Pitch Range Research Articles

Data generation and training of surrogate models for friction factor and Nusselt number in low Reynolds number flows through pin fin geometries

Abstract The design of various biomedical, electronics cooling, and microfluidic devices relies on geometry-specific models and empirical correlations for flow and heat transfer through microscale pin fin geometries. Machine learning techniques are being used across many branches of science to develop more generalized surrogate models that can predict such transport processes. To collapse the simulation of flow and thermal properties across many different pin fin surfaces into a single predictive tool, the present study develops machine-learning-based surrogate models for the friction factor and Nusselt number (for constant wall temperature conditions) for fully developed low Reynolds number flow across pin fin geometries of differing cross-section shape (circular, square, triangular) in aligned or staggered arrangements, oriented at any angle to the incoming flow, and for a range of transverse and longitudinal pitches, with water as the working fluid. The model training data are generated using an automated workflow that allows thousands of numerical simulations to be carried out on across different geometric and flow configurations. A total of ~14,800 distinct simulation cases, for both friction factor and Nusselt number, are generated whilst varying the Reynolds number and aforementioned geometric parameters to train and test the machine learning models. The machine learning model architecture takes inputs of both image and vector data, and then outputs a scalar friction factor or Nusselt number. The trained models yield a goodness of fit (R2) value of 0.98 on unseen data.

Effects of pitch range on singing accuracy training

Recent theory and data suggest that inaccurate ( poor-pitch or poor) singing may be based on impoverished sensorimotor mapping between auditory perceptual representations and motor plans. One of the symptoms of poor singing is a restriction of vocal pitch range during pitch matching tasks that is not reducible to physical vocal limitations. We here test the hypothesis that remediation of poor singing may be best achieved by incorporating a wide pitch range during training. Two treatment groups underwent singing training using a procedure found to be effective in recent research. One group matched pitches from a wider range of one octave, whereas the other matched pitches from a narrower range of seven semitones (a perfect fifth). A third group completed visual imagery tasks for the same period of time and served as a control group. All three groups completed the Seattle Singing Accuracy Protocol (SSAP) before and after training, with all phases completed in a single session. The only significant improvement was found in the wide-range training group, for matching of single pitches from the SSAP, rather than four-note melodies. Results thus offer partial support for the hypothesis and suggest that successful remediation of singing accuracy may benefit from adopting a wide range of pitches.

THE PHONOLOGICAL AND PHONETIC STUDY OF EMPHATIC PITCH RANGE BY CHINESE EFL LEARNERS

In producing second language (L2) speech, L2 learners tend to deviate from its norms, resulting in foreign-accented speech. Pitch range plays a crucial role in the perception of foreign-accented speech. This study aims to investigate the production of emphatic pitch range in English by Chinese Learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) from both the phonological and phonetic perspectives. There were seven native English speakers and fourteen Chinese EFL learners participating in this study. They were required to read the second part of eighteen dialogue pairs loudly. Through linguistic measures of the recordings, the study found significant differences in three pitch range types between the native English speakers and the learners in the phonological perspective, which might be influenced by Chinese prosody. However, no significant differences were found in the phonetic perspective, which might be impacted by the learners’ native language. In addition, English proficiency did not influence the learners’ performance in the phonological and phonetic perspectives. This may be attributed to the homogeneity among the learners and the effect of their native language. Lastly, focus position significantly influenced the phonological performance of the learners in five pitch range types, which may be explained by multiple factors. However, the effect of focus position on the learners’ phonetic performance was limited to two pitch range types, which may be explained by the principle of least effort.

How to Express Boredom via Intonation in Kurdish with Special Reference to English

The present study examines the contribution of intonation to the vocal expressions of boredom in utterances. It begins by providing a theoretical overview of the role intonation plays in conveying emotions or attitudes. Further, it outlines the tonetic aspects, pitch characteristics, and other prosodic factors that participate in conveying boredom in English depending on the literature available. The study then turns to analysing sixteen tone groups taken from four Kurdish films and recorded materials of everyday spoken Kurdish. It tests and underscores the tonetic aspects and pitch characteristics of these chosen tone groups used for the expression of boredom, relying on six parameters, namely the syntactic category, the height of the pre-head, the height of the head, the tone used, the pitch range, and the key. The role of all these intonation factors is investigated. Special reference is also made to other factors such as loudness, speed of speaking, and paralinguistic features. The work shows that the cues used to convey boredom vary, although pitch and pitch variation become dominant and central. Among all the intonation cues used to express boredom, pitch range, and tone are the most relevant and useful cues.

