Typical adult speakers' tongue shapes for several consonants in contrasting vowel environments

Abstract

The dataset contains text files with x-y coordinate values of tongue curves for seven different consonants (/p, t, k, f, s, l, r/) produced in two different vowel contexts (/i/ and /a/) by six adult speakers of Scottish Standard English, in carrier sentences. Each target was produced five times. The total number of text files, which equals the number of consonant tokens, is 419 (7 consonants x 2 vowels x 5 repetitions x 6 speakers; one token of /f/ in the context of /a/ by the speaker S6 was not recorded for a technical reason). The names of the files are coded as follows: speaker (e.g., “S1†), consonant, vowel, and repetition number. This dataset was used in the following study to calculate typical adult values for two indices of tongue shape, Dorsum Excursion Index (DEI) and Tongue Constraint Position Index (TCPI): Zharkova, N. (2013). A normative-speaker validation study of two indices developed to quantify tongue dorsum activity from midsagittal tongue shapes. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 27, 484-496. A script for R used to calculate the two indices, DEI and TCPI, is included. The reference for the indices is as follows: Zharkova, N. (2013). Using ultrasound to quantify tongue shape and movement characteristics. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, 50, 76-81.