A Comparison of Long-Term Average Speech Spectrum (LTASS) among Korean Monosllyabic Words, Sentences, and English Sentences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare long-term average speech spectrum (LTASS) of Korean monosyllabic words, sentences, and English sentences. For Korean speech material, 200 monosyllabic words and 80 sentences were recorded by 20 native talkers of Korean (10 males, 10 females). As English speech material, 100 IEEE Harvard Psychoacoustic Sentences spoken by 20 native talkers of English (10 males, 10 females) were used. The LTASS was analyzed via one-third octave band filters from 150 Hz to 5,000 Hz. The following results were obtained. 1) LTASS of 10 male talkers showed larger differences at higher frequencies, regardless of speech material whereas LTASS of 10 females had the largest difference at 125 Hz. 2) The male LTASS of three speech materials did not significantly differ at one-third octave scales from 150 Hz to 5,000 Hz, except four frequencies (125 Hz, 160 Hz, 500 Hz, and 4,000 Hz). 3) The female LTASS was also similar at all frequencies from 150 Hz to 5,000 Hz, regardless of speech material. 4) The LTASS averaged across three materials showed a significant difference depending on the target-talker gender, especially the largest difference at 125 Hz. 5) The LTASS of Korean monosyllabic words, sentences, and English sentences did not significantly differ except three frequencies (160, 500, 630 Hz). Those results support previous finding of the universal characteristics of LTASS (Byrne et al., 1994), regardless of language. KEY WORD：Long-term average speech spectrum (LTASS) of Korean and English speech materials.