• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2018

This study introduces an automated Praat script allowing optimal formant analysis for children's vowels. Using Burg's algorithm in Praat, formants can be extracted by setting the maximum formant value and the number of formants. The optimal formant setting was determined by identifying the two conditions, F1 and F2, with minimum standard deviations. When applying the optimal formant setting determined by the script, the results of normality tests were not significant among all vowels except /e/ for the maximum formant value, and among the vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ and /ʌ/ for the number of formants. This indicates that when analyzing the formants of children's vowel sounds, the unilateral application of a parameter setting (the maximum formant value and the number of formants) to all vowels is problematic. The performance of the optimal formant setting script was evaluated along with 3 different algorithm in order to determine whether it properly extracts formants for children's vowels. To this end, Korean monophghongs of 6-year-old children were collected and the Praat scripts were applied to the data. Resultant Formant plots and statistical analysis showed that optimum_script and qtone_script, which links to the perceptual unit, performed very well in formant extraction compared to the remaining 2 scripts.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.133-140
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• 2005

The aim of this study was to divide vocalizations of sows into general(GVs) and estrus-related vocalizations( EVs) and to find out their phonetic characteristics. Ten sows(Landrace) were recorded using digital video recorders twice daily(06: 00 - 08 : 00h and 17: 00 - 19 : 00h) during the anestrus and estrus periods. The GVs and EVs were divided based on the shapes of spectrum and spectrogram. The GVs and EVs were identified as 5 and 3 types, respectively. Pitch, formant I, formant 2, and formant 3 between GVs and EVs were not significantly different(P> 0.05), whereas intensity(P < 0.001), duration(P < 0.05), and formant 4(P < 0.01) were significantly different. Three parameter groups(Group I : Formant vector alone, Group II: Formant veetor+ parameters from time signal, Group III: Formant vector+parameters from time signal-parameters eliminated by stepwise discriminant analysis backward) were compared by discriminant function analysis. The classification system adopted in the Group II represented the higher discrimination rate than those in other groups(Group I : 76.1 0/0, Group II : 88.1 0/0, Group Ill: 87.3 %). These results suggest that EVs are present and intensity, formant 2, and formant 4 are available parameters for discrimination of EVs in sows.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2005

This study was analyzed to change of /i/ formant follow cochlear implantation periods for hearing impaired children with cochlear implantation. 20 hearing impaired children participated and acoustic analysis of /i/ was used CSL(Computerized Speech Lab; Model 4300b) annually. The data was captured the first formant, $2^{nd}$ & 3th formant frequency of /i/ and was analyzed using ANOVA. Multiple range test to investigate difference between group was treat with LSD and Duncan. The results of /i/ formant analysis for hearing impaired children with cochlear implantation, each formant at a year keeping with cochlear implantation was located at high frequency. In accordance with CI periods, the each formant decreased significantly, especially between a year and $2^{nd}$ year taking with cochlear implantation.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.285-288
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• 2001

In the speech analysis, to estimate formant center frequencies exactly is very important. If we know formant frequencies, we can expect which pronunciation is uttered. Generally, the magnitude of first formant frequency in voiced speech is 10dB more than other formant frequency. So, the shape of voice signal in time domain is affected by mainly first formant. Therefore we can get first formant frequency roughly by using ZCR(Zero Cross Rate). In this paper, we proposed the improvement method to get first formant frequency by using ZCR. We did autocorrelation before getting ZCR. This procedure makes voice signal smooth so, first formant in voice signal is emphasized. As a result of this method, we got more exact ZCR and first formant frequency. Conventional method of formant estimate is done in frequency domain but proposed method is done in time domain. So, this is very simple.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.39-51
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• 2008

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.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.295-314
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• 1997

