Eerie voices: Odd combinations, extremes, and irregularities
Brad H. Story · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2014
The human voice can project an eerie quality when certain characteristics are present in a particular context. Some types of eerie voices may be derived from physiological scaling of the speech production system that is either humanly impossible or nearly so. By combining previous work on adult speech, and current research on speech development, the purpose of this study was to simulate vocalizations and speech based on unusual configurations of the vocal tract and vocal folds, and by imposing irregularities on movement and vibration. The resulting sound contains qualities that are human-like, but not typical, and hence may give the perceptual impression of eeriness. [Supported in part by NIH R01-DC011275.]