• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.67-76
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• 2018

This study was performed to investigate acoustic characteristics of sustained vowels produced by Seoul Korean speakers. For this study, three hundred nine healthy adults were chosen as participants from Korean Standard Speech Database. These subjects were divided into five chronological age groups (20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60-70s) and two gender groups (male and female). Fundamental frequency (f0), jitter, shimmer, and NHR (noise-to-harmonics ratio) was measured with 8 Korean vowels (/ɑ/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /e/, /o/, /u/, /ɯ/, /i/) by using Praat. The results showed that the vowel type significantly affected all acoustic parameters. Gender affected f0, jitter, and NHR significantly. The mean female speakers' f0 was greater than the males', and the mean jitter and NHR of male speakers was greater than the females'. Moreover, age affected shimmer and NHR significantly; in particular, the shimmer and NHR of elderly speakers was greater than the young speakers.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.129-143
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• 2003

Fundamental frequency (Fo), jitter, shimmer, and harmonics-to-noise ratio (NHR) have been measured to see their interactions between the parameters using Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP). 100 Korean normal adults (50 males and 50 females) ranging from their early 20's to their early 30's produced the eight sustained vowels including /a/, /i/, /u/, /c/, /e/,/$\varepsilon$/, /i/, and /e/. The subjects were asked to read the above vowels five times in isolation with the interval of five seconds, respectively. Male voices, on the average, showed 130.7 Hz in Fo, 0.6696% in jitter, 1.8151% in shimmer, and 0.12 in NHR, while female voices showed 232.8 Hz in Fo, 0.9222% in jitter, 1.9199% in shimmer, and 0.1098 in NHR. As to the correlation coefficient, it was found that for male speakers jitter vs. shimmer, shimmer vs. NHR, Fo vs. shimmer, and Fo vs. NHR are statistically significant. It was found that for female subjects jitter vs. shimmer and Fo vs. shimmer are statistically significant. However, it is concluded that the correlation coefficient in females are not meaningful in a practical way though they are all statistically significant.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.73-83
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• 2020

Measured values may differ between Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP), Praat, and Time-Frequency Analysis software (TF32), all of which are widely used in voice quality analysis, due to differences in the algorithms used in each analyzer. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the values of parameters of normal voice measured with each analyzer. After tokens of the vowel sound /a/ were collected from 35 normal adult subjects (19 male and 16 female), they were analyzed with MDVP, Praat, and TF32. The mean values obtained from Praat for jitter variables (J local, J abs, J rap, and J ppq), shimmer variables (S local, S dB, and S apq), and noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR) were significantly lower than those from MDVP in both males and females (p<.01). The mean values of J local, J abs, and S local were significantly lower in the order MDVP, Praat, and TF32 in both genders. In conclusion, the measured values differed across voice analyzers due to the differences in the algorithms each analyzer uses. Therefore, it is important for clinicians to analyze pathologic voice after understanding the normal criteria used by each analyzer when they use a voice analyzer in clinical practice.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.87-101
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• 2022

In addition to administering a questionnaire (J-survey), which questions individuals on subjective vocal fatigue, voice samples were collected before and after speech-language pathology sessions from 50 female speech-language pathologists in their 20s and 30s in the Daejeon and Chungnam areas. We identified significant differences in Korean Vocal Fatigue Index scores between the fatigue and non-fatigue groups, with the most prominent differences in sections one and two. Regarding acoustic phonetic characteristics, both groups showed a pattern in which low-frequency band energy was relatively low, and high-frequency band energy was increased after the treatment sessions. This trend was well reflected in the low-to-high ratio of vowels, slope LTAS, energy in the third formant, and energy in the 4,000-8,000 Hz range. A difference between the groups was observed only in the vowel energy of the low-frequency band (0-4,000 Hz) before treatment, with the non-fatigue group having a higher value than the fatigue group. This characteristic could be interpreted as a result of voice abuse and higher muscle tonus caused by long-term voice work. The perturbation parameter and shimmer local was lowered in the non-fatigue group after treatment, and the noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR) was lowered in both groups following treatment. The decrease in NHR and the fall of shimmer local could be attributed to vocal cord hypertension, but it could be concluded that the effective voice use of speech-language pathologists also contributed to this effect, especially in the non-fatigue group. In the case of the non-fatigue group, the rhamonics-to-noise ratio increased significantly after treatment, indicating that the harmonic structure was more stable after treatment.

• 재활복지
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.169-194
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• 2018

The aim of this study is to examine changes in swallowing function and quality of life with therapeutic singing-based music therapy for patients with dysphagia. The music therapy program was based on the previous study (Kim, 2010), and designed to improve breathing, phonation, and swallowing functions focusing on laryngeal elevation. Three patients with dysphagia participated in this study and each participant received a total of 11 or 12 individual music therapy sessions and each session was conducted for 30 minutes. In this study, three kinds of measurements were used. First, the measures of maximum phonation time (MPT), fundamental frequency, average intensity, jitter, shimmer, noise to harmonics ratio (NHR) by Praat test, second, laryngeal-diadochokinesis (L-DDK) to investigate laryngeal elevation, and last, the Swallowing-Quality of Life (SWAL-QOL) was measured. These cases have shown improved breathing, phonation, swallowing function, and the scores of SWAL-QOL in all of the patients. It suggests that this music therapy intervention was effective on laryngeal elevation, and the music intervention with therapeutic singing can be effectively implemented in further research for patients with dysphagia.