Can phonation types be reliably measured from sound spectra? Some data from Wa and Burmese

Watkins, Justin

Abstract

This paper assesses the value of measuring aspects of an unmodified acoustic recordings of speech in the two language Burmese (Tibeto-Burman) and Wa (Mon_Khmer) in relation to the glottal source, or phonation type.
This method faces the problem of how to ensure that what is measured is indeed attributable to the glottal source andnot to supralaryngeal acoustic shaping, or vowel quality.

The methods adopted include: analysis of the relative prominence of the H1 and H2, formant amplitude and spectral tilt.

The findings are that in Wa H2, F1 and F2 are all more energetic than H1 to a greater degree in creaky phonation than in breathy, though this is due in part to the significantly dominant H1 in breathy phonation.

For Burmese, the methods in this study are too crude to tell these two phonation types apart, but they are sufficient to identify the cruder three-way categorisation of phonation types (modal, creaky and breathy), which, it has been suggested, is sufficient to give a satisfactory account of phonologically contrastive phonation type for most purposes.

The findings suggest further that the relationship between the higher frequency region of the spectrum and phonation type merits further investigation.

Citation

Watkins, J. (1997). Can phonation types be reliably measured from sound spectra? Some data from Wa and Burmese. SOAS Working papers in Linguistics and Phonetics, 7, 321-339

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 1997
• Deposit Date: Aug 18, 2004
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 21, 2025
• Print ISSN: 1361-4886
• Publisher: SOAS University of London
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Pages: 321-339
• Keywords: phonetics, phonation type, Wa, Burmese, sound spectra, formant, harmonic
• Publisher URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/schools-and-departments/school-languages-cultures-and-linguistics/department-linguistics/soas
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