ISCA Archive Interspeech 2025
ISCA Archive Interspeech 2025

Exploratory Study of Filled Pauses in Ukrainian Language: Phonetic Properties of Filled Pauses

Anna Havras, Carlos Mendes, Helena Moniz, Gueorgui Hristovsky, João Miranda

This exploratory study addresses a significant gap in research on filled pauses (FPs) in Ukrainian, an understudied language with limited phonetic studies. By analyzing acoustic features such as fundamental frequency, formants, and duration, this research offers a comprehensive typology of Ukrainian FPs. We analyzed four hours of speech across three types of contexts: broadcast news (BN), guest interviews (GI), and political interviews (PI). We identified the most frequent FPs ([a] 54%, [ɪ] 36%) and documented two previously unreported variants ([na] 0.4%, [mna] 0.4%). Acoustic analysis confirmed gender-based differences in the vocalic triangle, with female speakers exhibiting greater vowel distinction in FPs. Our findings revealed that FPs followed regular patterns, primarily composed by generally referred as central vowels and/or nasal consonants, and are highly dependent on both the speaker and context.