While handling the task of speaker identification, forensic phoneticians use a combination of various parameters contained in different levels of speech signal. The main aim of the present thesis is to explore whether glottalization in Czech may be considered as a potentially useful parameter in this sense. In our research, we focus on the rate of prevocalic glottalization at word boundaries and we distinguish between different realisations of glottalization: canonical glottal stop and its hypoarticulated form - creaky voice. The studied material consists of repeated recordings of three male and four female speakers and contains both read text and spontaneous speech. The results do not indicate that the same speaker would use glottalization differently in the first and second recording, but a difference in glottalization is found between speakers. From the forensic phonetics point of view, this finding seems to be useful. Marginally, some other factors which are not directly connected with the speaker (height of following vowel, lexical factors and speech rate) were examined, but no influence on glottalization was found. Keywords: glottal stop, glottalization, forensic phonetics, speaker identification

Recovering clean speech from an audio signal with additive noise is a problem that has plagued the signal processing community for decades. One promising technique currently being utilized in speech-coding applications is a multi-sensor approach, in which a microphone is used in conjunction with optical, mechanical, and electrical non-acoustic speech sensors to provide greater versatility in signal processing algorithms. One such non-acoustic glottal waveform sensor is the Tuned Electromagnetic Resonator Collar (TERC) sensor, first developed in [BLP+02]. The sensor is based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) concepts, and is designed to detect small changes in capacitance caused by changes to the state of the vocal cords - the glottal waveform. Although preliminary simulations in [BLP+02] have validated the basic theory governing the TERC sensor's operation, results from human subject testing are necessary to accurately characterize the sensor's performance in practice. To this end, a system was designed and developed to provide real-time audio recordings from the sensor while attached to a human test subject. From these recordings, executed in a variety of acoustic noise environments, the practical functionality of the TERC sensor was demonstrated. The sensor in its current evolution is able to detect a periodic waveform during voiced speech, with two clear harmonics and a fundamental frequency equal to that of the speech it is detecting. This waveform is representative of the glottal waveform, with little or no articulation as initially hypothesized. Though statistically significant conclusions about the sensor's immunity to environmental noise are difficult to draw, the results suggest that the TERC sensor is considerably more resistant to the effects of noise than typical acoustic sensors, making it a valuable addition to the multi-sensor speech processing approach.

Submitted by Alisson Mota (alisson.davidbeckam@gmail.com) on 2015-06-02T20:24:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Shanay Freire Berçot-Rodrigues.pdf: 3132048 bytes, checksum: 08b6a88a840e903f8cbe620a54b46fa7 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-06-03T15:37:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Shanay Freire Berçot-Rodrigues.pdf: 3132048 bytes, checksum: 08b6a88a840e903f8cbe620a54b46fa7 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-06-03T15:44:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Shanay Freire Berçot-Rodrigues.pdf: 3132048 bytes, checksum: 08b6a88a840e903f8cbe620a54b46fa7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-03T15:44:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Shanay Freire Berçot-Rodrigues.pdf: 3132048 bytes, checksum: 08b6a88a840e903f8cbe620a54b46fa7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-27 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation aims to investigate, from the perspective of Dialectology in its method Geolinguistic, of Variationist Sociolinguistics and of Natural Phonology (Stampe, 1973), the occurrence of the phonetic-phonological phenomenon of substitution of other fricatives by the glottal fricative [h, ɦ] in the manauara speech. This paperwork was developed through literature and field research. In field research, interviews with 24 informants were conducted, taking into account, among other selection criteria, gender (male; female), age group (18-35 years-old; 36-55 years-old; 56 years-old or more) and education (up to primary; higher education, graduated or not) as to verify the possible influence of these extralinguistic factors in the choice of variants by informants. The interviews were composed of responses to a phonetic-phonological questionnaire (PPQ), sentences reading and text reading. Later, the phonetic transcription and analysis of the data collected were conducted. The results show that: a) linguistically, only the consonant [f] was not substituted in the speech of any of the informants, while all the others have been substituted more or less frequently, being [s] and [ʃ] (in concurrent position) the most substituted ones; b) extralinguisticaly, the phenomenon occurred in more the speech of men than in women, more in the third age group than in the first and second, respectively, and more among the informants of the first level of education than in the second. KEYWORDS: / A presente dissertação objetiva investigar, sob a ótica da Dialetologia com seu método Geolinguístico, da Sociolinguística Variacionista e da Fonologia Natural (Stampe, 1973), a ocorrência do fenômeno fonético-fonológico de substituição das demais consoantes fricativas pela fricativa glotal [h, ɦ] na fala manauara. O desenvolvimento do trabalho se deu através de pesquisa bibliográfica e de campo. Na pesquisa de campo, foram realizadas entrevistas com 24 informantes, levando-se em consideração, dentre outros critérios de seleção, o gênero (masculino; feminino), a faixa etária (18 a 35 anos; 36 a 55 anos; 56 anos ou mais) e o nível de escolaridade (até o ensino fundamental; ensino superior, completo ou não) de maneira a verificar a possível influência desses fatores extralinguísticos na escolha das variantes pelos informantes. As entrevistas foram compostas de respostas a um questionário fonético-fonológico (QFF), leitura de frases e leitura de texto. Posteriormente, fez-se a transcrição fonética e análise dos dados coletados. Os resultados mostram que: a) linguisticamente, apenas a consoante [f] não foi substituída na fala de nenhum dos informantes, enquanto todas as outras foram substituídas com maior ou menor frequência, sendo [s] e [ʃ] (em posição concorrente) as mais substituídas; b) extralinguisticamente, o fenômeno ocorreu mais na fala dos homens do que na das mulheres, mais na terceira faixa etária do que na primeira e na segunda, respectivamente, e mais entre os informantes do primeiro nível de escolaridade do que nos do segundo.

