• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2005

This study was an attempt to determine acoustic characteristics in myna bird's notes. Two myna birds' sounds imitating a normal male voice in his late 20's were sampled and analyzed. The analyses included the mean values of F1, F2, F3 and pitch contours. The results were as follows; First, there was a significan difference in the mean values of F1, F2, and F3 in isolatd vowel /a/ and /i/ between the myna birds' sounds and the human voice. However, there was no apparent difference in pitch contour of their formants. Second, there was a difference in pitch contour of their formants in their sentence ('hn-nyung-ha-se-yo?' meaning 'How are you?') production. Namely, the myna birds' pitch contour was located higher than that of the human's.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.21-29
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• 2016

This study examined how native Korean speakers realize the acoustic characteristics of /d, t/ flaps in American English. Fourteen subjects, who had lived in foreign countries for less than one year, read words containing the alveolar stops in flapping environments. /d/ (91%) became flaps more frequently than /t/ (42%). The closure durations for /d/ flaps were significantly longer than /t/ flaps, and the durations of the preceding vowels were not significantly different between /d/ and /t/ flaps. Female learners demonstrated a higher percentage of /t/ flapping than their male counterparts. Differences in flap patterns were observed among individual learners.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2003

In this study, we examined the acoustic characteristics of Korean vowels through a production test under three conditions of speaking rates (slow, normal, fast). The effects of a change in speaking .ate on vowel duration were found to be very strong. The faster speaking rate was, the shorter the total duration of vowels was. But the duration ratio of two components of diphthong was not changed significantly according to changes in speaking rate. But unlike the temporal aspects, the formant value of vowels at their steady-state and change ratio of formant of semivowels were not affected strongly by the change in speaking rate.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2012

The neutralization of /$s^h$/ and /$s^*$/ in Gyeongsang dialects is a culturally salient stereotype that has received relatively little attention in the phonetic literature. The current study is a more extensive acoustic comparison of the sibilant fricative productions of Seoul and Gyeongsang dialect speakers. The data presented here suggest that, at least for young Seoul and Daegu speakers, there are few inter-dialectal differences in sibilant fricative production. These conclusions are supported by the output of mixed effects logistic regression models that used aspiration duration, spectral mean of the frication noise, and H1-H2 of the following vowel to predict fricative type in each dialect. The clearest dialect difference was that Daegu speakers' /$s^h$/ and /$s^*$/ productions had overall shorter aspiration durations than those of Seoul speakers, suggesting the opposite of the traditional "/$s^*$/ produced as [$s^h$]" stereotype of Gyeongsang dialects. Further work is needed to investigate whether /$s^h/-/s^*$/ neutralization in Daegu is perceptual rather than acoustic in nature.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.33-40
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• 2020

The purpose of this research was to find out the relation between Korean learners' English proficiency and the ratio of the length of the stressed vowel in a monosyllabic noun to that of the unstressed vowel in an article of the noun phrases (e.g., "a cup", "the bus", etcs.). Generally, the vowels in monosyllabic content words are phonetically more prominent than the ones in monosyllabic function words as the former have phrasal stress, making the vowels in content words longer in length, higher in pitch, and louder in amplitude. This study, based on the speech samples from Korean-Spoken English Corpus (K-SEC) and Rated Korean-Spoken English Corpus (Rated K-SEC), examined 879 English noun phrases, which are composed of an article and a monosyllabic noun, from sentences which are rated on 4 levels of proficiency. The lengths of the vowels in these 879 target NPs were measured and the ratio of the vowel lengths in nouns to those in articles was calculated. It turned out that the higher the proficiency level, the greater the mean ratio of the vowels in nouns to the vowels in articles, confirming the research's hypothesis. This research thus concluded that for the Korean English learners, the higher the English proficiency level, the better they could produce the stressed and unstressed vowels with more conspicuous length differences between them.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2002

