Use of the formant database
The main functions of this site are:
- Searching the database and displaying the search results.
- Displaying the word list and giving spectral picture of the selected word together with the data of the formant inventory, concerning that word.
- Displaying this description.
1. Search
By using the Search function you have access to the approximately 145.000 formant values of the database. The results of the query are organised as follows:
- Table with the values of the four formants (in Hz) measured at three points (25%, 50%, 75%) of each vowel, together with a statistical analysis of the hits (mean values, standard deviation, minimum, maximum).
- Graphical displaying of the result.
1.1. Search and display settings
There are 7 settings aiding the query. After specifying these in points 1-7, you can start the search with the Search button in point 8. Here follows a detailed description of the search criteria.
1.1.1. Choosing the vowel
The first step is to select the vowels you wish to include in the query. The default setting includes all vowels (this fact is shown by the checkboxes after the vowels). If you wish to filter some of the vowels out, you need to remove the tick mark from the corresponding checkboxes. The first (very left) checkbox can be used to select or unselect all vowels at once.
The speech sounds are given with their Hungarian letters, and with special sound symbols. The correspondence between this representation and the IPA symbols is:
| Vowels |
| Letter |
Code |
IPA symbol |
| a |
a |
 |
| á |
A: |
 |
| e |
e |
 |
| é |
E: |
 |
| i |
i |
 |
| í |
i: |
 |
| o |
o |
 |
| ó |
O |
 |
| ö |
o: |
 |
| ő |
O: |
 |
| u |
u |
 |
| ú |
U |
 |
| ü |
u: |
 |
| ű |
U: |
 |
|
| Consonants |
| Letter |
Code |
IPA symbol |
| b |
b |
 |
| p |
p |
 |
| d |
d |
 |
| t |
t |
 |
| gy |
G |
 |
| ty |
T |
 |
| g |
g |
 |
| k |
k |
 |
| m |
m |
 |
| n |
n |
 |
| ny |
N |
 |
| j, ly |
j |
 |
| h |
h |
 |
| v |
v |
 |
| f |
f |
 |
| z |
z |
 |
| sz |
s |
 |
| dz |
dz |
 |
| c |
c |
 |
| zs |
Z |
 |
| s |
S |
 |
| dzs |
dZ |
 |
| cs |
C |
 |
| l |
l |
 |
| r |
r |
 |
|
| Hiatus resolution |
| Code |
IPA symbol |
Example |
| j+ |
 |
fia |
|
1.1.2. Specifying the sound environment
The next step is to determine the sound environment of the vowel (or vowels) already specified. The results will be confined to formants of vowels possessing the sound cluster selected. The cluster setting includes the previous and next 3 sounds around the vowel. Individual sounds or sound groups can be selected from a drop-down list. The abbreviations hereunder denote a sound group (any of a few sounds):
| <B#> |
A general symbol that denotes any of the sounds (internal and also on word boundaries). |
| <B> |
Denotes any of the internal sounds (not on word boundaty). |
| <C> |
Denotes any of the consonants. |
| <BB> |
Denotes any of the bilabial consonants: b, m, p. |
| <LD> |
Denotes any of the labiodental consonants: f, v. |
| <DA> |
Denotes any of the dentialveolar consonants: d, n, t, z, sz, dz, c, l, r. |
| <AL> |
Denotes any of the alveolar consonants: s, zs, cs, dzs. |
| <PA> |
Denotes any of the palatal consonants: gy, j, ny, ty. |
| <VE> |
Denotes any of the velar consonants: g, k. |
| <LA> |
Denotes any of the laryngeal consonants: h. |
| <V> |
Denotes any of the vowels. |
| # |
Denotes a word boundary position. |
1.1.3. Search of formants.
The search details (measurement point, frequency boundaries) separately for the four formants can be defined.
1.1.4. Specifying the formant distances
In this part you can specify of searching formant distances. You can specify the minimum or maximum value of the distances between F1-F2, F2-F3, and F3-F4 separately. The results will be confined to vowels with the values given here.
