LARYNX 1997 Marseille, France June 16-18, 1997

Electroglottographical Differentiation of Pathological Voice Qualities

Krzysztof Marasek (1), Manfred Pützer (2)

(1) Institute of Natural Language Processing, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
(2) Institute of Phonetics, University of the Saarland, Saabrücken, Germany

In this study, comparative electroglottographic (EGG) measurements of the sustained vowels /i:/, /a.7 and /u:/ produced by five different speaker groups were carried out. The shapes and durations of vocal folds contact phases during each pitch period were used for parametrization of the signals. The mean and standard deviation of the parameters were used for voice quality assessment. The parametrized data were analysed statistically with respect to speaker group and vowel quality. The results of the statistical analysis lead to the conclusion that the steepness of the glottal closing and opening phases and the relative durations of open (no contact between vocal folds), opening and closed (maximal contact) phases are the most important parameters for differentiating voice qualities. The open phase duration and the durations of closing and opening phases were also good indicators of the group a speaker belonged to.

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Bibliographic reference.  Marasek, Krzysztof / Pützer, Manfred (1997): "Electroglottographical differentiation of pathological voice qualities", In LARYNX-1997, 91-94.