Discriminative segmental cues to vowel height and consonantal place and voicing in whispered speech

Bibliographic Data

ID4579147
AuthorsLuis M T Jesus (0000-0002-8534-3218, University of Aveiro, corresponding author), Sara Castilho (Hospital de São João), Aníbal Ferreira, Ańıbal Ferreira (0000-0002-7278-6749, Universidade do Porto), Maria Conceição Costa (0000-0002-4776-6375, University of Aveiro)
Year2023
Volume97
Pages101223
Publication date2023-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Phonetics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0095-4470 • E-ISSN: 1095-8576
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101223
OpenAlexW4323822290
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited63

The acoustic signal attributes of whispered speech potentially carry sufficiently distinct information to define vowel spaces and to disambiguate consonant place and voicing, but what these attributes are and the underlying production mechanisms are not fully known. The purpose of this study was to define segmental cues to place and voicing of vowels and sibilant fricatives and to develop an articulatory interpretation of acoustic data. Seventeen speakers produced sustained sibilants and oral vowels, disyllabic words, sentences and read a phonetically balanced text. All the tasks were repeated in voiced and whispered speech, and the sound source and filter analysed using the following parameters: Fundamental frequency, spectral peak frequencies and levels, spectral slopes, sound pressure level and durations. Logistic linear mixed-effects models were developed to understand what acoustic signal attributes carry sufficiently distinct information to disambiguate /i, a/ and /s, ʃ/. Vowels were produced with significantly different spectral slope, sound pressure level, first and second formant frequencies in voiced and whispered speech. The low frequencies spectral slope of voiced sibilants was significantly different between whispered and voiced speech. The odds of choosing /a/ instead of /i/ were estimated to be lower for whispered speech when compared to voiced speech. Fricatives’ broad peak frequency was statistically significant when discriminating between /s/ and /ʃ/. First formant frequency and relative duration of vowels are consistently used as height cues, and spectral slope and broad peak frequency are attributes associated with consonantal place of articulation. The relative duration of same-place voiceless fricatives was higher than voiced fricatives both in voiced and whispered speech. The evidence presented in this paper can be used to restore voiced speech signals, and to inform rehabilitation strategies that can safely explore the production mechanisms of whispering

Acoustics · Consonant · Duration (music) · Formant · Manner of articulation · Physics · Place of articulation · Speech recognition · Voice · Voice-onset time · Vowel · Computer Science · Mathematics · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Speech Recognition and Synthesis · Voice and Speech Disorders

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