Formant

Formants are characteristic peaks in the frequency spectrum, independent of the fundamental frequency. Each vowel has different peaks in the energetic spectrum of the sound. They are identifiable through the Spectral Envelope of an utterance.

Each peak represents a formant, where the first peak is called formant 1 (F1), the second formant 2 (F2), and so on. Phonemes are differentiated well by their first and second formant. The following gives the topology of phonemes in the space of formant 1 and 2:

![[Pasted image 20240625104446.png]]

deutscher Vokal IPA Formant F1 Formant F2
U u 320 Hz 800 Hz
O o 500 Hz 1000 Hz
å ɑ 700 Hz 1150 Hz
A a 1000 Hz 1400 Hz
ö ø 500 Hz 1500 Hz
ü y 320 Hz 1650 Hz
ä ɛ 700 Hz 1800 Hz
E e 500 Hz 2300 Hz
I i 320 Hz 3200 Hz

The different formants of a vowel are produced in different resonance chambers of the vocal tract.

Formant Frequenzspektrum
männlich
zugeordneter Resonanzraum
F0 80–200 Hz Stimmlippen, Stimme
F1 220–780 Hz Rachen
F2 1200–2000 Hz Mundraum
F3 2200–3000 Hz Lippenraum
F4 3350–5100 Hz Koronalraum (Raum hinter Oberkiefer und Jochbein)

Formants can be acoustically modeled through the Source-Filter Model#Tube Model of the Vocal Tract.