This paper proposes the method to extract new feature vectors using the difference between the cepstrum for static characteristics and delta cepstrum for dynamic characteristics in speaker recognition (SR). The difference vector (DV) which it proposes from this paper is containing the static and the dynamic characteristics simultaneously at the intermediate characteristic vector which uses the deference between the static and the dynamic characteristics and as the characteristic vector which is new there is a possibility of doing. Compared to the conventional method, the proposed method can achieve new feature vector without increasing of new parameter, but only need the calculation process for the difference between the cepstrum and delta cepstrum. Experimental results show that the proposed method has a good performance more than 2.03%, on average, compared with conventional method in speaker identification (SI).

In many practical applications of robots, finding the location of an incoming sound is an important issue for the development of efficient human robot interface. Most sound source localization algorithms make use of only those microphones that are acoustically visible from the sound source or do not take into account the effect of sound diffraction, thereby degrading the sound source localization performance. This paper proposes a new sound source localization method that can utilize those microphones that are acoustically shadowed from the sound source. The experiment results show that use of the acoustically shadowed microphones, which receive higher signal-to-noise ratio signals than the others and are closer to the sound source, improves the performance of sound source localization.

The aim of this study was to find how English vowels affect the pronunciation of English sibilants /$d_3,\;{_3}$, z/ by Korean learners of English. Fifteen nonsense syllables composed by five vowels /a, e, i, o, u/ were pronounced six times by twelve Korean learners of English. Test scores were measured from the scoreboard made by a speech training software program, which was designed for English pronunciation practice and improvement. Results show that 1) the subjects had the lowest scores in /a_a/ position, and 2) subjects had lower scores in the /i_i/ position than in /e_e/, /o_o/ and /u_u/ positions when they pronounced $/d_3/,\;/{_3}/$, and /z/ in their respective inter-vocalic position. This study found that for the group studied Korean learners of English have more difficulty in pronouncing sibilants in /a_a/ and /i_i/ positions than in the other positions.

Formant measurements are one of the most important factors to objectively test cross-linguistic differences among vowels produced by speakers of any given languages. However, many speech analysis softwares present erroneous estimates and some researchers use them without any verification procedures. The purposes of this paper are to examine formant measurements of complex waves which were synthesized from the average formant values of five Korean vowels using three default methods in Praat and to verify the measured values of the five vowels produced by 20 students using one of the methods. Variances along the time axis are discussed after determining absolute difference sum from the 1/3 vowel duration point. Results show that there were smaller measurement errors by the burg method. Also, greater errors were observed in the sl or lpc methods mostly caused by the inappropriate formant settings. Formant measurement deviations were greater in those vowels produced by the female students than those of the male students, which were mostly attributed to the settings for the vowels /o, u/. Formant settings can best be corrected by changing the number of formants to the number of visible dark bands on the spectrogram. Those results suggest that researchers should check the validity of the estimates from the speech analysis software. Further studies are recommended on the perception test of the original sound with the synthesized sound by the estimated formant values.

This paper examined the acoustic differences in English speech production between English native speakers and Korean learners. Korean speakers seem to produce errors by over-applying the Korean phonological rules(nasalization and lateralization) to English speech under the conditions comparable to those of Korean which contain nasal+lateral or lateral+nasal sequences. Being based on this prediction, the experimental data is grouped into three sets, [n]+[l] sequence, [l]+[n]sequence, and [m]+[l] sequence. The result shows that, Korean speakers usually nasalize or lateralize the target words or phrases in every three categories while English natives don't. In set A([n]+[l] sequence), both nasalization and lateralization were found in [n]+[l] sequence, the same circumstances where both nasalization and lateralization can be placed as in Korean. In the case of set B([l]+[n] sequence), only lateralization is observed. It is because the nasalization never occurs in the sequence of l-n in Korean. There is no lateralization in set C([m]+[l] sequence), because only nasalization occurs in the sequence of m-l in Korean. This results reconfirmed that the nasalization and lateralization rules in Korean deeply influence on the English production data. Korean speakers need to be taught not to over-apply Korean phonological rule to English production for accurate pronunciation.

