Phonation Types Research Articles

Do Listeners Store in Memory a Speaker’s Habitual Utterance-Final Phonation Type?

Earlier studies report systematic differences across speakers in the occurrence of utterance-final irregular phonation; the work reported here investigated whether human listeners remember this speaker-specific information and can access it when necessary (a prerequisite for using this cue in speaker recognition). Listeners personally familiar with the voices of the speakers were presented with pairs of speech samples: one with the original and the other with transformed final phonation type. Asked to select the member of the pair that was closer to the talker’s voice, most listeners tended to choose the unmanipulated token (even though they judged them to sound essentially equally natural). This suggests that utterance-final pitch period irregularity is part of the mental representation of individual speaker voices, although this may depend on the individual speaker and listener to some extent.

The phonetics of register in Takhian Thong Chong

The Chong language uses a combination of different acoustic correlates to distinguish among its four contrastive registers (phonation types). Electroglottographic (EGG) and acoustic data were examined from original fieldwork on the Takhian Thong dialect. EGG data shows high open quotient (OQ) values for the breathy register, low OQ values for the tense register, intermediate OQ values for the modal register, and rapidly changing high to low OQ values for the breathy-tense register. Acoustic correlates indicate that H1-A3 best distinguishes between breathy and non-breathy phonation, but measures like H1-H2 and pitch are necessary to discriminate between tense and non-tense phonation. A comparison of spectral tilt and OQ measures shows the greatest correlation between OQ and H1-H2, suggesting that changes in the relative amplitude of frequencies in the upper spectrum are not directly related to changes in the open period of the glottal cycle. OQ is best correlated with changes in the degree of glottal tension.

Using voice quality to learn non‐native tonal categories.

An artificial language learning experiment will be used to study if voice quality can be used to learn tonal systems. Cross‐linguistically, tone, and voice quality can co‐vary in different ways. For instance, Mazatec (Jalapa de Diaz), has three phonation types (modal, breathy, creaky) fully crossed with three level tone levels [Ladefoged et al. (1988)], while Mandarin has creaky phonation in Tone 3 and Tone 4, which are also distinguished from one another and Tone 1 and 2 by f0 contour [Davison (1991); Belotel‐Grenié and Grenié (2004)]. The goal of the study is to investigate if English listeners unfamiliar with tone languages can use phonation‐type contrasts to learn tonal contrasts in artificial tone languages differing in how tone and voice quality co‐vary. There will be a comparison of how learners generalize from training to novel stimuli for artificial languages where voice quality and tone contrasts are correlated and uncorrelated cues.

The production and perception of Mon voice registers.

As a continuation of our work on voice registers [Abramson et al., Phonetica 61, 147–171 (2004); Abramson et al., Phonetica 64, 80–104 (2007)], another language, Mon, has been examined. A voice register on a syllable is a bundle of phonetic properties among which one, usually phonation type, is paramount. Fieldwork, with support from acoustics [Thongkum, in Bamroongraks et al., (eds.), International Symposium on Language and Linguistics, pp. 22–50 (1998)], has yielded primarily modal voice and higher pitch for one register and breathy voice and lower pitch for the other. Our acoustic analysis has confirmed the significance of F0 height as well as that of the intensity ratios of higher harmonics and the first harmonic. The greater attenuation of the higher spectrum for breathy voice is taken as a consequence of a larger open quotient of the glottal cycle. For validation, electroglottography of the native speakers used for our acoustic analysis has been done. A control test of the robustness of the distinction in natural speech has been run along with one with synthetic speech for the efficacy of incremental changes along three dimensions, F0, spectral slope, and turbulence mixed with glottal pulsing. Final data will be shown.

Tonal Contrasts and Initial Consonants: A Case Study of Tamang, a ‘Missing Link’ in Tonogenesis

Tamang (Bodic division of Tibeto-Burman) is spoken at the edge of the East Asian ‘tone-prone’ zone, next to the almost tone-free Indian linguistic area, and is, chronologically, at the late end of the tone multiplication wave which has swept through East Asia in the course of the last two millennia. It can be regarded as a ‘missing link’ in tonogenesis: following the loss of voicing contrasts on syllable-initial consonants, Tamang has four tonal categories instead of its earlier two-tone system; the present state of the prosodic system is typologically transitional, in that these four tonal categories are realised by several cues which include fundamental frequency (F0), phonation type, and allophonic variation in the realisation of consonants. Acoustic and electroglottographic recordings of 131 words in two carrier sentences by 5 speakers were conducted (total number of target syllables analysed: n = 1,651). They allow for a description in terms of F0, glottal open quotient, duration, and realisation of consonants. The results confirm the diversity of cues to the four tonal categories, and show evidence of laxness on tones 3 and 4, i.e. on the two tones which originate diachronically in voiced initials. The discussion hinges on the phonological definition of tone.

