• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.31-41
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• 2012

Recent studies have shown that the stop system of Korean is undergoing a sound change in terms of the two acoustic parameters, voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (f0). Because of a VOT merger of a consonantal opposition and onset-f0 interaction, the relative importance of the two parameters has been changing in Korean where f0 is a primary cue and VOT is a secondary cue in distinguishing lax from aspirated stops in speech production as well as perception. In English, however, VOT is a primary cue and f0 is a secondary cue in contrasting voiced and voiceless stops. This study examines how Korean English learners use the two acoustic parameters of L1 in producing L2 English stops and whether the sound change of acoustic parameters in L1 affects L2 speech production. The data were collected from six adult Korean English learners. Results show that Korean English learners use not only VOT but also f0 to contrast L2 voiced and voiceless stops. However, unlike VOT variations among speakers, the magnitude effect of onset consonants on f0 in L2 English was steady and robust, indicating that f0 also plays an important role in contrasting the [voice] contrast in L2 English. The results suggest that the important role of f0 in contrasting lax and aspirated stops in L1 Korean is transferred to the contrast of voiced and voiceless stops in L2 English. The results imply that, for Korean English learners, f0 rather than VOT will play an important perceptual cue in contrasting voiced and voiceless stops in L2 English.

• 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.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.235-242
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• 2017

Peaks (or Nulls) finding algorithms for Average Magnitude Difference Function (AMDF) of speech signal are proposed in this paper. Both AMDF and Autocorrelation Function (ACF) are widely used to estimate a pitch of speech signal. It is well known that the estimation of the fundamental requency (F0) for speech signal is not only important but also very difficult. In this paper, two algorithms, are exploited the characteristics of AMDF, are proposed. First, the proposed algorithm which has a Threshold value is applied to the local minima to detect a pitch period. The Other proposed algorithm to estimate a pitch period of speech signal is utilized the relationship between AMDF and ACF. The data in this paper, is recorded by using general commercial device, is composed of Korean emotion expression words. The recorded speech data are applied to two proposed algorithms and tested their performance.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.468-474
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• 2010

In this paper, a VCHO(Voltage Controlled Harmonic Oscillator) for K-band application has been designed and implemented. The proposed oscillator has a structure of two hair-pin resonators placed on input and output of active device. Using in/out common frequency tuning structure, the VCHO yields some advantages of the enhanced fundamental frequency suppression characteristic as well as the improved output power of second harmonic. According to implementation and measurement results, it was shown that a VCHO provides an output power of -2.41 dBm, a fundamental frequency suppression of -21.84 dBc, and phase noise of -101.44 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset. In addition, as for the bias voltage from 0 V to -10 V for the varactor diode, output frequency range of 10.58 MHz is obtained with a power variation of ${\pm}0.19\;dB$ over its frequency range.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.30 no.11A
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• pp.1104-1109
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• 2005

In this paper, a Ka-band harmonic mixer is designed and fabricated on the base of the multiplier theory that there is a bias point to maximize the third harmonic order($3f_{LO}$) with respect to a fundamental LO frequency($f_{LO}$), which can make the high-order mixing element($f_{RF}{\pm}3f_{LO}$) to be greater than other mixing elements, Pumping a RF frequency($f_{RF}$) and LO frequency($f_{LO}$). The harmonic mixer by the proposed design method is fabricated by using a commercial GaAs MESFET device with a plastic package and overcome these disadvantages that a conventional mixer in Ka-band suffer from a high cost, inefficient productivity and circuit complexity. The harmonic mixer have a -10 dB conversion loss at the IF Sequency($3f_{LO}-f_{RF}$=1.0GHz) by selecting a gate bias voltage for the maximum third-order LO harmonic element($3f_{LO}$=34.5 GHz) as pumping LO frequency($f_{LO}$=11.5 GHz) With respect to RF Sequency ($f_{RF}$=33.5GHz)

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.145-155
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• 2003

