X‐ray microbeam speech production database

A broad review of literature describing lingual function during speech shows that speaker samples per study are typically small (N<3 in more than 80% of all cases), and that speech samples, and representational and analysis conventions are highly variable. Similar conclusions can be drawn for other articulators. Thus it is fair to argue that there is still not available any valid, statistically‐defensible sense of normal speech motor behavior, against which disordered articulatory behavior can be compared. Accordingly, a large‐sample, 50‐speaker x‐ray microbeam speech database will be developed at the University of Wisconsin, incorporating point‐parametrized representations of lingual, labial, mandibular, and velar movements in association with the resulting acoustic sound pressure wave, for a rich set of utterances and oral motor tasks, and lengthy recording interval (circa 18 min/speaker). The database is intended to be uniform across speakers in task inventory and descriptive kinematic framework; suffi...