Intonation and Voice Quality of Northern Appalachian English : A First Look

Author(s):  
Li-Fang Lai ◽  
Janet van Hell
2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara R. Kapsner-Smith ◽  
Eric J. Hunter ◽  
Kimberly Kirkham ◽  
Karin Cox ◽  
Ingo R. Titze

PurposeAlthough there is a long history of use of semi-occluded vocal tract gestures in voice therapy, including phonation through thin tubes or straws, the efficacy of phonation through tubes has not been established. This study compares results from a therapy program on the basis of phonation through a flow-resistant tube (FRT) with Vocal Function Exercises (VFE), an established set of exercises that utilize oral semi-occlusions.MethodTwenty subjects (16 women, 4 men) with dysphonia and/or vocal fatigue were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment conditions: (a) immediate FRT therapy, (b) immediate VFE therapy, (c) delayed FRT therapy, or (d) delayed VFE therapy. Subjects receiving delayed therapy served as a no-treatment control group.ResultsVoice Handicap Index (Jacobson et al., 1997) scores showed significant improvement for both treatment groups relative to the no-treatment group. Comparison of the effect sizes suggests FRT therapy is noninferior to VFE in terms of reduction in Voice Handicap Index scores. Significant reductions in Roughness on the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (Kempster, Gerratt, Verdolini Abbott, Barkmeier-Kraemer, & Hillman, 2009) were found for the FRT subjects, with no other significant voice quality findings.ConclusionsVFE and FRT therapy may improve voice quality of life in some individuals with dysphonia. FRT therapy was noninferior to VFE in improving voice quality of life in this study.


2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Jamieson ◽  
Vijay Parsa ◽  
Moneca C. Price ◽  
James Till

We investigated how standard speech coders, currently used in modern communication systems, affect the quality of the speech of persons who have common speech and voice disorders. Three standardized speech coders (GSM 6.10 RPELTP, FS1016 CELP, and FS1015 LPC) and two speech coders based on subband processing were evaluated for their performance. Coder effects were assessed by measuring the quality of speech samples both before and after processing by the speech coders. Speech quality was rated by 10 listeners with normal hearing on 28 different scales representing pitch and loudness changes, speech rate, laryngeal and resonatory dysfunction, and coder-induced distortions. Results showed that (a) nine scale items were consistently and reliably rated by the listeners; (b) all coders degraded speech quality on these nine scales, with the GSM and CELP coders providing the better quality speech; and (c) interactions between coders and individual voices did occur on several voice quality scales.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Greene ◽  
Jesse Frey ◽  
William Magrogan ◽  
Cara O’Malley ◽  
Jaden Pieper

Logopedija ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anđela Bučević ◽  
Ana Bonetti ◽  
Luka Bonetti

The aim of this research paper was to examine the voice quality of sports coaches using the objective (acoustic) method. A total of 28 sports coaches (mean age 28.58, SD=5.08), from the City of Zagreb participated in this research. Recordings of the phonation of the vowel /a/ before and after one training session were obtained and analyzed using the PRAAT Program. Mean, minimal and maximal values of fundamental frequency, shimmer, jitter and harmonics-to-noise ratio were observed. The statistical analyses showed no statistically significant difference in acoustic voice quality of male and female coaches before and after the training session, or between male and female coaches. However, intra-individual differences among participants were observed, which may be significant in terms of their potential to affect the quality of their voices in the future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-259
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Lebl ◽  
Dragan Mitic ◽  
Vladimir Matic ◽  
Mladen Mileusnic ◽  
Zarko Markov

This paper presents a novel method of expressing the quality of service in a mobile telecommunication system when its performance depends on several factors including applied codecs? characteristics (voice quality and data flow rate) and telecommunications traffic service possibilities. The influence of these factors is unified in one variable - quality of service measure. The proposed method is especially applicable in the cases when two-dimensional systems are analyzed - for example when two codecs with different flow rate and different achievable connection quality are used in a system. As an example, we also studied system with full-rate or mixed full-rate and half-rate codec implementation depending on the offered traffic. The system performances - mean dataflow and mean connection quality as a function of offered traffic are presented graphically and also expressed quantitatively by the novel quality of service measure. The systems with different number of available traffic channels may be compared on the base of this novel evaluation value such that the system with the highest value is the most suitable one for the concrete situation. In this way mobile system design is simplified to the great extent. The developed model is applicable generally for mobile telephony systems defining, but in this paper we studied its implementation for Global System for Mobile communications.


2013 ◽  
Vol 671-674 ◽  
pp. 2847-2850
Author(s):  
Xue Ming Deng ◽  
Qiao Wei Liu ◽  
Dong Song Yang ◽  
Yi Fei Zhang ◽  
Kan Jun Fu
Keyword(s):  
Sd Card ◽  

We aim to invent an automatic bus station reporter based on GPS module, VS1003 chip and SD card. Firstly, the VS1003 chip within the reporter can both decode and play the MP3 files, greatly improving the voice quality of the reporter itself. Secondly, the SD card with giant storage can store the information of bus stations and the accordingly voice files, making it free from the limit of capacity. Besides, with the change of SD cards, the reporter can adjust itself to different bus lines and gives different voice messages.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 1591-1602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Gregory ◽  
Marija Tabain ◽  
Michael Robb

Purpose Infant vocal durations have been studied from a variety of perspectives, including medical, social, and linguistic. The resultant developmental profile across the first 6 months of life, however, is still far from clear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the durational properties of infant vocalizations from the unique perspective of voice quality. By considering an infant's modal and nonmodal voice qualities, the developmental range of vocalizations produced by infants during the early months of life was captured. Method Four Australian English–speaking infants were recorded for approximately 1 hr per week during the first 6 months of life. A total of 6,309 vocalizations were perceptually identified and labeled according to voice quality. The duration of each vocalization was subsequently measured. Results A nonlinear curve was evident for the duration of all vocalizations combined. Duration increased significantly between Months 3 and 5. Modal voice was the only voice quality that displayed a linear increase in duration across the study. All other voice qualities displayed polynomial trends. Conclusions Based on the current results, the inconsistent pattern of vocal duration development found previously can be reconciled when voice quality properties of vocalizations are taken into account. A nonlinear curve is evident when a broad corpus of infant vocalizations is used, whereas a narrow corpus containing predominantly modal vocalizations displays a linear trend. The results demonstrate the necessity of including nonmodal voice qualities in infant duration experiments so as to not overstate the linear nature of duration increases.


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