This study was intended to analyze how well people with right hemisphere damage can understand Korean proverbs. This study used a between-subject design and within-subjects design where all subjects participate in the three experiments for 10 hospitalized patients of whose average age is 66.1 years old and 10 normal adults in the same age range. Experiment 1 was to make up Korean proverb related stories and suggest it in written, Experiment II was to suggest a picture presenting a Korean proverb and the proverb itself directly, and Experiment III was to make up a story related to a Korean proverb and tell it auditory. Five Korea proverbs were used for each experiment; 15 in total. The results were as follows: First, there was a significant difference in understanding of Korean proverbs between normal adults and people with right hemisphere damage. Second, there was no significant difference of understanding between them by stimulating methods to suggest Korean proverbs. Third, people with right hemisphere damage had a tendency to interpret Korean proverbs literally as a total wrong reaction was composed of 55.36%. Considering the above the results, it can be said that people with right hemisphere damage have less understanding of Korean proverbs than normal adults, which is not affected by a way of or a condition of suggesting Korean proverbs in people with RHD, and they are inclined to make literal interpretation of Korean proverbs as they are.

The purpose of this study was to compare phonological awareness ability of students with Down Syndrome(DS) and typically developing children(TD). TD and DS were equal the reading abilities(reading recognition). The subject were 10 DS and 10 TD, and were examined by test of phonological awareness. The test of phonological awareness was composed according to phonological units(word, syllable, phoneme) and task types(deletion, discrimination, blending). The results obtained in this study were as follows: The total score of phonological awareness ability of DS were significantly lower than TD. And the score of phonological awareness ability according to phonological units and task types were significantly lower than TD. But both DS and TD performed better on phonological deletion and blending task than discrimination. TD and DS represented different correlation between task types and phonological units. This means that TD performed better on all types of tasks and phonological units than DS.

Multiple physical changes of the larynx and its components occur with age. Vocal pitch, commonly expressed through measures of fundamental frequency (Fo) relate to physical conditions of the larynx. Available data is lacking for the senescent voice, and should be applied to the of changes of elderly speakers' Fo characteristics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the Fo of normal elderly speaker's voice. A total of 406 normal elderly speakers (207 males and 199 females) participated in this experiment. Age ranged from 60 years to 89 years. The subjects were asked to produce sustained corner vowels (/a/ /i/ /u/) three times each and the data were analyzed using the MDVP of CSL. According to the results of this study, the mean Fo from the ages of 60's to 80's shows 143.95Hz(SD 13.94) for men and 185.42Hz (SD 15.29) for women. For men, a significant change is found as a function of age in the Fo (F=16.181, p<.05). A post-hoc Scheffe test revealed significant differences between the Fo data of subjects aged 60's and 70's, 60's and 80's. For women, a significant change is found as a function of age in the Fo (F=49.013, p<.05). A post-hoc $Scheff'{e}$ test revealed significant differences between the Fo data of subjects in their 60's and 70's, 70's and 80's, 60's and 80's. The Fo of men goes up from their 60's to 80's gradually, whereas the Fo of women goes down gradually until their 70's, and after their 70's it again increases. It has been known that diminishing estrogen levels in women in old age may be a factor in lowering Fo, whereas diminishing testosterone levels in men may contribute to a rising Fo. This result may be used as some meaningful guideline and lead the basic data to differentiate between normal aged voice and aged voice disorders.

