The classification of different phonation types in emotional and neutral speech

Abstract

A general approach is proposed towards the objective measurement of different phonation types in fluent speech. Signal characteristics of the transglottal airflow are discussed with regard to the question of how voice quality and type of phonation can be measured in the acoustic speech signal. In natural communication situations voice quality is often a combination of different types of phonation. This is one reason why several acoustic parameters are required for an adequate description of voice quality. The following experiment focuses on emotion-specific changes in acoustic correlates of voice quality. Emotional arousal can influence the speaker's voice quality or type of phonation and listeners use this knowledge to attribute affective states to the speaker. The forensic relevance of the investigation can be seen in speaker identification tasks. From the experiment the conclusion cannot be drawn that voice quality must change under emotional arousal. Hence the analysis of acoustic speech signals cannot serve as a reliable method of measuring the speaker's affective state.