Voice onset time (VOT) is defined as the time interval from the oral release of a stop consonant to the onset of glottal pulsing in the following vowel. VOT is a temporal characteristic of stop consonants that reflects the complex timing of glottal articulation relative to supraglottal articulation. There have been many reports on efforts to clarify the acoustical and physiological properties that differentiate the three types of Korean stops, including acoustic, fiberscopic, aerodynamic and electromyographic studies. In the acoustic and fiberscopic studies for stop consonants, the voice onset time and glottal width during the production of stops has been known as the longest and largest in the heavily aspirated type followed by the slightly aspirated type and unaspirated types. The thyroarytenoid and posterior cricoarytenoid muscles were physiologically inter-correlated for differentiating these types of stops. However, a review of the English literature shows that the fine movement of the mucosal edges of the vocal folds during the production of stops has not been well documented. In recent. years, a new method for high-speed recording of laryngeal dynamics by use of a digital recording system allows us to observe with fine time resolution. The movements of the vocal fold edges were documented during the period of stop production using a fiberscopic system of high speed digital images. By observing the glottal width and the visual vibratory movements of the vocal folds before voice onset, the heavily aspirated stop was characterized as being more prominent and dynamic than the slightly aspirated and unaspirated stops.

• 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.8 no.4
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• pp.89-95
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• 2016

The purpose of this work is to analyze and synthesize the pseudo-periodicity of voice using a source model. A speech signal has periodic characteristics; however, it is not completely periodic. While periodicity contributes significantly to the production of prosody, emotional status, etc., pseudo-periodicity contributes to the distinctions between normal and abnormal status, the naturalness of normal speech, etc. Measurement of pseudo-periodicity is typically performed through parameters such as jitter and shimmer. For studying the pseudo-periodic nature of voice in a controlled environment, through collected natural voice, we can only observe the distributions of the parameters, which are limited by the size of collected data. If we can generate voice samples in a controlled manner, experiments that are more diverse can be conducted. In this study, the probability distributions of vowel pitch variation are obtained from the speech signal. Based on the probability distribution of vocal folds, pulses with a designated jitter value are synthesized. Then, the target and re-analyzed jitter values are compared to check the validity of the method. It was found that the jitter synthesis method is useful for normal voice synthesis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 1997

Backgroud : Now a days, most studies for professional voice user have been performed after artificial voice abuse without consideration of environmental and personal factors, and occupational specificity, therefore those studies have some problems. Objectives : To make a basic guideline for the management of untrained professional voice user, practically we ananalyzed the voice of experimental group. Materials and methods : Just after working, the sustained vowel sounds of the 15 female telephone operators (subjective group) and the 20 normal female persons (control group) were analysed, using a history paper, acoustic analyzer and videostroboscopy. Results : The most common symptom in subjective group was dysphonia. Stroboscopic findings in subjective group were as following ; posterior chink 11 cases (73%), incomplete closure 2 cases (13%), anterior chink 1 case (7%). The mean maximal phonation time in telephone operators was 12.8 seconds and in control group was 16.8 seconds. Jitter, pitch pertubation quotient (PPQ), shimmer and amplitude pertubation quotient (ASQ) were significantly increased in subjective group than control group, but there is no difference between two group in fundamental frequency and noise to harmonic ratio. Conclusion : Untrained professional voice user needs professional career guidance and counseling. And when we manage the untrained professional voice user, we should consider specific occupational, personal and environmental factors as well as laryngeal factors.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.380-389
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• 2012

Purpose: This study was conducted to describe the risk of dysphagia and to evaluate the effects of a singing intervention for women elderly in community. Methods: One-group pre test-post test design was used. The subjects were 29 women over the age of sixty and residing in a local area. A singing intervention consisted of breathing, vowel production and singing. The one hour intervention occurred once a week for eight weeks. The variables of dysphagia risk, a swallowing test, and nutritional status were measured. Analysis was done by paired t-test. Results: There was a significant decrease in the score of dysphagia risk (p<.001). There were significant increases in the swallowing test scores [modified water swallowing test (p=.032), food test (p=.001)]. There were no significant differences in nutritional status (triceps skin fold thickness, mid arm muscle circumference). Conclusion: The findings support that a singing intervention can be helpful in reducing the risk of dysphagia may improve deglutition for the women elderly. These results suggest that this study may contribute to the use of a singing intervention for women elders with dysphagia risk.