What is formant

What is formant?

When identifying dissimilar sounds such as human vowels, the ears are most sensitive to peaks in the signal spectrum. These resonant peaks in the spectrum are called formants (Figure 1).

<Figure 1> Spectrum of vocal utterance of the vowel /i/. The smooth line on the lower spectrum is of the vocal tract transfer function. The resonant peaks of this curve are called formants. (http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/linguistics/russell/138/sec4/formants.htm)

Each vowel has different formant frequencies and bandwidths. Furthermore, every human being has his/her unique formant frequencies/bandwidths. The next table (Table 1.) shows the first three formant frequencies of several vowel sounds for male, female, and child, respectively.

vowel		F1	F2	F3
ee	male	270	2290	3010
	female	310	2790	3310
	child	370	3200	3730
e	male	530	1840	2480
	female	610	2330	2990
	child	690	2610	3570
ae	male	660	1720	2410
	female	850	2050	2850
	child	1030	2320	3320
ah	male	730	1090	2440
	female	590	1220	2810
	child	680	1370	3170
oo	male	300	870	2240
	female	370	950	2670
	child	430	1170	3260

<Table 1> Peterson formant table (76 speakers averaged) (1952)

Reference

Perry R. Cook, "Identification of control parameters in an articulatory vocal tract model, with applications to the synthesis of singing", 1990, Ph.D Dissertation, CCRMA