Finnish and Brazilian-Portuguese listeners’ evaluation of voice characteristics in Brazilian-Portuguese speaking actresses and non-actresses

Abstract

Auditory-perceptual evaluation is an important tool in voice training and voice therapy. International comparisons have been made for clinical evaluation tools such as GRBAS. Similar comparisons have not been made in the field of voice training. This study compares Finnish and Brazilian-Portuguese listeners’ evaluation of voice characteristics in Brazilian-Portuguese speaking actresses and non-actresses. Thirty experienced actresses and 30 non-actresses, all native speakers of Brazilian-Portuguese, were recorded for a 200-word reading task in habitual conversational loudness. Six perceptual voice characteristics were rated, including overall voice quality, type of voice production (from breathy to strained), sonority, suitability of average pitch for the speaker, pitch range and nasality. The inter-rater and intra-rater reliabilities were good or moderate in both Brazilian and Finnish raters, except for nasality. Finnish and Brazilian raters’ evaluations correlated strongly in voice quality, suitability of pitch and range (rho = 0.76, 0.62 and 0.82, respectively, p = 0.000). Moderate correlation was found for voice production (rho = 0.51, p = 0.000) and sonority (rho = 0.59, p = 0.000). Evaluations of nasality did not correlate. Small but significant differences were obtained in the mean evaluations, for example, Finns rated the pitch range higher (Bra =4.92 vs. Fin = 5.56, T-test, p < 0.001). Both groups evaluated actresses’ voices more positively. The results seem to suggest that voice experts share some international standards in voice quality evaluations, although ratings of some aspects may differ. This finding is in line with the cross-cultural comparisons of the evaluation of dysphonic voices.