Articulation of Vowel Height in English Front Vowels: An Ultrasound Study

allowing for comparison among vowels of the world’s languages. Direct measurements of the articulators have been difficult to align with the universal feature system (Fischer-Jorgensen 1985). Here, we examine vowel height, for which controversy remains on the relative contribution of the tongue and the jaw for the height distinction. While some researchers have suggested that height dimension is essentially conveyed by jaw vertical motion (Lindblom & Sundberg, 1971), others have argued for a coupling of jaw motion with tongue raising (Hoole & Mooshammer, 2002). For others finally, height is an inaccurate descriptor for distinguishing vowels and should be replaced by vocal tract narrowing (Wood, 1982), cross sectional area or factorial analysis (e.g. PARAFAC, Harshman, Ladefoged, & Goldstein, 1977; Hoole & Mooshammer, 2002). The present study investigated the case of height distinction in American English front vowels. Stimuli consisted in /(h)Vd / sequences with V corresponding to one of the front vowels /i, ɪ, e, ɛ/. Five adult speakers of American English (Connecticut dialect) were asked to repeat each sequence 15 times in random order. Tongue images were collected via the Haskins Optically Corrected Ultrasound System (HOCUS, Whalen, et al., 2005