STAR Speech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource

Edinburgh MRI Modelled Speech Corpus

The Edinburgh magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) modelled speech corpus was created with funding from the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), award no. 2082. Financial support was also provided by NHS Research Scotland (NRS), through the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility. The Edinburgh MRI modelled speech corpus consists of dynamic midsagittal vocal-tract MRI recordings of English speech produced by model talker Prof. Janet Beck. MRI recordings were made at the Edinburgh Imaging Facility, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh (EIF RIE), using a 3 Tesla Siemens Prisma MRI scanner. Speech audio was recorded inside the MRI scanner using an OptoAcoustics FOMRI III dual-channel, fibre-optic microphone system with post-hoc noise cancelling. More information about MRI recordings can be found here. It should be noted that all speech recordings were made while the speaker was lying down and this will have an impact on tongue posture during speech. Additionally, teeth (i.e. the upper and lower incisors) are not visible in the MRI recordings of the vocal tract.

Consonants in vowel contexts and minimal pairs

Consonants in vowel contexts

/tʃ/ set in Anglo English

cheap; peach

/k/ set in Anglo English

keep; beak; Kim; pick; cap; pack; cop; mock; comb; oak; coop; puke

/s/ set in Anglo English

seem; peace; sip; miss; Sam; pass; sob; boss; soap; post; soup; moose

/ʃ/ set in Anglo English

sheep; quiche; ship; fish; sham; ash; shop; posh; show; ocean; shoe; push

/t/ set in Anglo English

team; meat; tip; fit; tap; mat; top; pot; tome; boat; tomb; boot

/tʃ/ set in Scottish English

cheap; peach

/k/ set in Scottish English

keep; beak; Kim; pick; cap; pack; cop; mock; comb; oak; coop; book

/ʃ/ set in Scottish English

sheep; quiche; ship; fish; sham; ash; shop; posh; show; ocean; shoe; push

/s/ set in Scottish English

seem; peace; sip; miss; Sam; pass; sob; boss

/t/ set in Scottish English

tip; fit; tap; mat; top; pot; tome; boat; tomb; foot

Minimal pairs

/tʃ/ and /ʃ/ minimal pairs: chip; ship

chip; ship

/tʃ/ and /ʃ/ minimal pairs: chop; shop

chop; shop

/tʃ/ and /ʃ/ minimal pairs: batch; bash

batch; bash

/tʃ/ and /ʃ/ minimal pairs: match; mash

match; mash

/tʃ/ and /ʃ/ minimal pairs: witchy; wishy

witchy; wishy

/tʃ/ and /t/ minimal pairs: chair; tear (rful)

chair; tear

/tʃ/ and /t/ minimal pairs: chair; tear (rless)

chair; tear

/dȝ/ and /ɡ/ minimal pairs: jet; get

jet; get

/s/ and /ʃ/ minimal pairs: see; she

see; she

/s/ and /ʃ/ minimal pairs: seep; sheep

seep; sheep

/s/ and /ʃ/ minimal pairs: sue; shoe

sue; shoe

/t/ and /k/, /d/ and /ɡ/ minimal pairs: tea; key

tea; key

/t/ and /k/, /d/ and /ɡ/ minimal pairs: tap; cap

tap; cap

/t/ and /k/, /d/ and /ɡ/ minimal pairs: meet; meek

meet; meek

/t/ and /k/, /d/ and /ɡ/ minimal pairs: bat; back

bat; back

/t/ and /k/, /d/ and /ɡ/ minimal pairs: Betty; Becky

Betty; Becky

Modelled disordered productions

syllable-onset /r/ variants ram

syllable-onset /r/ variants real

real

syllable-onset /r/ variants rope

rope

syllable-coda /s/ variants in peace

peace

syllable-coda /s/ variants in yes

syllable-onset /s/ variants in Sam

syllable-onset /s/ variants in see

Hypernasality sentence

Buy Bobby a puppy

Modelled nondisordered productions

Debbie James diagnostically useful words

Diagnostic word ambulance

ambulance

Diagnostic word animals

animals

Diagnostic word butterfly nonrhotic

butterfly

Diagnostic word butterfly rhotic

butterfly

Diagnostic word caterpillar nonrhotic

caterpillar

Diagnostic word caterpillar rhotic

caterpillar

Diagnostic word computer nonrhotic

computer

Diagnostic word helicopter non rhotics

helicopter

Diagnostic word spaghetti

spaghetti

Diagnostic word vegetables

vegetables

Diagnostic word hippopotamus

hippopotamus

GOSSPASS sentences

GOSSPASS Baby Gary

Baby Gary's got a bag of legos

GOSSPASS Bouncy Bob

Bouncy Bob is a baby boy

GOSSPASS Cheeky Charlie

Cheeky Charlie's watching a football match

GOSSPASS Funny Sean

Funny Sean is washing a dirty dish

GOSSPASS Happy Karen

Happy Karen is making a cake

GOSSPASS I saw Sam

I saw Sam sitting on a bus

GOSSPASS Jolly John

Jolly John's got a magic badge

GOSSPASS Mary is driving

Mary is driving a red car

GOSSPASS My daddy

My daddy mended a door

GOSSPASS Naughty Neil

Naughty Neil saw a robin in a nest

GOSSPASS Polly has

Polly has a light yellow ball

GOSSPASS The hamster

The hamster scrambled up Stewart's sleeve

GOSSPASS The nasty boy

The nasty boy tossed the blanket into the box

GOSSPASS The phone fell

The phone fell off the shelf

GOSSPASS The puppy

The puppy is playing with a rope

GOSSPASS Tiny Tim

Tiny Tim is putting a hat on

Liquid consonants

Clear and dark /l/

[lʲː] [alʲa] [ɑlʲɑ] [ilʲi] [lˠ] [alˠa] [lˤː] [alˤa] [ɑlˤɑ] [ilˤi]

Palatalised /l/

[lʲː] [alʲa] [ɑlʲɑ] [ilʲi]

Velarised /l/

[lˠ] [alˠa]

Pharyngealised /l/

[lˤː] [alˤa] [ɑlˤɑ] [ilˤi]

Retroflex and bunched /r/

[ɻ] [aɻa] [ɑɻɑ] [iɻi]; (clear) [ɹ̤] [aɹ̤a] [iɹ̤i]; [ɹ̤] [aɹ̤a] [ɑɹ̤ɑ] [iɹ̤i]; (dark) [ɹ̤] [aɹ̤a] [ɑɹ̤ɑ] [iɹ̤i]

Retroflex /r/

[ɻ] [aɻa] [ɑɻɑ] [iɻi]

Clear bunched /r/

[ɹ̤] [aɹ̤a] [iɹ̤i]

Bunched /r/

[ɹ̤] [aɹ̤a] [ɑɹ̤ɑ] [iɹ̤i]

Dark bunched /r/

[ɹ̤] [aɹ̤a] [ɑɹ̤ɑ] [iɹ̤i]

Royal Society of EdinburghNHS Research Scotland