Determination of the instant of glottal closure from the speech wave

For vowels excited by vigorous glottal vibrations, the instant of glottal closure is tentatively identified with the moment of strongest excitation (at not too low frequencies) and worst linear predictability. Some predictor methods for its determination are reviewed, which do not always yield reliable and unequivocal results. Then Sobakin's method using the determinant of the autocovariance matrix is examined critically and reinterpreted such that the determinant is maximum if the beginning of the interval on which the autocovariance matrix is calculated coincides with the glottal closure. This hypothesis is tested by comparison with the predictor methods and by looking at the inversely filtered waveforms and the formants obtained from predictors determined on a shifted interval. The determinant method seems to be very reliable even for otherwise difficult cases, such as the vowel /u/.