Suprasegmentals affecting fluency levels in elementary students’ read-speech: Focusing on pause numbers and pause duration, speech rate, and pitch range

2018 ◽  
Vol 144 (3) ◽  
pp. 1964-1964
Author(s):  
Hyesook Park
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Students ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Pause Duration ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Read Speech

A Study of the Pitch, Pitch Range, and Speech Rate of TV Announcers

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-80
Author(s):  
Guk Hwan Kim ◽  
Su Yeon Kim ◽  
Jae Yeon Yoo
Keyword(s):  
Speech Rate ◽  
Pitch Range

The Interrelationship of Measures Related to Vocal Function, Speech Rate, and Laryngeal Appearance in Elderly Women

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Ellen Linville ◽  
Brenda D. Skarin ◽  
Elio Fornatto
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Women ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
Intensity Level ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Vocal Function ◽  
Maximum Phonation Time ◽  
Glottal Closure ◽  
Vocal Intensity

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the interrelationship of various measures related to vocal function, speech rate, and laryngeal appearance in elderly women. Speakers were 20 women ranging in age from 67 to 86 years. An indirect laryngoscopic examination that included judgments on glottal closure and vocal fold appearance was performed on each speaker. Eight measures related to vocal performance (the production capabilities of the mechanism with regard to pitch range, intensity range, and phonation time) were collected on each speaker. Further, acoustic measures of intensity and fundamental frequency stability were made from sustained vowels, and a reading passage was analyzed for reading rate and intensity level. Factor analysis procedures revealed an association of maximum phonation time with measures of vocal intensity, as well as with pitch range measures. Surprisingly, reading rate was grouped with measures of F o stability as well as with maximum vocal intensity. Although laryngoscopic findings are in general agreement with those reported previously in elderly women (Honjo & Isshiki, 1980), inadequate glottal closure was observed more frequently, and vocal cord edema less frequently, in these women.

Impact of Cognitive Impairment and Dysarthria on Spoken Language in Multiple Sclerosis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Lynda Feenaughty ◽  
Ling-Yu Guo ◽  
Bianca Weinstock-Guttman ◽  
Meredith Ray ◽  
Ralph H.B. Benedict ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Pause Duration ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Perceptual Judgments ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Objective: To investigate the impact of cognitive impairment on spoken language produced by speakers with multiple sclerosis (MS) with and without dysarthria. Method: Sixty speakers comprised operationally defined groups. Speakers produced a spontaneous speech sample to obtain speech timing measures of speech rate, articulation rate, and silent pause frequency and duration. Twenty listeners judged the overall perceptual severity of the samples using a visual analog scale that ranged from no impairment to severe impairment (speech severity). A 2 × 2 factorial design examined main and interaction effects of dysarthria and cognitive impairment on speech timing measures and speech severity in individuals with MS. Each speaker group with MS was further compared to a healthy control group. Exploratory regression analyses examined relationships between cognitive and biopsychosocial variables and speech timing measures and perceptual judgments of speech severity, for speakers with MS. Results: Speech timing was significantly slower for speakers with dysarthria compared to speakers with MS without dysarthria. Silent pause durations also significantly differed for speakers with both dysarthria and cognitive impairment compared to MS speakers without either impairment. Significant interactions between dysarthria and cognitive factors revealed comorbid dysarthria and cognitive impairment contributed to slowed speech rates in MS, whereas dysarthria alone impacted perceptual judgments of speech severity. Speech severity was strongly related to pause duration. Conclusions: The findings suggest the nature in which dysarthria and cognitive symptoms manifest in objective, acoustic measures of speech timing and perceptual judgments of severity is complex.

Control of Prosodic Features for Keyword Emphasis in a Text-to-Speech Synthesizer

1992 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-236
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Hamada ◽  
Jin'ichi Chiba
Keyword(s):  
User Interface ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Graphical User Interface ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Pause Duration ◽  
The Other ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Text To Speech ◽  
Speech Synthesizer ◽  
Prosodic Feature

