Editing Formant (section)

==Phonetics==
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="margin:1em;float:right;text-align:center"
|+ Average vowel formants for a male voice (in&nbsp;Hz)<ref>{{cite book | last=Catford | first=John Cunnison|authorlink=J. C. Catford | title=A Practical Introduction to Phonetics | publisher=Oxford University Press  |location=Oxford | year=2001|edition=2nd | isbn=0-19-924635-1 |page=154}}</ref>
|-
! scope="col" | Vowel<br />([[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]])
! scope="col" style="width:3.5em" | ''F''<sub>1</sub>
! scope="col" style="width:3.5em" | ''F''<sub>2</sub>
! scope="col" style="width:3.5em" | ''F''<sub>2</sub> – ''F''<sub>1</sub>
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|i}}
| 240 || 2400 || 2160
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|y}}
| 235 || 2100 || 1865
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|e}}
| 390 || 2300 || 1910
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ø}}
| 370 || 1900 || 1530
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ɛ}}
| 610 || 1900 || 1290
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|æ}}
| 585 || 1710 || 1125
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|a}}
| 850 || 1610 || 760
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ɶ}}
| 820 || 1530 || 710
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ɑ}}
| 750 || 940 || 190
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ɒ}}
| 700 || 760 || 60
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ʌ}}
| 600 || 1170 || 570
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ɔ}}
| 500 || 700 || 200
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ɤ}}
| 460 || 1310 || 850
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|o}}
| 360 || 640 || 280
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|ɯ}}
| 300 || 1390 || 1090
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|u}}
| 250 || 595 || 345
|}

Formants are distinctive frequency components of the acoustic signal produced by speech, musical instruments<ref>Reuter, Christoph (2009): The role of formant positions and micro-modulations in blending and partial masking of musical instruments. In: [[Journal of the Acoustical Society of America]] (JASA), Vol. 126,4, p. 2237</ref> or [[singing]]. The information that humans require to distinguish between speech sounds can be represented purely quantitatively by specifying peaks in the frequency spectrum.
Most of these formants are produced by tube and chamber [[resonance]], but a few whistle tones derive from periodic collapse of [[Venturi effect]] low-pressure zones.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Flanagan |first1=James L. |title=Speech Analysis Synthesis and Perception |date=1972 |doi=10.1007/978-3-662-01562-9 |isbn=978-3-662-01564-3 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-01562-9 |language=en}}</ref>

The formant with the lowest frequency is called ''F''<sub>1</sub>, the second ''F''<sub>2</sub>, the third ''F''<sub>3</sub>, and so forth. The [[fundamental frequency]] or [[Pitch (music)|pitch]] of the voice is sometimes referred to as ''F''<sub>0</sub>, but it is not a formant. Most often the two first formants, ''F''<sub>1</sub> and ''F''<sub>2</sub>, are sufficient to identify the vowel. The relationship between the perceived vowel quality and the first two formant frequencies can be appreciated by listening to "artificial vowels" that are generated by passing a click train (to simulate the glottal pulse train) through a pair of bandpass filters (to simulate vocal tract resonances). [[Front vowel]]s have higher ''F''<sub>2</sub>, while [[low vowel]]s have higher ''F''<sub>1</sub>. [[Lip rounding]] tends to lower ''F''<sub>1</sub> and ''F''<sub>2</sub> in back vowels and ''F''<sub>2</sub> and ''F''<sub>3</sub> in front vowels.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=Erik R.|year=2011|title=Sociophonetics: An Introduction|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|page=145|isbn=978-0-230-22455-1}}</ref>

Nasal consonants usually have an additional formant around 2500&nbsp;Hz. The liquid {{IPA|[l]}} usually has an extra formant at 1500&nbsp;Hz, whereas the [[English language|English]] "r" sound ({{IPA|[ɹ]}}) is distinguished by a very low third formant (well below 2000&nbsp;Hz).

[[Plosives]] (and, to some degree, [[Fricative consonant|fricatives]]) modify the placement of formants in the surrounding vowels. [[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]] sounds (such as {{IPA|/b/}} and {{IPA|/p/}} in "ball" or "sap") cause a lowering of the formants; on spectrograms, [[Velar consonant|velar]] sounds ({{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}} in English) almost always show ''F''<sub>2</sub> and ''F''<sub>3</sub> coming together in a 'velar pinch' before the [[Velar consonant|velar]] and separating from the same 'pinch' as the velar is released; [[Alveolar consonant|alveolar]] sounds (English {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}}) cause fewer systematic changes in neighbouring vowel formants, depending partially on exactly which vowel is present. The time course of these changes in vowel formant frequencies are referred to as 'formant transitions'.

In normal voiced speech, the underlying vibration produced by the vocal folds resembles a [[sawtooth wave]], rich in
[[harmonic]] overtones. If the fundamental frequency or (more often) one of the overtones is higher than a resonance frequency of the system, then the resonance will be only weakly excited and the formant usually imparted by that resonance will be mostly lost. This is most apparent in the case of [[soprano]] [[opera]] singers, who sing at pitches high enough that their vowels become very hard to distinguish.

Control of resonances is an essential component of the vocal technique known as [[overtone singing]], in which the performer sings a low fundamental tone, and creates sharp resonances to select upper [[harmonics]], giving the impression of several tones being sung at once.

[[Spectrogram]]s may be used to visualise formants. In spectrograms, it can be hard to distinguish formants from naturally occurring harmonics when one sings. However, one can hear the natural formants in a vowel shape through atonal techniques such as [[vocal fry]].