• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2023

Tohoku Japanese is known to have voiced stops without pre-voicing in word-initial position, whereas traditional or conservative Japanese has voiced stops with pre-voicing in the same position. One problem with this devoicing of voiced stops is that it affects the distinction between voiced and voiceless stops because their voice onset time (VOT) values overlap. Previous studies have confirmed that Tohoku speakers use post-stop fundamental frequency (F0) as an acoustic cue along with VOT to avoid overlap. However, the role of post-stop F0 as a perceptual cue in this region has barely been investigated. Therefore, this study explored the role of post-stop F0 in stop voicing perception along with VOT. Several perception tests were conducted using resynthesized stimuli, which were manipulated along a VOT continuum orthogonal to an F0 continuum. The results showed no significant regional difference (Tohoku vs. Chubu) for nonsense words (/ta-da/). However, for meaningful words (/pari/ 'Paris' vs. /bari/ 'Bali,' /piza/ 'pizza' vs. /biza/ 'visa'), a significant word effect was found, and it was confirmed that some listeners utilized the post-stop F0 more consistently and steadily than others. Based on these results, we discuss innovative listeners who may lead the change in the perception of stop voicing.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.17-25
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• 2023

This study examines the fundamental frequency(f0) distribution of 2,740 Korean speakers in a dialogue speech corpus. Praat and R were used for the collection and analysis of acoustical f0 data after removing extreme values considering the interquartile f0 range of the intonational phrases produced by each individual speaker. Results showed that the average f0 value of all speakers was 185 Hz and the median value was 187 Hz. The f0 data showed a positively skewed distribution of 0.11, and the kurtosis was -0.09, which is close to the normal distribution. The pitch values of daily conversations varied in the range of 238 Hz. Further examination of the male and female groups showed distinct median f0 values: 114 Hz for males and 199 Hz for females. A t-test between the two groups yielded a significant difference. The skewness representing the distribution shape was 1.24 for the male group and 0.58 for the female group. The kurtosis was 5.21 and 3.88 for the male and female groups, and the male group values appeared leptokurtic. A regression analysis between the median f0 and age yielded a slope of 0.15 for the male group and -0.586 for the female group, which indicated a divergent relationship. In conclusion, a normative f0 distribution of different Korean age and sex groups can be examined in the conversational speech corpus recorded by a massive number of participants. However, more rigorous data might be required to define a relation between age and f0 values.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.179-192
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• 2002

Our present study was performed to investigate acoustically the Korean normal adults' voices, with enough large number of subjects to be reliable. 120 Korean normal adults (60 males and 60 females) of the age of 20 to 39 years produced sustained three vowels, /a/, /i/, and /u/ and read a part of 'Taking a Walk' paragraph, and by analyzing them acoustically with MDVP of CSL, we could get the fundamental frequency ($F_{0}$), jitter, shimmer and NHR of sustained vowels: speaking fundamental frequency ($SF_{0}$), highest speaking frequency (SFhi), lowest speaking frequency (SFlo) of continuous speech. As results, on the average, male voices showed 118.1$\sim$122.6 Hz in $F_{0}$, 0.467$\sim$0.659% in jitter, 1.538$\sim$2.674% in shimmer, 0.117$\sim$0.114 in NHR, 120.8 Hz in $SF_{0}$, 183.2 Hz in SFhi, 82.6 Hz in SFlo. And, female voices showed 211.6∼220.3 Hz in F0, 0.678∼0.935% in jitter, 1.478∼2.582% in shimmer, 0.098∼0.114 in NHR, 217.1 Hz in $SF_{0}$, 340.9 Hz in SFhi, 136.0 Hz in SFlo. Among the 7 parameters, every parameters except shimmer showed the significant difference between male and female voices. And, when we compared the three vowels, they showed significant differences one another in shimmer and NHR of both genders, but not in $F_{0}$ of males and jitter of females.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2024

The fundamental frequency (f0), representing an acoustic measure of vocal fold vibration, serves as an indicator of the speaker's emotional state and language-specific pattern in daily conversations. This study aimed to examine the f0 distribution in an English corpus of spontaneous speech, establishing normative data for American speakers. The corpus involved 40 participants engaging in free discussions on daily activities and personal viewpoints. Using Praat, f0 values were collected filtering outliers after removing nonspeech sounds and interviewer voices. Statistical analyses were performed with R. Results indicated a median f0 value of 145 Hz for all the speakers. The f0 values for all speakers exhibited a right-skewed, pointy distribution within a frequency range of 216 Hz from 75 Hz to 339 Hz. The female f0 range was wider than that of males, with a median of 113 Hz for males and 181 Hz for females. This spontaneous speech corpus provides valuable insights for linguists into f0 variation among individuals or groups in a language. Further research is encouraged to develop analytical and statistical measures for establishing reliable f0 standards for the general population.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.143-152
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• 2003

The present study was performed to investigate change in shimmer according to $F_{0}$ variation precisely, and to offer suggestions for a clinical application. The analysis for the present study was done by the fundamental frequency ($F_{0}$) and shimmer measurement results of the previous 120 Korean normal adults' voice study of Pyo et al. (2002), used three vowels, /i/, /a/, /and /u/. Through the analysis of 60 female samples from the previous study, we found that $F_{0}$ of the vowels was the highest in /u/, and the lowest in /a/, but, on the contrary, shimmer was highest in /a/and lowest in /u/. Thirty of 60 subjects showed such an inverse relationship between $F_{0}$ and shimmer, as a whole. In the vowel /a/, 47 of 60 subjects showed the increased $F_{0}$ and decreased shimmer, in /i/, 32 subjects, and in /u/, 33 subjects showed the same results. The decrease in shimmer means the improvement of voice quality, so by these results, we expect to answer the question why the patients with spasmodic dysphonia can improve their voice quality with increased pitched voice production.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.251-260
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• 2007

