Pitch Contour Conversion Using Slanted Gaussian Normalization Based on Accentual Phrases

This paper presents methods using Gaussian normalization for converting pitch contours based on prosodic phrases along with experimental tests on the Korean database of 16 declarative sentences and the first sentences of the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'. We propose a new conversion method using Gaussian normalization to the pitch deviation of pitch contour subtracted by partial declination lines: by using partial declination lines for each accentual phrase of pitch contour, we avoid the problem that a Gaussian normalization using average values and standard deviations of intonational phrase tends to lose individual local variability and thus cannot modify individual characteristics of pitch contour from a source speaker to a target speaker. From the results of the experiments, we show that this slanted Gaussian normalization using these declination lines subtracted from pitch contour of accentual phrases can modify pitch contour more accurately than other methods using Gaussian normalization.