Helen M. Hanson
Div. of Appl. Sci., Cruft 401, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA 02138
Res. Lab. of Electron., Rm. 36-379, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139
In the past, voice characteristics such as DC flows and glottal abductions of different kinds have been studied using airflow measures, inverse filtering, and endoscopic observations. In this study, the possibility of using acoustic measurements alone to gain insight into these individual differences has been investigated. Acoustical theory suggests that the bandwidth of the first formant and the strength of tracheal poles should be relevant measures of glottal abduction. Voicing waveform characteristics related to mode of closure may also be expected to show up in the speech waveform or spectrum. Data were collected from 13 female speakers. The waveforms and spectra of several tokens of a few vowels were analyzed for estimates of F1 bandwidth, subglottal coupling, open quotient, and spectral tilt. F1 bandwidth and spectral tilt were found to vary greatly between individuals, and seem to be directly correlated. Most of the speakers show some evidence of subglottal coupling; a few speakers display rather strong tracheal pole/zero pairs. A clear understanding of how these measurements are correlated remains to be understood, possibly with the aid of physiological measures. [Work supported in part by a grant from NIDCD.]