Laryngeal mechanisms in speech: The contributions of Jan Gauffin

Jan Gauffin was an early user of fiber optics which allowed him to discover that laryngeal structures above the glottal level are involved in speech. His research led him to postulate three independently controlled mechanisms: fundamental frequency control, glottal adduction/abduction, and laryngealization, the latter derived from the protective closure function. He argued that phonetic theory must be revised to account for the main phonation types of the world's languages. He saw them as combinations of two interacting dimensions: adduction/abduction and laryngealization. Secondly he gave the aryepiglottic sphincter an explanatory role in accounting for the production of low pitch and downward pitch inflections. During his lifetime his work received limited attention. However, later laryngoscopic research has confirmed and extended his thinking and findings. His contribution was a pioneering one.

Perception of Emotional Valences and Activity Levels from Vowel Segments of Continuous Speech

This study aimed to investigate the role of voice source and formant frequencies in the perception of emotional valence and psychophysiological activity level from short vowel samples (approximately 150 milliseconds). Nine professional actors (five males and four females) read a prose passage simulating joy, tenderness, sadness, anger, and a neutral emotional state. The stress carrying vowel [a:] was extracted from continuous speech during the Finnish word [ta:k:ahan] and analyzed for duration, fundamental frequency (F0), equivalent sound level (L(eq)), alpha ratio, and formant frequencies F1-F4. Alpha ratio was calculated by subtracting the L(eq) (dB) in the range 50 Hz-1 kHz from the L(eq) in the range 1-5 kHz. The samples were inverse filtered by Iterative Adaptive Inverse Filtering and the estimates of the glottal flow obtained were parameterized with the normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ = f(AC)/(d(peak)T)). Fifty listeners (mean age 28.5 years) identified the emotional valences from the randomized samples. Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis was used to study the interrelations of the parameters for perception. It appeared to be possible to identify valences from vowel samples of short duration ( approximately 150 milliseconds). NAQ tended to differentiate between the valences and activity levels perceived in both genders. Voice source may not only reflect variations of F0 and L(eq), but may also have an independent role in expression, reflecting phonation types. To some extent, formant frequencies appeared to be related to valence perception but no clear patterns could be identified. Coding of valence tends to be a complicated multiparameter phenomenon with wide individual variation.

“Lax” stops in Korean revisited: VOT neutralization

This study reinvestigated the VOT values of the three Korean stops according to phonation type by taking factors such as age,...

Vocal Technique in a Group of Middle Eastern Singers

Objective: We aimed to report on the vocal technique in a group of Middle Eastern singers. Subjects and Method: A total of 78 Middle Eastern singers were assessed. Demographic data included age, gender, training status and number of years of singing. All singers had laryngeal videoendostroboscopy. Description and grading of posture, tension, type of breathing, type of phonation, resonance and tone quality are reported. Proportions and means (± SD) were used to describe the sample for categorical and continuous variables respectively. Associations between endostroboscopy and voice technique were determined by χ² or Fisher’s exact test. Results:There were 43 males and 35 females with an age ranging between 16 and 32 years and a mean of 23 ± 4 years. Of these, 88.5% were nontrained singers and 50% had more than 3 years of singing experience. Around 80% of Middle Eastern singers rely on either thoracic or clavicular breathing. Posture was average in 68% and moderate tension was present in 63% of the cases. Two thirds had a bright voice, 61% were hypernasal and almost 46% had a strained phonation. There was a significant correlation between posture and tension. Conclusion: Middle Eastern singing relies more on thoracic breathing and is characterized by tension.

Tone-3 Accent Realization in Short Chinese Sentences

To investigate how a low tone (tone-3, T3) syllable in Chinese can be perceived to be focal accented or not, a total of 156 sentences containing tone-3 words were synthesized and used as stimuli in a perceptual study. The sentences differed in the falling value between the two high pitches, and in the duration and phonation types of the T3 syllables. Thirty-nine subjects were asked to judge where the focus or accent was for each sentence. The results show that at least three degrees of pitch drop are involved in the focus recognition: a big sized drop of about 10 semitones; a middle sized drop of about 6 semitones; a small sized drop of about 2 semitones. The results suggest that the three sizes of pitch drop have different indications in Chinese intonation, depending on both the tone and the tone combination. In perception, there are various ways to realize tone-3 focus in the T x-T3-T y sentences series, but in production or for text-to-speech synthesis, the rule simply is making a middle sized pitch drop with a long and creaky T3 syllable. Similarly, to focus on the low tone syllable in the T3-T x-T y sentences, a creaky T3 syllable is essential. However, a long T3 syllable is a strong determinant for a low tone focus in the T x-T y-T3 sentences.