For the purpose of designing a method to control the main speech parameters for keyword emphasis in a text-to-speech synthesizer, the relation between speech parameters and emphasis level is determined from experiments. Twelve subjects are instructed to modify keyword emphasis to achieve natural sounding speech from three sentences. An interactive speech editor with a graphical user interface is developed for the experiments. The editor allows the subjects to control speech intensity, speech rate and average fundamental frequency of the keyword, and of the other sentence components. Furthermore, subjects can also control pause (silence) duration preceding and following the keyword. Extracted relations between prosodic feature parameters and emphasis level shows that speech intensity and speech rate are independent of sentence content. Speech intensity increases linearly and speech rate decreases linearly with emphasis level. On the other hand, average fundamental frequency and pause duration depend on sentence content, and relatively large changes are required to strongly emphasize keywords using pause insertion and increased fundamental frequency.

scholarly journals Стилистическая вариативность просодических 
характеристик языковой личности

2021 ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Anna V. Dunashova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Rate ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Prosodic Feature ◽  
Variation Range ◽  
Wide Variability ◽  
The Subject

This paper aims to study phonostylistic variation of prosodic characteristics of a linguistic persona. The new aspect brought to the field is the focus not only on pitch and speech rate but also on voice quality prosodic aspects of a linguistic persona. The subject was a world-famous British linguist David Crystal whose recordings of lecture and interview were used as the material for this study. The data suggest wide variability of practically every prosodic feature. Among them, pitch minimum, pitch range, loudness median and shimmer values proved to be most constant features of the linguistic persona. The other prosodic values underwent changes due to the shift from the modal voice in the interview to a more arduous voice in the lecture thus reflecting different pragmatics goals of commuication. Prosodic variation range of the linguistic persona in question turned out wider than the average one.

scholarly journals Acoustic and Perceptual Consequences of Speech Cues for Mandarin Speakers With Parkinson's Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-535
Author(s):  
Sih-Chiao Hsu ◽  
Megan J. McAuliffe ◽  
Peiyi Lin ◽  
Ruey-Meei Wu ◽  
Erika S. Levy
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Pause Duration ◽  
Articulation Rate ◽  
Slow Condition ◽  
Speech Cues ◽  
Mandarin Speakers

PurposeThis study investigated the effects of cueing for increased loudness and reduced speech rate on scaled intelligibility and acoustics of speech produced by Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD).MethodEleven speakers with PD read passages in habitual, loud, and slow speaking conditions. Fifteen listeners rated ease of understanding (EOU) of the speech samples on a visual analog scale. Effects of the cues on EOU, vocal loudness, pitch range, pause duration and frequency, articulation rate, and vowel space, as well as relationships between EOU gains and acoustic features, were analyzed.ResultsEOU increased significantly in the loud condition only. The loud cue resulted in increased intensity, and the slow cue resulted both in reduced articulation rate and increased pause frequency. In the loud condition, EOU increased significantly as intensity increased and vowel centralization decreased. In the slow condition, EOU tended to increase as intensity increased and vowel centralization decreased but did not reach statistical significance.ConclusionCueing for loud speech may yield greater EOU gains than cueing for slow speech in Mandarin speakers with PD. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed, although further investigations with more participants and a larger range of dysarthria severity are warranted.

scholarly journals The influence of pre-task planning on speed and breakdown fluency

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-102
Author(s):  
Mirjana M. Kovač ◽  
Gloria Vickov
Keyword(s):  
Speech Rate ◽  
Pause Duration ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Task Planning ◽  
Planning Time ◽  
Temporal Variables ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Planning Condition ◽  
Description Task ◽  
Conscious Attention

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of pre-task planning on L2 fluency performance by measuring the temporal variables. Performing a picture description task, two groups of thirty-seven students were given 10 minutes of planning time and no planning time before the performance, respectively. The temporal fluency variables are extracted by means of the PRAAT speech analysis program in order to be automatically measured for evaluation purposes. Fluency is operationalized as speed fluency (i.e. speech rate and articulation rate) and breakdown fluency (i.e. average pause duration and number of pauses). The results indicate that no significant difference is found when comparing the non-planning and planning condition for each temporal variable. Presumably, the chosen task type containing highly frequent lexemes does not seem to impose increased conscious attention on the part of the more proficient speakers, and thus the formulation and articulation can, to a high degree, run in parallel. Based on the observed results, a modified task design is proposed, i.e. guided pre-task planning directed to attend to less frequent formulae as vocabulary or lexical items for everyday contexts, having a clear potential as a pedagogic device, aiming at activating relatively underused vocabulary and promoting ultimate fluency in the temporal sense.

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