Voice onset time for female trained and untrained singers during speech and singing

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the voice onset times of female trained and untrained singers during spoken and sung tasks. Thirty females were digitally recorded speaking and singing short phrases containing the English stop consonants /p/ and /b/ in the word-initial position. Voice onset time was measured for each phoneme and statistically analyzed. Mixed-ANOVAs revealed significantly longer voice onset time durations during speech for /p/ as compared to sung productions. No significant differences between the trained singers and untrained singers were observed. In addition, no task differences occurred for the /b/ productions. The results indicated that the type of phonatory task influences VOT for voiceless stops in females. Learning outcomes: As a result of this activity, the reader will be able to (1) understand articulatory and phonatory differences between spoken and sung productions; (2) understand the articulatory and phonatory timing differences between trained singers and untrained singers during spoken and sung productions.