Phonetics and Phonology of Speaking Styles: Reduction and Elaboration in Speech Communication Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain September 30 - October 2, 1991

Phonatory Correlates of Speaking Style

Ailbhe Ní Chasaide (1), Christer Gobl (1,2)

(1) Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
(2) Department of Speech Communication and Music Acoustics, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

Subtle variations in phonatory quality may reveal aspects of the speaker's mood and attitude, and are thus an important aspect of speaking style. This paper illustrates current research being carried out by the authors on the correlates of a range of such voice quality differences. The qualities looked at include modal, breathy, whispery, tense, lax and creaky voice, following the description of Laver (1980). The principle analysis method involved inverse filtering of the speech waveform. In order to quantify the voice source differences, a four parameter source model (the LF model) was matched to the inverse filtered waveform. Spectral analysis yielded complementary information.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe / Gobl, Christer (1991): "Phonatory correlates of speaking style", In PPoSpSt-1991, paper 043.