• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.91-99
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• 2014

Speaking styles tend to have an influence on spectral characteristics of produced speech. There are not many studies on the spectral characteristics of speech because of complicated processing of too much spectral data. The purpose of this study was to examine spectral characteristics and formant bandwidths of English vowels produced by nine American males with different speaking styles: clear or conversational styles; high- or low-pitched voices. Praat was used to collect pitch-corrected long-term averaged spectra and bandwidths of the first two formants of eleven vowels in the speaking styles. Results showed that the spectral characteristics of the vowels varied systematically according to the speaking styles. The clear speech showed higher spectral energy of the vowels than that of the conversational speech while the high-pitched voice did the same over the low-pitched voice. In addition, front and back vowel groups showed different spectral characteristics. Secondly, there was no statistically significant difference between B1 and B2 in the speaking styles. B1 was generally lower than B2 when reflecting the source spectrum and radiation effect. However, there was a statistically significant difference in B2 between the front and back vowel groups. The author concluded that spectral characteristics reflect speaking styles systematically while bandwidths measured at a few formant frequency points do not reveal style differences properly. Further studies would be desirable to examine how people would evaluate different sets of synthetic vowels with spectral characteristics or with bandwidths modified.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.97-101
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• 1999

The nasalance score measured by Nasometer is a supplementary data for the perceptually rated nasality by a trained speech pathologist. Because the nasalance score varies with speech material, a valid and reliable material should be developed for evaluating it. The objectives of the present study were (1) to examine whether phonetic contexts affect the nasalace score and (2) to examine the reliability of both meaningless one-syllable words and meaningful sentences. This study analyzed nasalance score in 20 different phonetic contexts from 24 normal adults. The results showed (1) nasalance score increased as the percentage of nasal consonants and vowel /i/ increased, (2) the manner and the place of articulation in oral consonants did not influence the nasalance score, and (3) in nasalance score, correlation between sentences was found to be high, but correlation between syllables was not. These results may indicate that, when preparing the speech material for measuring the nasalance score, it is important to consider not only the percentage of nasal consonants but also that of vowel /i/ in the speech material. In addition, the sentence is more reliable material than meaningless one-syllable words.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.291-305
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• 2020

Purpose : The duration of speech segments reflects children's speech motor development. The purpose of this study was to determine whether segmental sound and word duration varies by age among preschool children. Methods : A total of 60 children aged 4~5 years participated in this study. Participants took the picture-naming test to produce single-word speech data. The duration of the consonant at the initial position of the word and the final position of the word, the voice onset time of plosive, the duration of the vowel following the initial consonant, and the duration of the word were measured. Results : As age increased, the duration of the initial consonant, the duration of the word, and the voice onset time decreased significantly. The main effects of age, manner of articulation, and place of articulation on the duration of the initial consonant were significant. The duration of consonants in the nasal sound and plosives and the duration of bilabial and alveolar sound differed significantly between groups. The main effects of age and vocal type on voice onset time were significant. The main effect of age on the duration of the consonant in the final position of word and on the duration of the vowel were not statistically significant. Conclusion : The results of this study showed that the duration of segmental sound and the word were associated with speech development between 4 and 5 years old. Accordingly, duration of the segmental sound and the word may serve as an acoustic cue as they reflect speech development and speech motor control maturity.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.120-127
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• 2000

Adaptive template filtering has been proposed recently for enhancement of signal-to-noise ratio without loss of resolution. In the adaptive template filtering, an optimal template among multiple templates is selected, then linear least square error filtering based on the template is applied in vowel by vowel basis. In some magnetic resonance imaging, where the distribution of gray level has relatively small dynamic range, e.g., $T_1$ imaging, however, artificial stair-like artifact is observed at near edges. This is partially due to the edge enhancement effect in such yokels that contain multiple compounds at the boundaries of tissues. The gray levels of these yokels become similar gray levels of near dominant vowels that contain single compound by the adaptive filtering, which enlarges edge discontinuities. In this paper, we propose a technique to eliminate such artifact by identifying those yokels that contain multiple compounds and assigning the largest template for them. Filtered images with the proposed technique show substantial visual enhancement at the edges without degradation of peak signal-to-noise ratio compared to the original adaptive template filtering for both magnetic resonance images and phantom images.

• MALSORI
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• no.37
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• pp.13-21
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• 1999

This study, as a successive study of Ko(1998a) which investigates the effect of vowel length contrast on the voicing of the word-final consonants in English, examines if other phonetic features of word-final stops themselves affect the Perception of their voicing. They are closure duration, voicing status during closure period, release portion. 68 Korean students learning English as a second language in Wonkwang University participate as subjects for this study. The results showed that they are not important clues to Korean students to the voicing identification of the word-final stops in English.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.91-103
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• 1997

