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Updated: May 7, 2026

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody
Published on: September 27, 2024
Investigating the relationship between average speaker fundamental frequency and acoustic vowel space size
Melanie Weirich1, Adrian Simpson
1Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Institut für Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft, Fürstengraben 30, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential relationship between speaking fundamental frequency and acoustic vowel space size, thus testing a possible perceptual source of sex-specific differences in acoustic vowel space size based on the greater inter-harmonic spacing and a poorer definition of the spectral envelope of higher pitched voices. Average fundamental frequencies and acoustic vowel spaces of 56 female German speakers are analyzed. Several parameters are used to quantify the size and shape of the vowel space defined by /iː ε aː [symbol: see text] uː/ such as the area of the polygon spanned by the five vowels, the absolute difference in F1 or F2 between /iː/ and /uː/ or /aː/, and the Euclidian distance between /iː/ and /aː/. In addition, the potential impact of nasality on the vowel space size is examined. Results reveal no significant correlation between fundamental frequency and vowel space size suggesting other factors must be responsible for the larger female acoustic vowel space.
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