• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.145-156
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• 2008

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.