Aerosols, airflow, and more: examining the interaction of speech and the physical environment

Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

Renee Niles¹  Jonathan H. Slade¹  Paul R. Tumminello¹  Chantal Darquenne²  Marva Seifert²  Caleb Everett³ 

[1] Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States;Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States;Departments of Anthropology and Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, United States;

关键词: phonetics;    environment;    aerosols;    airflow;    adaptation;    acoustic;    respiratory;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1184054

 received in 2023-03-10, accepted in 2023-04-28,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

We describe ongoing efforts to better understand the interaction of spoken languages and their physical environments. We begin by briefly surveying research suggesting that languages evolve in ways that are influenced by the physical characteristics of their environments, however the primary focus is on the converse issue: how speech affects the physical environment. We discuss the speech-based production of airflow and aerosol particles that are buoyant in ambient air, based on some of the results in the literature. Most critically, we demonstrate a novel method used to capture aerosol, airflow, and acoustic data simultaneously. This method captures airflow data via a pneumotachograph and aerosol data via an electrical particle impactor. The data are collected underneath a laminar flow hood while participants breathe pure air, thereby eliminating background aerosol particles and isolating those produced during speech. Given the capabilities of the electrical particle impactor, which has not previously been used to analyze speech-based aerosols, the method allows for the detection of aerosol particles at temporal and physical resolutions exceeding those evident in the literature, even enabling the isolation of the role of individual sound types in the production of aerosols. The aerosols detected via this method range in size from 70 nanometers to 10 micrometers in diameter. Such aerosol particles are capable of hosting airborne pathogens. We discuss how this approach could ultimately yield data that are relevant to airborne disease transmission and offer preliminary results that illustrate such relevance. The method described can help uncover the actual articulatory gestures that generate aerosol emissions, as exemplified here through a discussion focused on plosive aspiration and vocal cord vibration. The results we describe illustrate in new ways the unseen and unheard ways in which spoken languages interact with their physical environments.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Everett, Darquenne, Niles, Seifert, Tumminello and Slade.