Fundamental Frequency Characteristics of Young Black Adults

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the speaking fundamental vocal frequency of young Black adults during prompted spontaneous speech and reading and to compare the results with published data for White subjects of comparable age. Subjects were 100 men and 100 women volunteers, ranging in age from 18 to 29 years. Central tendency and dispersion values were calculated from data obtained with a fundamental frequency analyzer (FLORIDA I). The mean modal fundamental vocal frequency for spontaneous speaking was 108.05 Hz for men and 188.85 Hz for women. The mean range was 80.70–166.65 Hz (6.27 tones) for men and 132.55–270.80 Hz (6.18 tones) for women. The men showed smaller excursions from the mean mode to the lower limit of the mean range (27.35 Hz, 2.52 tones) than from the mean mode to the upper limit of the mean range (58.60 Hz, 3.75 tones). The women had a range of 81.95 Hz above and 56.30 Hz below the mean mode but approximately equal tonal intervals above and below (3.12 and 3.06, respectively). A comparison of prompted spontaneous speech to reading for the same subjects indicated that the mean modal fundamental vocal frequency was significantly lower and the mean range was significantly greater for speaking than tier reading. Both men and women had a mean speaking range of one octave. In comparison to published values for young White adult subjects, the Black subjects ill this study had a lower mean fundamental vocal frequency.

Relationship of the Cricothyroid Space with Vocal Range in Female Singers

“…It has been suggested that physical differences between speakers of different ethnic origins may result in acoustic differences in vocal characteristics including SFF (Hollien & Malcik, 1962;Hudson & Holbrook, 1982;Xue & Mueller, 1996). The numbers of participants from different ethnic backgrounds in this study are too small to draw any meaningful conclusions about ethnicity and SFF.…”

“…There is some evidence that different measurement techniques result in significantly different results (Horii, 1975;Hudson & Holbrook, 1982;Britto & Doyle, 1990;Murry, et al, 1995;Zraick, et al, 2000;Zraick et al, 2005;Baker, et al, 2008;Chen et al, 2009;Hunter, 2009). …”

“…Data from the National Center for Voice and Speech in the USA are shown in Figure 2.8. There have been a few studies on SFF in singers (Nadoleczny, 1923;Koufman & Blalock, 1988;Brown Jr, et al, 1991;Brown Jr, et al, 1993;Drew & Sapir, 1995;Morris, et al, 1995;Larsson & Hertegård, 2008) (Snidecor, 1951;Mysak, 1959;Schultz-Coulon, 1975;Horii, 1982;Hudson & Holbrook, 1982;Ramig & Ringel, 1983;Fitch, 1990;Traunmuller & Eriksson, 1994;Schiwitz, 2011).…”

“…There are many influences on SFF including subject selection criteria and subject variables ( & Hollien, 1963;Honjo & Isshiki 1980;Stoicheff, 1981;Alarcos et al, 1983;Mueller et al, 1984;Linville & Fisher, 1985;Linville, 1987;Pegoraro-Krook, 1988;Higgins & Saxman, 1991;Russell et al, 1995) professional training (McGlone, 1977;Watson & Hixon, 1985;Morris & Brown Jr, 1987;Brown Jr et al, 1988;Brown Jr et al, 1991;Brown Jr et al, 1993;Baken & Orlikoff, 2000;Brown Jr et al, 2000) task type (Mysak, 1959;Horii, 1975;Hudson & Holbrook, 1982;Ramig & Ringel, 1983;Britto & Doyle, 1990;Fitch, 1990;Murry et al, 1995;Zraick et al, 2000;Baker et al, 2008;Schiwitz, 2011) measuring method (Hirano, 1989;Morris & Brown Jr, 1996;Behrman, 2005) anthropometric indices (Bricker & Pruzansky, 1976;Lass & Davis, 1976;Lass et al, 1977;Lass, Barry, et al, 1979;Lass, DiCola, et al, 1979;Lass & Colt, 1980;Graddol & Swann, 1983;…”

The pitch levels of female speech in two Chinese villages

“…an octave, for both male and female speakers, and across a diversity of languages and dialects (Dolson, 1994;Hudson and Holbrook, 1982;Kunzel, 1989;Majewski et al, 1972;Xue et al, 2002;Yamazawa and Hollien, 1992;Hanley et al, 1966;Hollien and Jackson, 1973). A detailed account and appraisal of the proposed model can be found in Dolson (1994).…”