• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2005

Background and Objectives : Vowels are characterized on the basis of formant patterns. The first formant(F1) is determined by high-low placement of the tongue, and the second formant (F2) by front-back placement of the tongue. The fundamental frequency(F0) of a soprano often exceed the normal frequency of the first formant. And the vocal intensity is boosted when F0 is high and a harmonic coincides with a formant. This is called a formant tuning. Experienced singers thus learned how to tune their formants over a resonable range by lowering the tongue to maximize their vocal intensity. So, the current study aimed to identify the formant tuning in one experienced soprano by comparing the first formants of vowel [i] in three different voice production : speech, ascending scale, and vocalize. Materials and Method : All voices recordings of vowel [i] in speech, ascending scale (from F4 note to A4 note), and vocalize(:Ridente la calam") were made with digital audio tape-corder in a sound treated room. And the captured data were analyzed by the long term average(LTA) power spectrum using the FFT algorithm of the Computerized Speech Lab(CSL, Kay elementrics, Model, 4300B). Results : Although the first formant of vowel [i] in speech was 238Hz, those of ascending scale [i] were 377Hz, 405Hz, 453Hz respectively in F4(349z), G4(392Hz), A4(440Hz) note, and 722Hz, 820Hz, 918Hz respectively in F5 (698Hz), G5(784Hz), A5(880Hz) note. In vocalize, first formants of [i] were 380Hz, 398Hz, 453Hz respectively in F4, G4, A4 note, and 720Hz, 821Hz, 890Hz respectively in F5, G5, A5 note. Conclusion : These results showed that the first formant of ascending scale and vocalize sustained higher frequency than fundamental frequency in high pitch. This finding implicates that the formant tuning of vowel [i] in ascending scale was also noted in vocalize.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.107-119
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• 2008

This paper intends to investigate the correlation of 12 MDVP measurements with age, sex and body-size of sampled healthy patients. In order to extract pitch and 12 MDVP parameters efficiently and display the correlation of each parameter easily, we developed the speech analysis program using C/C++ and MFC development tool. The sample group consists of 205 males and 343 females with ages 9-81. We collected vowel voices /a/ and 8 body-size measurements from them. Body-size values were taken at 8 different torso positions of each person. We analyzed the matched voice samples and body-size measurements by the developed speech analysis program and SPSS program. The result shows that a typical characteristic age-F0 pattern that F0 of male subjects are rapidly decreased after mutational period and have stable state with age and that of female subjects are slowly changed by overall age. In MDVP, age-STD in males, age-sPPQ in females relationships are especially similar to the age-F0 relationship. In case of male group, sPPQ(0.316%), Jitt(0.04%), Shim(0.25%), APQ(0.28%) variables are increased with age after mutational period. And Jitt(0.042%), sPPQ(0.219%) of females group are increased with age too. In cases of height, weight and BMI there exists a weak correlation with MDVP, which shows a correlation coefficient below 0.25 about male and female groups. The survey of correlation relationship between 8 body-size measurements and MDVP shows a insignificant statistical result by only just having the correlation coefficient maximum in M8-8 and F0(-0.394%) for males and M8-6,7(-0.368%, -0.364%) for females.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 2011

Electroglottography (EGG) is a common method for providing non-invasive measurements of glottal activity. EGG has been used in vocal pathology as a clinical or research tool to measure vocal fold contact. This paper presents the results of pitch, jitter, and closed quotient (CQ) measurements in electroglottographic signals of young (mean = 22.7 years) and elderly (mean = 74.3 years) male and female subjects. The sustained corner vowels /i/, /a/, and /u/ were measured at around 70 dB SPL since the most notable among EGG variables is the phonation intensity, which showed positive correlation with closed phase. The aim of this paper was to measure EGG data according to age and gender. In CQ, there was a significant difference between young and elderly female subjects while there was no significant difference between young and elderly male subjects. The mean value for young males was higher than that for elderly males while the mean value for young females was lower than that for elderly females. Thus, it can be said that in mean values, increased CQ was related to decreased age for females, while CQ decreased for males as the speaker's age decreased. Although the laryngeal degeneration due to increased age seems to occur to a lesser extent in females, the significant increase of CQ in elderly female voices could not be explained in terms of age-related physiological changes. In standard deviation of pitch and jitter, the mean values for young and elderly males were higher than that for young and elderly females. That is, male subjects showed higher in mean values of voice variables than female subjects. This result could be considered as a sign of vocal instability in males. It was suggested that these results may provide powerful insights into the control and regulation of normal phonation and into the detection and characterization of pathology.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.182-187
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• 2007

The present study was to investigate the speech intelligibility of esophageal speech, which is the way that the laryngectomized people who lost their voices by total laryngectomy can phonate by using the airstream driven into esophagus, not trachea. Three normal listeners transcribed the CVVand VCV syllables produced by 10 esophageal speakers. As a result, overall intelligibility of esophageal speech was 27%. Affricates showed the highest intelligibility, and fricatives, the lowest. In the aspect of the place of articulation, palatals were the most intelligble, and alveolars, the least. Most of the aspirated consonants showed a low intelligibility. The consonants in VCV syllables were more intelligible than the ones in CVV syllables. The low intelligibility of esophageal speakers is due to insufficient airflow intake into esophagus. Therefore, training to increase airflow intake, as well as correct articulation training, will improve their low intelligibility.

• Sijohaknonchong
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• v.43
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• pp.5-39
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• 2015

Shijo (Korean poetic form) is a representative literature genre of a short poem among the literary works of Korea in the late Chosen Dynasty. The format of Sijo is Normal-Shijo in the form of 3 verses, 6 sections and 12 sound, and the lyrics of one Normal-Shijo has within or without 45 words. But Saseol-sijo, a type of Sijo, there is a work that has more than 100 letters due to the number of lyrics were a lot increased. Among those Saseol-sijo there is a work with 'solemn and elegant feeling' borrowing some verses even from Chinese poem, using a lot of Chinese vocabulary, but there are a lot of works with 'salacious and explicit contents'. Literary work, Shijo, is used for lyrics of vocal music as Gagok (a genre of Korean vocal music for mixed female and male voices) and Sijochang, however, there are many cases that the same Sijo poem is used as lyrics of Gagok and Shijo. But those music that use Saseol-sijo as lyrics among Gagok, the vocal music, are mainly songs with 'solemn feeling' rather than 'salacious work'. This study looked into the reason why the Saseol-sijo with 'salacious and explicit contents' are hard to be used as lyrics in Gagok, confirming the fact that most music singing Saseol-sijo among Gagok that are being handed down till now use lyrics with 'solemn and elegant feeling'. The most important thing among those reasons seems to be irregularly increasing lyrics, and in accordance with accompaniment. Gagok accompanys a number of instruments the fixed melody recorded and delivered in score. So it's almost impossible to play unless it depends on the steadily made song melody and accompaniment melody according to the chosen lyrics in advanced. Also, appreciation of literary works is usually made privately through a private reading activity, but Gagok is conducted through public performance in an open space for many people. Especially, it would have been hard to sing a salacious and explicit song gathered together with men and women of different social status in social system and custom of the late of Chosen Dynasty. This study confirmed the fact that folksy and popular character that was praised for literary characteristic of Saseol-sijo can't be easily found from Saseol-sijo that was called Gagok.