• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2015

It is widely accepted that Parkinson's disease(PD) is the most common cause of hypokinetic dysarthria, and its characteristics of 'short rushes of speech' have become more evident along with the severity of motor disorders. Speech alternate motion rates (AMRs) are particularly useful for observing not only rate abnormalities but also deviant speech. However, relatively little is known about the characteristics of 'short rushes of speech' in terms of AMRs of PD except for the perceptual characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine which acoustic features of 'short rushes of speech' in terms of AMRs are a robust indicator of Parkinsonian speech. Numbers of syllabic repetitions (/pə/, /tə/, /kə/) in AMR tasks were analyzed through acoustic methods observing a spectrogram of the Computerized Speech Lab in 9 patients with PD. Acoustically, we found three characteristics of 'short rushes of speech': 1) Vocalized consonants without closure duration(VC) 76.3%; 2) No consonant segmentation(NC) 18.6%; 3) No vowel formant frequency(NV) 5.1%. Based on these results, 'short rushes of speech' may affect the failure to reach and maintain the phonatory targets. In order to best achieve the therapeutic goals, and to make the treatment most efficacious, it is important to incorporate training methods which are based on both phonation and articulation.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.133-144
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• 2009

Pharyngeal flap surgery changes the space and shape of the oral cavity and vocal tract, and these changing conditions bring resonance change. The purpose of this study was to determine the most reliable and valuable parameters for evaluating hypernasality to distinguish two patients before and after pharyngeal flap surgery. Each patient was asked to clearly speak the vowels /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ for voice recording. There were nine parameters: Formant (F1, F2, F3), Bandwidth (BW1, BW2, BW3), LPC energy slope ($\Delta$ |A2-A1/F2-F1|), and Band Energy (0-500 Hz, 500-1000 Hz) by each vowel. From the results of discrimination analyses on acoustic parameters, the vowels /a/, /e/ appeared to be insignificant but vowels /i/, /u/, /o/ appeared to be efficient in the separation. A 95%, 100%, and 100% recognition score could be reached when vowels /i/, /u/, and /o/ were analyzed. The results showed that F2, BW3, and LPC slope are more important parameters than the others. Finally, there is a relation between perceptual evaluation score and LPC energy slope of acoustic parameters by least square slope.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.167-173
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• 2013

This work examines classification of diphthongs, as part of a distinctive feature-based speech recognition system. Acoustic measurements related to the vocal tract and the voice source are examined, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) results show that vowel duration, energy trajectory, and formant variation are significant. A balanced error rate of 17.8% is obtained for 2-way diphthong classification on the TIMIT database, and error rates of 32.9%, 29.9%, and 20.2% are obtained for /aw/, /ay/, and /oy/, for 4-way classification, respectively. Adding the acoustic features to widely used Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients also improves classification.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.14 no.1_2
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• pp.40-53
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• 1992

This sutdy aimed at examining the effect of lingual frenectomy on phonation & tongue movement. Almost the patient visiting to department of oral & maxillofacial surgery for the treatment of tongue tie always complain the speech problem. Many operation was performed according to this problem. But the objective evaluation of the speech change have been deficient. The experimental group was 25 adult males. Fourteen Korean consonants & after Korean vowels was combined and seventy sound was made for speech analysis. Before & after lingual frenectomy, the speech of the above mentioned group was recorded and then analysed by the Speech Workstation computer software. And before & after operation, the lingual frenum & tongue protrusion amount vas measured. The results were as follows : 1. The pre-operative length of lingual frenum was inverse proportion with the pre-operative length of the protrusive tongue. 2. The average difference between pre & post-operative length of the protrusive tongue was about 23 mm. 3. In the comparison of consonant continuing time change, fricative consonant(r, s, h) was increased post-operatively. 4. In the comparison of the vowel frequency formant change, the "i"and "u" sound vas reliably changed. 5. There was no reliable speech changes on the other sounds.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.64-76
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• 2022

