early adult lifespan Richard Rhodes University of York - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Changes in the voice across the early adult lifespan

Richard Rhodes University of York richard.rhodes@york.ac.uk

What?

• Longitudinal acoustic study
• Formants and fundamental frequency
• 8 speakers
• Real-time over 3 decades
• 7 year intervals
• Ages 21, 28, 35, 42, 49

2

Why?

• Need for real-time (spontaneous) speech research
• Applications

▫ Speaker comparison cases with long delay

 e.g. Yorkshire Ripper Hoaxer (27 years, R v Humble 2005)

▫ Building reference populations for LRs and ASR ▫ Foils for voice parades ▫ Any application of speech science where aging is apparent

3

Why does it matter?

• Should be aware if speech features change

significantly through early adulthood

• Important to be able to estimate direction and

magnitudes of change

• Assumption in linguistics that language is set and

unchanging by adulthood

▫ Currently being challenged

4

‘7 Up’ Dataset

• Recorded every 7 years, from ages 7 to 49 (currently)
• Spontaneous speech in an interview setting
• Short-term non-contemporaneous data
• (Licensed by ITN for Granada)
• Michael Apted (1964)

5

‘7 Up’ Dataset

• Average sample length 5 minutes
• Vowel token Ns range from 4-30

6

‘7 Up’ Subjects

• 8 subjects (6 male, 2 female)
• Geographically – 2 highly mobile, 2 somewhat

mobile, 4 stable

• Range of accents/regions

7

Tests

• f0
• F1, F2, F3 of 9 monophthongs
• Future study:

▫ Diphthongs ▫ Voice quality ▫ Temporal features ▫ Consonantal features

8

Predictions: physiology

• Reduction in f0
• 10% (Hollien & Shipp, 1956) or 14Hz (DeCoster and Debruyne,

2000)

• Sensitive to smoking (Verdonck-de-Leeuw & Mahieu, 2004)
• Less marked for females (Linville, 2001)

9

Predictions: physiology

• Reduction in formant frequencies

▫ Endres et al. (1971), Linville (2001 etc.), Reubold et al. (2010)

• Contraction/reduction of the vowel space

▫ Ratstatter and Jacques (1990), Ratstatter et al. (1997)

10

Predictions: physiology

11

49

F1 F2

21

• 21 -> 49 years old

we would expect that...

• Vowel space is

▫ contracted ▫ displaced

Predictions: sociophonetics

• Speakers adjust for mainstream accent changes

▫ Queen’s English - Harrington et al. (2000 etc.)

• Cases involving geographical mobility (Neil)

▫ Salient between-accent differences reflected ▫ Compare phonology of each region/accent

12

Results

• Generalised results (all speakers)

▫ f0 ▫ F1, F2, F3 ▫ Vowel space

• Specific case study examples

▫ Illustrate predictions about physiology ▫ Illustrate sociophonetic predictions

13

Results: f0: general patterns

• Males: minor decreases in f0

▫ (average 3% between 21 and 49)

• Females: exhibited decreased f0

▫ (8% and 23% between 21 and 49) ▫ 23% decrease was a habitual smoker

14

Results: f0: by speaker

15 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190 210 230 250 1 2 3 4 5 Hz Andrew Bruce Neil Nick Symon Tony Lynn Suzy 21 28 35 42 49

Results: F1: general patterns

• Average F1 decrease: 8.5%
• All speakers
• Close front vowels reduced more than open vowels

16

Results: F1: by speaker

17 5 10 15 20 25

%

Mean percentage F1 decrease between 21-49

Results: F1: by vowel

18

• 10
• 5

5 10 15 20 25

ʊ

• a:

ʌ a e ı i: u:

%

Mean percentage F1 decrease between 21-49

Results: F1: significance

19 F1 Andrew Bruce Lynn Neil Nick Suzy Symon Tony

ʊ

\ \ \ ** n \ * \

• \

* ** *** n * *** n

a:

\ * \ * ** *** * *

ʌ

\ * n ** n n n n

a

n n n n n ** n n

e

* *** * *** n n * *

I

* * *** *** *** *** *** *

i:

*** *** \ *** n *** *** n

u:

