An Acoustic Study on the Voice Imitation(3) - Based on a professional voice imitator′s speech -

모방 발화의 음향음성학적 연구(3) -전문 성대 모사자의 자료를 중심으로-

In this study, we investigated acoustic characteristics of imitated utterances by a professional voice imitator, focusing on prosodic properties such as vowel formants and f0 distribution. To see the patterns of a voice imitation by a professional voice imitator, we compared the imitator's voice data with target speakers' voice data. The professional imitator, Mr. Bae produced utterances imitating the former President Kim's, the comedian Choi's, and the singer Bae's voices. Auditorily, the imitator was judged to imitate all the target speakers' voices successfully. However, acoustic examination showed that the imitator was better at imitating the singer Bae's voice in that the imitator's and the singer Bae's voices are more alike with respect to vowel formants and f0 distribution. We infer this is because the imitator's normal voice is very similar to the singer Bae's voice. On the other hand, the imitator's voice data showed that the patterns of vowel formants and f0 distribution found in the imitator's imitation voices of the other two target speakers were different from those of target speakers' voices.