Voice

About: Voice is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2393 publications have been published within this topic receiving 56637 citations.

Analysis of English Nonsense Syllable Recognition in Noise

Abstract: English nonsense consonant-vowel-consonant syllables were presented at four different signal-to-noise ratios for recognition. Information theory methods are used to analyze the response data according to segment type and phonological feature, and are consistent with previous studies showing that the consonantal contrast of voicing is more robust than place of articulation, word-initial consonants are more robust than word-final consonants, and that vowel height is more robust than vowel backing. Asymmetrical confusions are also analyzed, indicating a bias toward front vowels over back vowels. The results are interpreted as parts of phonetic explanations for synchronic and diachronic phonological patterns.

Perceptibility of phonetic features in fluent speech.

Abstract: A series of experiments examined listeners’ ability to detect mispronounced words in a short story. Mispronunciations were produced by changing a single consonant segment in a word to produce a (phonologically permissible) nonsense word. The results of six different experiments showed that prestressed word‐initial stop consonants are more perceptible than other consonants. For example, mispronunciations produced by changing the voicing of a word‐initial stop (e.g., ’’boy’’ to ’’poy’’) were detected about 70% of the time, while changes in voicing of a word‐initial fricative (e.g., ’’voice’’ to ’’foice’’) were detected about 38% of the time. Mispronunciations produced by changing the place of articulation of a prestressed word‐initial stop were most detectable of all (80% to 90% detection) for three different speakers. A change in place of articulation of a word‐initial stop (e.g., ’’baby’’ to ’’daby’’) was detected as often as a change in both place of articulation and voicing (e.g., ’’baby to ’’taby’’). Finally, it was found that a mispronunciation was detected about twice as often in word‐initial than in word‐final position in one syllable words for both stops and nasals. The results suggest that listeners pay special attention to word‐initial stop consonants in natural continuous speech.

Voiced/Unvoiced classification of speech with applications to the U.S. government LPC-10E algorithm

Abstract: This paper describes the development and application of a new voicing algorithm used in the 2400 bit per second U.S. Government's Enhanced Linear Predictive Coder (LPC-10E). Correct voicing is crucial to perceived quality and naturalness of LPC systems and therefore to user acceptance of LPC systems. This new voicing algorithm uses a smoothed adaptive linear discriminator to classify the signal as voiced or unvoiced speech. The classifier was determined using Fisher's method of linear discriminant analysis. The voicing decision smoother is a modified median smoother that uses both the linear discriminant and speech onsets to determine its smoothing. The voicing classifier adapts to various acoustic noise levels and features a powerful new set of signal measurements: biased zero crossing rate, energy measures, reflection coefficients, and prediction gains. The LPC-10E voicing algorithm improves upon other 2400 bps LPC voicing algorithms by providing higher quality synthesized speech. Higher quality is due to halving of the error rate and graceful degradation in the presence of acoustic noise.

Distributional Phonetic Learning at 10 Months of Age

Abstract: Infant phonetic perception reorganizes in accordance with the native language by 10 months of age. One mechanism that may underlie this perceptual change is distributional learning, a statistical analysis of the distributional frequency of speech sounds. Previous distributional learning studies have tested infants of 6–8 months, an age at which native phonetic categories have not yet developed. Here, three experiments test infants of 10 months to help illuminate perceptual ability following perceptual reorganization. English-learning infants did not change discrimination in response to nonnative speech sound distributions from either a voicing distinction (Experiment 1) or a place-of-articulation distinction (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, familiarization to the place-of-articulation distinction was doubled to increase the amount of exposure, and in this case infants began discriminating the sounds. These results extend the processes of distributional learning to a new phonetic contrast, and reveal that at 10 months of age, distributional phonetic learning remains effective, but is more difficult than before perceptual reorganization.

Laryngeal factors in voiceless consonant production in men, women, and 5-year-olds.

Abstract: Voicing control in stop consonants has often been measured by means of voice onset time (VOT) and discussed in terms of interarticulator timing. However, control of voicing also involves details of...