A cross-language acoustic space for vocalic phonation distinctions

Keating, Patricia; Kuang, Jianjing; Garellek, Marc; Esposito, Christina M.; Khan, Sameer ud Dowla

doi:10.1353/lan.2023.a900090

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…SoE does not credibly differ for vowels as a function of preceding aspiration or the manner of the preceding consonant, suggesting that aspiration does not greatly impact the strength of the vowel's voice source. Voice quality measures point to breathiness over most of the vowel's duration: vowels after aspiration are characterized by lowered CPP and elevated H1 * -A3 * , which respectively signal reduced periodicity and greater spectral tilt, both acoustic signatures of breathier phonation (Esposito 2010;, Keating et al 2023). This pattern is also attested for breathy-release voiced aspirates in the Indo-Aryan languages (Clements & Khatiwada 2007;Dutta 2007;Mikuteit & Reetz 2007;Esposito & Khan 2012;Berkson 2013;Dmitrieva & Dutta 2020) but not for all voiced aspirates universally (cf.…”

Section: Following Vowel Phonationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voiced aspirates with mixed voicing in Yemba, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon

Faytak,

Steffman

2023

Journal of the International Phonetic Association

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Using electroglottography and acoustic measures, we characterize the strength and quality of voicing in voiced aspirated and unaspirated consonants (stops, fricatives, and approximants) in Yemba (Grassfields Bantu, Cameroon). We show that the Yemba voiced aspirates exhibit mixed voicing: modal voicing during the consonant constriction, but voiceless aspiration after release. Breathy or whispery phonation extends slightly into consonant constrictions preceding, and across the entire duration of vowels following, aspiration; this non-modal phonation extends further into prenasalized consonants. Mixed voicing has typically been excluded from the possible range of laryngeal–supralaryngeal coordinative patterns in consonants, and is thought to be unattested in the world’s languages; most previous work on this topic assumes that non-modal phonation after voiced consonant release is breathy-voiced. However, we argue that Yemba voiced aspirates differ from more commonly studied breathy-release aspirates only in the settings of some gestural parameters: the late glottal spread gesture is larger in magnitude and more resistant to coarticulation, yielding consistently devoiced aspiration which may even be more perceptually recoverable compared to breathiness.

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Section: Following Vowel Phonationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voiced aspirates with mixed voicing in Yemba, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon

Faytak,

Steffman

2023

Journal of the International Phonetic Association

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Principal dimensions of voice production and their role in vocal expression

Zhang

2024

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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How we produce and perceive voice is constrained by laryngeal physiology and biomechanics. Such constraints may present themselves as principal dimensions in the voice outcome space that are shared among speakers. This study attempts to identify such principal dimensions in the voice outcome space and the underlying laryngeal control mechanisms in a three-dimensional computational model of voice production. A large-scale voice simulation was performed with parametric variations in vocal fold geometry and stiffness, glottal gap, vocal tract shape, and subglottal pressure. Principal component analysis was applied to data combining both the physiological control parameters and voice outcome measures. The results showed three dominant dimensions accounting for at least 50% of the total variance. The first two dimensions describe respiratory-laryngeal coordination in controlling the energy balance between low- and high-frequency harmonics in the produced voice, and the third dimension describes control of the fundamental frequency. The dominance of these three dimensions suggests that voice changes along these principal dimensions are likely to be more consistently produced and perceived by most speakers than other voice changes, and thus are more likely to have emerged during evolution and be used to convey important personal information, such as emotion and larynx size.

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An investigation of acoustic cues to tonal registers and voicing in Donglei Kam

Guo,

Chen,

Kuang

et al. 2024

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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The Kam language has experienced historical tonal splits, resulting in the development of a complex tonal system. However, there is still limited knowledge regarding the acoustic characteristics associated with aspiration-based tone splitting. This study aims to investigate the acoustic cues related to the tonal registers and laryngeal configurations in Donglei Kam, a dialect of Southern Kam. Sixteen native speakers of Donglei Kam participated, producing lexical tones. Statistical analyses were conducted to examine the acoustic distinctions between tonal registers, using measurements of voice onset time, spectral tilt, noise, and energy. The results indicated that Donglei Kam retained a two-way contrast of aspiration, albeit with a trend toward gradual loss. Additionally, a breathy voice was detected in the Ciyin tonal register, characterized by elevated spectral tilt values and spectral noise throughout the vowels. Moreover, machine learning classifiers effectively identified tonal registers using voice-quality data, suggesting that the phonation contrast between breathy and modal voice could contribute to the tonal split alongside pitch contrast. In summary, these findings enhance our understanding of the acoustic implementation of breathiness in Kam and offer valuable insights into the role of laryngeal contrast in tonal splits.

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A cross-language acoustic space for vocalic phonation distinctions

Cited by 6 publications

References 50 publications

Voiced aspirates with mixed voicing in Yemba, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon

Voiced aspirates with mixed voicing in Yemba, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon

Principal dimensions of voice production and their role in vocal expression

An investigation of acoustic cues to tonal registers and voicing in Donglei Kam

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