Maureen Stone
Director, Speech and Voice Pathology Program
University of Maryland Medical School
Division of Otolaryngology

Title:  "Reconstructing Tongue Surfaces from Ultra-Sound Data"

This paper presents three-dimensional tongue surfaces reconstructed
 from sixty cross-sectional slices of the tongue.  Surfaces were
 reconstructed for sustained vocalizations of 18 American English
 sounds.  Electropalatography (EPG) data also were collected for the
 sounds to compare tongue surface shape with tongue-palate contact
 patterns.  The ultrasound data were grouped into four tongue shape
 categories.  These classes were front raising, complete channel, back
 raising, two-point displacement. The first three categories contained
 both vowels and consonants, the last only consonants.  The EPG data
 indicated three categories of tongue-palate contact: bilateral,
 cross-sectional, combination of the two.  Vowels used only the first
 pattern, consonants used all three.  The EPG data provided an
 observable distinction in contact pattern between consonants and
 vowels.  The ultrasound tongue surface data did not.  The conclusion
 was that the tongue actually has a limited repertoire of shapes, and
 positions them against the palate in different ways for consonants
 vs. vowels to create narrow channels, divert airflow and produce
 sound.

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