Acoustic patterns in Hong Kong Cantonese hesitation markers: Vowel quality and omnisyllabic tone

ABSTRACT: Hesitation markers (HMs) lie somewhere on the dividing line between linguistic and sub-linguistic, evincing at the same time crosslinguistic commonalities as well as language-specific features (Candea et al. 2005; Dingemanse and Woensdregt 2020). This study seeks to expand on understanding of these lexically peripheral items by analyzing their acoustic properties in Hong Kong Cantonese (HKCT), including vowel quality and F0. Recent work by Dingemanse and Woensdregt (2020) discusses phonetic similarities in HMs across languages, which are constrained by adherence to the phonologies of their respective languages. However, it is unclear how HMs are incorporated into HKCT tonal phonology, which can be characterized as 'omnisyllabic' (Matisoff 1995), every syllable being associated with a lexical tone. The present study gathers acoustic data (F0, F1–F2, duration) from the PolyU Corpus of Spoken Chinese (http://wongtaksum.no-ip.info:81/corpus.htm) across 10 speakers and 196 HMs, comparing them against 525 lexical items. Results for F1–F2 clustered around mid-front /ɛ/, which is in line both with crosslinguistic trends and HKCT phonology. Results for F0 clustered around the lower end of the pitch range, approaching Tones 3 and 6, which is expected given effort minimization trends. However, establishing a connection with a particular lexical tone was complicated by the similarity of Tones 3 and 6, which could not be statistically distinguished. Cross-speaker analysis showed considerable variation in F0, indicating that context, intonation, or idiolectal variation may play a substantial role. This has implications for our understanding of how peripheral items like hesitation markers are treated in omnisyllabic tone languages like Cantonese. 摘要: 犹豫标记置身语言学与副语言学的边界，占据一个既有跨语言共性又 具特定语言特征的区域(Candea et al. 2005; Dingemanse and Woensdregt 2020)。本研究旨在透过分析犹豫标记在香港粤语中，包含元音音色 及 F0 的声学特性，扩充对这些语义周边项目的理解。Dingemanse and Woensdregt(2020)最近的研究论及犹豫标记有跨语言声学相似性，亦 受制于各语言对自身的音段音韵学的持守。不过，香港粤语作为"全 音节语言"(Matisoff 1995)，每个音节均附上声调，犹豫标记应如何 纳入香港粤语的声调音韵学，这仍不清楚。本研究从理工大学中文口 语语料库 (PolyU Corpus of Spoken Chinese, http://wongtaksum.noip.info:81/corpus.htm) 集结 F0、 F1–F2 及时长的声学资料，横跨十位语 者，共 196 个犹豫标记，与 525 个词汇作比较分析。F1–F2 的结果围 绕半开前元音/ɛ/丛集，与跨语言趋势及香港粤语音韵学均能匹配。F0 的结果则丛集于近乎最低的音高，接近调三及调六，合乎最少付出倾 向的预想。可是，要与特定字词声调建立联系仍很复杂，因为调三及 调六相似，不能以统计学区分。跨语者分析显示 F0 有相当变化，提示 语境、语调或个人习语变化可能有重大影响。这对理解全音节语言 (如粤语)如何应对犹豫标记等等周边项目有所提示。

The effect of sexual orientation on voice acoustic properties.

Previous research has investigated sexual orientation differences in the acoustic properties of individuals' voices, often theorizing that homosexuals of both sexes would have voice properties mirroring those of heterosexuals of the opposite sex. Findings were mixed, but many of these studies have methodological limitations including small sample sizes, use of recited passages instead of natural speech, or grouping bisexual and homosexual participants together for analyses. To address these shortcomings, the present study examined a wide range of acoustic properties in the natural voices of 142 men and 175 women of varying sexual orientations, with sexual orientation treated as a continuous variable throughout. Homosexual men had less breathy voices (as indicated by a lower harmonics-to-noise ratio) and, contrary to our prediction, a lower voice pitch and narrower pitch range than heterosexual men. Homosexual women had lower F4 formant frequency (vocal tract resonance or so-called overtone) in overall vowel production, and rougher voices (measured via jitter and spectral tilt) than heterosexual women. For those sexual orientation differences that were statistically significant, bisexuals were in-between heterosexuals and homosexuals. No sexual orientation differences were found in formants F1-F3, cepstral peak prominence, shimmer, or speech rate in either sex. Recommendations for future "natural voice" investigations are outlined.

