The Effect of Speaking Rate on Voice and Breathing Behavior

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of fast speaking on pause duration, breath group duration, and fundamental frequency (F_O) in rote speech (counting).

Twenty-eight healthy women (age 18-39) who had no experience of voice training, repeated a counting task in both a habitual and fast speaking rate. Pause duration, breath group duration, and mean fundamental frequency were measured from audio recordings. Differences in the study variables between habitual and fast speaking rates were analyzed and tested for statistical significance.

In fast speaking rate, mean pause duration was shorter and mean breath group duration longer as compared with habitual speaking rate, both with statistical significance at the group level. Surprisingly, mean fundamental frequency was significantly lower in the fast-speaking rate condition.

The results overall supported the hypothesis that pause duration becomes shorter and breath group duration longer with a fast-speaking rate. This may have clinical relevance for voice therapy and supports the importance of speaking rate for the understanding and treatment of some hyperfunctional voice disorders. Notably, however, our findings indicated that counting as a speech task induces a specific pattern which may not be comparable to other speech tasks, nor representative of spontaneous speech in every-day-life.