Study of [h] and Whispered Speech
Ilse Lehiste · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1962
The paper describes a study designed to investigate certain differences between phonated and whispered speech. A spectrographic analysis of 200 phonated and whispered words, spoken by five informants, revealed that whispered vowels differ from corresponding phonated syllable nuclei with regard to their formant positions, the distribution of intensity within the spectrum, and the dynamic structure of the syllable nuclei. A comparison of the whispered syllable nuclei with [h] in phonated and whispered words shows that the spectrum of [h] differs in measurable ways from that of whispered vowels. To study certain physiological differences between [h] and whisper, the rate of airflow was measured in the speech of five male and three female subjects. The rate of airflow during whispered speech was more than twice as high as that of phonated speech; the airflow during an initial [h] was more than six times as high as that during a following phonated syllable nucleus, and more than twice as high as that during a following whispered syllable nucleus.