It seems as if the fundamentals of how we produce vowels and how they are acoustically
represented have been clarified: we phonate and articulate. Using our vocal chords we produce
a vocal sound or noise which is then shaped into a specific vowel sound by the resonances of
the pharyngeal oral and nasal cavities that is the vocal tract. Accordingly the acoustic
description of vowels relates to vowelspecific patterns of relative energy maxima in the sound
spectra known as patterns of formants. The intellectual and empirical reasoning presented in
this treatise however gives rise to scepticism with respect to this understanding of the
sound of the vowel. The reflections and materials presented provide reason to argue that up to
now a comprehensible theory of the acoustics of the voice and of voiced speech sounds is
lacking and consequently no satisfying understanding of vowels as an achievement and
particular formal accomplishment of the voice exists. Thus the question of the acoustics of
the vowel - and with it the question of the acoustics of the voice itself - proves to be an
unresolved fundamental problem.
