Yes-no questions in whispered speech

Abstract

Intonative profiles are key to the identification of yes-no questions in many languages. Therefore, its absence in whispered speech makes it necessary to look for other features transmitting that information. Regarding other languages, f1 and f2 have been pointed as responsible of prosodic information in absence of f0, through a rise in those points where a rise of pitch would take place. It has also been related to intensity and duration. The quality of vowels in Spanish is very stable, so we have chosen to analyse formants in three utterances, each one pronounced by three informants in phonation as well as in whispered speech, and both in declarative and interrogative modalities. Although results do show a prevalence of the final rise of both formants in interrogative utterances, all exceptions could be identified as interrogative too. This suggests other features are involved, probably tension of the vocal cords.