Classification of tonal quality of speech sound based on the efficiency of generating glottal sound source
Shizuo Hiki · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1983
By combining the results of acoustical analysis, synthesis, and a perceptual test of pathological voices [S. Hiki, S. Imaizumi, M. Hirano, and H. Matsushita, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 58, S111 (1975) and S. Imaizumi and S. Hiki, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1, 64, S52 (1978)], a method of classifying tonal quality of speech sound is discussed in terms of the efficiency of generating the glottal sound source. The efficiency is defined here as the ratio of the effective energy of the glottal sound source to the necessary energy for the phonation The effective energy for transmitting linguistic information is estimated by taking into account various factors related to the vibration of vocal folds, the resonance of vocal tract, and the generation of noise components. Application of the method to the composition of perceptual scales and the selection of reference speech samples for the subjective evaluation of the tonal quality of speech sound including both normal and pathological voices is also discussed.