Praat is a useful analysis tool for linguists, engineers, doctors, speech-language pathologits, music majors, and natural scientists. Basic parameters including duration, pitch, energy and perturbation parameters such as jitter and shimmer can be easily measured and manipulated in the sound editor. When a more in-depth analysis is needed, it is recommended to understand the advanced menus of the object window and learn how to use them. Among the object window menus, vowel formant analysis, spectrum analysis, and cepstrum analysis can be cited as useful ones in the clinical field. The spectrum object can be usefully used for voice quality measurement and diagnosis of patients with voice disorders by showing the energy distribution according to frequency axis (domain). A cepstrum object is useful for speech analysis when periodicity of the sound object is not measurable. The low to high ratio obtained from the spectral object and the CPPs measured from the cepstrum object have attracted many researchers, and it has been proven that the CPPs measured in Praat are relatively excellent.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.239-252
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• 1993

This study was done to analyze phonetic dysfunction and the effect of orthognathic surgery to phonation in the patients of mandibular prognathism. 20 persons were chosen as normal group and 20 patients of mandibular prognathism as abnormal for this study. 5 vowel sounds-'ㅏ(a)', 'ㅔ(e)', 'ㅣ(i)', 'ㅗ(o)', 'ㅜ(u)' and 14 consonant sounds-'ㄱ(g)', "ㄴ(n), 'ㄷ(d)', 'ㄹ(l)', 'ㅁ(m)', 'ㅂ(b)', 'ㅅ(s)', 'ㅇ(ng)', 'ㅈ(j)', 'ㅊ(ch)', 'ㅋ(k)', 'ㅌ(t)', 'ㅍ(p)', 'ㅎ(h)', were checked. We recorded these sounds in the period of preopration, postop. 12 months, postop. 24 months. A Formant ratio and a length of consonant time were studied with discriminant analysis. As a result of the study, the following conclusion were gained. 1. As a result of the analysis on vowel dysfunction patiensts of mandibular prognathism, more than 80% of men patients showed the dysfunction in prelingual sound 'ㅔ(e)' and 'ㅣ(i)'. More than 70% of women patients showed the dysfunction in all vowel. 2. One year later from the orthognathic surgery, men patients showed a marked improvement in 'ㅏ(a)'. The next were 'ㅗ(o)', 'ㅜ(u)' and 'ㅣ(i)'. Women patients showed a marked improvement in 'ㅜ(u)'. 3. Two year later from the orthognathic surgery, men patients showed a marked improvement in prelingual sound 'ㅔ(e)' and postlingual sound 'ㅗ(o)'. Women patients showed a marked improvement in 'ㅏ(a)'. More than 20% of patients showed the phonetic improvement compared with the condition of the postop. 12 months. 4. As a result of the analysis on consonant dysfunction patient of mandibular prognathism. more than 80% of men patients showed the dysfunction in lingual sound 'ㅅ(s)'. Most women patients showed the dysfunction in labial sound 'ㅁ(m)' and lingual sound 'ㄴ(n)'. More than 50% of patients showed the dysfunction in labial sound and lingual sound. 5. One year later from the orthognathic surgery. men patients showed a complete improvement in hard palatal sound 'ㅈ(j)'. The next were labial sound 'ㅂ(b)', lingual sound 'ㅅ(s)', soft palatal sound 'ㄱ(g)' and 'ㅋ(k)'. Women patients showed a marked improvement in soft palatal sound 'ㅇ(ng)' and 'ㄱ(g)'. 6. Two year later from the orthognathic surgery, all patients showed remarkable improvement in consonant sounds. except for labial sound 'ㅁ(m)', 'ㅍ(p)' and lingual sound 'ㄴ(n)'. The improvement ratio was increased as the time was going on compared with the condition of postop 12 months.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.9
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• pp.896-900
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• 2007

Purpose : The aim of this study was to investigate the speech problems in benign rolandic epilepsy (BRE) according to the seizure focus in EEG and semiology. Methods : Twenty three patients [right origin (13 patients) or left side (10 patients)] who met the BRE criteria by International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) were prospectively enrolled. We excluded the patients who had abnormal MRI or showed both side spikes in EEG. Computerized Speech Lab was used to assess the speech characteristics of the patients. Results : The error pattern of laryngeal articulation in BRE was exclusively substitution of stop consonants, these errors showed more frequent in the left group (16.0% vs 25.5%). Voice onset time (VOT) of stop consonants and Total duration (TD) of word in both groups were prolonged than normal control group, especially in left group (P<0.05). The first formant of vowel /o/ and second formant of /e/ were significantly decreased in left group (P<0.05). The right group scored wider on pitch range ($192.9{\pm}54.0Hz$) and energy range in spontaneous speech ($14.2{\pm}6.4db$) than the left group ($233.3{\pm}12.5Hz$, $19.4{\pm}9.3db$, respectively, P>0.05). Duration of counting (5 to 9) in left group slower than right group ($8.6{\pm}1.7$ vs $7.9{\pm}1.8sec$). Conclusion : Our data suggested that interictal spikes and seizures in either centrotemporal sides, especially left side group, may induce speech problems. We recommend the logopedic and phoniatric evaluations of speech in BRE patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.57-62
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• 2009