Effects of Muscle Tension Dysphonia on Tone Phonation: Acoustic and Perceptual Studies in Vietnamese Female Teachers

Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is a hyperfunctional voice disorder commonly seen in professional voice users. To date, published acoustic studies of this disorder have mainly focused on nontonal language speakers, and no publication has documented its impact on lexical tone characteristics. In this study, we examined whether and how this voice disorder affected acoustically and perceptually the characteristics of tones in Vietnamese teachers. Voice data were obtained from 42 Vietnamese female primary school teachers diagnosed with MTD and 30 vocally healthy teachers. Tonal data were analyzed using Computerized Speech Lab (CSL-4300B) and Speech Analyzer. Parameters analyzed included the two most important acoustic cues in Vietnamese tones, that is, tonal fundamental frequency (F(0)) and laryngealization. Tonal F(0) was assessed using a factorial analysis of variance with group and career durations as independent variables. Tonal samples were also perceptually assessed by a panel of native speakers of the same dialect. The results showed that MTD lowered tonal F(0) in high tones and tones with extensive fundamental frequency variation. There was also a significant main effect for career duration; in MTD group, tonal F(0) was lower in teachers with longer career duration. The teachers with MTD showed different patterns of laryngealization compared with the control group. Tone perception was poorer for tones with extensive fundamental frequency variation and without a typical phonation type. The results in this group of teachers supported our hypothesis that MTD impairs lexical tone phonation.

Some acoustic cues in the detection of the Nepalese aspiration

In terms of laryngeal setting, most languages have only two types of stops. In the Nepalese sound inventory there are four types of stops: voiceless unaspirated, voiced unaspirated, voiceless aspirated, and voiced aspirated (or breathy voiced). The main objective of this paper is to present the prominent and consistent acoustic cues that differentiate the aspirated segments from their unaspirated counterparts of the Nepalese coronals - the dental-alveolar (t,th,d,dh), retroflex (T,Th,D,Dh) and affricates (ts,tsh,dz,dzh). VOT (Voice Onset Time) (Lisker and Abramson 1964) is the familiar model used to characterize three of these phonation types - voiced, voiceless, and aspiration stops. Some authors have pointed out that this method is not able to distinguish the plain voiced and voiced aspirated stops. An alternative segmentation model proposed by Mikuteit and Reetz (2007) is adopted here. Beside the analysis of the closure duration of segments, measuring the beginning of the burst or its release, we use other acoustic cues to characterize Nepalese aspiration such as F0 lowering, the structure of the lower harmonics and spectral tilt (Hanson 1997, Stevens 1998). This experimental work is based on the corpus based on four native speakers of Nepali.

Breathy and whispery voicing in White Hmong

The White dialect of Hmong uses breathy voice as a tonal feature, and also a distinctive whispery voice as a stop consonant feature. In this paper, acoustic measurements are shown to validate the apparent differences between these two similar phonation types. In particular, relative harmonic intensity and harmonicity were found to be, in general, three ways distinct among Hmong modal, breathy, and whispery phonation. The discovery of distinctly pronounced breathy and whispery phonation in a single language has implications for the representational theory which is used to specify the phonetic grammar.

Phonetic correlates of phonological register in Takhian Thong Chong

The author’s phonetic fieldwork from the Takhian Thong Chong language demonstrates that the four phonological registers are distinguished phonetically with distinct voice quality (phonation) contours, pitch contours, and durational properties. Both EGG and acoustic data were gathered from seven native speakers. A dynamic open quotient contour extracted from electroglottographic recordings demonstrates register-specific phonation type correlates. The four distinct registers are characterized by: Modal phonation throughout with a mid-level pitch, a contour from modal to tense phonation with a high rising and falling pitch contour, a contour from breathy to modal phonation with a mid-falling pitch contour, and a contour from breathy to tense phonation with a midrising and falling pitch contour. Investigations into the correlation between OQ (open quotient) values and pitch indicate a positive global correlation between the relative length of the glottal cycle and the open period, but a lack of correlation between dynamic OQ and pitch curves. Aside from providing a phonetic description of a typologically rare phonological contrast, these findings suggest that there is not a strong relationship between absolute changes in degree of glottal abduction and changes in pitch, contrary to previous claims (Silverman 1997). [Work supported by UC Berkeley Graduate Division.]