Cerebral palsy children represent abnormal vocalization pattern caused by respiration problem and paralyzed oral motor muscle that are the basics of speech production. Thus, this study examined the effect of respiration and articulator training programs on the basic ability of speech production in CP children. The subjects of this study were 4 children with 3 of spastic CP and 1 of ataxia CP. The respiration and articulator program was conducted in 30 sessions for 30 minutes each. Pre-test was administered twice before the program, ongoing test was administered every 5 session during the period of experiment, and post-test was administered twice. The program included speech production such as respiration training, lips, jaw, cheek, and tongue exercise, and velopharyngeal training, and related articulator training. The following results were obtained. First, all subject children were less than 5 seconds in maximum phonation time before the experiment and 2 were improved by more than 4$\sim$5 seconds during the experiment, but 2 had relatively low rising width. Second, while children with less than 30dB before the experiment became bigger in strength during the experiment, children with more than 35dB before the experiment showed a minor change. Subject child 4 had lower vocal strength in the post-test period. Finally, although each subject had individual difference in syllable diadochokinetic ability, the function was improved and the number of repetition in one respiration was also increased.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of whole language approach on the development of language abilities and story structure concepts for hearing impaired children. For this end, two research questions have been established. First, what is the effect of whole language program using story books on hearing impaired children’s language abilities? Second, what is the effect of whole language program using story books on hearing impaired children's story structure concept? Three subjects participated in the study. Each subject was scheduled for a 40-minute session two times a week. Subjects received 36 sessions of use animation activities for 3 months. The study used a multiple baseline across the subjects. The followings were the findings of this study. First, the whole language program using story books improved hearing impaired children's language abilities. Second, the whole language program using story books improved hearing impaired children's story structure concept.

The present study examined multicultural family children's articulation accuracy and phonological process using Assessment of Phonology and Articulation for Children(APAC), and compared them with normally developing children. The subjects of this study were 24 multicultural family children between ages 3 years, 6 months and 3 years, 11 months. The multicultural family children's articulation accuracy was significantly lower than the normally developing children's. In case of the normally developing children, phonological processes the multicultural family children showed were observed at a younger age and did not appear at the age of the children participating in this study. The Japanese multicultural family children and the non Japanese multicultural family children showed different rate of the changes. This result shows that articulation development in the multicultural family children may be different among them according to the classification and that the children's error patterns are related to their mothers' native language. The results of this study are proposed to be applicable to articulation assessment and treatment.

The goal of this study was to investigate acoustic and physiologic characteristics of two phonation types of 'Khoomei' which is a traditional singing style of people who live around the Altai mountains or Mongolia region. It can be produced two pitches simultaneously - high melody pitch can be perceived along with a low drone pitch. Sygyt and kargyraa styles are the most popular and identifiable styles and they can be recognized as the different sounds depending on the method of voice production. Two trained Mongolians participated and have used at least 5 - 6 years. The characteristics of this voice production were measured by using flexible fiberscope, Stroboscopy, Lx Speech studio, Spead, and Doctor Speech. In Sygyt style, very high vocal fold closure (71.50%) with both true and false vocal folds contact and strong breathing support was observed. They also showed that tongue height and harmonics were increased (around 10dB) with resonance cavity movement. In contrast, it was found that Kargyraa sound had very low pitch with relaxed stomach, less laryngeal tension and lower vocal fold contact (69.50%) than hard Sygyt style sound without raising the tongue during phonation. 'Khoomei' phonation can be made by strong contact of both true and false vocal folds and by increasing the harmonics as well.

