• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.147-157
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• 2008

Habitual speaking fundamental frequency (sF0) plays an important role in determining the voice classification, which can be presented differently depending on the vocal fold length and language habits. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to compare the differences in sF0 for voice classification and closed quotient between speaking and singing. Seventeen singers (7 sopranos, 5 tenors, 5 baritones, mean age 25.1 years) with no evidence of vocal folds pathology were participated. sF0 and closed quotient (CQ) both in speaking and in singing (A3-A5 with soprano, A2-A4 with tenor and baritone) were measured using SPEAD program and electroglottography. No significant differences were observed for sF0 between tenor and baritone groups (p> 0.05). However, CQ in singing was significantly different among three groups (p< 0.05), but CQ in speaking was not (p> 0.05). Furthermore, CQ was significantly different with both soprano (p< 0.01) and tenor groups ((P= 0.02) whereas baritone group revealed there is no difference when compared between speaking and singing. No significant differences in sF0 between tenor and baritone participants may result from decision-making for voice classification by experience and should measure sF0 before determining the voice classification.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2013

The aerodynamic characteristics (subglottal pressure (Ps) and mean airflow rate (MFR)), fundamental frequency (Fo), intensity (I), vocal efficiency (VE), and closed quotient (CQ) were compared during a sustained vowel /o/ sound under three conditions: in a comfortable loudness and pitch level (condition 1), in a maximum loudness level with a fixed pitch (condition 2), and in a maximum loudness level without a fixed pitch (condition 3). Also, multiple regression analyses were done to measure the aerodynamic characteristics affect on the VE and the CQ in each condition. The results showed the Fo, Ps, MFR, VE, and CQ increased as I increased with and without fixed pitch. Most notably, VE in condition 3 was the highest of all the conditions, but CQ was not very high. By the results of multiple regression analysis, VE was significantly affected by I and Ps in all conditions; Fo was the other main key for affecting VE in high pitch. However, none of the aerodynamic characteristics significantly affected CQ. As I increases, Fo should be increased by increasing Ps and VE. Therefore, researchers should consider and specify an a priori to Fo, Ps, and I when measuring VE to examine the complex and delicate vocal mechanism.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.163-171
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• 2009

This study attempted to investigate vocal characteristics and differences in gender and voice classification among classical singers. Twenty-three female singers (M = 23.1 yrs, SD = 3.6 yrs, average 6.3 yrs singing experience, all classified as sopranos) and twenty male singers (M = 25.2 yrs, SD= 3.6 yrs, average 6. 3 yrs singing experience, 8 tenors, 12 baritones) were recruited to participate in the present study. Speaking fundamental frequency (FO), closed quotient (CQ), MPT (Maximum Phonation Time), breathing types, maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP), maximum expiratory pressure (MEP), and singers' formants were measured. In addition, vibratory patterns were observed using stroboscopy. Sfo, singing CQ, breathing types, formant frequency in singers' formants, MIP, MEP, and MPT were significantly different from gender to gender. Generally, singers' formants were observed in male singers and also the pattern of singers' formants was different between tenors and baritones. Lower singing CQ values were observed than speaking CQ values in the female singers (P<.001). Furthermore, MEP, MIP, and singing CQ were significantly lower for female singers than for males singers (P<.001). MPT and speaking FO, however, were not significantly different between tenors and baritones.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 2011

