What is involved in a sound besides its pitch that allows us to hear the “shape” of the vowel? Or is it actually a combination of pitches, and a true pitch (like from a tuner) will always sound the same?
In: Biology
The shape of your mouth, and what that does to your soft palate, and your tongue placement all play a part.
As an experiment, pick a pitch and sing Ahhh with your mouth wide open. Without stopping or changing the sound produced in your throat, slowly bring your teeth together. The vowel changes, and you’ll likely feel the point of resonance move as well.
We learn very early how to manipulate all the elements of sound/speech production to get a specific result, so this is all unconscious stuff, but you can try different things — moving your tongue forward and back, changing your cheek shape, opening your mouth more or less — to get an idea of all the moving parts in a given vowel sound.
The only thing that makes a “true pitch” sound is a tuning fork. Human vocal cords can’t do it. So, the sounds humans make have many complex harmonics, and even if the primary frequency is the same the harmonics are totally different.
> What is involved in a sound besides its pitch that allows us to hear the “shape” of the vowel?
Overtones are involved. We perceive the pitch of a sound based on the fundamental frequency. We perceive the timbre or color of a sound based on the relative strength of the overtones. Our ear distinguishes vowels based on the different overtones.
> Or is it actually a combination of pitches, and a true pitch (like from a tuner) will always sound the same?
Well, technically, it sort of is a “combination of pitches”. Any sound that has overtones can be recreated by playing the combination of pure tones together. So, in some sense, the different vowels are a different “combination of pitches” of different intensities.
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