• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.57-62
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• 2014

The present study was performed to investigate and discuss the aerodynamic characteristics of whispered and normal speech during reading paragraph tasks. 39 normal females(18-23 yrs.) read 'Autumn' paragraph with whispered and normal phonation. Their readings were recorded and analyzed by 'Running Speech' in Phonatory Aerodynamic System(PAS) instrument. As results, during whispered speech, the total duration was longer and the numbers of inspiration were more frequently shown than normal speech. The Peak expiratory and inspiratory rate were higher in normal speech, but the expiratory and inspiratory volume were higher in whispered speech. By correlation analysis, both whispered and normal speech showed significantly high correlation between total duration and expiratory/inspiratory airflow duration; numbers of inspiration and inspiratory airflow duration; expiratory and inspiratory volume. These results show that whispered speech needs more respiratory effort but shows poorer aerodynamic efficacy during phonation than normal speech.

• MALSORI
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• no.54
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• pp.1-14
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• 2005

This paper presents durational characteristics of Korean distant-talking speech using speech data, which consist of 500 distant-talking utterances and 500 normal utterances of 10 speakers (5 males and 5 females). Each file was segmented and labeled manually and the duration of each segment and each word was extracted. Using a statistical method, the durational change of distant-talking speech in comparison with normal speech was analyzed. The results show that the duration of words with distant-talking speech is increased in comparison with normal style, and that the average unvoiced consonantal duration is reduced while the average vocalic duration is increased. Female speakers show a stronger tendency towards lengthening the duration in distant-talking speech. Finally, this study also shows that the speakers of distant-talking speech could be classified according to their different duration rate.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2E
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• pp.71-76
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• 2005

Compared to normal speech, distant-talking speech is characterized by the acoustic effect due to interfering sound and echoes as well as articulatory changes resulting from the speaker's effort to be more intelligible. In this paper, the acoustic features for distant-talking speech due to the articulatory changes will be analyzed and compared with those of the Lombard effect. In order to examine the effect of different distances and articulatory changes, speech recognition experiments were conducted for normal speech as well as distant-talking speech at different distances using HTK. The speech data used in this study consist of 4500 distant-talking utterances and 4500 normal utterances of 90 speakers (56 males and 34 females). Acoustic features selected for the analysis were duration, formants (F1 and F2), fundamental frequency, total energy and energy distribution. The results show that the acoustic-phonetic features for distant-talking speech correspond mostly to those of Lombard speech, in that the main resulting acoustic changes between normal and distant-talking speech are the increase in vowel duration, the shift in first and second formant, the increase in fundamental frequency, the increase in total energy and the shift in energy from low frequency band to middle or high bands.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.157-165
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• 2011

This study investigated speech rate and intonation slope (least square method; F0, quarter-tone) in normal and CI children's utterances. Each group consisted of 12 people and were divided into groups of children with CI operation (before 3;00), children with CI operation (after 3;00), and normal children. Materials are composed of four kinds of grammatical dialogue sentences which are lacking in respect. Given three groups as independent variables and both speech rate and intonation slope as dependent variables, a one-way ANOVA showed that normal children had faster speech rates and steeper intonation slopes than those of the CI group. More specifically, there was a statistically significant speech rate difference between normal and CI children in all of the sentential patterns but imperative form (p<.01). Additionally, F0 and qtone slope observed in sentential final word showed a significant statistical difference between normal and CI children in imperative form (f0: p<.01; q-tone: p<.05).

• 전자공학회논문지 IE
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.22-29
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• 2006

Recently the use of whispered speech has increased due to mobile phone and the necessity of whispered speech recognition is increasing. So various feature vectors, which are mainly used for speech recognition, are applied to their HMMs, normal speech models, whispered speech models, and integrated models with normal speech and whispered speech so as to find out suitable recognition system for whispered speech. The experimental results of recognition test show that the recognition rate of whispered speech applied to normal speech models is too low to be used in practical applications, but separate whispered speech models recognize whispered speech with the highest rates at least 85%. And also integrated models with normal speech and whispered speech score acceptable recognition rate but more study is needed to increase recognition rate. MFCE and PLCC feature vectors score higher recognition rate when applied to separate whispered speech models, but PLCC is the best when a lied to integrated models with normal speech and whispered speech.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2004