The development of prosodic focus marking in French.

French is traditionally described as a language favoring syntactic means to mark focus, yet recent research shows that prosody is also used. We examine how French-speaking children use prosody to realize narrow focus and contrastive focus in the absence of syntactic means, compared to adults. We elicited SVO sentences using a virtual robot-mediated picture-matching task from monolingual French-speaking adults (N = 11), 4- to 5-year-olds (N = 12), and 7- to 8-year-olds (N = 15). These sentences were produced with narrow focus on either the subject or the object and contrastive focus on the object. Linear mixed-effects logistic regression modeling on duration, mean intensity, mean pitch, and pitch range of the subject and object nouns showed that the 4- to 5-year-olds did not use any of these prosodic cues for focus marking but the 7- to 8-year-olds distinguished narrow focus from non-focus through an increase in duration, mean intensity and to a lesser degree, mean pitch in the object nouns, largely similar to the adults, and tended to use mean pitch for this purpose in the subject nouns, different from the adults, who used duration. Our study corroborates previous findings that French-speaking 4- to 5-year-olds do not use prosody for focus. Further, it provides new evidence that 7- to 8-year-olds use prosody to mark narrow focus on the object in a more adult-like manner than narrow focus on the subject, arguably caused by a more dominant role of syntactic means in the subject position in French. Together, these findings show that syntax-dominance can influence both the route and the rate of acquisition of prosodic focus marking.

The role of lexical and prosodic characteristics of mothers' child-directed speech for the early vocabulary development of Italian children with cochlear implants.

Variability in the vocabulary outcomes of children with cochlear implants (CIs) is partially explained by child-directed speech (CDS) characteristics. Yet, relatively little is known about whether and how mothers adapt their lexical and prosodic characteristics to the child's hearing status (before and after implantation, and compared with groups with normal hearing (NH)) and how important they are in affecting vocabulary development in the first 12 months of hearing experience. To investigate whether mothers of children with CIs produce CDS with similar lexical and prosodic characteristics compared with mothers of age-matched children with NH, and whether they modify these characteristics after implantation. In addition, to investigate whether mothers' CDS characteristics predict children's early vocabulary skills before and after implantation. A total of 34 dyads (17 with NH, 17 with children with CIs; ages = 9-32 months), all acquiring Italian, were involved in the study. Mothers' and children's lexical quantity (tokens) and variety (types), mothers' prosodic characteristics (pitch range and variability), and children's vocabulary skills were assessed at two time points, corresponding to before and 1 year post-CI activation for children with CIs. Children's vocabulary skills were assessed using parent reports; lexical and prosodic characteristics were observed in semi-structured mother-child interactions. Results showed that mothers of children with CIs produced speech with similar lexical quantity but lower lexical variety, and with increased pitch range and variability, than mothers of children with NH. Mothers generally increased their lexical quantity and variety and their pitch range between sessions. Children with CIs showed reduced expressive vocabulary and lower lexical quantity and variety than their peers 12 months post-CI activation. Mothers' prosodic characteristics did not explain variance in children's vocabulary skills; their lexical characteristics predicted children's early vocabulary and lexical outcomes, especially in the NH group, but were not related to later language development. Our findings confirm previous studies on other languages and support the idea that the lexical characteristics of mothers' CDS have a positive effect on children's early measures of vocabulary development across hearing groups, whereas prosodic cues play a minor role. Greater input quantity and quality may assist children in the building of basic language model representations, whereas pitch cues may mainly serve attentional and emotional processes. Results emphasize the need for additional longitudinal studies investigating the input received from other figures surrounding the child and its role for children's language development. What is already known on the subject Mothers' CDS is thought to facilitate and support language acquisition in children with various language developmental trajectories, including children with CIs. Because children with CIs are at risk for language delays and have acoustic processing limitations, their mothers may have to produce a lexically simpler but prosodically richer input, compared to mothers of children with NH. Yet, the literature reports mixed findings and no study to our knowledge has concurrently addressed the role of mothers' lexical and prosodic characteristics for children's vocabulary development before implantation and in the first 12 months of hearing experience. What this study adds to the existing knowledge The study shows that mothers of children with CIs produce input of similar quantity but reduced variety, and with heightened pitch characteristics, compared to mothers of children with NH. There was also a general increase in mothers' lexical quantity and variety, and in their pitch range, between sessions. Only their lexical characteristics predicted children's early vocabulary skills. Their lexical variety predicted children's expressive vocabulary and lexical variety only in the NH group. What are the practical and clinical implications of this work? These findings expand our knowledge about the effects of maternal input and may contribute to the improvement of early family-centred intervention programmes for supporting language development in children with CIs.

