Rosa Lídia Coimbra

Voice quality of European Portuguese emotional speech

In this paper we investigate parameters related to voice quality in European Portuguese (EP) emotional speech. Our main objectives were to obtain, to our knowledge for the first time, values for the parameters commonly contemplated in acoustic analyses of emotional speech and investigate if there is any difference for EP relative to the results obtained for other languages. A small corpus contemplating five emotions (joy, sadness, despair, fear, cold anger) and neutral speech produced by a professional actor was used. Parameters investigated include fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer and Harmonic Noise Ratio. In general, results were in accordance with the consulted literature regarding F0 and HNR. For jitter and shimmer our results were, in certain aspects, similar to the ones reported in a study of emotional speech for Spanish, another Latin language. From our analyses, and taking into consideration the reduced size of our corpus and the use of an actor as informant, no clear EP characteristic emerged, except for a possible, needing confirmation, difference regarding joy, with values similar to neutral speech.

Para a melhoria da síntese articulatória das vogais nasais do português europeu: estudo da duração e de características relacionadas com a fonte glotal

The aim of this research was to continue the work in articulatory synthesis. Thus, a database was collected, containing the nasal sounds of European Portuguese (EP). This corpus includes the different phonetic contexts for the nasal vowels of EP, focusing on the regional variants. The recordings include voice signal, and, simultaneously,information about glottal source, obtained through an Electroglotograph (EGG). After the signal processing the following parameters were analysed:duration, F0, open quotient, jitter and shimmer. Finally, statistical and inferential analysis was made using the programme SPSS.

Experimental phonetics contributions to the Portuguese articulatory synthesizer development

In this paper we present current work and results in two Experimental Phonetics projects motivated by our ongoing development of an articulatory synthesizer for Portuguese. Examples of analyses and results regarding glottal source parameters and from EMMA and acoustic analyses related to the tongue position are presented. In our studies contextual and regional variation is considered.

Voice quality of psychological origin

Variations in voice quality are essentially related to modifications of the glottal source parameters, such as: F0, jitter, and shimmer. Voice quality is affected by prosody, emotional state, and vocal pathologies. Psychogenic vocal pathology is particularly interesting. In the present case study, the speaker naturally presented a ventricular band voice whereas in a controlled production he was able to use a more normal phonation process. A small corpus was recorded which included sustained vowels and short sentences in both registers. A normal speaker was also recorded in similar tasks. Annotation and extraction of parameters were made using Praats voice report function. Application of the Hoarseness Diagram to sustained productions situates this case in the pseudo‐glottic phonation region. Analysis of several different parameters related to F0, jitter, shimmer, and harmonicity revealed that the speaker with psychogenic voice was capable of controlling certain parameters (e.g. F0 maximum) but was unable to correct others such as shimmer.