Perceptual experiment on Korean number production
Byunggon Yang · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2001
Acoustic parameters of the nine Korean numbers were analyzed by praat, a speech analysis software, and synthesized by sensynppc, a Klatt formant synthesizer. The overall intensity, pitch, and formant values of the numbers were modified dynamically by a step of 1 dB, 1 Hz, and 2.5%, respectively. This study explored the sensitivity of listeners to changes in the three acoustic parameters. Twelve male and female subjects listened to 390 pairs of synthesized numbers and judged whether the given pair sounded the same or different. Results showed that subjects perceived the same sound quality within the range of 6.6 dB of intensity variation, 10.5 Hz of pitch variation, and 5.9% of the first three formant variations. The male and female groups showed almost the same perceptual ranges. Also, an asymmetrical structure of high and low boundary was observed. The ranges may be applicable to the development of a speaker identification system while the method of synthesis modification may apply to its evaluation data. [This work was supported by a grant from the Interdisciplinary Research Program (Contract No. 1999-2-302-106-5) of the KOSEF.]