• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.64-66
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze some acoustic parameters of the cochlear implanted children(N=20, aged 3-10) and to suggest a basic data on speech rehabilitaion for the cochlear implanted children. Acoustic analyses of seven Korean monophthongs produced by 4 contexts(V, CV, VC, CVC) were conducted for the cochler implanted children and normal hearing children(N=20, aged 3-10). Subjects were asked to pronounce a list of vowel repeating three times. The results of this study are the same as follows: First, in the case of the cochlear implanted group, there were no significant differences in F1 and F2. Second, in the case of the normal hearing group, there were significant differences in F2 /ㅜ/ between V and CVC, between VC and CVC. Third, there were significant differences in F1, F2 between CI group and normal hearing group.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.167-169
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• 2007

This study analyzes Korean students' pronunciation errors in stop-nasal sequences in English. For the study, 23 English words of stop-nasal sequences were pronounced by 4 natives and 21 Korean students. The results showed two kinds of pronunciation errors: the insertion of a vowel and the nasal assimilation between stops and nasals. A teaching material was designed based on the errors. After a 60-minute class with the material they were asked to pronounce the same words in another session. There was a substantial improvement in the error correction.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.312-320
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• 2000

This presentation aims to explore some possibility of non-segmental phonetics usually ignored in phonetics education. In pedagogical phonetics, especially ESL/EFL oriented phonetics speech sounds tend to be classified in two criteria 1) 'pronunciation' which deals with segments and 2) 'prosody' or 'suprasegmentals', a criterion that deals with non-segmental elements such as stress and intonation. However, speech involves more dynamic processing. It is non-linear and multi-dimensional in spite of the linear sequence of symbols in phonetic/phonological transcriptions. No word is without pitch or voice quality apart from segmental characteristics whether it is spoken in isolation or cut out from continuous speech. This simply tells the dichotomy of pronunciation and prosody is merely a useful convention. There exists some room to consider dynamic non-segmental phonetics. Examples of non-segmental phonetic investigation, some of the analyses conducted within the frame of Firthian Prosodic Analysis, especially of the relation between vowel variants and foot types, are examined and we see what kind of auditory phonetic training is required to understand impressionistic transcriptions which lie behind the non-segmental phonetics.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.19-27
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• 2024

The Lombard effect is an involuntary response to speakers' experiences in the presence of noise during voice communication. This study aimed to investigate the Lombard effect by comparing the acoustic features of children and adults under different listening conditions. Twelve male children (5-9 years old) and 12 young adult men (24-35 years old) were recruited to produce speech under three different listening conditions (quiet, noise-55 dB, noise-70 dB). Acoustic analyses were then carried out to characterize their acoustic features, such as F0, intensity, duration, and vowel space area, under the three listening conditions. A Lombard effect was observed in the intensity and duration for children and adults who participated in this study under adverse listening conditions. However, we did not observe a Lombard effect in the F0 and vowel space areas of either group. These findings suggest that children can adjust their speech production in challenging listening conditions as much as adults.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.45-53
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• 2019

The purpose of this work was to examine the factors affecting the identities of the voiceless plosives, i.e. English [p, t, k] and Korean [p^h, t^h, k^h], from the spontaneous speech corpora. The factors were automatically extracted by a Praat script and the percent correctness of the discriminant analyses was incrementally assessed by increasing the number of factors used in predicting the identities of the plosives. The factors included the spectral moments and tilts of the plosive release bursts, the post-burst aspirations and the vowel onsets, the durations such as the closure durations and the voice onset times (VOTs), the locations within words and utterances and the identities of the following vowels. The results showed that as the number of factors increased up to five, so did the percent correctness of the analyses, resulting in 74.6% for English and 66.4% for Korean. However, the optimal number of factors for the maximum percent correctness was four, i.e. the spectral moments and tilts of the release bursts and the following vowels, the closure durations and the VOTs. This suggests that the identities of the voiceless plosives are mostly determined by their internal and vowel onset cues.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.75-83
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• 2012

