Researchers from five Scottish universities are using ultrasound and MRI technology to build a three-dimensional visualisation of tongues in action during speech.
The ‘Seeing Speech’ website is reportedly the first resource of its kind to make publicly available the inner workings of the human vocal tract while speaking. The work can apparently give as the best understanding yet of the processes that take place when a person speaks and is expected to aid academics, teachers, healthcare professionals and actors.
Ultrasound Tongue Imaging is a comparatively new technique that uses medical ultrasound machines to record an image of the surface of the tongue during speech. Coupled with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, which images the entire vocal tract including the action of the larynx and the soft palate, academics have built a database of online recordings showing speakers’ tongues moving inside their mouths during normal speech.
The team, led by researchers at the University of Glasgow, was funded by the Carnegie Trust to create a unique online visual resource that will be an invaluable aid for researchers and teachers working in linguistics and phonetics as well as speech therapists, learners of English as a foreign language, and students of acting wanting to learn an accent.
Currently, there are no such comprehensive resources that visualise what is happening inside the mouth when we speak. This means that students of linguistics only have access to snapshots of what is a dynamic process. ‘Seeing Speech’ provides access to ultrasound and MRI videos, presenting the tongue’s movement at full speed and half speed to allow for detailed study.
Jane Stuart-Smith, Professor of Phonetics and Sociolinguistics at the University of Glasgow and Principal Investigator on the project, said, “I am delighted to be able to launch this is unique collaboration between five Scottish universities that will really help advance a wide range of studies of speech production and accents.
EH News Bureau