Phonation type as a stylistic variable: The use of falsetto in constructing a persona1

Although the field of sociolinguistics has witnessed a growing interest in the sociophonetic aspects of segmental and intonational variation, few studies have examined variation in voice quality. This paper addresses the gap by investigating the stylistic use of falsetto phonation. Focusing on the speech of Heath, a speaker exhibiting considerable cross‐situational variation, I show that when attending a barbecue with friends, Heath's falsetto is more frequent, longer, and characterized by higher fundamental frequency (f0) levels and wider f0 ranges. Advancing recent approaches to variation which treat linguistic features as stylistic resources for constructing social meaning, I draw on an analysis of the discourse contexts in which falsetto appears to illustrate that the feature carries expressive connotations. This meaning is employed to construct a ‘diva’ persona and may also participate in building a gay identity.

Vibratory Regime Classification of Infant Phonation

Infant phonation is highly variable in many respects, including the basic vibratory patterns by which the vocal tissues create acoustic signals. Previous studies have identified the regular occurrence of nonmodal phonation types in normal infant phonation. The glottis is like many oscillating systems that, because of nonlinear relationships among the elements, may vibrate in ways representing the deterministic patterns classified theoretically within the mathematical framework of nonlinear dynamics. The infant's preverbal vocal explorations present such a variety of phonations that it may be possible to find effectively all the classes of vibration predicted by nonlinear dynamic theory. The current report defines acoustic criteria for an important subset of such vibratory regimes, and demonstrates that analysts can be trained to reliably use these criteria for a classification that includes all instances of infant phonation in the recorded corpora. The method is thus internally comprehensive in the sense that all phonations are classified, but it is not exhaustive in the sense that all vocal qualities are thereby represented. Using the methods thus developed, this study also demonstrates that the distributions of these phonation types vary significantly across sessions of recording in the first year of life, suggesting developmental changes. The method of regime classification is thus capable of tracking changes that may be indicative of maturation of the mechanism, the learning of categories of phonatory control, and the possibly varying use of vocalizations across social contexts.

Speech Acoustics and Phonetics: Selected Writings (review)

Reviewed by: Speech acoustics and phonetics: Selected writings by Gunnar Fant Peter Ladefoged Speech acoustics and phonetics: Selected writings. By Gunnar Fant. (Text, speech and language technology 24.) Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2006. Pp. xiv, 322. ISBN 1402027893. $64.95. Gunnar Fant was the first of the great engineers to lay out the field of acoustic phonetics, and this new collection of his papers further documents his achievements. There is no doubt that he is a towering figure in the field. His Acoustic theory of speech production (Fant 1960) provided the solid foundation on which much later work was based. The nineteen papers that he has selected for this book cover a wide range of topics and make available several papers that are not easy to find. Nine of them appeared previously only in the quarterly reports of the Department of Speech, Music, and Hearing or other in-house publications of the Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology. Two of them have not been in print before, and several of the others are in conference proceedings, handbooks, or encyclopedias rather than readily available journals. The papers are grouped into six sections, each with a short introduction. The first section consists of a single paper, not previously in print, in which F gives an overview of his more than fifty years of speech research. F was born in October 1919 and began publishing papers on the sounds of Swedish in 1948. Since then he has been a very productive scholar; there are 247 publications listed at the end of this book. The second section, ‘Speech production and synthesis’, consists of five papers, starting with his early work at Ericsson Telephone Company, in which he lays out the mathematical foundations for the relations between formant frequencies, amplitudes, phase, and bandwidth. Other papers in this section include F’s account of the relation between area functions and the acoustic signal (one of the few publications in a refereed journal, Phonetica) and two papers on speech synthesis, one based on an articulatory model of the vocal tract, and the other, which is of considerable historic interest, describing the OVE II parametric formant synthesis. There is also a paper, published in 2001, updating his analyses of Swedish vowels, relating a three-parameter model of the vocal tract to the corresponding formant data. There is no doubt that this paper provides an interesting account of one way of parameterizing the vocal-tract shapes of a single speaker. But for a paper revised in 2001 it slips up by not updating references to other work on the same topic. It claims, for example, that there is ‘rather meagre data available on vowel specific VT area functions, which has long been dominated by the Russian vowels, (Fant 1960)’ (58). But by 2001 Baer et al. 1991 and other imaging studies were available. The third section has three papers on the voice source, all coauthored with Qigang Lin and the first also coauthored with Johan Liljencrants. These three papers describe a way of parameterizing the shape of the wave produced at the glottis, the source in F’s source-filter approach to the acoustics of speech. This parameterization, which is known as the L-F (Liljencrants-Fant) model, has become widely used in the literature on phonation types and voice quality. The fourth section, ‘Speech analysis and features’, starts with a paper published over forty years ago on ‘Descriptive analysis of the acoustic analysis of speech’. F presents a list of phonetic characteristics and their acoustic correlates. Emphasis is given to the fact that every segment is influenced by its neighbors. This is still a good, concise account of the information that can be obtained from spectrograms. The next paper in this section, which was published in 1997 in an encyclopedia of acoustics, concentrates on analysis and processing techniques. It provides more technical detail than many linguists will want, but is full of valuable information on methods of spectral analysis and extraction of formant frequencies. The third paper, ‘Features: Fiction and facts’, originally appeared in the proceedings of a symposium in 1986. It provides F’s later views on distinctive features. In the original publication [End Page 189...

