Long-term speech spectra for Taiwanese–Mandarin bilingual speakers

Abstract

Audiologists and otologists in Taiwan often rely on the English normative data during the hearing aid gain prescription procedure. Thus, the measurement of long-term speech spectra for both Taiwanese and Mandarin was deemed a research priority. Average long-term rms 1/3-octave band speech spectra were generated for 60 Taiwanese–Mandarin speakers with gender, age, and language as the three major independent variables. The male speakers differed significantly from the females in the low-frequency bands across languages and age groups. However, a slight gender difference in the 4000-Hz band was observed only in the young adult group (aged 20–40) for both Taiwanese and Mandarin. Across languages, the elder group (aged 41–60) differed significantly in the low-frequency bands for both genders, but high-frequency differences existed only in the females. The overall spectra will provide a useful reference for hearing aid gain prescription in the Chinese-speaking communities. Cross-language comparisons can also shed insight on the speech communication processes. [Work supported by the Council of Labor Affairs.]