THE UNIVERSALITY OF INTRINSIC F-0 OF VOWELS

The tendency for high vowels such as [i] and [u] to have higher fundamental frequencies (F(0)s) than low vowels such as [a] has been found in every language so far in which it has been sought. This includes 31 languages representing 11 of the world's 29 major language families (as defined by Crystal, 1987). While the size of the intrinsic F-0 (IF0) effect varies from study to study, the differences seem to derive from differences in the study design, especially in the number of subjects. The effect appears larger for female speakers when expressed in Hz, but it is, instead, larger for males when the results are expressed in semitones. The size of the language's vowel inventory did not significantly affect the size of IF0. One other universal, though, is that the effect disappears at the low end of a speaker's F-0 range. The consistency of intrinsic F-0 across languages argues that the effect is truly intrinsic; that is, it is not a deliberate enhancement of the signal but rather a consequence of successfully forming a vowel. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited.