Towards the applicability of voice quality in forensic phonetics

Voice quality derived from long-term laryngeal settings stands out as a potentially individualizing trait of speakers. This places it in an advantageous situation with respect to other phonetic parameters used in forensic linguistics. However, anyone confronted with its analysis will immediately run into a methodological difficulty stemming from its inherently multidimensional nature. In this lies its main disadvantage and the fundamental reason why its analysis is not always considered in the traditional approach used in the comparison of speakers for identification purposes. Based on an experimental inquiry on voice disguised by means of falsetto, this study shows that it is possible to work with a reduced set of laryngeal features responsible for voice quality and facilitate its interpretation and explanation, which is a critical issue for forensic practice.