\ * ** ** n n ** \

Direction p ≤ 0.01 p ≤ 0.05

Decrease *** * Increase *** * Mixed *** *

Results: F2: general patterns

• Average F2 decrease: 3.7%
• 6/8 speakers
• Close front vowels reduced less than other vowels

20

Results: F2: by speaker

21

• 4
• 2

2 4 6 8 10

%

Mean percentage F2 decrease between 21-49

Results: F2: by vowel

22

• 4
• 2

2 4 6 8 10

ʊ

• a:

ʌ a e ı i: u:

%

Mean percentage F2 decrease between 21-49

• /u:/ fronting in English

▫ (Hawkins and Midgley, 2005)

Results: F2: significance

23

Direction p ≤ 0.01 p ≤ 0.05

Decrease *** * Increase *** * Mixed *** *

F2 Andrew Bruce Lynn Neil Nick Suzy Symon Tony

ʊ

\ \ \ n n \ n \

• \

n * n n n n n

a:

\ n \ n * * *** n

ʌ

\ * * * *** n n ***

a

n * *** * *** n * *

e

n n n * *** n * n

I

** ** n *** n n *** **

i:

n * \ n * * n n

u:

\ n n n n n n \

Results: F3: general patterns

• Average F3 decrease: 2.2%
• 6/8 speakers
• Far less consistent and marked than F1 and F2

24

Results: F3: by speaker

25

Results: F3: by vowel

26

• 6
• 4
• 2

2 4 6 8 10

ʊ

• a:

ʌ a e ı i: u:

%

Mean percentage F3 decrease between 21-49

Results: F3: significance

27

Direction p ≤ 0.01 p ≤ 0.05

Decrease *** * Increase *** * Mixed *** *

F3 A B L Ne Ni Su Sy T

ʊ

\ \ \ n \ n \ n \

• \

n n n *** n n *

a:

\ n \ * n ** n n

ʌ

\ * n * n *** ** *

a

** *** n *** n ** *** *

e

n * n *** n n * n

I

** ** n *** n *** *** **

i:

n n \ n n n n n

u:

\ n n * n n * \

Results: vowel space area: by speaker

28

• 50
• 40
• 30
• 20
• 10

10 20 30 40 50 60

Andrew Bruce Lynn Neil Nick Suzy Symon Tony

%

VSA percentage decrease between 21-49

Case example: Bruce (non-mobile)

29 Mean F1 Hz

Bruce

• non-mobile
• SE England
• upper middle

class

Case example: Bruce (non-mobile)

30 Mean F1 Mean F2 Hz

Case example: Bruce (non-mobile)

31 Mean F1 Mean F2 Mean F3 Hz

Case example: Bruce (non-mobile)

32

Case example: Bruce (non-mobile)

33

Case example: Bruce (non-mobile)

34

Case example: Bruce (non-mobile)

35

Case example: Bruce (non-mobile)

36 Vowel space area Area

Case example: Neil (mobile)

37

Case example: Neil (mobile)

38

• /a/ very likely to show F2 reduction
• Liverpool /a/ is relatively back (low F2)

▫ Ferragne & Pellegrino (2010)

• -> SSBE /a/ = increase in F2

Case example: Suzy (RP)

39

Case example: Suzy (RP)

40

• Expect /a/ to show decrease in F1
• Following mainstream pattern in RP for /a/ to lower

▫ Hawkins and Midgley (2005)

• Increased F1

Summary

41

• Vowel formant frequencies are reduced across most

speakers

▫ F1 – 8.5% ▫ F2 – 3.7% ▫ F3 – 2.2%

• Some vowels are more/less robust to changes
• Fundamental frequency exhibits some reduction

▫ More marked in female speakers & smoker

Implications

42

• Be informed about likely changes as a result of long-

term delays in casework

• Be aware of age-correlated features when building

reference populations

• Be aware that language and speech is flexible in

adulthood, especially in cases of mobility

Thank you for your time and suggestions

richard.rhodes@york.ac.uk

43

• 4%
• 2%

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%

Mean percentage F1-3 decrease between 21-49

F1 F2 F3

Formant Summary by speaker

44

• 4%
• 2%

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%

Mean percentage F1-3 decrease between 21-49

F1 F2 F3

Formant Summary by vowel

45

• 10%
• 5%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

ʊ

• a:

ʌ a e ı i: u:

Mean percentage F1-3 decrease between 21-49

F1 F2 F3