Pragmatics via prosody in interaction optimization

The article represents a case study of Joaquin Phoenix’s acceptance speech, aimed at examining the interface of pragmatics and prosody. Relying on research into prosodic-pragmatic relationships and employing auditory prosody analysis combined with methods of pragmatic and discourse analysis, the article explores the interaction of prosody with speech acts, as well as with their related politeness and discursive strategies. Direct expressives are associated with three positive politeness strategies and are prosodically characterized by a normal or slow speech rate, normal or reduced volume, short intonation groups, very short pauses, a narrow pitch range, clear timbre, and a regular rhythm. The illocutionary force of indirect expressives relies on stylistic devices and markers of positive politeness, connoting emotional closeness and “sincerity” as components of felicity conditions for such acts. Indirect expressives are signaled by very short, short, or medium filled pauses, resonant timbre, low fall and stressed syllable, a descending stepping scale followed by a falling nucleus, high fall intonation groups, a rising intonation before key concepts, accelerated speech tempo, increased loudness, and emphasis on key words. The prosodic signals of expressive syntax and positive politeness coincide, except for markers emphasizing commonality. The “ecocentric” part of speech is constructed by representatives-reasoning that stimulates reflection without imposing views. This aligns with the negative politeness of non-imposition, marked by mitigators like hedges, bushes, and shields. The intonational accent on words with denotative or connotative meanings related to “discrimination” contributes to the discursive strategy of group polarization.

Prosodic Weight Effect on Focal Accent of Standard Chinese

This study investigates the phonetic performance of narrow information focus, as compared to broad focus, within different sentential positions of the Chinese Subject-Verb-Object (S+V+O) syntax structure. Three acoustic parameters of focus, including the pitch range ratio, duration ratio, and intensity ratio, were taken to explore the ranking among these parameters and to analyse the impact of focus position on their interrelationships. The results showed that (1) Chinese, as a tonal language, exhibits a prosodic ranking characterized by duration > pitch range > intensity; (2) Chinese speakers tend to emphasize verbs within the S+V+O syntax structure, particularly when verbs are positioned in the middle of sentences. The prosodic ranking observed was Fmiddle > Finitial > Ffinal; (3) Pitch range and duration display interdependence as acoustic parameters, whereas intensity stands as an independent parameter. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of phonetic nuances within Chinese prosody, shedding light on the intricate interplay between focus, syntax, and prosody.

Finnish and Brazilian-Portuguese listeners’ evaluation of voice characteristics in Brazilian-Portuguese speaking actresses and non-actresses

Auditory-perceptual evaluation is an important tool in voice training and voice therapy. International comparisons have been made for clinical evaluation tools such as GRBAS. Similar comparisons have not been made in the field of voice training. This study compares Finnish and Brazilian-Portuguese listeners’ evaluation of voice characteristics in Brazilian-Portuguese speaking actresses and non-actresses. Thirty experienced actresses and 30 non-actresses, all native speakers of Brazilian-Portuguese, were recorded for a 200-word reading task in habitual conversational loudness. Six perceptual voice characteristics were rated, including overall voice quality, type of voice production (from breathy to strained), sonority, suitability of average pitch for the speaker, pitch range and nasality. The inter-rater and intra-rater reliabilities were good or moderate in both Brazilian and Finnish raters, except for nasality. Finnish and Brazilian raters’ evaluations correlated strongly in voice quality, suitability of pitch and range (rho = 0.76, 0.62 and 0.82, respectively, p = 0.000). Moderate correlation was found for voice production (rho = 0.51, p = 0.000) and sonority (rho = 0.59, p = 0.000). Evaluations of nasality did not correlate. Small but significant differences were obtained in the mean evaluations, for example, Finns rated the pitch range higher (Bra =4.92 vs. Fin = 5.56, T-test, p < 0.001). Both groups evaluated actresses’ voices more positively. The results seem to suggest that voice experts share some international standards in voice quality evaluations, although ratings of some aspects may differ. This finding is in line with the cross-cultural comparisons of the evaluation of dysphonic voices.

