IAFPA
2016










Vowel sounds produced with varying production parameters:
Conceptualisation and realisation of a database

Dieter Maurer (1), Thayabaran Kathiresan (2), Volker Dellwo (2)

(1) Institute for the Performing Arts and Film
Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
(2) Phonetics Laboratory, Department of Comparative Linguistics,
University of Zurich, Switzerland







>> Back



Abstract

With regard to vowel sounds, there is no extensive, empirical database that documents systematic variation of basic production parameters. However, we consider such a corpus to be a prerequisite for a deeper understanding of both phoneme- and speaker-dependent acoustic characteristics. Cur-rently, we are working on a corresponding database for Standard German vowels. In the following, the concept and status of realisation of this database, limited to the investigation of untrained speak-ers, is presented.

Concept: Untrained speakers (children, women, men) are selected according to three qualitative criteria: (1) a large vocal range (two octaves for adults and 1.5 octave for children at minimum), (2) the ability to reproduce sounds on a given fo, and (3) a clear spontaneous vowel articulation for a range of fo of one octave at minimum.
Each selected speaker produces the sounds of the long German vowels /i-y-e-ø-ɛ-a-o-u/ and varies basic production parameters such as fo (C-major scale up and down the entire vocal range; each pitch is presented to the speaker as electronic piano sound), vocal effort (medium, low, high), phoneme context (V for all fo and all vocal efforts, sVsV for mid-dle and high fo and medium vocal effort only) and, in addition to the voiced sounds, phonation mode (breathy phonation in V context, whisper phonation in V and sVsV context). Each speaker also reads a phonetically balanced text. If, during a recording session, the speaker or examiner believes that a sound could possibly be improved, additional productions are recorded for the corresponding production condition.
All sounds are digitally recorded in a quiet room and with a constant speaker-microphone distance of 30 cm. The microphone input gain is adjusted according to the vocal effort investigated. In order to subsequently determine the actual sound pressure level, for each recording session, a 1 kHz sinus wave is recorded with a -20 dB gain using a specific calibra-tion tool. Each sound in the database is annotated with standard information on speaker and indica-tions on recorded vowel sounds. In order to provide additional indicative information, the database also features the results of acoustic analysis for the vowel nuclei (pitch contour, spectrum, LPC fil-ter curve, spectrogram and formant tracks) and the results of a listening test (assignment of the per-ceived vowel quality) involving five professionally trained singers and speakers.

Actual status: Up to now, we have recorded eight adults and eight children (gender balanced). With the exception of one child, all speakers produced the sounds over a vocal range of two octaves or more. Considering that there is a vowel sound for each production condition (sound selection ac-cording to the highest identification score of the listening test), in average, c. 500 systematic recordings are available for each single speaker, or c. 8000 recordings for all 16 speakers.

Additional note: In parallel, we are also recording the sounds of professional singers and speakers, including additional variations of production parameters, such as production style, phoneme context in minimal pairs, and creak phonation.