This was a preliminary study for standardizing speech rate and fluency of normal adult Korean speakers and comparing speech rate and fluency of normal speakers with those of professional speakers. The purposes of this study were to investigate (a) the speech rates (the overall speech rate and the articulation rate) and the disfluency characteristics of normnal adult speakers and (b) the speech rates (the overall speech rate and the articulation rate) and the disfluency characteristics between normal adult speakers and professional speakers. The results were as follows: The most frequent disfluency type was 'interjection' in story-telling, 'revision' in text reading and announcing of professional speakers. The professional speakers had the fastest speech rates (overall speech rate and articulation rate) among the 3 groups.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.71-76
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• 2014

In this paper voice quality of normal speech is qualitatively classified by five components of breathy, creaky, rough, nasal, and thin/thick voice. To determine whether a correlation exists between a subjective measure of voice and an objective measure of voice, each voice is perceptually evaluated using the 1/2/3 scale by speech processing specialists and acoustically analyzed using speech analysis tools such as the Praat, MDVP, and VoiceSauce. The speech parameters include features related to speech source and vocal tract filter. Statistical analysis uses a two-independent-samples non-parametric test. Experimental results show that statistical analysis identified a significant correlation between the speech feature parameters and the components of voice quality.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.79-90
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• 2014

An intonation curve stylization was used for an acoustical analysis of English speech. For the analysis, acoustical feature values were extracted from 1,848 utterances produced with normal and fast speech rate by 28 (12 women and 16 men) native speakers of English. Men are found to speak faster than women at normal speech rate but no difference is found between genders at fast speech rate. Analysis of pitch point features has it that fast speech has greater Pt (pitch point movement time), Pr (pitch point pitch range), and Pd (pitch point distance) but smaller Ps (pitch point slope) than normal speech. Men show greater Pt, Pr, and Pd than women. Analysis of sentence level features reveals that fast speech has smaller Sr (sentence level pitch range), Sd (sentence duration), and Max (maximum pitch) but greater Ss (sentence slope) than normal speech. Women show greater Sr, Ss, Sp (pitch difference between the first pitch point and the last), Sd, MaxNr (normalized Max), and MinNr (normalized Min) than men. As speech rate increases, women speak with greater Ss and Sr than men.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.472-479
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• 2014

Background Speech problems are a common clinical feature of the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. The objectives of this study were to inventory the speech history and current self-reported speech rating of adolescents and young adults, and examine the possible variables influencing the current speech ratings, including cleft palate, surgery, speech and language therapy, intelligence quotient, and age at assessment. Methods In this cross-sectional cohort study, 50 adolescents and young adults with the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (ages, 12-26 years, 67% female) filled out questionnaires. A neuropsychologist administered an age-appropriate intelligence quotient test. The demographics, histories, and intelligence of patients with normal speech (speech rating=1) were compared to those of patients with different speech (speech rating>1). Results Of the 50 patients, a minority (26%) had a cleft palate, nearly half (46%) underwent a pharyngoplasty, and all (100%) had speech and language therapy. Poorer speech ratings were correlated with more years of speech and language therapy (Spearman's correlation=0.418, P=0.004; 95% confidence interval, 0.145-0.632). Only 34% had normal speech ratings. The groups with normal and different speech were not significantly different with respect to the demographic variables; a history of cleft palate, surgery, or speech and language therapy; and the intelligence quotient. Conclusions All adolescents and young adults with the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome had undergone speech and language therapy, and nearly half of them underwent pharyngoplasty. Only 34% attained normal speech ratings. Those with poorer speech ratings had speech and language therapy for more years.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.80-86
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• 2024

Background Among the cleft types, bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP) generally requires multiple surgical procedures and extended speech therapy to achieve normal speech development. This study aimed to describe speech outcomes in 5-year-old Korean children with BCLP and examine whether normal speech could be achieved before starting school. Methods The retrospective study analyzed 52 children with complete BCLP who underwent primary palatal surgery at a tertiary medical center. Three speech-language pathologists made perceptual judgments on recordings from a speech follow-up assessment of 5-year-old children. They assessed the children's speech in terms of articulation, speech intelligibility, resonance, and voice using the Cleft Audit Protocol for Speech-Augmented-Korean Modification. Results The results indicated that at the age of five, 65 to 70% of children with BCLP presented articulation and resonance within normal or acceptable ranges. Further, seven children with BCLP (13.5%) needed both additional speech therapy and palatal surgery for persistent velopharyngeal insufficiency and speech problems even at the age of five. Conclusion This study confirmed that routine follow-up speech assessments are essential as a substantial number of children with BCLP require secondary surgical procedures and extended speech therapy to achieve normal speech development.