The Effect of Gender and Speech Task on Cepstral- and Spectral-Measures of Korean Normal Speakers

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of speech tasks (vowel vs. continuous speech) and gender on cepstral and spectral measurement. Methods: Fifty-one young adults with normal voice participated and four cepstral- and spectral parameters [cepstral peak prominence (CPP), CPPSD, L/H ratio, L/H ratio SD] were obtained using ADSVTM on seven Korean vowels (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, / u/, / m/, /^/) and two standardized paragraphs (‘fall’ & ‘walk’). Results: Significant main effects of both gender and vowel type were found. Males had significantly greater mean CPPs than females and greater CPPs for low vowel /a/ than high vowels (/i/ and /u/). No effect of continuous speech type on CPPs and L/H ratio, but gender had significant effect on the L/H ratio (greater L/H ratio for males in both continuous speech tasks). In addition, vowels had significantly greater CPP and L/H ratio than continuous speech including various phonemes. There was no relationship between ‘walk’ and ‘fall’ in CPP whereas higher correlation was presented between ‘walk’ and ‘fall’ in L/H ratio. In normal voice, no evidence provided that /a/vowel had any relationships with both standardized paragraphs in CPP reflecting overall voice quality or severity of voice disorders. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that cepstral- and spectral-based measures for normative data need to consider vowel type and gender. Furthermore, gender differences should also be considered for L/ H ratio spectral-based measurement in continous speech.