Speaking fundamental frequency of young adult Arabic men during oral reading and spontaneous speaking in both Arabic and English languages

Abstract

Currently, there is a paucity of normative data on speech and voice characteristics of different linguistic and ethnic groups. In particular, there is no available published data on the speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) characteristics of the voice of the Arabic population. The purpose of this study was to obtain preliminary data on the SFF of a group of normal speaking, young adult Arabic males. Fifteen, native Arabic, adult men served as subjects and received the identical experimental treatment. Four speech samples were collected from each subject (Arabic reading, Arabic spontaneous speech, English reading, and English spontaneous speech). Results showed the mean and SD of SFF are ([146,9, 15.4], [145.8, 13.8], [149.1, 12.6], and [145.5, 12.0]), respectively. No significant differences were found in the mean SFF between language and type of speech, nor between languages. A significant difference in the mean SFF was found between the type of speech (F1,14=5.51, p=0.03). Reading was significantly higher than speech. Also, Arabic men in this study had higher SFF values than previously reported for young adult males of other ethnic groups [H. Hollien and B. Jackson, J. Phonetics 117–120 (1973); A. Hudson and A. Holbrook, J. Speech Hear. Res. 197–201 (1992)]. For Speech Communication Best Student Paper Award.