This dissertation investigates the hypothesis that the more vowel-like a consonant is, the more difficult it is for listeners to classify it as geminate or singleton. A perceptual account of this observation holds that more vowel-like consonants lack clear markers to signal the beginning and ending of the consonant, so listeners don’t perceive the precise duration and consequently the phonological contrast may be neutralized in some languages. Three experiments were performed to address these questions using data from Persian speakers. In Experiment I, four speakers produced singleton and geminate tokens of the voiced oral consonants [d,z,n,l,j] and the glottals [h] and glottal stop at three speaking rates. It was found that Persian speakers do distinguish geminate durations from singleton durations for all manners even at very fast speaking rates, and vowels preceding geminates are slightly longer than those preceding singletons. Speaking rate had more of an effect on geminates than on singletons for all segments studied: the durations of the geminates decreased more in fast speech than the durations of the singletons did. In Experiment II, listeners heard manipulated continua of consonants ranging from singletons to geminates. Subjects’ identification curves were modeled using the cumulative Gaussian model. The modeled standard deviation was interpreted as the breadth of the perceptual threshold, and a broader threshold understood to indicate a less distinct perceptual boundary between the two categories. Obstruents [d,z] had smaller breadth values than the sonorants [n,l,j], and the glottals had the largest breadth values of all. This indicates that while sonorants were more difficult for listeners to categorize than obstruents, the glottals were the most difficult to categorize of the segments tested. Experiment III tested whether the modification of a specific parameter, the formant transition duration, would affect the perceptibility of the geminate/singleton contrast. A single token containing the glide [j] was manipulated to produce three different continua, each having a distinctly different manipulated transition: short, normal or long. It was found that the longer the transition was, the broader the perceptual threshold, thus making the consonant harder to categorize. / text

Accurate methods for glottal feature extraction include the use of high-speed video imaging (HSVI). There have been previous attempts to extract these features with the acoustic recording. However, none of these methods compare their results with an objective method, such as HSVI. This thesis tests these acoustic methods against a large diverse population of 46 subjects. Two previously studied acoustic methods, as well as one introduced in this thesis, were compared against two video methods, area and displacement for open quotient (OQ) estimation. The area comparison proved to be somewhat ambiguous and challenging due to thresholding effects. The displacement comparison, which is based on glottal edge tracking, proved to be a more robust comparison method than the area. The first acoustic methods OQ estimate had a relatively small average error of 8.90% and the second method had a relatively large average error of -59.05% compared to the displacement OQ. The newly proposed method had a relatively small error of -13.75% when compared to the displacements OQ. There was some success even though there was relatively high error with the acoustic methods, however, they may be utilized to augment the features collected by HSVI for a more accurate glottal feature estimation.

