SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN SPEECH.

The pressure of the air in the lungs is the source of power for nearly all speech sounds. The correlations between subglottal pressure, acoustic energy and subjective loudness have been discussed in a recent paper. The present paper considers the effect of different supraglottal articulations on the subglottal pressure, and also establishes further correlations with variations in the perceived stress and with the frequency of vibrations of the vocal cords. The experiments presented in this paper took place in three different countries; but essentially the same techniques were used in each laboratory. Esophageal pressure records were obtained from a small latex balloon 1.5 cm. diameter, 2.0 mm. long, sealed to the end of a polythene catheter of 5 mm. bore.