This study compared $F_{0}$ and the first three formants of eight Korean monophthongs produced by nine transgenders (male to female) to those of eighteen normal adults. Voice analysis was done by Praat (version 4.049). A one-way ANOVA with Tukey HSD post hoc tests were performed to determine statistical differences in $F_{0}$ and formant values obtained from transgenders, and normal male and female subjects. Results indicated that there was no significant difference in $F_{1}$ of /u/, /$\Lambda$/, and /o/, $F_{2}$ of /u/, /$\Lambda$/, and /i/ and $F_{3}$ of /u/ among the 3 groups (transgenders, normal males and normal females). However, in the comparison of transgenders vs. males, a significant difference was observed in $F_{0}$ of /o/, and $F_{2}$ of /i/, /a/, /e/, and /${\ae}$/ and $F_{3}$ of /e/. Furthermore, in the comparison of transgenders vs. females, a significant difference was also observed in $F_{0}$ of all vowels, $F_{1}$ of /i/, /$\alpha$/, /e/, /${\ae}$/, and /i/. $F_{2}$ of /i/, and /${\ae}$/, and $F_{3}$ of /i/, /$\alpha$/, /$\Lambda$/, /e/, /${\ae}$/, /i/, and /o/. Also, perceptual judgment of the transgenders' voice came out somewhat correlated strongly with their $F_{0}$ values but not much with the formant values. It was concluded that the transgenders' acoustic parameters are placed in between those of the normal males and females in. terms of fundamental and formant frequency analyses of vowels. Thus, it was assumed that those differences might stem from the transgenders' original big resonating cavities.

• 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.

• MALSORI
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• no.66
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• pp.1-20
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of fundamental frequency(F0) and amplitude distributions in persons with cerebral palsy(CP) in the reading task. Participants were divided into three groups: 6 persons with spastic CP, 6 persons with athetoid CP and 6 normal persons who are around 15-20 years old. On the results of this study, firstly, in F0 distributions, most of the spastic CPs tended to appear narrow distributions on the basis of mode, but most of the athetoid CPs were opposite, and both of the CP groups tended to distribute highly on lower and higher frequencies than mean and mode. On the other hand, normal persons had a tendency to appear narrow distributions on the basis of mode. Finally, in amplitude distributions, the spastic CPs showed a tendency that there are little differences between the distribution of mode and the others, and most of the athetoid CPs showed a tendency that the distributions of mode were higher than the others. In addition to, the normal persons had a tendency that the distributions of mode were remarkably higher than both of the CP groups.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.25-39
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• 2007

The present study investigated some perceptual phonetic attributes of two Korean stop types, aspirated and lax, in medial position of an accentual phrase. The intonational pattern across syllables (Jun, 1993) is argued to depend on the type of stop (aspirated vs. lax) only in the initial position of an accentual phrase. In Kang & Dilley (2007), we showed that significant differences between aspirated and lax stops in medial position of an accentual phrase exist in closure duration, voice-onset time, and fundamental frequency (F0) values for post-stop vowels. In the present perception experiment, we investigated whether these phonetic attributes contribute to the perception of these two types of stops: The closure durations and/or F0's of post-stop vowels on accentual-phrase medial words were altered and twenty native Korean speakers then judged these words as beginning with an aspirated or lax stop. Both closure duration and F0 significantly affected judgments of stop identity. These results indicate that a wider range of acoustic cues that distinguish aspirated and lax Korean stops in production also plays a role in perception. To account for these results we suggest some phonetic and phonological models of consonant-tone interactions for Korean.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.81-90
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• 2013

This study explored how Korean L2 learners of English utilize multiple acoustic cues (VOT and F0) in perceiving and producing the English alveolar stop with a voicing contrast. Thirty-four 18-year-old high-school students participated in the study. Their English proficiency level was classified as either 'high' (HEP) or 'low' (LEP) according to high-school English level standardization. Thirty different synthesized syllables were presented in audio stimuli by combining a 6-step VOTs and a 5-step F0s. The listeners judged how close the audio stimulus was to /t/ or /d/ in L2 using a visual analogue scale. The L2 /d/ and /t/ productions collected from the 22 learners (12 HEP, 10 LEP) were acoustically analyzed by measuring VOT and F0 at the vowel onset. Results showed that LEP listeners attended to the F0 in the stimuli more sensitively than HEP listeners, suggesting that HEP listeners could inhibit less important acoustic dimensions better than LEP listeners in their L2 perception. The L2 production patterns also exhibited a group-difference between HEP and LEP in that HEP speakers utilized their VOT dimension (primary cue in L2) more effectively than LEP speakers. Taken together, the study showed that the relative cue-weighting strategies in L2 perception and production are closely related to the learner's L2 proficiency level in that more proficient learners had a better control of inhibiting and enhancing the relevant acoustic parameters.