This paper shows that observed higher values of intraoral pressure at voicing onset of higher vowels vs. low vowels might be consequence of the acoustical coupling between the vocal fold oscillation and the vocal tract. The acoustical coupling is characterized by a simple model based on a lumped description of tissue mechanics, quasi-steady flow and one dimensional acoustics. The model predicts a "U"-shaped relation between the transglottal pressure at voicing onset and the ratio of voice fundamental frequency to the first formant, which reproduces the data with good approximation.

Index Terms: voicing onset, transglottal pressure, acoustical coupling, vowel height