Electroglottography (EGG) is a common method for providing non-invasive measurements of glottal activity. EGG has been used in vocal pathology as a clinical or research tool to measure vocal fold contact. This paper presents the results of pitch, jitter, and closed quotient (CQ) measurements in electroglottographic signals of young (mean = 22.7 years) and elderly (mean = 74.3 years) male and female subjects. The sustained corner vowels /i/, /a/, and /u/ were measured at around 70 dB SPL since the most notable among EGG variables is the phonation intensity, which showed positive correlation with closed phase. The aim of this paper was to measure EGG data according to age and gender. In CQ, there was a significant difference between young and elderly female subjects while there was no significant difference between young and elderly male subjects. The mean value for young males was higher than that for elderly males while the mean value for young females was lower than that for elderly females. Thus, it can be said that in mean values, increased CQ was related to decreased age for females, while CQ decreased for males as the speaker's age decreased. Although the laryngeal degeneration due to increased age seems to occur to a lesser extent in females, the significant increase of CQ in elderly female voices could not be explained in terms of age-related physiological changes. In standard deviation of pitch and jitter, the mean values for young and elderly males were higher than that for young and elderly females. That is, male subjects showed higher in mean values of voice variables than female subjects. This result could be considered as a sign of vocal instability in males. It was suggested that these results may provide powerful insights into the control and regulation of normal phonation and into the detection and characterization of pathology.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to investigate voice characteristics of adductive spasmodic dysphonia(ADSD) by measuring electroglottal and acoustic examination at the sentence level. The clinical records of 86 ADSD female patients (age group of $20{\sim}50$ years) and the control records of 86 normal females (age group of $20{\sim}40$ years) were recorded by speech studio(Laryngograph Ltd., UK). An independent t-test was used to compare ADSD and normal group. Results were as follows. (1) Fundamental frequency($F_0$) was significantly decreased in ADSD compared with normal group. (2) Irregularity of frequency and closed quotient(CQ) was significantly increased in ADSD compared with normal group. (3) Voiceless duration increased and voiced duration was significantly decreased in ADSD compared with normal group. (4) Fricative duration was increased in ADSD compared with normal group but it wasn't significant. In conclusion, strained, tight and choked voice shows an increase of CQ, tremor voice shows an increase of irregularity of frequency and less feminine voice shows decrease of $F_0$. Increase of voiceless duration and fricative duration and decrease of voiced duration related with diminution speech intelligibility.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2003

Background and Objectives : Electroglottography(EGG) is a non-invasive method of monitoring the vocal cord vibration by measuring the variation of physiological impedance across the vocal folds through the neck skin. It reveals especially the vocal fold contact area and is widely used for basic laryngeal researches, voice analysis and synthesis. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of EGG parameters in differential diagnosis of laryngeal cancer. Materials and Methods : The author investigated 10 laryngeal cancer and 25 benign laryngeal disease patients who visited at the Department of Otolaryngology, Pusan National University Hospital. The EGG equipment was devised in the author's Department. Among various parameters of EGG, closed quotient(CQ), speed quotient(SQ), speed index(SI), Jitter, Shimmer, Fo were determined by an analysis program made with MATLAB 6.5$^{\circledR}$(Mathwork, Inc.). In order to differentiate various laryngeal diseases from pathologic voice signals, the author has used the electroglottographic parameters using the neural network of multilayer perceptron structure. Results : SQ, SI, Jitter and Shimmer values except those of CQ and Fo showed remarkable differences between benign and malignant laryngeal disease groups. From the artificial neural network, the percentage of differentiating the laryngeal cancer was over 80% in SQ, SI, Jitter, Shimmer except for CQ and Fo. These results indicated that it is possible to discriminate the benign and malignant laryngeal diseases by EGG parameters using the artificial neural network. Conclusion : If parameters of EGG which can reveal for the pathology of laryngeal diseases are additionally developed and the current classification algorithm is improved, the discrimination of laryngeal cancer will become much more accurate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2006

Background and Objectives: Countertenors who can produce higher vocal pitch like female classical singer's voice and use both modal and falsetto register. This study was conducted to study phonatory characteristics between modal and falsetto register of the countertenor. Materials and Methods: A male countertenor who had 8 years of experience was examined using a videostroboscopy and his voice was analyzed using aerodynamic measures; fundamental frequency(F0), Mean air flow rate(MFR), intensity(SLP), subglottal air pressure(Psub) with phonatory function analyzer(Nagashima) and acoustic measures; jitter, shimmer, HNR, closed quotient(CQ) using a Electro-glottography(EGG) of Lx. Speech Studio(Laryngoscope, Ltd, UK) and voice range profile of CSL(Kay elemetrics). Results: In the stroboscopy finding, the longitudinal length of vocal folds was increased at the falsetto register and the upper margin of vocal folds vibrated with incomplete closure of true vocal folds. In aerodynamic analysis, intensity was same at the modal and falsetto register. However, MFR, Psub, MPT were higher at the falsetto register. In the electroglottographic analysis, closed quotient(CQ) at the modal register was high and also much higher at the high-pitch falsetto than at the loud falsetto. In the VRP, intensity was similar though F0 was different between modal and falsetto register. Conclusion: It implied that countertenor could produce powerful voice quality by increasing of respiratory pressure and respiratory volume though glottal closure was incomplete. In addition, no change of EGG waveform, similar voice range with alto was observed.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.113-126
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• 2000