In this study, we will implement a flexible formant analysis and synthesis system. In the analysis part, the two-channel (i.e., speech & EGG signals) approach is investigated for accurate estimation of formant information. The EGG signal is used for extracting exact pitch information that is needed for the pitch synchronous LPC analysis and closed phase LPC analysis. In the synthesis part, Klatt formant synthesizer is modified so that the user can change synthesis parameters arbitarily. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the two-channel analysis method over the one-channel(speech signal only) method in analysis as well as in synthesis. The implemented system is expected to be very helpful for studing the effects of synthesis parameters on the quality of synthetic speech and for the development of Korean text-to-speech(TTS) system with the formant synthesis method.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.97-108
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• 2019

An automated Praat script was implemented to measure optimal formant frequencies for adults. Optimal formant analysis could be interpreted to show that the deviation of formant frequency that resulted from the two variously combined setting parameters (maximum formant and number of formants) was minimal. To increase the reliability of formant analysis, LPC order should be set differently, based on the gender or vowel type. Praat recommends 5,000 Hz and 5,500 Hz as maximum formant settings and, at the same time, recommends 5 as the number of formants for males and females. However, verification is needed to determine whether these recommended settings are valid for Korean vowels. Statistical analysis showed that formant frequencies significantly varied across the adapted scripts, especially with respect to the data on females. Formant plots and statistical results showed that linear_script and qtone_script are much more reliable in formant measurements. Among four kinds of scripts, the linear and qtone_scripts proved to be more stable and reliable. While the linear_script was designed to have a linearly increased formant step in for-loop, the increment of formant step in the qtone_script was arranged by quarter tone scale (base frequency×common ratio ($\sqrt[24]{2}$)). When looking at the tendency of the formant setting drawn by the two referred algorithms in the context of front vowel [i, e], the maximum formant was set higher; and the number of formants set at a lower value than recommended by Praat. The back vowel [o, u], on the contrary, has a lower maximum formant and a higher number of formants than the standard setting.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

Formant trajectories reflect the continuous variation of speakers' articulatory movements over time. This study examined formant trajectories of English vowels produced by ninety-three American men and women; the values were normalized using the scale function in R and compared using generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs). Praat was used to read the sound data of Hillenbrand et al. (1995). A formant analysis script was prepared, and six formant values at the corresponding time points within each vowel segment were collected. The results indicate that women yielded proportionately higher formant values than men. The standard deviations of each group showed similar patterns at the first formant (F1) and the second formant (F2) axes and at the measurement points. R was used to scale the first two formant data sets of men and women separately. GAMMs of all the scaled formant data produced various patterns of deviation along the measurement points. Generally, more group difference exists in F1 than in F2. Also, women's trajectories appear more dynamic along the vertical and horizontal axes than those of men. The trajectories are related acoustically to F1 and F2 and anatomically to jaw opening and tongue position. We conclude that scaling and nonlinear testing are useful tools for pinpointing differences between speaker group's formant trajectories. This research could be useful as a foundation for future studies comparing curvilinear data sets.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2014

Mental fatigue is inevitable in the workplace. Since mental fatigue can lead to decreased efficiency and critical accidents, it is important to manage mental fatigue from the viewpoint of accident prevention. An experiment was performed to evaluate mental fatigue using the formant frequency analysis of human voices. The experimental task was to mentally add or subtract two one-digit numbers. After completing the tasks with four different levels of mental fatigue, subjects were asked to read Korean vowels and their voices were recorded. Five vowel sounds of "아", "어", "오", "우", and "이" from the voice recorded were then used to extract formant 1 frequency. Results of separate ANOVAs showed significant main effects of mental fatigue on formant 1 frequencies of all five vowels concerned. However, post-hoc comparisons revealed that formant 1 frequencies of "아" and "어" were most sensitive to mental fatigue level employed in this experiment. Formant 1 frequencies of "아" and "어" significantly decrease as the mental fatigue accumulates. The formant frequency extracted from human voice would be potentially applicable for detecting mental fatigue induced during industrial tasks.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07e
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• pp.2415-2418
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• 2003

In this paper, we present a new filter to adjust formant information. Spectral envelope in speech analysis shows information about characteristics of speech and formant information determines speech timbre. So, if formant position is adjusted, we can verify adjusted speech timbre. A presented filter is to adjust this formant. This filter is composed of triangular filters. Using this filter we could locate the formant frequency at target position.