Individual differences in acoustic and articulatory undershoot in a German diphthong - Variation between male and female speakers

Individual differences in speech production and, more specifically, in the realization of stress contrasts have been found previously (e.g. de Jong, 1995). This study extends this line of work by investigating potential gender-specific differences in the realization of different accent conditions and more specifically in the degree of undershoot. The reason suggested for these differences is the under-exploitation of the larger male articulatory space during running speech. Differences between male and female speakers in undershoot are investigated (a) by comparing the degree of undershoot in various accent conditions between male and female diphthong productions, and (b) by analyzing the degree of undershoot in relation to a speaker's maximum articulatory vowel space. Articulatory and acoustic data from 11 German speakers (5 males, 6 females) of the diphthong /aɪ/ were analyzed in absolute terms and after normalization for a speaker's maximal articulatory space. In addition to speaker-specific differences in undershoot and in the acoustic-articulatory relationship, results support gender-specific differences, with males exhibiting more undershoot than females in both articulatory and acoustic terms. After normalization with respect to a speaker's maximum articulatory vowel space, females exhibit larger tongue back trajectories than males.