I know when you create a different shape with your mouth it makes a different vowel (a, e, i, u, o) but what is actually the difference in the sound, how can our ears tell the difference?
In: Physics
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You are hearing a complex waveform, but the brain seems to concentrate on the two strongest frequency components of a vowel sound. These are called the formants. (Sometimes more than two formants are needed.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formant
The formants of a language can be plotted and are often separated to be distinctive. You can also study dialects and accents this since they often involve shifts in formants from their “standard” position or even collapse of two elsewhere-distinct vowels into the same formants.
I live in the Philippines. The people here seem to pronounce the vowels (English) Ah-eh-ih-uh-ooh.
Sounds have distinctive shapes. For example sin waves and saw waves used commonly with synthesizers (fancy keyboards basically) in modern music production will be read as very smooth and hill like or jagged and triangular. Sound waves are measured as a line( like a heart rate monitor)
The shape of the wave (sin, saw, triangular whatever) is produced on the line at varied speeds (frequencies), and this determines the sort of texture a sound will have (ie grittiness versus smooth sounding).
The beginning and end of the wave, will determine the voicing of the sound. This is similar to making a noise with your mouth closed and slowly opening it in different ways.
Sorry my explanation actually sucks
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