Background and Objectives : There are few studies reported that specifically examine the laryngeal function in patients with profound hearing loss or deafness, This study was designed to examine videostroboscopic findings and phonetic characteristics in adult patients with prelingually deaf. Materials and Method: Sixteen patients (seven males, nine females) diagnosed as prelingually deaf aged from 19 to 54 years, and were compared with a 20 normal control group with no laryngeal pathology and normal hearing group, Videostroboscopic evaluations were rated by experienced judges on various parameters describing the structure and function of the laryngeal mechanism during comfortable pitch and loudness phonations. Acoustic analysis test were done, and a nasalance test performed to measure rabbit, baby, and mother passage. CSL were measured to determine the first and two formant frequencies of vowels /a/, /i/, /u/, Statistical analysis was done using Mann-Whitney U or Wilcoxon signed ranks test. Results: Videostroboscopic findings showed phase symmetry but significantly more occurrences decrement in the amplitude of vibration, mucosal wave, irregularity of the vibration and increased glottal gap size during the closed phase of phonation, In addition, group of prelingually deaf patients were observed to have significantly more occurrences of abnormal supraglottic activities during phonation. The percentage of shimmer in the group of prelingually deaf patients were higher than in the control group. Characteristics of vowels were lower of the second formant of the vowel /i/. Nasalance in prelingually deaf patients showed normal nasality for all passages, Conclusion: Prelingually deaf patients show stroboscopic abnormal findings without any mucosal lesion, suggesting that they have considerable functional voice disorder. We suggest that prelingually deaf adults should perform vocal training for normalized laryngeal function after cochlear implantation.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.55-65
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• 2022

This study aimed to compare acoustic measurements by the high, middle, and low laryngeal heights of male musical theater students. Furthermore, the correlation between the relative height of the larynx and the acoustic measurements was examined, along with the predictability of the relative height (vertical position) of the larynx from acoustic measurements. The participants included five male students majoring in musical theater singing, and acoustic analysis was performed by having them produce the /a/ vowel 10 times each at the laryngeal positions of high, middle, and low. The relative vertical positions of the laryngeal prominence in each position were measured based on the resting position. Results indicated that the relative position of the larynx varied significantly according to laryngeal height, such that as the larynx descended, the first three formant frequencies decreased while the spectral energy at the same frequencies increased. Formant frequencies showed a weak to moderate positive correlation with the relative height of the larynx, while the spectral energy showed a moderate negative correlation. The relative height of the larynx was predicted by eight acoustic measures (adjusted R² = .829). In conclusion, the predictability of the relative height of the larynx was partially confirmed in a non-invasive manner.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.927-937
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• 2018

In this paper the comparative study of the consonants of Pyongyang and Seoul dialects of Korean is performed from the perspective of the signal processing which can be regarded as the basis of engineering applications. Until today, the most of speech signal studies were primarily focused on the vowels which are playing important role in the language evolution. In any language, however, the number of consonants is greater than the number of vowels. Therefore, the research of consonants is also important. In this paper, with the vowel study of the Pyongyang dialect, which was conducted by phonological research and experimental phonetic methods, the consonant studies are processed based on an engineering operation. The alveolar consonant, which has demonstrated many differences in the phonetic value between Pyongyang and Seoul dialects, was used as the experimental data. The major parameters of the speech signal analysis - formant frequency, pitch, spectrogram - are measured. The phonetic values between the two dialects were compared with respect to /시/ and /씨/ of Korean language. This study can be used as the basis for the voice recognition and the voice synthesis in the future.