The aims of this study were three. First, to examine the degree of deviation from dictionary prescribed symbols and actual speech made by American English speakers. Second, to measure the frequency of vowel and consonant production of American English speakers. And third, to investigate gender differences in the segmental sounds in a speech corpus. The Buckeye Speech Corpus was recorded by forty American male and female subjects for one hour per subject. The vowels and consonants in both the phonemic and phonetic transcriptions were extracted from the original files of the corpus and their frequencies were obtained using codes of a free software R. Results were as follows: Firstly, the American English speakers produced a reduced number of vowels and consonants in daily conversation. The reduction rate from the dictionary transcriptions to the actual transcriptions was around 38.2%. Secondly, the American English speakers used more front high and back low vowels while three-fourths of the consonants accounted for stops, fricatives, and nasals. This indicates that the segmental inventory has nonlinear frequency distribution in the speech corpus. Thirdly, the two gender groups produced vowels and consonants similarly even though there were a few noticeable differences in their speech. From these results we propose that English teachers consider pronunciation education reflecting the actual speech sounds and that linguists find a way to establish unmarked segmentals from speech corpora.

• 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.5 no.4
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• pp.201-207
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• 2013

This study is a follow-up study of Han and Kang (2013) and Kang and Han (2013) which examined cross-generational changes in the Korean vowels /o/ and /u/ using acoustic analyses of the vowel formants of these two vowels, their Euclidean distances and the overlap fraction values generated in SOAM 2D (Wassink, 2006). Their results showed an on-going approximation of /o/ and /u/, more evident in female speakers and non-initial vowels. However, these studies employed non-words in a frame sentence. To see the extent to which these two vowels are merged in real words in spontaneous speech, we conducted an acoustic analysis of the formants of /o/ and /u/ produced by two age groups of female speakers while reading a letter sample. The results demonstrate that 1) the younger speakers employed mostly F2 but not F1 differences in the production of /o/ and /u/; 2) the Euclidean distance of these two vowels was shorter in non-initial than initial position, but there was no difference in Euclidean distance between the two age groups (20's vs. 40-50's); 3) overall, /o/ and /u/ were more overlapped in non-initial than initial position, but in non-initial position, younger speakers showed more congested distribution of the vowels than in older speakers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.129-136
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• 2017

This study investigates the effect of voice quality on speech intelligibility and the relationship between voice quality and intelligibility for children with spastic CP. We recruited 36 children with spastic CP (mean age 10.43 year, 17 girls, 19 boys, spastic type 34, mixed 2) from a special school and a rehabilitation hospital. Voice samples for the perceptual analysis of voice quality were extracted from a sustained vowel /a/ and were rated on the GRBAS scales by two experienced speech language pathologists. Ten adult subjects with no hearing problems evaluated speech intelligibility for the 37 words listed in the Assessment of Phonology and Articulation for Children on a 7-point interval scale. The children with spastic CP were divided into three groups according to the rated G scores on the GRBAS scales (G1(n)=10, G2(n)=13, G3(n)=13). Analyses of ANCOVA and Pearson correlation showed that there was a significant difference in speech intelligibility among three groups. There was also a significant correlation in G scale (grade), A scale (asthenia), B scale (breathy) score, and speech intelligibility. These findings suggest that poor speech intelligibility of spastic CP might be related to asthenia and breathiness. Vocal intensity should be increased and vocal functioning should be improved for speech therapy to improve speech intelligibility of the children with spastic CP.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 1998

Objectives : To compare the objective differences in voice quality and voice problems between clergies and normal male control group. Materials and Methods : The sustained vowel sound of 46 clergies and 40 normal persons were analyzed, using a videostroboscopy and acoustic analyzer. Together with these analyses, a questionnaire associated with current and past voice problems was handed over to the patients. Results : The most common symptom in subjective group was the voice fatigue. Stroboscopic findings in subjective group were as following 23 cases(50%) of pachydermia, 17 cases(37%) of phase difference, 12 cases(25%) of anterior-posterior contracture, 6 cases(13%) of vocal polyp and 3 cases(7%) of vocal nodule. The mean maximal phonation time in clergies was 17.8 seconds and in control group was 19 seconds. litter, pitch perturbation quotient and shimmer were significantly increased in subjective group than in control group(p<0.05), but there were no significant differences between two groups in fundamental frequency, vFo, amplitude perturbation quotient and noise to harmonic ratio. Conclusion : In the clergies using loud and forceful voice, vocal polyp and functional voice disorder findings were frequently noted in stroboscopic examination. litter and shimmer, reflecting the roughness of voice, were increased in acoustic analysis. Therefore, clergies, classified into untrained professional voice users, need professional career guidance and counseling.