Effect of speaking style on parameters of fundamental frequency contour

Abstract

The authors have analyzed the fundamental frequency (F0) contours of Japanese sentences spoken in four styles, e.g., normal, hurried, angry, and kind, for the synthesis of natural sounding speech. Thirty-five sentences in each speaking style spoken by a professional narrator were analyzed. The parameters of the F0 generation model proposed by Fujisaki, e.g., the minimum value of F0 (Fmin), the amplitude of the phrase commands (Ap) and the amplitude of the accent commands (Aa), are used here as key factors in the analysis. In the case of the sentences spoken angrily, Fmin is kept high, and the change due to both the phrase component and the accent component is minimal. Consequently, the F0 contours of sentences spoken angrily are flat. On the other hand, in the sentences spoken softly (kind) the dynamic range due to the accent component is greater than for the others, and in order to keep it high the amplitude of the phrase component is accordingly supressed. The F0 contours of the sentences spoken hurriedly are similar except that the amplitude of the accent commands is slightly smaller than those spoken normally. It was found that these parameters are useful to express the difference due to the speaking styles.

Prosódia da fala

“…São também características prosódicas que distinguem os estilos estudados por Higuchi et al (1997) em japonês, a saber, enunciados naturais atuados com raiva, gentileza e de forma apressada. Os autores apontaram que o valor mínimo da frequência fundamental (F 0 ) se manteve alto para a raiva com contornos melódicos monótonos.…”

Intonation and Emotion: Influence of Pitch Levels and Contour Type on Creating Emotions

“…Studies relating to intonation and emotions that use this parameter (pitch level) to analyze the relationship between these two variables are highly numerous. 2,12,13 These studies have found that pitch level is quite significant when determining the type of emotion that is conveyed. In a study applied to radio news, the selection of an inadequate pitch level entailed a greater error in intonation for the sample.…”

Intonation for synthesis of speaking styles

“…This speech is then compared with read speech, with the same speaker reading an edited transcript of the earlier spontaneous speech. Higuchi et al (1997) used the Fujisaki model of intonation to implement speaking styles for text-to-speech synthesis (hence TTS). They measured parameters of the model for four speaking styles, and derived rules for style conversion.…”