Vocal fold vibration results from an alternating balance between subglottal air pressure that drives the vocal folds apart and muscular, elastic, and restoring forces that draw them together. The aim of the present thesis is to present quantitative data of normal vocal function using a noninvasive method. Measurements are made on the inverse filtered airflow waveform, of estimated average trans glottal pressure and glottal airflow, and of sound pressure for productions of syllable sequences. Statistical results are used to infer mechanisms that underlie differences across ( 1 ) normal, loud, and soft voice, (2) normal, high, and low pitch, and (3) between female and male voices. Interspeaker variation in group data and intra speaker variation across repeated recordings is also investigated. The results showed no significant female-male differences in pressure, suggesting that differences in other measures were not primarily due to differences in the respiratory systems . Most glottal waveforms showed a DC flow offset, suggesting an air leakage through a posterior glottal opening. Results suggested (indirectly) that the males in comparison with the females had significantly higher vocal fold closing velocities (maximum flow declination rate), larger vocal fold oscillations (AC flow), and relatively longer closed portions of the cycle (open quotient) in normal and loud voice. In soft voice, female and male waveforms were more alike. In comparison with normal voice, both females and males produced loud voice with significantly higher values of pressure, vocal fold closing velocity, and AC flow. Soft voice was produced with significantly lower values of these measures and increased DC flow. Correlation analyses indicated that several of the airflow measures were more directly related to vocal intensity than to pitch. Interspeaker variation was large, emphasizing the importance of large subject groups to capture normal variation. Intraspeaker variation across recording sessions was less than 2 standard deviations of the group means. The results should contribute to the understanding of normal voice function, and should be useful as norms in studies of voices disorders as well. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se

Goal of this work was create survey study of information resources deal with diagnostic analysis of speech signal. Two methods for estimation of glottal flow was programmed. Finally, attention was focused on determination of criterions for description of selected pathological diagnosis and influence of stress on the glottal flow. Outcome of this work is proposal two criterions for describe influence of stress on the glottal flow.

No description available.

The vocal folds are essential for speech production, and a better understanding of vocal fold vibration characteristics may help improve treatments of voice disorders. However, studying real vocal folds presents significant challenges. In-vivo studies are limited by access and safety issues. Excised larynges have a short useable lifetime (on the order of minutes) and are difficult to parameterize. In contrast, synthetic vocal fold models have long useable lifetimes and can be easily parameterized. In this thesis, a series of tests performed on recently developed synthetic, self-oscillating models of the human vocal folds are discussed. These tests include measurements of vibration frequency, sub-glottal pressure, and time-averaged flow rate. The differences between one-layer and two-layer synthetic models are evaluated. Comparisons are made between synthetic model and real vocal fold behavior. The synthetic model is shown to have vibrated at frequencies, pressures, and flow rates consistent with human phonation. The influence of sub-glottal tube length on model vibration frequency is examined. Motion is observed using high-speed imaging. Velocity measurements of the glottal jet using particle image velocitmetry (PIV) were performed with and without an idealized vocal tract, including the effects of the false folds, for various cases of vocal tract asymmetry. Glottal jet velocities measured using PIV were consistent with velocities measured using excised larynges. A starting vortex was observed in all test cases. The presence of the false folds acted to restrain the sides of the starting vortex, and in some cases created new vortical structures shed from the false folds. An algorithm was created to calculate and visualize the jet core centerline. In the vocal tract cases, the glottal jet tended to skew toward the nearest wall; in the false fold cases, the opposite trend was observed as the jet skewed away from the nearest wall (towards the midplane). Plots of RMS velocity showed distinct regions of shear layer and jet core. Vocal tract cases at pressures much greater than phonation onset pressure showed significant increases in RMS velocities compared to open jet and false fold cases.

No description available.