This study tested the importance of F0 variation for tone language comprehension. The intelligibility of Mandarin sentences with natural F0 contours was compared to the intelligibility of monotone (flat-F0) sentences created via speech resynthesis. In a quiet background, flat-F0 speech was just as intelligible as natural speech (about 94% intelligible), highlighting the robustness of the language comprehension system. However, when babble noise was added (0 db SNR) flat-F0 speech was substantially less intelligible than natural speech (60% vs. 80% intelligible), indicating that F0 variation is very important for Mandarin sentence intelligibility in noise.
Cite as: Patel, A.D., Xu, Y., Wang, B. (2010) The role of F0 variation in the intelligibility of Mandarin sentences. Proc. Speech Prosody 2010, paper 890
@inproceedings{patel10b_speechprosody,
author={Aniruddh D. Patel and Yi Xu and Bei Wang},
title={{The role of F0 variation in the intelligibility of Mandarin sentences}},
year=2010,
booktitle={Proc. Speech Prosody 2010},
pages={paper 890}
}