The newborn pain cry: Descriptive acoustic spectrographic analysis

Study the characteristics of pain vocal emission of newborns during venepuncture through acoustic analysis and relate it to NIPS pain scale and some variables of the newborns. Emissions of 111 healthy term newborns were recorded, whose lifetime varied from 24 to 72 h. The acoustic analysis was realized with GRAM 5.7 software verifying the occurrence of tense strangled voice quality, sounds, concentration of acoustic energy, breaks, double harmonic breaks and frequency instability, type of phonation, vocal attack and cough. The NIPS scale was realized during venepuncture and descriptive statistical analysis and correlation through Spearman test. Hundred percent of the emissions had guttural sounds, vowels, hard vocal attack, frequency, breaks, double harmonic breaks and tense strangled voice quality; 34.2% higher fundamental frequency; 62.2% periods of emission absence and 100% occurrence of tracing instability, concentration of acoustic energy, inspiratory and expiratory phonation. The cough occurred in 14.4%. The signs of vocal tract constriction associated with all the parameters. There was a negative correlation between the higher fundamental frequencies and the weight of newborns and positive correlation between cough and NIPS score. The newborn pain emission is tense and strident, the modifications of frequency and spectrographic tracing and the presence of sounds show laryngeal and vocal tract participation. The smaller the newborn weight, the bigger the presence of higher fundamental frequency with tense strangled voice quality and the bigger the NIPS score, the more frequent the cough. Such characteristics make pain crying peculiar, helping in the evaluation of pain during a procedure.

The Phonetics of Register in Takhian Thong Chong

The language Chong uses a combination of different acoustic correlates to distinguish among its four contrastive phonation types (registers). Electroglottographic and acoustic data were examined from original fieldwork on the Takhian Thong dialect. EGG data shows high open quotient (OQ) values for the breathy-modal register, low OQ values for the modal-tense register, intermediate OQ values for the modal register, and rapidly changing high to low OQ values for the breathy-tense register. Acoustic correlates indicate that H1-A3 and H1-A2 best distinguish between breathy and non-breathy phonation types, but measures like H1-H2 and pitch are necessary to discriminate between tense and non-tense phonation types. A comparison of spectral tilt and OQ measures shows the greatest correlation between OQ and H1-H2, suggesting that changes in the relative amplitude of formants are not directly related to changes in the open period of the glottal cycle. OQ is best correlated with changes in the degree of glottal tension.

Acoustic Measures and Self-reports of Vocal Fatigue by Female Teachers

This study investigated the relation of symptoms of vocal fatigue to acoustic variables reflecting type of voice production and the effects of vocal loading. Seventy-nine female primary school teachers volunteered as subjects. Before and after a working day, (1) a 1-minute text reading sample was recorded at habitual loudness and loudly (as in large classroom), (2) a prolonged phonation on [a:] was recorded at habitual speaking pitch and loudness, and (3) a questionnaire about voice quality, ease, or difficulty of phonation and tiredness of throat was completed. The samples were analyzed for average fundamental frequency (F0), sound pressure level (SPL), and phonation type reflecting alpha ratio (SPL [1-5 kHz]-SPL [50 Hz-1 kHz]). The vowel samples were additionally analyzed for perturbation (jitter and shimmer). After a working day, F0, SPL, and alpha ratio were higher, jitter and shimmer values were lower, and more tiredness of throat was reported. The average levels of the acoustic parameters did not correlate with the symptoms. Increase in jitter and mean F0 in loud reading correlated with tiredness of throat. The results seem to suggest that, at least among experienced vocal professionals, voice production type had little relevance from the point of view of vocal fatigue reported. Differences in the acoustic parameters after a vocally loading working day mainly seem to reflect increased muscle activity as a consequence of vocal loading.