Predicting Social Competence in Autistic and Non-Autistic Children: Effects of Prosody and the Amount of Speech Input.

Autistic individuals often face challenges perceiving and expressing emotions, potentially stemming from differences in speech prosody. Here we explore how autism diagnoses between groups, and measures of social competence within groups may be related to, first, children's speech characteristics (both prosodic features and amount of spontaneous speech), and second, to these two factors in mothers' speech to their children. Autistic (n = 21) and non-autistic (n = 18) children, aged 7-12 years, participated in a Lego-building task with their mothers, while conversational speech was recorded. Mean F0, pitch range, pitch variability, and amount of spontaneous speech were calculated for each child and their mother. The results indicated no differences in speech characteristics across autistic and non-autistic children, or across their mothers, suggesting that conversational context may have large effects on whether differences between autistic and non-autistic populations are found. However, variability in social competence within the group of non-autistic children (but not within autistic children) was predictive of children's mean F0, pitch range and pitch variability. The amount of spontaneous speech produced by mothers (but not their prosody) predicted their autistic children's social competence, which may suggest a heightened impact of scaffolding for mothers of autistic children. Together, results suggest complex interactions between context, social competence, and adaptive parenting strategies in driving prosodic differences in children's speech.

Towards Improved Auditory-Perceptual Assessment of Timbres: Comparing Accuracy and Reliability of Four Deconstructed Timbre Assessment Models

Timbre is a central quality of singing, yet remains a complex notion poorly understood in psychoacoustic studies. Previous studies note how no single acoustic variable or combinations of variables consistently predict timbre dimensions. Timbre varies on a continuum from darkest to lightest. These extremes are associated with laryngeal and vocal tract adjustments related to smaller and larger vocal tract area and variations in vocal fold vibratory characteristics. Perceptually, timbre assessment is influenced by spectral characteristics and formant frequency adjustments, though these dimensions are not independently perceived. Perceptual studies repeatedly demonstrate difficulties in correlating variations in timbre stimuli to specific measures. A recent study demonstrated how acoustic predictive salience of voice category and voice weight across pitches contribute to timbre assessments and concludes that timbre may be related to as-of-yet unknown factor(s). The purpose of this study was to test four different models for assessing timbre; one model focused on specific anatomy, one on listener intuition, one utilising auditory anchors, and one using expert raters in a deconstructed timbre model with 5 specific dimensions. MethodsFour independent panels were conducted with separate cohorts of professional singing teachers. 41 assessors took part in the anatomically focused panel, 54 in the intuition-based panel, 30 in the anchored panel, and 12 in the expert listener panel. Stimuli taken from live performances of well-known singers were used for all panels, representing all genders, genres, and styles across a large pitch range. All stimuli are available as supplementary materials. Fleiss’ kappa values, descriptive statistics, and significance tests are reported for all panel assessments. ResultsPanel 1 through 4 varied in overall accuracy and agreement. The intuitionbased model showed overall 45% average accuracy (SD ±4%), k=0.289 (<0.001) compared to overall 71% average accuracy (SD ±3%), k=0.368 (<0,001) of the anatomical focused panel. The auditory-anchored model showed overall 75% average accuracy (SD ±8%), k=0.54 (<0.001) compared with overall 83% average accuracy and agreement of k=0.63 (<0.001) for panel 4. Results revealed that highest accuracy and reliability was achieved in a deconstructed timbre model and that providing anchoring improved reliability but with no further increase in accuracy. ConclusionDeconstructing timbre into specific parameters improved auditory perceptual accuracy and overall agreement. Assessing timbre along with other perceptual dimensions improves accruacy and reliability. Panel assessors’ expert level of listening skills remain an important factor in obtaining reliable and accurate assessments of auditory stimuli for timbre dimensions. Anchoring improved reliability but with no further increase in accuracy. The study suggests that timbre assessment can be improved by approaching the percept through a prism of 5 specific dimensions each related to specific physiology and auditory-perceptual subcategories. Further tests are needed with framework-naïve listeners, non-musically educated listeners, artificial intelligence comparisons, and synthetic stimuli to further test the reliability.

