ISCA Archive Interspeech 2022
ISCA Archive Interspeech 2022

Linguistic versus biological factors governing acoustic voice variation

Yoonjeong Lee, Jody Kreiman

This study presents a cross-linguistic investigation of acoustic voice spaces in English, Seoul Korean, and White Hmong, which differ in whether they phonologically contrast phonation type and/or tone. The overarching hypothesis is that acoustic variability in voice will be shaped by biological factors, linguistic factors, and individual idiosyncrasies. By employing principal component analysis on speakers' read speech productions, we identify how individual and population voice spaces are acoustically structured for speakers of these three languages. Results revealed several factors that consistently account for acoustic variability across speakers and languages, but also factors that vary with language-specific phonology.