The development of variability in pausing and articulation rate in Hungarian speakers ten years apart

Abstract

In recent years, attention given to speech-related disciplines has shifted to analyzing extra- and paralinguistic information occurring in speech. Moreover, there is a growing public interest in ageing, which, in turn, may encourage the conduct of this type of research. Earlier studies have analyzed older speakers, and, to date, we have little information about the changes taking place in the voices of healthy, young speakers growing older. Our research examines how certain temporal patterns in speech change in two different types of speech (reading and spontaneous speech) over a period of 10 years. The analysis included speech samples from 13 healthy, young adult male speakers recorded under the same conditions ten years apart. The study focuses on the timing differences within and between the recordings. The development of temporal and pausing patterns were analyzed depending on the type of speech, position, and the time of the recording (10-year difference). The results showed that not only the type of speech but the differences within and between the recordings affected the pausing strategies. In addition, the data indicated that (1) a slower articulation rate was observed in spontaneous speech and (2) higher variability between sample types i.e., a more varied articulation rate was observed in spontaneous speech than in reading. In the case of the articulation rate the individual differences dominated.