Emotions in Vowel Segments of Continuous Speech: Analysis of the Glottal Flow Using the Normalised Amplitude Quotient

Abstract

Emotions in short vowel segments of continuous speech were analysed usinginverse filtering and a recently developed glottal flow parameter, the normalisedamplitude quotient (NAQ). Simulated emotion portrayals were produced by 9 professionalstage actors. Separated /a:/ vowel segments were inverse filtered andparameterised using NAQ. Statistical analyses showed significant differencesamong most of the emotions studied. Results also demonstrated clear gender differences.Inverse filtering, together with NAQ, was shown to be a promisingmethod for the analysis of emotional content in continuous speech.