What instrument is commonly used to analyze acoustic properties of speech?

The sound spectrograph is the instrument most commonly used to analyze the acoustic properties of speech. It provides a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies in a sound signal as they vary with time. By producing spectrograms, it allows researchers and clinicians to observe how speech sounds change in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration, which are crucial for understanding speech production and perception.

This tool is particularly valuable because it helps illustrate the complexity of speech signals, including the differences between various phonetic elements. For instance, it can distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonants, identify formants in vowel sounds, and analyze prosodic markers like intonation and stress patterns.

While vocal tracts refer to the anatomical structures involved in speech production and are critical for understanding the physical aspects of sound generation, they do not provide direct analytical data like the sound spectrograph does. The phonometer and waveform analyzer are also useful in certain contexts; however, they do not offer the comprehensive analysis of frequency over time that the sound spectrograph provides.