ABSTRACT
Objective : To report the formant characteristics of English-speaking Lebanese men during steady prolongation of vowels /a/ and /i/
Design : Cross-sectional study involving volunteer participants
Participants : Fifty healthy English-speaking males with a mean age of 32 +/- 4.027 years and a range of 42 years [18-60]
Materials and Methods : A total of 50 healthy males between the age of 18 and 60 were recruited for the study. Each subject was asked to phonate a sustained /a/ and /i/ sound at a comfortable pitch and intensity level. Measures were made in real-time and formant frequencies across F1, F2, F3 and F4 were determined using the Real-time Spectrogram VP 3950 [Kay Elemetrics, New Jersey]
Main outcome measures : The formant frequencies across F1, F2, F3 and F4 were recorded
Results: For the vowel /a/, the mean values of F1, F2, F3 and F4 were 622.86 +/- 61.293 Hz, 1264 +/- 78.602 Hz, 2610.90 +/- 206.359Hz and 3483.56 +/- 206.833 Hz, respectively. For the vowel /i/, the corresponding values were 378.88 +/- 51.825 Hz, 2210.34 +/- 124.077 Hz, 2847 +/- 168.770 Hz and 3576.82 +/- 242.760 Hz, respectively
Conclusion: Formant characteristics vary among cultures and ethnic groups