Acoustic Cues to Breathiness: A True Marker of Gender?

A number of speech characteristics have been described as being perceptually distinctive markers of speaker gender (e.g.pitch, formant frequencies).This paper considers breathiness in the voice.Several acoustic cues to the perception of breathiness have been posited.one of which is the difference in amplitude between the first and second harmonics.Studies involving speakers from the USA (Klatt 8-Klatt 1990.Nittrouer etal.1990), the UK (Henton & Bladon 1985) and the Netherlands (Gunzburger 1991) all conclude that, on average.this difference in ham'ionlcs is more positive in women than in men.Thus it would appear that breathiness, as signalled by this harmonic amplitude difference, represents a consistent, cross-cultural cue to speaker gender.However. the authors' conclusions are based on relatively small sample sets and disguise significant interand intra-speaker variations.Thus it was felt appropriate to investigate these claims for a larger number of speakers.1.1 Physiology of Breathy Voice V During 'norrnal' or 'modai' phonation.the vocal folds tend to close simultaneoust along their length, causing an abmpt cessation of the airflow from the lungs.The effect on the glottal volume velocity waveform is that the closing phase is more rapid ihan the opening phase; and subsequently the higher harmonics receive a relatively strong excitation (Klatt '8.Klatt 1990:822).In contrast.during the production of breathy voice the arytenoid cartilages at the rear of the arynx hold the vocal folds apart.ensuring a constant air ow during phonation (although there is suf cient tension ln the vocal folds for vibration of the folds to occur), This posterior glottal opening has been observed in a comparison of breathy and clear vowels by Fischer-Jorgenson (1967.cited Nittrouer eta].1990:763).The increase in airflow through the glottis over modal phonation can be as much as 60% (Fischer-Jorgenson 1967, cited Klatt 8. Klalt 1990:823).resulting in a degree of aspiration noise accompanying voicing.s a direct consequence of the action of the arytenoid cartilages during breathy phonation, he vocal folds close rst at the front at the glottis, closure being propagated back along their PIWJDJ.