engleski

The long-term average spectrum as a measure of voice quality in L1 and L2 speakers

It is supposed that general speaker´s voice quality characteristics are encoded in long enough samples of speech and can be assessed by means of Long-Term Average Spectrum (LTAS). In the paper it is investigated how the LTAS of Croatian-English bilingual speakers is influenced by the level of language proficiency. It is expected that the higher level of language proficiency will result in higher inter-language and lower inter-speaker differences. A group of 10 proficient and a group of 10 unproficient students of English as L2 whose native language is Croatian read the story “The Sun and the Wind” in both languages five times in each language. The LTAS for each subject and for each interpretation were obtained by means of computerized AS (Average Spectrum) program. Then the inter-speaker and inter-language LTAS difference indices (SDDD - Standard Deviation of the Interspectral Differences Distribution) were calculated to assess the language induced voice variability. The difference in voice stability between L1 and L2 and between proficient and unproficient speakers of L2 (English) were calculated. The LTAS results were compared with the measures of voice similarity assessed by the speech voice professionals who listened to the reversed recordings of the s! ubjects. The results are interpreted in terms of greater intra-language variability for nondominant language and greater inter-language variability for speakers with lower level of L2 proficiency. It is also shown that there is a reasonable correlation between LTAS results and perceptual assessment of voice similarity.

voice quality; long-term average spectrum; native languae; foreign language

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