What do mimics do when they imitate a voice?

Abstract

Imitations by both professional and amateur mimics were studied to determine what similarities are achieved between the imitated voice and the imitation thereof. A wide variety of characteristics was approximated, including the following: mean F0, F1, and F2; frequency contours of F0, F1, and F2; degree of nasalization (but not frequency of nasal formants); speech rate and dynamics, including timing, attack, and release characteristics. Contours of F0, F1, and F2 were often matched accurately, even when their absolute frequencies differed considerably from those of the original. Specific images of words and phrases were used, as well as general phonetic characteristics. Imitators tended to concentrate on imitating unusual characteristics of a voice, rather than attempting to imitate all characteristics equally. This observation may be formalized as a model according to which the importance of a parameter is nonlinearly related to the extent to which it diverges from its mean population value. Professional mimics exaggerated the distinctive characteristics of voices and thus may be considered caricaturists rather than mimics, per se.