Musical instruments as dynamic sound sources.

Unlike electro-acoustic sound sources, musical instruments have a time-varying, dynamic directivity, due to the note-dependent radiation behavior of the instrument and due to the expressive movements that musicians perform with their instrument. While previous studies have generally examined the directivity of the static, unmoved instrument for specific notes played, we show the individual and combined contributions of these two factors to a temporal modulation of the radiation behavior, based on motion tracking of typical movement patterns for all instruments of a classical symphony orchestra and on the directivity measured for all partials over the entire pitch range of these instruments. The effect of this modulation, which is manifested by changes in timbre and room acoustic excitation, was determined by spectral variations in the free field and under reverberant conditions, as well as by a modulation of room acoustic parameters. Our results show that these effects are well above the just noticeable differences for all musical instruments and all perceptual variables considered. While the effect of motion dominates for brass instruments, string and woodwind instruments exhibit large note-related differences, which should be taken into account in virtual acoustic realities if an auditory liveliness comparable to physical reality is to be achieved.

Navigating Vocal Challenges: Singing Difficulties in a Carnatic Singer with Clinically Normal Voice.

This study aimed to describe the clinical presentation and therapeutic course of a trained Carnatic singer with perceptually clinically normal voice who presented with singing difficulties. The participant of the study was a 25-year-old male individual who reported to the speech and language diagnostics unit with complaints of reduced vocal range for singing and strained voice while singing. After the routine voice evaluations, the subject was allotted Resonant Voice Therapy. The baseline recordings were compared with the subsequent voice recordings of the subject, on different parameters, along the course of the training. The post-training recordings showed an increase in the singing range of the subject from 9 semitones to 19-20 semitones with modifications in adharashruthi. There were reductions in the perturbation and noise-to-harmonic ratio found in post-training samples. This case study highlights the innovative application of RVT to expand pitch range in a Carnatic singer with normative vocal parameters but encountering singing difficulties. The findings underscore the potential of RVT as a transformative intervention, offering promising avenues for enhancing vocal performance and addressing challenges specific to Carnatic singing techniques.

Analyzing Vocal Fold Frequency Dynamics Using High-Speed 3D Laser Video Endoscopy.

To examine changes in lateral and vertical vibratory motion along the anterior, middle, and posterior sections of the vocal folds, as a function of vocal frequency variations. Absolute measurements of vocal fold surface dynamics from high-speed videoendoscopy with custom laser endoscope were made on 23 vocally healthy adults during sustained /i:/ production at 10%, 20%, and 80% of pitch range. The 3D parameters of amplitude (mm), maximum velocity opening/closing (mm/s), and mean velocity opening/closing (mm/s) were computed for the lateral and vertical vibratory motion along the anterior, middle, and posterior sections of the vocal folds. Linear mixed model analysis was conducted to evaluate the differences in (a) vocal frequency levels (high vs. normal vs. low pitch), (b) axis level (vertical vs. lateral), (c) position level (anterior vs. middle vs. posterior), and (d) gender differences (male vs. female). Overall, the superior surface vertical motion of the vocal fold is greater compared with the lateral motion, especially in males. Along the superior surface, the mean and maximum closing velocities are greater posteriorly for low pitch. The location (anterior, middle, and posterior) along the superior surface is relevant only for vocal fold closing rather than opening, as the dynamics are different along the various locations. The study highlights the significance of assessing the vertical motion of the superior surface of the vocal fold to understand the complex dynamics of voice production. NA Laryngoscope, 134:3267-3276, 2024.