This paper aimed to study what the influences of orthodontic treatment of pronunciation are. We compared the duration and the acoustic wave patterns of Korean consonants pronounced by a control group with those of a patient who had his four premolars extracted and had been given orthodontic treatment The results were as follows : 1. Compared to the control group, the treatment group had a longer duration time of consonant pronunciation for all consonants but "ㅅ(s)" and "ㅌ($(t^h)$" in CV(consonant-vowel) pairs. Especially in the case of "ㅈ(dz)", "ㅆ$({\varphi}^h)$" for CV-pairs, and "ㄷ(d)" in VCV(vowel-consonant-vowel) clusters, the duration of consonant sound showed a sharp contrast between the control group and the treatment group. 2. There were clear differences in the acoustic wave patterns of "ㅉ(ts)", "ㅆ$({\varphi}^h)$" and "ㅊ$(c^h)$", all of which were in VCV-clusters. The acoustic wave pattern of "ㅉ(ts)", when pronounced by the treatment group, was stronger than the control group's. This phenomenon was most remarkable in the transitive section where the "ㅉ(ts)" sound flowed into the following vowel. When a preceding vowel shifted to the consonant "ㅆ$({\varphi}^h)$", the attack property of the appeared clearly in the acoustic waves of the treament group, while in the control group the starting point of consonart was indistinctive. Consonant duration for the treatment group was longer, and the appearance of a zero crossing point in the acoustic wave was more frequent. In the case of "ㅊ$(c^h)$", the treatment group produced a strong acoustic wave, and the property of aspiration was obvious in it. 3. When the treatment group pronounced "ㄷ(d)" and "ㅈ(dz)" in CV-pairs, the acoustic-wave was similar to that of aspirated "ㅌ$(t^h)$" and "ㅊ$(c^h)$". 4. The aspirated "ㅌ$(t^h)$" and "ㅊ$(c^h)$" pronounced by the treatment group showed the stronger airstream and acoustic wave form.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of palatal height on Korean vowels and speech intelligibility in Korean adults and to produce baseline data for future prosthodontic treatment. Material and methods: Forty one healthy Korean men and women who had no problem in pronunciation, hearing, and communication and had no history of airway disease participated in this study. Subjects were classified into H, M, and L groups after clinical determination of palatal height with study casts. Seven Korean vowels were used as sample vowels and subjects'clear speech sounds were recorded using Multispeech software program on computer. The F1 and the F2 of 3 groups were produced and they were compared. In addition, the vowel working spaces of 3 groups by /a/, /i/, and /u/ corner vowels were obtained and their areas were compared. Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whiteny U test were used as statistical methods and P < .05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There were no significant differences in formant frequencies among 3 groups except for the F2 formant frequency between H and L group (P = .003). In the analysis of vowel working space areas of 3 groups, the vowel working spaces of 3 groups were similar in shape and no significant differences of their areas were found. Conclusion: The palatal height did not affect vowel frequencies in most of the vowels and speech intelligibility. The dynamics of tongue activity seems to compensate the morphological difference.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.41-52
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• 2007

Recent experimental studies have shown that language-users' knowledge of the statistical characteristic of their native language plays a key role in their task performance. One specific instance of this that the current study focuses on is the effect of phonotactic probabilities on speakers' wordlikeness judgment of nonwords. In this paper, I explore the question of whether the judgment of Korean speaking subjects as to the wordlikeness of Korean nonsense words is influenced by the degree of association between two-phoneme sequences in Korean. The current results suggest that the objective measure of correlations (expressed by $r_{\phi}$ values) between an onset consonant and a vowel inside Korean syllables play an important role in Korean speakers' nonword processing. The current results additionally indicate an effect of the correlations of two-phoneme sequences including vowels and coda consonants on nonword processing. Implications of these findings for Korean speakers' learning the correlations between adjacent segments inside the syllable are discussed.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.109-115
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• 2014

Fricated nuclei in Nuosu Yi were found to be more correctly described as fricated vowels, rather than syllabic fricatives due to the presence of clear formant structures typical of front vowels. In this exploratory study, two types of fricated nuclei were examined: retroflex "yr" and non-retroflex "y". The retroflex nucleus "yr" had higher F1 and lower F3 than non-retroflex "y", indicating a lower tongue height. On the other hand, F2 was found to correlate not with nucleus retroflexion, but instead with onset consonant retroflexion: F2 was higher following retroflex onsets, in both vowels. This effect was persistent through the entire vowel, suggesting a phonological effect, rather than a coarticulatory one. Interpretation of the F2 results require accompanying articulatory data since the usual coupling of F2 and tongue backness does not always hold for retroflex vowels. Examining the articulation of the fricated nuclei in Nuosu Yi is a direction for future research.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.634-642
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• 2018

People with spinocerebellar ataxia, a hereditary and progressive neurogenic disorder, suffer from ataxic dysarthria due to cerebellar dystrophy. This study was designed to examine if intensive motor speech treatment yields improvement in progressive ataxic dysarthria and if then, to investigate magnitude of therapeutic effect. SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$ was provided to a 55-year old female diagnosed with SCA for improving motor speech functions. Magnitude of therapeutic effect was large in changes of MPT and vocal intensity across speech tasks. Small effect size was found in changes of fundamental frequency, however, large therapeutic effect was observed in changes of frequency range. In addition, improvement of vocal quality based on jitter, shimmer, and HNR was observed with large therapeutic effect size and vowel space was expanded, particularly, due to F1. Lastly, VHI scores were decreased. Intensive motor speech treatment, called as SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$ was effective enough to observe improvement in vocal intensity, frequency range, and vocal quality, expanding vowel space and lowering VHI scores. Based on the results of this case study, further efficacy evaluation of SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$ for improving progressive ataxic dysarthria in people with SCA is required.