The purpose of this study was to use fiber-optic nasolaryngoscope to find out differences in laryngeal behavior between persons who stutter(PS) and those who do not stutter(NS) upon their utterance. To meet the goal above, this study took 5 NS and 5 PS respectively as a part of sampling, so that they were all asked to join an experiment hereof. As a result, this study came to the following findings: First, there was not any significant difference in laryngeal behavior of uttering spoken languages between stuttering group and control. Second, there were some differences in laryngeal behavior of repetition and prolongation, which were a sort of disfluency revealed in the utterance of nonfluent spoken languages between stuttering group and control. Third, as reported by prior studies, it was found that there were differences in laryngeal abehavior of stutterer group's nonfluent spoken languages depending upon stuttering types. In this study, a variety of laryngeal behavior unreported in prior studies could be found. In addition, it was notable that stutterers showed different laryngeal behavior depending on their personal stuttering types. On block condition, Subject 1 showed laryngeal behavior of fAB, INT and fAD; Subject 2 showed laryngeal behavior of fAB, fAD and rAD; Subject 3 showed laryngeal behavior of fAD and rAD; Subject 4 showed only laryngeal behavior of fAD; and Subejct 5 showed laryngeal behavior of fAB, fAD and rAD. Summing up, these findings imply that when stutterers utter nonfluent words, they may reveal a variety of laryngeal behavior depending on their personal stuttering types. Moreover, it is found that there are more or less differences in the utterance of nonfluent spoken languages between NS and stuttering ones. In particular, it is interesting that one common trait of nonfluent spoken languages uttered by PS is evidently excessive laryngeal stress, no matter which type of stuttering they reveal.

The aim of this study was to survey 'voice preference' of children from among three voice pitches, which are high-pitch, mid-pitch and low pitch, and understand acoustic characteristics of the best voice chosen. To record distinctive pitches, Dr. Speech(ver. 4.0 Tiger Electronics) was used and we analyzed their choices. Also, we measured subglottal air pressure in aerodynamic analyze and phonatory aerodynamic system(Model 6600, KAY) was used. As a result children preferred to the low-pitch yet there was not any difference by sex. We fined them to prefer higher HNR voice to lower jitter and shimmer voice rate.

This study attempted to reveal the physiologic etiology or related factors associated with speech processing by comparing the compensation ability in speech motor control in children with and without articulation disorders. Subjects were 35 children with articulation disorder and 35 children without articulation disorder whose age ranged from 5 to 6 years. They were asked to rapidly repeat /$p^ha$/, /$t^ha$/, /$k^ha$/, /$p^hat^hak^ha$/ diadochokinetic movement while mandible was free and mandible was stabilized with bite block. The results showed that children with articulation disorder revealed significantly greater difference in elapsed time for diadochokinetic movement between mandible free and stabilized state compared to the without articulation disorder group. But the correlation between the percentage of consonants correct and the compensation ability in speech motor control in the articulation disorder group was irrelevant. These results point out to the fact that children with articulation disorder have poor compensation ability in speech motor control compared to the children without articulation disorder. On the other hand, the poor ability does not have any relation with the severity of articulation disorder. These results suggest either general or individual characteristics of children with articulation disorder.

The number of Asian women immigrants in Korea is getting bigger and it's important to note that their communication problem in Korean causes not only the difficulty of adapting to Korean society but their children's speech-language disorder. To date there is little research on their acoustics characters and articulatory errors. Therefore, this study focuses on acoustic characters and articulatory error patterns of the women immigrants from Japan and Philippine based on the theory of "contrastive analysis". The subjects were 16 Japanese women immigrants(age: 42.5$\pm$4.4) and 14 Philippine women immigrants(age: 31.64$\pm$6.7) and control group consisted of 10 Korean women(age: 28.3$\pm$1.2). Speech and hearing of all subjects and control group were within normal limits. Speech samples were analyzed in a computer using CSL and data analysis was done on FFT widow for F1, F2, F3 of vowels and on wideband spectrogram for VOT of plosives and africatives. The results of this study were like this; For Japanese women immigrants, they had different articulatory patterns of /e/, /a/, /u/, /o/, /$\varepsilon$/, /m/ from those of Koreans and showed articulatory errors on the fortis and aspirated sounds. The reason is Japanese has only two distinctive characters for plosives and affricates; voicing and voiceless. The Philippine women immigrants also showed the same error patterns as the Japanese women immigrants. Especially the errors on aspirated sounds were prominent because their mother tongue has no distinctive characters about aspirated sounds. For vowels, they showed errors of /a/, /o/, /c/.