mostly determined by the height of the tongue body: high F1 = low vowel (i.e., high frequency F1 = low tongue body) low F1 = high vowel (i.e., low frequency F1 = high tongue body)

What affects formant frequency?

The actual values of the formant frequencies will depend on the head size (or vocal tract length) of the speaker.

What are formant peaks?

Formants are frequency peaks in the spectrum which have a high degree of energy. They are especially prominent in vowels. Each formant corresponds to a resonance in the vocal tract (roughly speaking, the spectrum has a formant every 1000 Hz).

What do formant frequencies tell us?

In simple terms, formants are the frequencies of different sounds, particularly vowels. They vary in frequency based on the size and shape of the vocal tract. Together, all the formants let us know what a specific sound is. For example, /o/ as in top and /u/ as in cup have similar articulation.