Lecture 5

Question 1

Acoustic differences difference between female and male and the reason behind these differences

Answer 1

Females have higher F0 (avg 240 vs M= 140Hz) = shorter vocal tract fold
Females have wider seperation between harmonics
Females have short vocal tracts = resonance bands higher in frequency
Females have increase breathiness = tendency for the vocal folds to remain open for longer during glottal pulsing

Question 2

Acoustic characteristics of speech changes across development and the causes underlying these changes

Answer 2

Infants f0 is high = 400Hz (however high variability), vocal tremor (rapid modulation of f0) and biphonation (2f0’s generated at same time).
Children: f0 and formant frequency decrease across age with developmental change in size and length of vocal tract and variability decreases over time.
Age 7-8 yrs distinct difference between male and female formant frequencies
During puberty male f0 drops an octave

Question 3

Identify the problems that infant, child and female speech presents for ascetic analysis and what can be done about it.

Answer 3

Typical bandwidth may not be appropriate for females and children due to their higher avg f0, so band width must be adjusted according sot hat analysis will detect the formant frequencies.

Question 4

Major acoustic changes when speakers intentionally produce their speech

Answer 4

Slower speaking rate, greater pausing, longer segment duration, fewer reduced forms, intensity is greater for some consonants. Acoustically more distinctive and shown to be intelligible

Question 5

Hyperspeech vs Hypospeech and identify factors that control their use

Answer 5

Hyperspeech= when listening environment is demanding then more resources are places on the articulator mechanism to produce ‘hyper speech’
Hypospeech= when listening demands are low then fewer resources are applied to the output system when producing ‘hypo speech’.
Articulatory adjustments responsible for the shift in hyper/hypo speech are assumed to involve reorganisation of the speech motor control.

Question 6

Intonation vs prosody

Answer 6

Intonation: modulation of F0 across an utterance. Prosody: broader concept related to melody of the voice that includes intonation and rhythm, rate and intensity variation.

Question 7

Identify major suprasegmental effects on the speech signal that arise from discourse and sentential levels of processing

Answer 7

Increased fundamental frequency, amplitude and longer duration = increase stress or accent = pragmatic influence