A comparative phonetic analysis of Yodel singing and Belcanto singing by the electroglottographic(EGG) measurement was done in three singers. One professional tenor singer(SDI) who is also well trained in Yodel singing, another yodler(KWS) who is not so trained in Belcanto singing, and the other training tenor singer(CSK) who is not well trained both yodel and Belcanto singing. Closed quotient(CQ), speed quotient(SQ) and fundamental frequency (F0) at the initial modal part(I) , middle falsetto part(M), and final modal part(F) of the same phrase were measured by EGG machine and program(Kay model 4338). In the middle part, not only CQ but also SQ of the Yodel singing were much smaller than that of Belcanto singing in all three singers. However, accuracy of parameters in Belcanto singing of the yodler(KWS) and both Yodel singing and Belcanto singing of the training singer(CSK) were inferior to that of trained tenor singer(SDI). Possible advantages of utilizing Yodel singing training under the guidance of feedback control by the EGG for hyperfunctional voice disorders such as vocal nodules were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2004

Vocal Register Transition(Passaggio) is one of the most important vocal technique for classically trined male singers(tenor). Passaggio is that it bridges the chest register to head register without a noticeable voice break. Vocalist gest the feeling that voice is not locked a particular register. The purpose of this study was to clarify the difference between easy($B_3$) tone and non passaggio(F#_4$) & passaggio(F#_4$). We selected 6 trained singers(tenor), who had more than 12.6 years of experience and were well trained in passaggio technique. Simulataneous measurement was performed frequency(F0), mean flow rate(MFR), intensity(I), and subglottal pressure(Psub) using a phonatory function analyzer(Nagashima) and Closed Quotient(CQ), Jitter, Shimmer, NHR a Electro-glottography(EGG) of Lx. Speech Studio(Laryngogrph Lt, London, UK) and vocal efficiency was calculated by Carroll's method. For the tenor, target tone/a/was measured in three conditions : 1) easy phonation : $B_3$, 2) high tone without passaggio : F#_4$, 3) high tone with passaggio : F#_4$). The results revealed that F0 of the target tones between non-passaggio group and passaggio group were not significantly different though higher is F0, higher is subglottal pressure. And also CQ, MFR, Psub were increased in passagio than nonpssagio but these values were not statistically different. This study concluded that passaggio is the vocal technique to make the same quality of tone between chest register and head register in tenor.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.343-349
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• 2004

Electroglottograph(EGG) is a signal recorded from the vocal cord vibration by measuring electrical impedance across the vocal folds through the neck skin. The purpose of this study was to develop EGG system and to evaluate possibility for the application on speech analysis and laryngeal disease diagnosis. EGG system was composed of two pairs of ring electrodes, tuned amplifier, phase sensitive detector, low pass filter, and auto-gain controller. It was designed to extract electric impedance after detecting by amplitude modulation method with 2.7MHz carrier signal. Extracted signals were transmitted through line-in of PC sound card, sampled and quantized. Closed Quotient(CQ), Speed Quotient(SQ), Speed Index(SI), fundamental frequency of vocal cord vibration(F0), pitch variability of vocal fold vibration (Jitter), and peak-to-peak amplitude variability of vocal fold vibration(Shimmer) were analyzed as EGG parameters. Experimental results were as follows: the faster vocal fold vibration, the higher values in CQ parameter and the lower values in SQ and SI parameters. EGG and speech signals had the same fundamental frequency. CQ, SQ, and SI were significantly different between normal subjects and patients with laryngeal cancer. These results suggest that it is possible to implement portable EGG system to monitor the function of vocal cord and to test functional changes of the glottis.