Lateral approximant speech sounds are notoriously difficult to measure and describe due to their complex articulation and acoustics. This has prevented researchers from reaching a unifying description of the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of laterals. This paper examines articulatory and acoustic properties of Brazilian Portuguese alveolar and palatal lateral approximants (/l/ and /ʎ/) produced by six native speakers. The methodology for obtaining vocal tract area functions was based on three-dimensional/four-dimensional (3D/4D) ultrasound recordings and 3D digitized palatal impressions with simultaneously recorded audio signals. Area functions were used to calculate transfer function spectra, and predicted formant and anti-resonance frequencies were compared with the acoustic recordings. Mean absolute error in formant frequency prediction was 4% with a Pearson correlation of r = 0.987. Findings suggest anti-resonances from the interdental channels are less important than a prominent anti-resonance from the supralingual cavity but can become important in asymmetrical articulations. The use of 3D/4D ultrasound to study articulatory-acoustic relations is promising, but significant limitations remain and future work is needed to make better use of 3D/4D ultrasound data, e.g., by combining it with magnetic resonance imaging.
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