Age and gender on production

Question 1

What features of an infant’s vocal apparatus are different, and how do they affect speech?

Answer 1

Overlapped larynx and nasopharynx= nasal vocalisation
Small v.tract cavity restricts tongue movement= cavity small so higher pitch
Physical constraints until 7months
Predominantly modal phonation

Question 2

What kinds of Non-modal phonation do infants produce?

Answer 2

‘vocal fry’ (irregular vibration), ‘loft register’ (squeals/shrill pitch), ‘biphonation’ (folds vibrate at different speeds– irregular phonation) (Buder 2008)

Question 3

Infant categories of vocalisation?

Answer 3

Vowels (mid pitch, full or quasi vowels)
Squeals
Growls (either low or mid pitch with harsh undertones)
vocal glides
Maginal babbling

Question 4

What are quasi-vowel vocalisations?

Answer 4

smooth onset vowels produced by babies, with biphonation (appearance of vowel)

Question 5

Fitch and Geidd 1999?

Answer 5

MRI 2-25 years

Pharynx increases until 10-12years old. No gender difference before puberty

Question 6

What does puberty do to boys? (fitch and geidd 99)

Answer 6

Increased testosterone:
- lengthened cartilage in larynx
- increased vocal fold length
- thickened vocal folds 
\+ sociophonetic gender changes

Question 7

Lee 1999

Answer 7

Reduced across and within variability of temporal and spatial parameters with age
Greater within variation in kids up to 14 years old
(436 kids, 5-18; 56 adults 25-50)

Question 8

Goffman and smith 1999

Answer 8

Speed and consistency of articulation increases with age due to neural maturation (control)

Question 9

Hazan and Pettinato

Answer 9

Children have more expanded vowel space at children, even at 14 -lack of control-> hyper-articulation

Question 10

Jaewiaz, fox and wei 2010

Answer 10

8-91y: faster articulation rate in men than women and peaks at middle age.

Question 11

What are the socio-phonetic differences in m/f?

Answer 11

‘gender markers’: women have higher peak frequencies and produce /s/ softer – also more with different areas
(Levon and Holmes-Elliot; twoie/mic)

Question 12

at what age are children able to adapt to hearing impaired interlocuters?

Answer 12

9-14 in diapix task (hazan 2014)

Question 13

What happens to the SOURCE with old age?

Answer 13

Folds become thinner and weaker
Cartilage in larynx is less mobile
Menopause thickens vocal folds in women (decrease in pitch)
Increased mucus= lowered pitch and irregular vibration
Greater irregulatiy in vocal fold vibration
(Winkler 2003): weak sound source-> ineffective v fold vibration and weak resonances

Question 14

What happens to the FILTER with old age?

Answer 14

Increase in oral cavity length and volume (hearing impaired)
Decrease in articulation rate (brain slow) (xue and Hao 2003)
Lowered formants and less expanded vowel space and lower speech rate

Question 15

Hunter 2012 - longitudinal study of age effects

Answer 15

Male paster recordings over 50 years (49-98)

range decreased by 20% overall and words per breath decreased