Prosodic Changes with Age: A Longitudinal Study on a Famous European Portuguese Native Speaker

Abstract

The understanding of human communication development throughout the lifetime involves the characterization of both segmental and suprasegmental parameters. This pilot study intends to analyse suprasegmental (i.e., prosodic) features in conversational longitudinal speech samples in uncontrolled environments. The ProsodyDescriptor Extractor was used to extract 17 prosodic features (intonation, intensity and rhythm measures) in a set of 90 speech intervals of 3 s to 6 s selected from three interviews collected in different ages of the same male public figure. Group mean comparison tests revealed that 14 prosodic features presented statistically significant differences between the three ages. In general, in comparison with his younger age, the speaker got a higher F0 mean level, more F0 variability, higher F0 peaks, more variable F0 peak values, less variable F0 falls, higher F0 min, less steeper F0 rises, less steeper F0 falls, less variable F0 rises, more energy in high frequencies, slower speech and articulation rate, less vocal effort and less variable global intensity. The longitudinal study of age-related changes in speech rhythm and intonation could contribute to the normal ageing process’ characterization, being a reference for clinical assessment and intervention.