Filtering for formant distances can be switched on with the checkbox at the beginning of the row, and then selecting the ‘<’ or ‘>’ signs and entering the distances in Hz.
1.1.5. Formant trajectories
In this step you can select one of nine formant trajectory types for each of the four formants of the vowel. The results will be confined to vowels having the specified formant movements. Attention! The found trajectory is independent of the individual frequency of a formant, only the form of the formant movement is taken into consideration.
Similarly to the previous step, filtering for formant trajectory types can be switched on with the checkboxes at the beginning of these rows. You can select any one of the nine formant movements with the radio button under its icon in the appropriate row (for example F1), for any or all of the formants (F1, F2, F3, F4).
Margins for the trajectories can also be specified for each of the formants. The values (given in Hz) correspond to the 25%-50% and 50%-75% transitions. The values can only be positive. You can use the relation symbols to define the meaning of the values entered. For example, if ‘<’ is selected under 25%-50%, the results will be confined to vowels where the difference between the corresponding formant values at the 25% and 50% positions is less than the specified frequency distance. Similarly, if ‘>’ was selected, the difference between the formant values will be more than the specified frequency distance. Note: the relation symbols will not have an effect if you select a straight trajectory, such as the third (‘straight-straight’) or the fourth (‘up-straight’) symbol. The straight nature implies that the margin specified is an upper limit for the difference between the formants. In case of the ‘straight-straight’ trajectory both relation symbols are ignored while in the case of the ‘up-straight’ only the 50%-75% relation symbol is.
1.1.6. Search by value
In this step you can search according to a specified frequency value. A formant trajectory can also manually adjusted by entering frequency values and a margin for any or all of the formants. The results will include vowels whose formant frequencies in the corresponding measurement points are similar to those entered.
To switch on filtering for manually selected trajectories you can use the checkboxes at the beginning of these rows. You should enter absolute frequencies given in Hz for each trajectory you wish to specify this way. Note: it is enough to specify only one of the three positions although by omitting values the trajectory itself cannot be defined.
In the last input field you can enter a margin for each formant. The value should be higher than zero; otherwise it will have no effect on the query. The meaning of the value is the largest difference between the specified value and the actual vowel formant frequency which will not cause the vowel to be filtered out.
1.1.7. The gender of the speaker
In this step you can specify the gender of the speaker. By default both genders are included in the query.
1.1.8. Displaying the results
From this step on there are no more options which serve to refine the query but to select the ways in which the results are presented. The settings and modes are described in the following.
1.2. The forms of search results
The results can be displayed in three forms.
- Statistics
- Diagrams
- Result lists is detail.
1.2.1. Statistics
After the search you can display the mean values, standard deviances, minima and maxima of the results for each selected formant in separate tables. The rows contain the gender of the speaker, the number of the results and the statistical data of all three measurement positions.
By default only the first two formants are selected for display but in step 7 of the Search settings the rest can also be included with the corresponding checkboxes.
Furthermore, the tables include only the mean values by default but the rest can be included in step 7 of the Search settings.
1.2.2. Diagrams
The formant frequencies of the results can also be displayed graphically.
By default only the F1-F2 map is selected for display but in step 7 of the Search settings the rest (F2-F3, F3-F4 etc.) can also be included with the corresponding checkboxes.
Displaying the diagrams is not possible in Internet Explorer (up to version 8). We recommend you use Firefox 3+, Chrome, Opera 9+ or Safari 4+ to use this function.
1.2.3. Result lists in detail
After the search the list of found words can be displayed. The measuring points of vowels that fit the search criteria are highlighted in red.
By default the detailed results are hidden but in step 7 of the Search settings they can be displayed with the corresponding checkbox.
2. Displaying the word list
This function displays the full list of words in the database. The sound spectrogram of the word can also be displayed when moving the cursor on the magnifier icon. On the displayed picture the sound boundaries, and the formant values, representing the 3 measuring points appear as well. Clicking on the loudspeaker, the word can be listened to.
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