Ultrasound tongue imaging of vowel spaces across pitches in singing

One important technique in singing is vowel modification: the adjustment of the resonance space based on the sung pitch for more efficient voice production. We explore whether vowel modification is a learned technique for enhanced acoustics, or if it is a necessary articulatory adjustment for high pitch production. 16 participants without vocal training participated in a singing experiment with ultrasound tongue imaging. Participants were asked to sing sets of English vowels across their comfortable pitch range rising by semitone in a steady tempo, resembling a vocal warm up exercise. Participants sang 5 sets of vowels in total, each set consists of 5 target vowels ([i], [ɛ], [æ], [ɑ], [u]) in randomized order with 1 filler ([ɔ]) closing each breath group. Images of tongue position were splined using DeepLabCut. Preliminary results show that untrained singers tend not to adjust their tongue positions by pitch, though cases of tongue lowering occasionally occurred, particularly for the participants who sing a wide pitch range. In contrast, additional pilot data from 2 trained operatic singers showed gradual tongue adjustments across their pitch range, neutralizing vowel contrasts at their highest pitches. We discuss findings with respect to vowel-pitch interaction, drawing implications on theories of voice production.

The contribution of suprasegmental cues to perceived L1 and L2 accent distance

First (L1) and second language (L2) pronunciations that diverge more segmentally from the local accent are rated as more distant. However, fewer studies have addressed relations between suprasegmental features, such as intonation, and accent distance. We examined the relation between perceived accent distance and four suprasegmental measures: time normalized f0 Euclidean distance, mean F0, pitch range, and speaking rate. Thirty adults completed six ladder tasks in which listeners ranked talkers’ perceived distance from the local accent. For each ladder, listeners heard one sentence produced by 24 talkers: one man and one woman from six L1 and six L2 English varieties. Each suprasegmental measure independently predicted distance rankings with a variety of significant interactions. Talkers with higher accent rankings had narrower pitch ranges, lower mean f0, faster speech, and greater f0 Euclidean distance. Furthermore, suprasegmental measures related to accent distance differentially based on syntactic structure. For example, as f0 Euclidean distance increased, accent rankings increased for interrogative sentences, but not for declarative sentences. These data support the need for future studies examining how suprasegmental features impact perception of L1 and L2 accents. [Work supported by NSF grants 1941691 and 1941662].

The effects of vowel, pitch, and dynamics on the emotional characteristics of the Mezzo-Soprano, Countertenor, and Baritone Voices

Previous research on the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices have shown that their emotional characteristics change with different vowel, pitch, and dynamics. This work continues the investigation with the mezzo-soprano, countertenor, and baritone voices. Listening tests were conducted whereby listeners gave absolute judgements on the voice tones over ten emotional categories, with the data analyzed using logistic regression. High-arousal categories were stronger for loud tones, whereas low-arousal categories were stronger for soft tones. The categories Happy, Heroic, Romantic, and Comic had an upward trend across the pitch range, whereas Calm, Mysterious, Shy, and Sad had a downward trend. Angry and Scary had different trends among the voices. For most categories, all five vowels were mostly similar in terms of emotional expressiveness, with exceptional cases for the baritone voice. Overall, pitch had the strongest effect and was almost twice as strong as dynamics and vowel, with dynamics slightly stronger than vowel. Vowel O had the largest strength-of-expressiveness overall, closely followed by vowels U and A, and finally vowels I and E last. These results give a quantified preliminary perspective on how vowel, pitch, and dynamics shape emotional expression in the voices across a wide range of voice types.

Listening effort for L2 accents: Adults’ adaptation to Mandarin accented english

Using task-evoked pupillary response (TEPR) and dual-task procedures, prior research has shown that adults recruit additional cognitive resources when processing fully intelligible L2-accented speech compared to speech in their own L1 accent (McLaughlin and Van Engen, 2020; Brown et al., 2020). In this study, we investigated the relationship between three prosodic measures (relative word duration variance, pitch stability, and pitch range) and changes in listening effort for L1 and L2 speakers over the course of an experiment. Using growth curve analysis, we found significant interactions between each of the three measures and trial number, indicating that prosodic factors influence speech adaptation. However, these interactions were in opposite directions for the L1 and L2 speakers. Thus, adult monolingual English listeners rely on prosodic information to adapt to a particular speaker’s voice, but use that information differently based on speaker identity.