The structure changes of the vocal folds are related to the fundamental frequencies (F0). In other words, the increasing in vocal fold length and thickness makes the result of dropping in the F0 during the mutational period. The purpose of this study was to investigate F0 of normal children's voice in mutational period. 360 children (180 boys and 180 girls) were participated in this experiment. The age was ranged from 11 to 16 years. The subjects were asked to produce sustained comer vowels (/a/ /i/ /u/) five times each and the data were analyzed using the MDVP of CSL. The result shows that the F0 are considerably decreased with age and reach to adults' F0 by 16 years in most cases. In particular, the F0 of male subjects were rapidly decreased between the ages from 12 ($226.98\;{\pm}\;19\;Hz$) to 13 years ($169.3\;{\pm}\;25\;Hz$), while the F0 of female subjects were slowly changed from the later period of 12 to 16 years old. This result may be used by the meaning of guideline and lead the basic data to differentiate between normal voice and voice disorder.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.15-22
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• 2016

This study aims to examine whether the fundamental frequency (F0) varies depending on languages or distinguishes between L1 (first language) and L2 (second language) speech and whether the type of materials which vary in control of consonant voicing affects the use of F0-especially, mean F0. For this purpose, we compared productions of two languages produced by Korean L2 learners of English to those of Korean-English bilingual speakers. Twelve Korean L2 speakers of English and twelve Korean-English bilingual speakers participated in this study. The subjects read aloud 22 declarative sentences-balanced and unbalanced-once in English and once in Korean. Mean F0 of Korean was higher than that of English for both speaker groups, and the difference in the value of mean F0 between the Korean and English sentences was different depending on the type of materials that the participants read. With regard to F0 range, the L2 speakers had a larger F0 range in English than in Korean; however, the effect of language on F0 range was not statistically significant for the bilingual speakers. These results indicate that language-specific properties may affect the use of F0, in particular, mean F0.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.44-48
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• 1997

Anatomic and physiological changes of the larynx with advancing age result in morphologic changes of the vocal fold and reduced control of the phonatory mechanism in elderly individuals and are reflected in increased unstability of fundamental frequency (Fo). The purpose of this study is to increase current understanding of acoustic and stroboscopic characteristics of normal elderly persons voices. First, phonated /a/ vowel productions by 40 normal adults (20 to 40 years, 20 men and 20 women) and 40 normal elderly persons (60 to 80 years,20 men and 20 women) were analyzed, using CSL (model 4300B) acoustic analysis software, to obtain acoustic measures related to fundamental frequency stability nd vocal resonance characteristics. Second, stroboscopic images of the vocal fold behavior in all subjects were analyzed by experienced specialists. In the men, fundamental frequency variation (vFe) (p＜0.01), jitter. (p＜0.05), and shimmer (p＜0.05) for the older group were significantly higher than the value for the adult group. In the stroboscopic findings, edema of vocal fold had a significant finding in aged men (15%). In the women, vFo (p＜0.05), jitter (p＜0.05), and noise to harmonic ratio (NHR) (p＜0.05) for the older group were significantly higher than the value for e adult group and first formant frequency (F1) (p＜0.01) and second formant frequency (F2) (p＜0.01) for. the older group were significantly lower than the value for the adult group. In the stroboscopic findings, vocal fold atrophy had a significant finding in aged women (25%). Frequency stability, as reflected by vFo, jitter, shimmer, and NHR, decreases with advancing age in men and women and spectral analysis of phonated /a/ vowel productions reveals the lowering of the frequency of F1 and second F2 with advancing age, especially in aged women. Change in the mass of vocal folds, due to atrophy or edema, is considered to be the greatest factor in these acoustic changes.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.105-116
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• 2004

The fundamental frequency of a vowel is known to be affected by the identity of the preceding consonant. The general agreement is that strong consonants trigger higher F0 than weak consonants. However, there has been a disagreement on the shape of this segmentally affected F0 contours. Some studies report that shapes of contours are differentiated based on the consonant type, but others regard this observation as misleading. This research attempts to resolve this controversy by investigating shapes and slopes of F0 contours of Korean word level speech data produced by four male speakers. Instead of entirely relying on traditional human intuition and judgment, I employed an automatic F0 contour analysis technique known as tilt parameterisation (Taylor 2000). After necessary manipulation of an F0 contour of each data token, various parameters are collapsed into a single tilt value which directly indicates the shape of the contour. The result, in terms of statistical inference, shows that it is not viable to conclude that the type of consonant is significantly related to the shape of F0 contour. A supplementary measurement is also made to see if the slope of each contour bears meaningful information. Unlike shapes themselves, slopes are suspected to be practically more practical for consonantal differentiation, although confirmation is required through further refined experiments.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.19-28
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to increase the current understanding of the acoustic characteristics of voices with advancing age. The relationship between age-related changes in body physiology and certain acoustic characteristics of voice was studied in a sample of 80 men representing four chronological age groupings (20-29, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79) who were all of good physical condition. Each subject was asked to phonate the vowel /a/, /i/, and /u/ for as long as possible at comfortable frequency and intensity level and read the sentence. A promising voice analysis program (Multi-Dimensional Voice $Program^{TM}$) was used to measure the fundamental frequency ($f_0$), jitter, shimmer, $f_0$ variation, peak-amplitude variation, smoothed pitch perturbation quotient, smoothed amplitude perturbation quotient, soft phonation index, $f_0$-tremor intensity index, amplitude tremor intensity index, and noise-to-harmonics ratio from the samples.