The aim of this section is to familiarize you with the way in whichvowel sounds are produced and how this production mechanism isreflected in the acoustics of vowel sounds.

On successful completion of this topic you will be able to:

• Be able to describe how a vowel sound is produced
• Understand what is mean by a formant and how it is produced
• Understand how different vowel sounds are characterized by different formant frequencies.