Whispered Speech

1
Whispered Speech

• A Presentation by Susanne Filges, Agata
  Mroczkowska and
• Annette Radon

2
Phonation Modes

• "normal" voice
• breathy voice ("bedroom voice")
• creaky voice (dislike)
• whisper

3
What does whispering mean in general?

• sounds "soft"
• less amplitude
• no difference in meaning between a whispered and
  a "normal" sound
• a speech variant across all languages
• no special IPA symbol for whispered sounds

4
How to Find Out the Distinction Method of
Analysis

• two non-words "sha" and "shu", spoken in "normal
  voice" and whispered mode
• recorded with cool edit
• converted into spectrograms by Praat

5
Sha normal
6
sha whispered
7
shu normal
8
shu whispered
9
Pulses

• there are no blue lines in whispered voice, only
  in "normal" speech

10
Intensity

• The yellow line shows that the intensity in
  normal speech is higher than in whispered speech

11
Spectrogram

• same relation between dark and light
• shades in normal and whispered speech

12
Formants

• more "red dots" in normal speech
• formants at a lower frequency only in normal
  speech
• more acoustic energy in normal speech

13
Pitch

• total absence of pitch in whispered speech
• no fundamental frequency
• in whispered speech

14
Major Difference

• missing of pitch
• means
• no vibration of the vocal folds

15

• An easier way to get this result would have been
• touching your throat while whispering!