Breathiness as a Feminine Voice Characteristic: A Perceptual Approach

Borsel, John Van; Janssens, Joke; Bodt, Marc De

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2007.08.002

Cited by 76 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Although F0 and VTL seem to be the most important factors for gender categorization in NH listeners (Skuk and Schweinberger 2013), other cues such as breathiness (Holmberg et al 1988;Van Borsel et al 2009) or intonation (Fitzsimons et al 2001) could play a more important role in CI listeners.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, it is unclear in Fu et al (2005) and Massida et al (2013) to what degree VTL cues might have contributed to CI and NH performance. Moreover, although F0 and VTL seem to be the most important cues for gender categorization in NH listeners (Skuk and Schweinberger 2013), other cues also contribute to gender categorization in recordings of real speech, such as breathiness (Holmberg et al 1988;Van Borsel et al 2009) or intonation (Fitzsimons et al 2001). These cues may be used differently by CI users, further complicating the interpretation of past studies based on natural utterances by male and female speakers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender Categorization Is Abnormal in Cochlear Implant Users

Fuller¹,

Gaudrain²,

Clarke³

et al. 2014

JARO

112

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In normal hearing (NH), the perception of the gender of a speaker is strongly affected by two anatomically related vocal characteristics: the fundamental frequency (F0), related to vocal pitch, and the vocal tract length (VTL), related to the height of the speaker. Previous studies on gender categorization in cochlear implant (CI) users found that performance was variable, with few CI users performing at the level of NH listeners. Data collected with recorded speech produced by multiple talkers suggests that CI users might rely more on F0 and less on VTL than NH listeners. However, because VTL cannot be accurately estimated from recordings, it is difficult to know how VTL contributes to gender categorization. In the present study, speech was synthesized to systematically vary F0, VTL, or both. Gender categorization was measured in CI users, as well as in NH participants listening to unprocessed (only synthesized) and vocoded (and synthesized) speech. Perceptual weights for F0 and VTL were derived from the performance data. With unprocessed speech, NH listeners used both cues (normalized perceptual weight: F0=3.76, VTL=5.56). With vocoded speech, NH listeners still made use of both cues but less efficiently (normalized perceptual weight: F0=1.68, VTL=0.63). CI users relied almost exclusively on F0 while VTL perception was profoundly impaired (normalized perceptual weight: F0=6.88, VTL=0.59). As a result, CI users' gender categorization was abnormal compared to NH listeners. Future CI signal processing should aim to improve the transmission of both F0 cues and VTL cues, as a normal gender categorization may benefit speech understanding in competing talker situations.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Categorization Is Abnormal in Cochlear Implant Users

Fuller¹,

Gaudrain²,

Clarke³

et al. 2014

JARO

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The source was created with a special focus on the female voice it would create, so that it would sound like a naturally produced female voice and not a male voice with a high pitch. This was accomplished by using a slightly breathy voice source and small negative spectral tilt, both of which have been found to be associated with femininity in North American English (Price, 1989;Klatt and Klatt, 1990;Mendoza et al, 1996;Van Borsel et al, 2009).…”

Section: Synthesis Of Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

The direct and indirect roles of fundamental frequency in vowel perception

Barreda

Nearey

2012

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Several experiments have found that changing the intrinsic f0 of a vowel can have an effect on perceived vowel quality. It has been suggested that these shifts may occur because f0 is involved in the specification of vowel quality in the same way as the formant frequencies. Another possibility is that f0 affects vowel quality indirectly, by changing a listener's assumptions about characteristics of a speaker who is likely to have uttered the vowel. In the experiment outlined here, participants were asked to listen to vowels differing in terms of f0 and their formant frequencies and report vowel quality and the apparent speaker's gender and size on a trial-by-trial basis. The results presented here suggest that f0 affects vowel quality mainly indirectly via its effects on the apparent-speaker characteristics; however, f0 may also have some residual direct effects on vowel quality. Furthermore, the formant frequencies were also found to have significant indirect effects on vowel quality by way of their strong influence on the apparent speaker.

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“…In addition, vowel formant frequencies are also frequently targeted, based on research which has showed that TG individuals perceived as female typically have higher vowel formant frequencies than those perceived inconsistently or as male (eg, Refs 15,18,19 ). Other variables, such as upper and lower limits of frequency and intonation patterns, 14,15 and the vocal quality of breathiness 20 have been investigated in terms of their effect on listener judgments of the masculinity and femininity of voice samples, and are occasionally addressed in voice therapy as well. By focusing on specific vocal parameters to be changed, both Gelfer and Tice 9 and Carew et al 11 used what could be classified as symptomatic voice therapy approaches, although each study emphasized a different primary aspect of voice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%